Chapter 1

The day college applications were due, my childhood sweetheart, Asher, who’d pretended to be poor for three years, was finally going to confess his true identity as an heir to a vast fortune to his goddess, Seraphina.

He claimed he’d found true love – someone who didn’t care about his family background.

But recalling how Seraphina had secretly seduced other rich guys behind his back, I couldn’t help but step in. I stopped her, waved a million-dollar check in her face, and told her to get lost.

The next morning, his eyes blazing red, Asher told me he’d seen through the gold-digger. He decided we’d go abroad for college together.

Yet, Seraphina, in a fit of spite, married an abusive man. She was beaten to death while pregnant; she and her unborn child perished.

Asher hugged me, saying he didn’t care.

But the day my family’s company went public, Asher, who was now my husband, teamed up with outside rivals to launch a hostile takeover, bleeding my family dry of all our assets.

My father went bankrupt overnight and jumped to his death. My mother was tormented by Asher until she died.

When I confronted Asher, demanding to know why, he dragged me to Seraphina’s grave. “Seraphina died because of you! How dare you, a murderer, live as a high-society lady?”

“If you hadn’t humiliated her with your money, how could she have become so heartbroken and desperate that she married that scumbag?”

“You made me lose the love of my life forever. I’ll make your entire family pay for her!”

He pushed me off a cliff with his own hands. My body was never found.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw Asher, dressed in cheap, off-the-rack clothes, about to deliver a coffee to Seraphina. I simply turned away, a cold resolve settling in my heart.

This time, I was going to watch closely.

Would his true love still want him when he was just a penniless nobody?