When Faked Divorce Came, I Took $200M & Ran

The day I found out I was pregnant with triplets, I was staring at the sad balance in my bank account, panicking about how on earth I was gonna afford to raise three kids all on my own. Then, out of nowhere, my CEO husband's divorce papers showed up the very next second with his text messages. Finley: Two hundred million dollars. Sign the papers, get out of my life, and never show your face in front of me again. I froze for a whole beat, then my face split into a grin so wide my cheeks hurt. "Are you kidding? This is the answer to my prayers!" I stuffed the check and divorce certificate into my bag, didn't even glance back as I left the city. After that, the whole city was buzzing with the same rumor: The notoriously cutthroat, decisive Mr. Fox had gone completely off the rails, and he was hell-bent on tracking down his ex-wife of all people, the one who'd bolted with a fat check and skipped town while carrying his three unborn kids! ***** Right after my checkup, my stomach was still twisted in knots. I was crossing my fingers, praying nothing was seriously wrong with me. The doctor stared back at the ultrasound screen for ages, moving the ultrasound wand back and forth across my lower abdomen over and over. His brows furrowed deeper and deeper, his expression growing weirder by the second. My heart dropped straight into my shoes. I crumpled the fabric of my shirt in my white-knuckle fingers. My voice was shaking so bad I could barely get the words out. "Doctor, is, is there something wrong with me?" He went quiet for a few seconds, pulled off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. When he looked up at me again, his eyes were practically bulging out of his head with disbelief. "Ms. Ellis, there's nothing wrong with you. You're pregnant. Triplets, actually. Three gestational sacs, all developing very steadily." It felt like a thunderclap went off directly inside my skull. I went rigid on the exam table, my brain completely short-circuiting. I lifted a shaking hand to my still flat stomach. I was hardly able to believe there were three tiny little lives growing right there under my skin. The women in the Ellis family had always been famous for being extremely fertile. My mom gave birth to twins when she had me. My aunt also had two kids in one go, too. No one could have guessed I would one-up them both by having three all at once. The exam room was warm and toasty, but all I could see was a dark, hopeless future stretching out ahead of me. I had been married to Finley Fox for three years, and we had barely exchanged two words the whole time. He had always been out building his business empire, and he rarely even stepped foot in our house. He was the president running an entire commercial kingdom, cold, reserved, and so influential he could shift the whole city's economy with one call. Me? I was just a regular girl from an ordinary family, totally out of place in his glittering world. We had only gotten married because he had walked into the wrong hotel room one night, ended up sleeping with me, and someone got photos of the whole incident. Three years under the same roof, and he had never been anything but icy to me. We were more distant than total strangers passing each other on the street. Nobody in the entire Fox household had ever truly respected me those three years. Behind my back, they all whispered that I was a manipulative schemer who had trapped Finley Fox on purpose. They said I was some girl from a regular, unremarkable family who did not deserve the title of Mrs. Fox. The only time we had ever crossed that line was at this year's company annual gala, when he was blackout drunk. I had never even dreamed I would get pregnant, let alone that I would be carrying three babies all at once. Would Finley Fox even want these kids? He could not stand so much as glance at me on a normal day. There was no way he would accept three random kids popping up out of nowhere, right? And those stuck-up people from the Ellis family? There was zero chance they would acknowledge any kids I had. Three kids meant formula, diapers, nannies, a bigger house, education costs. Every single one of those things cost an arm and a leg. How was I supposed to afford any of it? I had no support to speak of from the Ellis family, and my own parents were not well off either. How on earth was I supposed to raise three kids on my own? The more I thought about it, the heavier my chest felt, like a boulder was sitting on my lungs, squeezing so tight I could barely breathe. I had dipped my foot back in the Fox family villa, had not even had time to calm my racing thoughts, when Lucas, Finley's special assistant, showed up with divorce papers. Right after that, my phone pinged with a message from Finley Fox. Finley: I will give you two hundred million dollars. Sign the divorce papers, and never show your face in front of me again. I stared at those words, frozen stiff for a second. Then I burst out laughing. Every last bit of the worry clouding my face vanished in the blink of an eye. "This is an absolute lifesaver!" Two hundred million dollars! Are you kidding me? That is more than enough to not only raise three kids, but to give them every luxury under the sun and send them off to top universities overseas if I wanted to. Why the hell would I care about being Mrs. Fox anymore? Or whether Finley Fox even liked me? Or what those snobs in the Fox family thought of me? With this money, I would have all the security my three kids would ever need. I could take them far away from this suffocating city, live the life I had always dreamed of, and never have to bow and scrape to anyone ever again. Finley Fox wanted a divorce? Perfect. It was exactly what I had been hoping for. This so-called wealthy marriage had always been nothing but a cold, gilded cage. I had been dying to escape it for ages. I told Lucas to process the transfer right then and there, then scritch-scratched my name on the divorce agreement straight in front of him, Audrey Ellis. My handwriting was sharp and clean, no hesitation whatsoever. When I got back to that cold, empty Fox family villa, I only packed my own personal belongings. I had kept my life super simple over those three years. All the jewelry, designer clothes, and couture pieces the Fox family had bought for me? I did not touch a single one. I left every last item exactly where it was in the walk-in closet. Anything that wasn't mine? I didn't want a single part of it. I tucked the check and the divorce agreement into my bag, dragged my suitcase behind me, and walked out the front door of the Fox residence calm as could be. That fancy, out-of-reach wealthy world I had once felt so unworthy of? Glancing back at it now, it was all just fleeting smoke and mirrors. From that moment on, there was no more Mrs. Audrey Ellis - Fox. There was only Audrey Ellis, and the three little blessings growing in her belly.