Chapter 1

I was a billionaire's canary. Never asked for it — but every time I slept with him, he paid another chunk of my mom's medical bills. Later he made me his secretary, and stupidly, I thought we'd built something real. Turns out I was wrong. He drained my entire savings to buy his mistress a $500K necklace. "What do you mean, your money?" he sneered. "Every penny came from me." I begged. He laughed. Then the hospital called: Mom didn't make it. That's when I stopped being anyone's canary — and started billing him back, in full.

——

"Ms. Veronica, your mother's condition has suddenly deteriorated. If the $500,000 for her targeted therapy isn't paid by tonight, we will have no choice but to halt her treatment."

The attending physician's words hit me like a sledgehammer, slamming ruthlessly into my chest.

Standing in the sterile, freezing corridor of the private hospital, the hand gripping my phone trembled uncontrollably.

"Not a problem, Doctor. I have the money ready. It will be wired to the hospital's account within ten minutes."

Hanging up, I immediately logged into my private bank account.

It was the money I had scraped together penny by penny over five years as the Chief Secretary at Evander Group—working day and night, drinking with clients until my stomach bled.

It was also my mother's only lifeline.

But the moment the screen loaded my balance, my mind exploded.

Balance: $0.00.

Thinking it was a system glitch, I frantically refreshed the page, until a $500,000 transfer glared back at me in the transaction history.

The recipient: Evander's private assistant account.

What did this mean?

As his Chief Secretary, some of our accounts were linked to facilitate handling his personal finances. But I never imagined he would drain my entire safety net without a single word.

I dashed out of the hospital like a madwoman, grabbing a cab straight to the Evander Group headquarters.

When I shoved open the doors to the CEO's office, Evander was leaning lazily back in his leather chair.

And perched on his lap was his precious first love he had just brought back from Paris—Mallory.

Around Mallory's pale neck sparkled a dazzling pink diamond necklace. It was a one-of-a-kind treasure from Sotheby's autumn auction. The hammer price: exactly $500,000.

"Evander, where is my money?" Even my voice was trembling as I stared dead at that necklace.

Evander frowned slightly, a flash of displeasure in his eyes. As if I had interrupted his elegant mood.

"Veronica, don't you know how to knock? You're becoming increasingly unruly," he said coldly, the arrogance of a man in power on full display.

Mallory coyly touched the diamonds at her throat and let out a catty laugh. "Evander, is this your highly capable secretary? She looks like a madwoman."

"Where is my money?!" I ignored her, raising my voice, my eyes bloodshot. "That was my mother's lifeline! What gave you the right to transfer it?"

Evander scoffed, casually lighting a cigar.

"What do you mean, your money? Veronica, have you sat in this position so long that you've forgotten your place?"

He blew out a ring of smoke, his gaze utterly contemptuous. "You eat my food, wear the clothes I bought, and live in an apartment under my name. Every single cent in your card—which part of it didn't come from me? Mallory fancied this necklace, and my liquid assets happened to be tied up in a European merger. What's the big deal with floating it from your account?"

With just a few flippant words, my mother's life-saving money had become a mere trinket around his little sweetheart's neck.

"That was my salary! My bonuses! Money I earned myself!" I screamed hysterically.

"Enough!" Evander slammed his hand on the desk, his eyes turning dark. "Veronica, stop playing the victim in front of me. Who in this city doesn't know you're just a canary I keep by my side? A gold-digger who slept her way to the top—how dare you talk to me about 'earning' anything?"

"Haven't you leeched enough off me these past few years? It's only half a million; I'll double it for you next month. Now, get out. Don't ruin Mallory's mood."

I looked at the man before me—the man I had loved and supported for five years—and felt a wave of nauseating disgust churn in my stomach.

So, in his eyes, my day-and-night devotion was nothing but the scheming of a gold-digger.

Right then, my phone began to buzz frantically.

It was the hospital.

"Ms. Veronica... I'm so sorry. Your mother couldn't survive the shock. She was pronounced dead five minutes ago."

The phone slipped from my hand, falling onto the carpet.

In that instant, my entire world plunged into a dead silence.

"What now? Trying to play the sympathy card again?" Evander sneered, his face full of impatience.

I slowly raised my head, looked at him, and wiped away my tears.

At this moment, the irony far outweighed the grief.

I didn't answer. I just opened the door and walked away.