Chapter 2

When we walked out of the courthouse, the sun was shining brightly. Chloe stared at the divorce papers in her hand as if a massive weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She practically radiated smugness.

I looked at my own papers with mixed feelings. In my past life, I had truly loved this woman.

But that love had turned to ash the moment she threw me away for money. And it was completely obliterated when she pushed me to my death.

"Chloe, from now on, we are completely done," I said quietly, saying goodbye to my past.

"You better believe it!" she snapped, pointing a finger at my face. "We’re parting ways now. Don't you dare crawl back to me when you find out about my fortune! A broke loser like you won't get a second glance from me ever again!"

She sounded so sure of herself, as if the $5 million was already sitting in her bank account.

I watched her hail an Uber and leave. Then, I turned around and walked toward the lottery convenience store.

In our past life, this was the exact day we bought those tickets.

Chloe never believed in luck. She had just picked a random string of numbers and completely forgot about them. She hadn't even noticed that the winning numbers were completely different from the ones she originally chose.

As for me, I wanted the ticket to be meaningful. I had specifically chosen our birthdays as the numbers.

I never expected that my romantic gesture would become the very tool that destroyed our marriage.

But it was for the best. Now, I didn't have to hide my financial status for Chloe’s sake anymore.

Luckily, Chloe thought I was just a broke guy. She didn't bother to do a financial discovery during our quick divorce.

After buying the ticket with the exact numbers from my memory, I went home and opened Snapchat. I was surprised to see that Chloe had already posted on her story. She was posing next to a luxury sports car with the caption: *What’s mine is mine, and nobody can take it away!*

At the same time, my phone started buzzing with notifications. Chloe had used our linked accounts to apply for loans across multiple online platforms. The total came out to a whopping $3 million.

Before the divorce, we had linked our credit profiles and phone notifications for convenience.

It was obvious. Chloe was so confident she would win that she was already maxing out loans to spend her future prize money.

But I had my doubts. Chloe’s family was a mess. She had a paralyzed, greedy mother who treated her like a cash cow. Did she really think she could flaunt this money online without her mother finding out?

Sure enough, within an hour of her post, my phone was flooded with angry texts and missed calls from her mother. They were all accusing Chloe of being an ungrateful brat who forgot her own blood the moment she got rich. Her mother demanded she transfer the money immediately.

Her mother cursed her out in the texts, calling her every name under the sun.

Even through the screen, I could picture Chloe’s frantic face.

A satisfied smile spread across my face. I unlinked our accounts from my phone and lay down on my soft bed.

To keep Chloe comfortable, I hadn't even bought a decent mattress back then. My back used to ache every single day.

I looked at the lottery ticket resting on my nightstand. A deep sense of peace washed over me.

Chloe, this is just the beginning of your panic.

Just wait until the loan payments are due and you don't have a single cent to pay them back. That’s when the real nightmare begins.