The Billion-Dollar Divorce

The day we got home from my postpartum checkup, Roman parked the car in the driveway and handed me my favorite red velvet cupcake, along with a divorce settlement.

All because his precious first love, Sienna, was about to land at the airport.

I scanned the text on the settlement: the company would belong entirely to him, while all other assets would go to me and the baby. Perfect. Exactly what I wanted.

I slapped the papers onto the table and let out a cold laugh. "You're stealing the company I poured four years of my life into, just for some ex fresh off a flight?" Roman handed me a pen. "You know we only founded this business to make Sienna's dream come true.

So, besides the company, you can have everything else." I snatched the pen from his hand and signed my name on the dotted line, terrified he might change his mind.

Roman blinked, a flicker of surprise crossing his face. "Four years together, and you're not even going to fight for it?" I glanced down at the baby in my arms, then offered him a tight smile. "Wishing you and Sienna happily ever after." Chapter 1 After the paperwork was signed, Roman couldn't wait to drive us straight to the courthouse.

The second the judge stamped our divorce decree, a broad smile broke across his face—a look I hadn't seen in months.

He looked down at me. "I still need to swing by the house to pack up my things." "Sure. Take your time," I replied, my voice steady and perfectly calm.

Roman narrowed his eyes. "You seem… different." "How so?" I tilted my head, keeping the bright smile plastered on my face. "I thought you'd…" "Scream and throw things?

Beg you to stay? Use the baby to guilttrip you?" I gave him a dismissive wave. "Hurry up and pack your bags. Doesn't Sienna's flight land tonight?

You wouldn't want to keep her waiting." By the time we got back to the house, it was already dusk. The baby was fast asleep, soothed by the nanny.

Roman stared down at the crib, his gaze unfocused. "Have you thought of a name for him yet?" I watched his fake display of paternal affection and almost laughed out loud.

His mind was already at the arrivals terminal, yet he was still standing here playing the role of a devoted dad. Still, I gave him a flat answer. "Arlo.

As in, my one and only." Roman furrowed his brow. "Arlo? But he's my son. He needs my last name." I smirked. "Your last name?

The settlement clearly states I have full custody." I paused, letting the reality sink in. "But you're still his biological father.

If you ever want to visit him when he's older, I won't stand in your way." Roman let out a heavy sigh, his gaze dropping to the floor. "Thank you, Vada.

I'll make sure you both get plenty of child support." Roman glanced down as his phone screen lit up with a notification. "Right.

Well… goodbye." "Goodbye." I gave him a brief wave and pushed the front door shut. The deadbolt slid into place with a sharp, metallic click. Finally, I was rid of him.

Chapter 2 The moment Roman left, I blocked his number across every app. I immediately contacted my real estate agent to liquidate our shared assets.

I wired the cashedout funds straight into my independent trust account and paid cash for a luxury penthouse in an upscale neighborhood.

I was fully loaded with ammunition, ready for my comeback to the socialite battlefield. Almost half a year went by. Then, an unknown number lit up my screen. "Is this Vada?

It's Sienna." Why the hell was Sienna calling me? I kept my voice flat. "Speaking.

What do you want?" Her voice trembled, her breathing shallow over the receiver. "Roman… he was in a car crash. My blood type isn't a match.

Can you come to the hospital and give him a transfusion?" Was this a joke? Roman and I had been divorced for nearly six months.

Rumor had it he'd dragged Sienna to City Hall the very morning after our papers were signed. And now she wanted my blood? Did I look like a damn doormat to her? "Sorry, Sienna.

Roman and I have zero ties anymore. You called the wrong person." She let out a pathetic sob over the receiver. "But I just moved back to the States.

I don't know anyone else here!" "You're the only one I can call. Please, you have to save him." Just moved back? I was the only one she knew?

The sheer audacity of this woman. "Sienna, North American hospitals have strict blood bank protocols.

Are you planning to let him bleed out in the ER while you wait for his exwife to show up?

If you have time to call me, you should be digging through his wallet for his health insurance card." I hung up and permanently blocked the number.

Roman and I originally met at a friend's yacht party. At the time, my career was skyrocketing, and he seemed like the most polished, gentlemanly venture capitalist on the deck.

He was charming. Tall, athletic, with an Ivy League MBA and impeccable manners.

I remember asking him over champagne, "So, how many serious relationships have you had?" He looked almost shy, offering a selfdeprecating smile. "To be completely honest, this would be my first." "Your first?" I stared at him, the champagne glass pausing halfway to my lips.

Roman chuckled at my wide eyes. "Is it really that hard to believe?" After that night, he pursued me relentlessly. Roman wasn't lying.

He just conveniently left out the part where his heart was permanently occupied by his elusive first love.

After the wedding, we built an entertainment agency together from the ground up.

Over the past few years, the young influencers and actors we signed had finally started making real noise in the industry.

When we were registering the LLC, I asked him what we should call it.

Roman didn't even hesitate. "Let's call it Sienna Media." It took me three full years of marriage to figure out where that name came from. He came home wasted one night.

His driver practically had to carry him up the stairs. In all our time together, I had never seen him that obliterated.

As he slumped onto the mattress, he kept slurring the same words over and over. "Sienna… Sienna, I miss you so much." Sienna? Who the hell was Sienna?

Chapter 3 I had run through countless scenarios in my head, bracing myself for the absolute worst. Throughout the night, Roman stumbled out of bed to vomit multiple times.

I just sat there, watching him with cold detachment. I even pulled out my phone to record him drunkenly whining another woman's name.

It would be perfect leverage for the divorce settlement. The next morning, Roman finally woke up from his hangover.

He rubbed his temples, immediately avoiding my eyes as he noticed me sitting in the armchair, casually sipping a black coffee. "Thanks for dealing with me last night." I gave him a tight, humorless smile. "You kept screaming for Sienna all night.

Who exactly is Sienna?" He jerked upright, the color draining from his face. After a suffocating silence, he finally opened his mouth. "Sienna and I aren't what you think." "Oh?

Then enlighten me." I crossed my legs, setting my coffee mug on the side table. He reached for a cigarette, his fingers trembling slightly. "We grew up together.

She moved out of the country a few years ago. But I swear, nothing ever happened between us." A cold numbness started at the base of my skull and crawled down my spine.

I stared at the man I had shared a bed with for three years, and suddenly, I was looking at a complete stranger. "So every single one of your 'business trips' to London over the last few years…" I sneered. "They were just cover stories to go see her?" Roman stared down at his hands.

Dead silence. From that moment on, we were just two strangers coexisting under the same roof. But fate has a sick sense of humor.

Two months later, during a routine checkup, I found out I was pregnant. For the sake of the baby, I actually considered giving him a second chance.

I didn't want my kid growing up in a broken home before they were even born. When I was five months along, I dropped the sonogram on his desk.

Roman's eyes widened, his jaw dropping slightly. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" "Would you have even cared?" I shot back. "Of course I care!" Roman grinned, pulling me into a sudden embrace. "You and this baby are everything to me." I let him hold me, staring blankly over his shoulder.

He was a garbage husband, but maybe, just maybe, he could be a decent father. What a joke.

Roman threw money at the problem, booking me the best VIP suite at a private maternity hospital. As my due date approached, I was placed on strict bed rest.

Yet, he rarely bothered to show up. "With you out of the office, I'm carrying the entire company on my back," he'd complain over the phone. "I'm swamped.

I'll drop by when I have a minute." The day I went into labor, I almost bled out on the delivery table. I was trapped in that room for over fourteen hours of agonizing contractions.

Roman never showed up. When it was finally over, I lay trembling on the hospital bed, IV lines taped to my bruised arms.

Roman's assistant hovered near the door. "That looked rough, Vada.

Congratulations." I forced my cracked lips into a weak smile. "Where's the boss?" She awkwardly adjusted her ID lanyard. "Roman said a VIP client was flying in today.

He went to the airport to pick them up. He'll be here as soon as he wraps up." I personally managed the accounts for every single VIP client on our roster.

I turned my head, locking my exhausted gaze onto her. "Which VIP client?

Important enough to skip his own child's birth?" The assistant stammered, avoiding my eyes. "He didn't specify.

You just had a baby, you should really get some rest." I looked at the freshoutofcollege girl shrinking under my stare. There was no point in shooting the messenger.

I just closed my eyes and let out a single, raspy breath. "Fine." Chapter 4 It took Roman three full days to finally show his face in my recovery room.

He walked in holding an absurdly large bouquet of overpriced roses, shoving them toward my chest. "You did great, honey." He leaned down, pressing a quick, obligatory kiss to my forehead before turning immediately to the bassinet. "Wow.

He looks exactly like me." I stared at the side of his face, a wave of nausea twisting my gut. The anger I had been swallowing for days finally hit a boiling point.

I kept my gaze locked on him, my eyes red, my hand slipping under the blanket to secretly tap the record button on my phone. "Roman, I almost died in the delivery room while you were at the airport picking up a VIP client.

If cold shoulders and neglect are all that's left of this marriage, you owe me and this baby a real explanation." I forced my voice to crack, playing the role perfectly.

I needed this performance on tape to maximize his guilt. I let out a shaky breath, my face still pale. "Roman, I can't stop you from keeping someone else in your heart.

If you think I'm just in the way now, I'll step aside. But couldn't you have shown up for us just this once?

When I needed you the most?" Roman's jaw tightened, his shoulders sagging under the weight of my words. "I'm sorry, Vada.

I messed up." I turned my head away, wiping a fake tear, then forced a fragile smile. "Don't apologize. You're my husband.

You're the father of my child." The words tasted like battery acid in my mouth, but they worked like a charm on him.

From that day on, Roman started showing up at the maternity ward regularly, playing the role of the perfect, attentive father.

Except, every time he walked through that door, I dialed up the pressure. I listed out every core account I had secured for the agency.

I tallied up the debt crises I had helped him survive, squeezing his guilt to the absolute limit. I knew his patience.

Soon enough, he would get sick of hearing about how much he owed me, and that would only make him miss the easy, uncomplicated comfort of his precious first love.

It was pushing him right to the edge of asking for a divorce.

My calculated guilt trips were just laying the groundwork, ensuring that when he finally pulled the trigger, his guilt would translate directly into a massive payout for me.

What Roman didn't know was that I kept tabs on every single time he snuck off to see her. The second I found out Sienna existed, I hired a private investigator.

Every time her flight touched down on the tarmac, I received a text notification. Finally, after forty straight days of relentless pressure, Roman snapped.

He slammed his coffee cup onto the bedside table. "Are you ever going to drop this, Vada? It's the same damn speech every single day.

You might not be sick of saying it, but I'm sick of hearing it!" "I never realized you were such a suffocating nightmare.

Look around this hospital—do you see anyone else acting this completely unhinged? You're acting like a paranoid lunatic." Unhinged? A lunatic?

I dug my fingernails into my palms to keep my expression blank. "So what exactly do you want to do about it?" Roman fell silent, his chest heaving.

Finally, he spat the words out. "I want a divorce. I'll have my lawyer draft the papers by tomorrow." Without another word, he spun around and stormed out of the hospital room.

But what Roman didn't realize was that I had already decided to divorce him months ago. After all, he was a dead man walking.

Chapter 5 I snapped back to the present, rolling Sienna's phone call over in my mind. The doctors could handle a damn blood transfusion.

We had been divorced for over six months, completely out of each other's orbits. Why reach out to me now?

I slipped into a sharply tailored, seasonal haute couture trench coat, stepped into my stilettos, and dialed Roman's assistant's number. "Heard Roman crashed his car.

Which hospital?" The assistant sounded slightly taken aback by my sudden call. She paused. "He's at Mount Sinai. Are you… heading over?" "Yeah.

Sienna called, begging me to donate blood. Figured I'd do my good deed for the day." "We were married, after all.

Can't be totally heartless." I heard a distinct sigh of relief over the receiver. "Okay, Vada. He's in Room 302.

Do you want me to give him a headsup?" "No need," I said, immediately terminating the call. I was going to find out exactly what kind of game Sienna was playing.

Room 302 was dead quiet. Roman was lying flat on the hospital bed, alone. His head was wrapped in white gauze, but otherwise, he didn't look like he was knocking on death's door.

He stared blankly out the window, oblivious to me standing there. I rapped my knuckles against the open doorframe. Roman turned his head slowly.

His eyes blew wide open the second they landed on me. "Vada? What are you doing here?" I flashed him a sickeningly sweet smile. "Sienna called me in a panic.

Said you crashed your car and desperately needed a blood transfusion.

Just came to check the damage." A brief spark flickered in his dull eyes before dying out just as fast. "Thanks for caring.

I'm fine." "Where's Sienna?" "Probably down at billing." "Right. Since you're not dying, I'll be leaving." I spun on my stilettos and headed for the door. "Where did you move to?

I've been trying to find you." Roman's voice rasped from the bed.

I paused and looked over my shoulder, keeping the polite smile glued to my face. "Why would you need to find me?" His gaze darted away, unable to hold eye contact for more than a second. "I… I want to see the baby." Back then, offering him visitation was just a stalling tactic—a way to twist the knife of guilt and push him toward a divorce.

And now he suddenly wanted to play dad? I didn't even dignify that with a response. I walked straight out into the hall. The moment I stepped out, I nearly bumped into Sienna.

She was lurking right by the door. God knows how long she'd been standing there eavesdropping. This was our first time standing facetoface.

Up close, she was even more of a fragile, doeeyed victim than in her photos. Her features were delicate, and we actually shared a passing resemblance.

Or rather, in Roman's mind, I was the one who looked like her. The cheap placeholder. I had zero interest in breathing the same air as this woman.

I went to walk right past her, but she called out in a breathy, soft voice. "Vada?

Is that really you?" I looked at her—the picture of innocence, utterly helpless against the big bad world.

Suddenly, it made perfect sense why Roman had been obsessed with her for years. When I didn't immediately respond, she kept pushing. "I really didn't expect you to show up.

Thank you so much. I just moved back to the city and I don't know my way around." "I panicked earlier and just dialed your number.

I hope I didn't interrupt anything important?" I didn't have the patience for this community theater performance. "He's alive.

I'm leaving." But Sienna darted right in front of me, blocking my path. "Wait! There's actually something I need to talk to you about. Can you spare a few minutes?" Ha. I knew it.

She didn't call me here for a damn blood transfusion. She wanted something else entirely.

Chapter 6 "What is it?" I forced a tight, overly bright smile at Sienna. "Well, when Roman divorced you, he left you all the personal assets, right?

His company is running into some financial trouble." "You know Roman—he has too much pride to ask you himself. But could you help him out?

Just out of respect for the fact that Sienna Media was your shared life's work?" I stared at her, almost wanting to laugh out loud. So that was it.

She was eyeing my bank accounts, ready to bleed me dry. It made sense. Roman had signed over the houses and the cash, keeping only the agency for himself.

In his eyes, the company was a golden goose, worth infinitely more than our domestic assets. Back when we ran things together, we had a strict division of labor.

He handled content licensing and PR. I controlled the talent management and the corporate finances.

He had no clue that keeping the lights on required a massive, constant stream of liquid cash. Without my cash flow, the agency was bleeding out fast.

With the company tanking, Roman obviously couldn't keep up with Sienna's highmaintenance lifestyle. No wonder she was panicking.

I looked at Sienna, perfectly mimicking her pathetic, helpless tone. "You know Roman and I built that agency from the ground up, right?

I already handed the entire company over to you two.

What more do you want from me?" Sienna leaned in close, her eyes gleaming with undisguised hunger. "Vada, Roman left you all the real estate and tens of millions in cash.

All you need to do is write me a check for ten million dollars. You can keep the rest as child support for you and the baby." I stared right into her eyes, tilting my head.

How could she spit out that kind of demand without even blinking?

I let out a heavy sigh. "Sienna, before I left, the agency was prepping for an IPO with a valuation of over two hundred million.

The little bit of cash I walked away with is pocket change compared to that." I paused, watching her face. "I know you studied musical theater in London.

Roman told me he only started the company to launch your acting career.

That's why I didn't fight him for it." "I handed over four years of my blood, sweat, and tears on a silver platter. Why?

Is the business going under?" Sienna's jaw tightened before she spoke. "You know how expensive it is to run a business.

Even if you just look at it as helping out your baby's father, you owe him this." She pulled a folded slip of paper from her designer pocket and shoved it toward me. "Here's the account information.

You can just make the check payable to this." Ha. She really had it all figured out. She even had the deposit details ready to go.

Whether that ten million was actually going to save the company, or going straight into her personal shopping fund—she knew the answer better than anyone.

Chapter 7 I looked at Sienna, letting out a heavy, exaggerated sigh. "I'd love to help you out, I really would.

But the timing is just terrible." "I already locked all the cash into an irrevocable trust.

I don't have a dime of liquid assets on hand." I softened my gaze, letting out a slow breath. "I do have a few hundred bucks in my wallet right now.

If you two can't even afford an Uber or a latte, I could hand it over for emergencies. Consider it charity." Sienna's eyes bugged out. "Vada, are you serious?

Stop joking around." I kept my gaze soft and gentle. "I'm not refusing to help, I just genuinely can't. Look, you called me to donate blood, and I rushed right over.

If I could hand over millions, wouldn't I?" Realizing I was an impenetrable wall, Sienna flipped a switch. The helpless act vanished instantly.

She let out a cold scoff. "Cut the crap, Vada. If you don't want to give up the money, just say it. Stop with the fake sympathy." She really couldn't hold her breath for long.

The mask slipped way too fast. I reached into my designer bag and pulled out a sleek business card. "This is a venture capital firm.

They injected funding into Sienna Media back when we first launched.

You can try pitching to them." Sienna snatched the card from my fingers, her eyes darting between me and the paper. "You're actually willing to help us?" "Of course." "You… you don't hate me?" "Everyone has the right to chase their own happiness.

Roman loves you. Me stepping aside was the best outcome for all three of us. Right?" I paused, letting the silence hang for a second. "By the way, Roman looked terrible in there.

You should probably book him a fullbody MRI. Get a thorough scan." I turned on my heel and walked out of the hospital.

Once outside, I tossed the slip of paper with her bank account details straight into a trash can, then pulled an alcohol wipe from my bag to scrub my fingers clean