Chapter 1

The day Chloe showed up at our front door, flaunting her three-month baby bump, Julian kicked me out of the master bedroom in front of everyone.

"Chloe is pregnant with my child. She can't be stressed right now."

"From today on, this is her room."

I looked at the man standing before me.

Seven years ago, we built our empire from scratch with nothing to our names.

Today, he was worth billions. And looking at him, I suddenly laughed.

Seven years of marriage. I had taken out an eighty-million-dollar loan under my name to save his dying company.

I stood by him through the darkest days when bankruptcy was knocking on the door.

Yet, the first thing he did after taking his company public was buy Chloe a ten-million-dollar diamond ring.

He stroked Chloe's stomach, then furrowed his brows and looked at me coldly:

"You can stay as my legal wife, but on one condition."

"You can never have my children. You must get a tubal ligation."

I didn't argue, and I didn't cry.

The very next morning, I had my lawyer draft the divorce petition.

This time, I was done with him.

And I was going to cash out every single cent that belonged to me.

"Lauren, haven't you had enough of this drama?"

Julian's voice came through the phone, thick with suppressed rage.

"Chloe is carrying my baby. Do you seriously have to push for a divorce right now?"

I sat on the couch, staring at the divorce papers on the coffee table. A wave of bitter amusement washed over me.

Three years ago, when he first brought Chloe home, I had broken down, begging him not to leave.

Three years later, his company had gone public, his net worth had skyrocketed, and Chloe was standing there, demanding I get sterilized.

I hung up on him and finalized the legal strategy with my attorney.

A moment later, my best friend Harper called, her voice bursting through the speaker:

"Lauren, have you lost your mind? If you walk away now, you're just handing everything over to that disgusting pair!"

"Julian is filthy rich now! You didn't leave when he was dead broke!"

"Leaving now means you built him up from scratch just for that homewrecker to enjoy the ride!"

I gave a dry, calm laugh.

"Harper, in the stock market, when an asset goes bad, you cut your losses. But when it hits an all-time high, you cash out."

"Julian is a man I stopped caring about long ago. The only thing left to hold onto is the cash. Divorcing him now is simply cashing out at the absolute peak."

Seven years of marriage. During the first four, his startup was on the brink of collapse, drowning in debt.

To keep him afloat, I put up my own assets and took out an eighty-million-dollar loan for his capital.

The moment the company turned a profit, he crawled into Chloe's bed.

When I first found out, I lost my mind. I screamed, I fought, and the grief nearly killed me.

Three years ago, during one of our endless fights, our designer home had been smashed to pieces.

I had lived like a lunatic back then.

Some days I wanted to drag him down to hell with me.

Other days I begged him in tears, asking him to cut ties with Chloe so we could go back to the way we were.

He would promise me in the morning that it was over between them, only to check into a luxury hotel with her that very afternoon.

We were caught in this soul-crushing cycle for six months, until one final, screaming match.

Julian's eyes were bloodshot, and he said with utter seriousness:

"I love you, Lauren. But I love Chloe too. I'm hopelessly in love with her. I'm begging you, stop fighting me on this. Isn't a life with the three of us good enough?"

At that exact second, something inside me snapped. My heart went cold, and my mind cleared instantly.

I stopped fighting. I stopped asking questions. I treated Julian like a ghost.

I looked at him as nothing more than a bad stock I was temporarily trapped in.

I was simply biding my time, waiting for the optimal moment to sell.

Last year, his company went public.

The stock surged from twenty dollars a share all the way to three hundred and twenty-one dollars.

Right now was my absolute best window to file for divorce and cash out.

A mountain of cash that I could never spend in ten lifetimes would replace every drop of heartbreak.

Only taking everything he built could satisfy the grudge I held against him.