My Billionaire Ex Proposed to the Wrong Heiress,So I Bankrupted HimChapter 1
To be with me, Elwin Gilbert gave up his position as heir to his family's empire.
After cutting ties with his clan, he lived with me in a basement apartment, surviving on instant noodles.
We built our company from nothing. In just five years, we took it public.
At the IPO gala, he walked toward me—diamond ring in hand, bouquet of roses cradled in his arm.
But he brushed past me.
He stopped in front of his secretary, dropped to one knee, and proposed.
I stared at him, stunned. "Why?"
He didn't even look at me. "Valerie is the daughter of Capital City's richest man. She defied her family to help me, came all the way to Bayview City alone. I have to take responsibility for her."
"From now on, she'll be my wife. You'll be my business partner. Together, we'll take this company to new heights."
I laughed out loud.
After my brother turned out to be a lost cause, my parents decided to toughen me up the hard way—raising me with nothing so I'd learn to fight for everything.
Funny. I didn't know I had a secret sister.
Just to make sure I wasn't about to destroy the wrong person, I pulled up Valerie's photo and dropped it into the family group chat.
I tagged my father, who was currently on a flight to Bayview City:
[Old man, did you go behind Mom's back and father some illegitimate daughter I don't know about?]
1.
A second later, my phone rang. My father's voice exploded through the speaker:
"You little brat! Are you so tired of suffering that you're trying to sabotage my marriage? I'm chained to your mother's waist twenty-four-seven—when would I have time to father a secret child?!"
My mother's thunderous roar erupted in the background, accompanied by my father's yelps of pain.
That confirmed it. Valerie Pruitt was a fraud.
I hung up and turned to Elwin. "Are you sure you want to marry her?"
"Yes."
He spun around, eyes shining with hope as he gazed at Valerie. "Valerie, will you marry me?"
His hand trembled as he held out the ring. The excitement radiating off him was almost painful to watch.
This was the scene I'd imagined a thousand times. But the woman he was proposing to wasn't me anymore.
Five years. Five brutal years of building this life with Elwin Gilbert.