Chapter 3

Connor had his arm around Whitney and made no effort to hide his disgust for me. "Anne, don't kid yourself. I'm never going to marry you.

"I only love Whitney. She's the only woman I'll ever marry!"

I couldn't be bothered to look at the smugness on Whitney's face. Instead, I opened my calculator app like a pro. "Good timing. I have a bill to settle with you."

Doing background checks and gathering intel ahead of time was the most basic of skills for a gold digger like me. "If you were marrying me, I'd be getting a 50-million-dollar bride price, plus gold and jewelry. Let's call that another 10 million dollars.

"The custom wedding dress you ordered for Whitney costs 5 million, and the diamond ring costs 10 million.

"Since Whitney took my place, she stole the wedding money that should have been mine. So right now, she owes me 75 million dollars."

The corner of Connor's mouth twitched.

I forced a fake smile and showed him my bank account number. "Once you two get married, this debt becomes your joint debt anyway. Why not pay it off for her now? Then we're all square."

Whitney looked scornful. "Anne, before you came home, people said you were a gold digger, and I didn't believe it.

"But now I have no choice. Just how many excuses for grabbing money do you have?"

My family was stunned by me all over again.

Dad was so angry the veins at his temples bulged. "Anne, you're going too far! What matters most between family is affection, warmth, and love, not cold, hard cash. You're a disgrace!"

Back when I was drifting from place to place, getting bullied at the orphanage, I'd longed for my family to show up and give me a little love.

But the cruel truth was that they'd given all their love and affection to Whitney. All they'd left me was coldness and neglect, and that taught me one thing: only cold, hard cash could keep me alive.

Now that it had come to this, I didn't care how ugly things got. "You didn't abandon me on purpose, but you never once went looking for me in all these years. You ignored me completely. I could sue you for child abandonment.

"I haven't asked you for back child support. I haven't charged Whitney interest. I haven't even gone crying to the media about what I've been through. So how exactly am I going too far?"

Mom and Dad's eyes flickered, and they fell into an awkward silence.

Sean held back his anger and asked coldly, "How much money will it take for you to finally stop?"

As a born gold digger, I'd always believed in getting it in the bag first. A will was too far off, with too many unknowns between now and then. I couldn't afford to wait.

Whatever I wanted, I had to get as soon as possible. "Hand over the assets right now. Split off the property I'm entitled to inherit and actually put it in my name.

"As long as you protect my rights as your biological daughter, I promise I'll take the money and get lost. I'll never bother you or Whitney again."

I pulled out business cards from a dozen or so reporters and smiled faintly.

I had my eight billionaire CEOs to thank for that. Over the years, I'd built up quite a few connections.

"Otherwise... I can't promise I won't ask the media to help me decide who's right."

Dad's face went livid, and Mom's eyes filled with disappointment.

After a silent standoff, they finally gave in. "We'll have the lawyer come tomorrow to sort out the assets.

"We don't want people gossiping about us either. Whatever we owe you, whatever is yours, we'll hand it all over at the welcome-home banquet."

The look in Whitney's eyes was so sharp, it was as if she wanted to cut me into a thousand pieces.

I, on the other hand, was quite pleased. "Great. Then let's throw the welcome-home banquet as a cutting-ties banquet.

"As long as the assets are divided properly, I'll move out right away, and you'll never have to look at me again."

I moved into the guest room for the time being and waited calmly for them to divide the property.

On the day of the welcome-home banquet, I'd packed my bags and was about to leave when a bloodcurdling scream rang out. "We've been robbed!"

I poked my head out to see what the fuss was about.

Mom and Dad were clutching their heads and sobbing. "The high-value bonds, the gold bars, and the jewelry we kept in the safe... They've been stolen!

"That's well over a billion dollars in assets! Call the police! Call them now!"

In the chaos, Whitney spoke up as if the thought had only just occurred to her. "Whoever got into your room was probably someone in the house, right?

"Anne loves money so much. Could it have been her...?"

Every eye instantly turned to me.