My Ex-Husband Dumped Me for an Heiress, But My Dad is the Richest Man in New York

In the third year of our marriage, Austin's startup was on the brink of bankruptcy. He knelt in front of me, begging me to accompany his biggest investor to a dinner. "You don't have to do anything. Just sit there. Mr. Vance likes your type. Help me, Chloe. Just this once." Looking at his red, teary eyes, my heart softened. During that dinner, I drank so much that my stomach bled, and I was rushed away in an ambulance. He got what he wanted and signed the massive deal with Mr. Vance. He never showed his face once while I was in the ER. Since then, his company revived and grew larger. Everyone said I was the biggest contributor to his success. But one day, he brought a woman home, pointed at her, and said to me: "Tiffany is Mr. Vance's daughter. If I marry her, our first round of funding after going public is secured." "Don't worry, Chloe. Tiffany and I are just a business arrangement. You are still my real wife in my heart." I looked at him and suddenly laughed. He had no idea. Years ago, the reason Mr. Vance was willing to invest twenty million in him wasn't because I was a good hostess. It was because I couldn't take the pressure anymore. I pretended to use the restroom and called my dad. That "mighty investor" was nothing more than a former employee of my father's. "Is this all I'm worth to you?" I looked at the divorce agreement and sneered. The house went to him. The car went to him. The company shares went to him. We dated for five years and were married for three. I stayed by his side from the days he had nothing to when he was worth billions. In the end, all he wanted to give me was a tiny 800-square-foot apartment and a hundred thousand dollars in compensation. Austin froze, looking at me with displeasure. "Tiffany is a career-minded businesswoman. She only wants to get married to shut her family up. I only agreed to this for the company. We aren't actually splitting our lives." "Besides, you don't even work. I earned all the money in this family. It wouldn't make sense to let you take too much cash, right?" Those words felt like a knife, stabbing straight into my chest. I stayed up all night to write the company's business proposals. I drank until my stomach bled to get the emergency funds. I begged for the clients. I literally risked my life to put him on the right track, and only then did I step back. And now he said he earned all the money? That it had nothing to do with me? Austin seemed to realize he had gone too far. His expression softened. "Chloe, the contract says I can still spend one night a week with you. Tiffany is very open-minded. Don't be so dramatic." The lawyer next to him scoffed, rudely shoving the agreement into my hands. "Chloe, Austin is only keeping you around out of old affection. Otherwise, a woman with no value and no background like you wouldn't even deserve to be in the same room as him!" "If you had any self-respect, you'd walk away with nothing. You should be glad you're getting cash. Don't be a beggar choosing the menu." The sharp edge of the paper cut my fingertip. It was a tiny scratch, but the pain shot straight to my heart. Martha, our housekeeper who had taken care of me since I married Austin, hugged me tightly. She carefully brought over a band-aid. "Don't be too sad, sweetheart," she whispered. I felt like I was suffocating from the pain, fighting back my tears. She sighed and advised me gently. "People like Austin belong to a different social circle now. Don't force it. Tiffany is rich and beautiful. It's just human nature for Austin to make this choice." "A hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. Most people can't even afford a down payment in New York in their entire lives. Take the money and live your own life." I couldn't help but laugh at myself. I hadn't had a single drop of water since morning. The old stomach issue from that night of heavy drinking was acting up again, burning with a sharp pain. I looked up at the man I had loved for eight years. He was staring down at his phone, texting Tiffany. He had a gentle smile on his face, typing a long paragraph. After our honeymoon phase ended, Austin only sent me voice notes. He said he was too busy to type. But now, in the middle of our divorce, he had all the time in the world to write paragraphs to Tiffany. So focused. So gentle. What was there left to fight for? When I was three, my mother caught my father having an affair. In a fit of rage, she left him without taking a single penny, swearing that we would never have anything to do with the Sterling family again. Before she died, she held my hand tightly and made me promise that unless I was absolutely desperate, I would never contact him. Years ago, when I was humiliated at that dinner, I cried and broke my vow for the first time. But I still refused to let my father reveal our relationship. Who would have thought that Austin, once so proud, would throw away his dignity and become a dog for money? If he knew that I could get ten or a hundred times the Vance family's investment with just a single nod, would he regret this to his absolute core? I hid the mockery in my eyes. "Fine. Let's sign." Seeing that I had finally given in, Austin's mood instantly improved. He tried to comfort me before leaving. "We won't have any public relationship from now on, but you're still my wife. Once things settle down, we can have a baby. That way, you won't have to worry about me leaving you, okay?" That night, I lay alone on the king-sized bed until dawn. One by one, the stars outside faded, and my heart turned completely cold. I had starved for too long, and I couldn't eat any breakfast. My stomach cramped violently, breaking me out in a cold sweat. I dragged myself up, wanting to pack my bags and leave this house of painful memories as soon as possible. But suddenly, a sharp, screeching voice echoed from the front door.Tiffany walked in with a smug look on her face, accompanied by two of her friends and a group of rough-looking men. "Ugh, why is this gold digger still here? The whole place smells like cheap garbage. Disgusting!" My stomach was in agonizing pain. I forced myself to stand straight. "I wasn't with Austin for his money." Tiffany laughed as if she had heard the funniest joke in the world. "Do gold diggers worry about their reputation these days?" She stepped up, grabbed my collar, and turned to her friends. "Look at this! A brand-new Louis Vuitton coat. If it weren't for Austin, could a broke loser like her ever afford this?" "But honestly, only low-class people think this brand is a big deal. In the Vance mansion, even our dogs don't wear this crap." She wiped her hands in disgust, pulled a stack of photos from her bag, and threw them in my face. I looked down, and my blood instantly froze. They were all explicit photos. In VIP lounge booths, on hotel beds, in the backseats of cars at night. In every single photo, there were vulgar-looking men touching me. Martha's face went pale. "These are photoshopped! Tiffany, how can you slander Chloe like this?!" Tiffany smiled maliciously. "If the Vance family says they're real, they're real. Who do you think the public will believe if these end up on Snapchat and Instagram?" "Chloe, let me warn you. If you ever contact Austin again, I will make sure you are cyberbullied into oblivion as a cheap whore." "Go! Tear her bags open! Everything in this house belongs to the Miller family. She doesn't get to take a single thing! And fire this useless housekeeper too!" "Spread the word in the Upper East Side. Anyone who dares to hire her is an enemy of the Vance family!" When we first moved here, Austin had no money. Everything in this house was bought with my own inheritance. None of it belonged to the Miller family. But they didn't care. They rushed over, kicked my suitcase open, and tore my clothes to shreds. As they ripped through my things, a silver bracelet clattered onto the floor. My heart skipped a beat. I scrambled forward and snatched it into my chest before they could reach it. "This is my mother's only keepsake! It doesn't belong to Austin!" Tiffany turned and gave a nod to one of the large men. He walked over, grabbed my arm, and squeezed his fingers like iron claws. The pain made me gasp. The balcony door was kicked open, and the freezing wind rushed in. I was dragged to the railing, and my upper body was pushed over the edge! Twelve floors up. The wind whipped my hair wildly across my face. "The bracelet or your life?" The man pushed me down another inch. My toes were dangling off the ground. The railing was digging painfully into my waist. My mind went completely blank. "Still pretending you don't care about money? Risking your life for a piece of cheap metal. Hah, I don't even want it," Tiffany sneered. "No---" The next second, the man twisted my wrist violently. He ripped the bracelet away and threw it over the edge! A faint, distant clink. My last connection to my mother was shattered. Tiffany laughed mockingly. I collapsed onto the cold balcony floor, trembling all over. After ruining everything, the house was a complete disaster. As she walked out, she told her friend, "Get someone to watch her. I want to know who she meets and what she says. I won't allow her to use the Miller family name to scam anyone after the divorce!" When Martha and I finally supported each other down the elevator, we saw Tiffany instructing the building staff to throw the broken pieces of my mother's bracelet into the dumpster. "Tell Austin's assistant that the divorce compensation and the apartment are canceled. Chloe gets nothing." "Who cares about the contract? She has no power and no money. Let's see if she actually dares to sue us!" Martha's face was white with rage. "And Austin called you open-minded! He said you were well-educated! It was all an act! You bully, does Austin even know you're doing this?" She tried to rush forward to confront Tiffany, but I pulled her back. I couldn't protect her. At the very least, I couldn't let her get dragged down with me. Once Tiffany's car drove away, I whispered, "Martha, my mom left me some money before she passed. It's not a lot, but since Tiffany got you fired, take this card to get by." As for me, how was I going to survive this? I had to take it one step at a time. Martha frowned, trying to push the card back into my hand. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw a luxury sedan pull up. A woman in a business suit scrambled out of the car and rushed toward me.It was Natalie. She was my junior back when Austin and I were first starting the company. Her parents were deaf-mute, and she had a disabled younger brother. Her entire family relied on her income. Seeing that she was honest and hardworking, I had mentored her personally and helped her secure her position in New York. Even after I left the company, she always remembered my kindness. "Chloe," seeing how disheveled I was, her eyes instantly welled up with tears. It took her a long moment to speak. "You need to run. Now." I frowned. "Why?" She wrung her hands, seemingly making a massive decision. She grit her teeth. "Mr. Vance's assistant came to the office this morning. He told Austin that the wedding with Tiffany has to be postponed." "Apparently, Tiffany's grandmother was in a terrible car accident. She needs an immediate blood transfusion. She has AB-negative blood---the rarest type. The hospital has no stock, and she's on life support." "If her grandmother dies, the family will be in mourning, and they can't hold a wedding for a long time. Without the wedding, Austin's company won't get the funding." "But Chloe, you..." Her face went pale, unable to finish her sentence. Ah. I had AB-negative blood. I closed my eyes. "Don't worry. I won't agree to it. They can't exactly kidnap me and force a needle into my vein." "But Austin said the company can't wait. He said even if he has to drain his own blood, he'll save her! Right now, he ordered me to bring you to the hospital by any means necessary!" How pathetic. Austin was so desperate that he was willing to trade my life for his company. But if Natalie let me go, she would lose her job. Her entire family would starve. New York was too small, and I had no money to run away. I let out a bitter laugh. "It's fine. Take me there." Despite their protests, they couldn't change my mind. Leaning against the car seat, I felt completely drained. My stomach was so numb that I couldn't feel the pain anymore. The cold sweat had dried, leaving my back freezing. Tears silently rolled down my cheeks. This was the man I had planned to spend the rest of my life with. I loved him with all my heart for eight years, and this was my reward. I stared at my phone, a mixture of grief and hatred bubbling up inside me. Mom, I'm sorry. I have to break my promise for the second time... For the past few years, whenever we went out to dinner, Austin was always late. Who would have thought he would be waiting at the hospital entrance so early today? Seeing me arrive, he let out a sigh of relief. Just as he was hesitating on how to speak, Tiffany rushed out from behind him, her eyes red. She grabbed my sleeve like a maniac and dragged me inside, screaming hysterically, "Quick! Take her straight to the operating room!" "Tell the doctors to take as much as they need! As long as my grandmother is saved, I don't care if she drains to death!""Let go of me!" I struggled backward, gripping the doorframe tightly to shake her off. Seeing that the facade was completely shattered, Austin stopped pretending. "Chloe, stop being selfish! Tiffany's grandmother is dying! Out of respect for our relationship, she is your elder. Isn't it your duty to save her life?" In the distance, several of the Vance family's burly bodyguards were already running toward us. His yelling made my temples throb with pain. "A duty? Austin, do you even believe your own words? She has been in the ER for three hours. Even if you drain every drop of blood from my body, it won't save her!" "If I let Tiffany drag me in there, do you really think I'll come out alive?!" Austin's face darkened at my question. A flash of guilt and panic crossed his eyes, but he quickly hardened his expression again. "I promise you won't die. At worst, your health will take a hit. Chloe, everyone said you were the company's biggest contributor. Now that we are at a critical moment, you can't just abandon me!" "Don't worry. Even if you end up paralyzed or brain-damaged, I won't leave you! Wasn't your biggest dream to be with me forever? I'm giving you what you want, okay?" His face was pale, his eyes filled with a tense anxiety. As he spoke, the bodyguards grabbed me, lifting me up and throwing me onto a gurney! "Austin! My dad is richer than her dad! He's on his way! If you do this, you will regret it for the rest of your life!" As if unable to bear watching my desperate struggle, he turned his head away. Tiffany let out a screeching laugh. "Hahaha, what a joke! Who in New York is richer than my dad? If your father were rich, would you have lived like a peasant all these years?" "Chloe, stop daydreaming! If you try to lie to seduce Austin again, I will rip your mouth apart!" "What are you waiting for? Push her in!" My wrists and ankles were bound tightly to the gurney with leather straps, cutting into my skin. Dad, where are you?! The bodyguards pushed the gurney rapidly. I was wheeled into the elevator, and then slammed through the doors of the emergency wing... Austin stood frozen in the hallway, his eyes blank. Tiffany dragged him along, but suddenly, she gasped in delight. "Dad! You're back! And this is..." Before her father could reply, a powerful, middle-aged man in a tailored suit glared at Austin. "Where is my daughter!" Austin blinked. It was Richard Sterling. The man he had spent years trying to get an introduction to---the richest man in New York. Austin couldn't even get close to his inner circle, which was why he had resorted to sucking up to the Vance family. "Mr. Sterling..." "Where is Chloe! If she has a single scratch on her, you and the entire Vance family are finished!" Austin's entire body shook. "Chloe is... your daughter?!"