Billionaire Husband Pretended To Be Poor, I Left

On the day Caspian and I got our marriage certificate, he dropped a bombshell: as the illegitimate son of the Thorne family, he hadn't inherited a penny. Instead, he was saddled with a massive gambling debt left behind by the family.I didn't despise him for it. For the past five years, I lived with him in a moldy basement, working three jobs to support him, while our son, Alaric, survived on discounted canned food that was nearing its expiration date.Today was Alaric's fifth birthday.To earn enough overtime pay to buy him a decent cake, we were braving the hundred-degree heat in New York City, stuffed inside heavy, filthy mascot costumes, handing out flyers in front of the Hilton.However, just as I tried to adjust my helmet, my vision went black. But as I fell backward, an extremely handsome man caught me: "Be careful."It was Valerius Sterling.The ruler of a media empire; I had seen him in financial magazines.He looked at me intently, his gaze suddenly fixing on the necklace th

The needle, thick as a finger, was about to plunge into Alaric's body.I finally saw the truth. Caspian didn't come home for me or Alaric.It was Isolde, that venomous snake! She was too terrified of the side effects to use it on her own son, Julian, so she snatched my Alaric to be her damned lab rat!And Caspian, his own biological father, just to make him "smarter" and not to let down his "true love's" kindness, actually condoned this potentially lethal human experiment!I charged forward, shoving the doctor aside as he prepared to inject another dose. "Caspian! Are you insane? Isolde is using Alaric to test poison! I don't consent to this! What gives you the right to use it on him?!"Caspian turned around. Seeing it was me, his brow furrowed, his eyes filled with nothing but impatience at the interruption. "Ivy? What kind of fit are you throwing now? Control yourself! Isolde pulled every string she had and spent millions to get this 'smart drug.' People beg for this and can't get it

Before I could even react, Julian had already hopped into a high-powered go-kart.He floored the accelerator and drove straight at Alaric's wheelchair!"Bang—!"The massive impact shattered the wheelchair instantly.Alaric was sent flying along with the wreckage, smashing heavily onto the hard concrete.Blood gushed out immediately, staining his small, pale face crimson.Julian jumped out of the kart, threw the imported ice cream—worth enough to feed my son and me for a week—onto the ground, and started wailing, playing the victim before anyone could accuse him. "Waa! That cripple tried to hit me! I swerved to avoid him and crashed! I was so scared!"I had just gathered Alaric, who was covered in blood, into my arms when Caspian rushed over, drawn by the commotion.Suddenly, Isolde let out a shriek. She threw her body back in an exaggerated motion, falling onto the soft grass."Ah! My ankle!" She clutched her foot, pointing at me while weeping beautifully, like a pear blossom bathed in

"Bang—!"Before the kidnapper could push the plunger all the way down, his head exploded!A dozen fully armed mercenaries kicked through every window in the warehouse.Amidst the smoke and gunpowder, a tall figure walked in, backlit by the light. He wore a black tactical trench coat, the tight fit accentuating his muscular build. His face was cold as a demon's. It was Valerius Sterling.He kicked the kidnapper leader, who was trying to crawl away, sending him flying. Then he rushed to me. "I'm sorry, I'm late." His voice was low and raspy, carrying a tremor that was hard to detect.Looking at Valerius's determined profile, my tightly wound nerves suddenly snapped. My vision went black, and I completely lost consciousness."Alaric..." I sat up abruptly, my heart pounding wildly.Valerius, who was guarding my bedside, gently held my shoulders. "Don't move, Ivy. Alaric is fine. The antivenom was administered in time. Although there are residual toxins that need to metabolize, he is out of

Under the protection of my father, Leopold, the Sicilian sun seemed to truly banish the gloom that had shrouded my life for five years.I picked up my paintbrush once again.On a lazy afternoon, Valerius took me to a highly influential private art salon in Palermo.There were no scheming, hypocritical socialites there, only connoisseurs with a pure passion for art.The oil painting I brought, titled *The Caged Bird*—depicting a canary with broken wings struggling in a storm against a backdrop of breaking dawn—unexpectedly caused a sensation."The life force piercing through the despair... it's stunning," a senior curator from Paris marveled. "Miss Ivy, your strokes are delicate yet full of power. This doesn't look like the work of a novice at all."I smiled faintly and raised my champagne glass politely. "Thank you. It's just a sort of... farewell to my past."With the backing of the Magnus family and my own artistic sensibilities, I quickly made a name for myself in the European high-