Chapter 2

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.