Chapter 3

The day I got out of the hospital, the Grant family sent a driver to pick me up.

Instead of taking me to the apartment Edward and I once called home, the car pulled up at a strange apartment complex.

The driver pressed a key and a bank card into my hand.

"Ms. Curtis, Mr. Grant said this is your new home. There's 1.5 million dollars on the card, and the code is still your birthday. He also said... he hopes you won't go looking for him again," the driver told me.

I accepted them, expressionless.

"Got it," I said, my voice cold and distant.

I stepped into the apartment, stylish, immaculate, but utterly devoid of life.

This was the cage Edward had prepared for me.

1.5 million dollars and a place to live. That was all it took for him to erase our past and lock away my future.

He thought he could keep me in check and make me vanish from his world for good.

He underestimated me.

And he overestimated himself.

I stayed in that apartment for three days.

For three days, I didn't step outside. I just sat at my computer, frantically digging for any scrap of information.

I hunted for leverage everywhere. Umbilical cord blood transplants, the Grant family's businesses, and Edward's business rivals.

I still felt weak, but my mind had never been clearer.

The Grant family's influence ran deep in Aurelburg, with a finger in every pie from real estate and finance to tech.

Right now, with what I had, going up against them was like an ant trying to move a mountain.

I needed time, money, and above all, the perfect opening.

On the fourth day, I wheeled my suitcase out of the apartment.

I didn't take so much as a thread from that place, just the bank card loaded with 1.5 million dollars.

That money was what they owed my baby.

I would use their blood money to fund their destruction. It was the only justice for my baby.

I went straight to the airport and bought myself a one-way ticket heading as far south as I could go.

In Aurelburg, the Grants made the rules. If I stayed, I would just walk into a cage.

I had to get out, disappear somewhere they'd never find me, and build a new life from scratch.

As the plane took off, I stared out the window at the city fading into the distance, my heart cold and numb.

I said goodbye to myself.

I said goodbye to the love that made me a fool.

From now on, there would be no more Karen Curtis in this world.

I was now nothing but a vessel for revenge.

I gave myself a new name: Stella.

Stella, like the stars.

I hoped I could be like a star, shining through even the deepest darkness with my own light.

Even if that light burned with the fire of revenge.

I chose to settle in Silverport, a southern city known for its booming tech and finance industries.

This place was overflowing with opportunities and brimming with challenges.

With that 1.5 million dollars, I rented a small office downtown and set up an investment consulting company of my own.

Getting started was always the toughest part.

In those early days, I practically lived in my office.

During the day, I put on my suit and heels and went door to door. I forced a smile as I handed my business card to every potential client I met. Most just gave me dismissive looks or quick nods.

One of the clients sneered, "A company run by just a girl? With only 1.5 million in capital? You've got to be kidding."

"Ms. Curtis, we'd rather work with big, established companies," another client refused.

At night, I'd kick off my heels, slip into a T-shirt, and study stock charts and financial reports over a bowl of instant noodles, hunting for my next shot at an investment.

I was still weak after losing my baby, and the nonstop grind made me feel faint all the time.

More than once, I nearly passed out right there in my office.

Whenever I felt like I was about to break, I'd remember that freezing operating table and Edward's icy words about our baby.

Hatred was the fuel that kept me going.

My jaw clenched tight as I forced myself to move forward, step by heavy step.

My breakthrough came three months later, hidden in dry market data: a struggling startup named NovaTech Solutions.

The startup was packed with cutting-edge AI but, starved of funding and connections, was nearing collapse.

Everyone saw a lost cause, but I saw my chance.

I bet everything, all 1.5 million dollars.

Kevin Linwood, the doctor who'd taken me in, thought I'd lost my mind.

"Stella, this is insane. We'll be left with nothing," he said.

I met Kevin at Silverport Hospital when I went in for a routine check-up.

He could tell how frail I was, and he seemed to have an inkling about my past.

He never pried but just quietly helped me, without a word.

Later, he simply left his job as a doctor and became my business partner.

"Kevin, do you trust me?" I asked, locking eyes with him.

He saw the fire in my gaze, sighed in resignation, and said, "It's not you I believe in. It's that look. It says you don't know how to lose."

I won.

Six months later, a global powerhouse swooped in and bought up NovaTech Solutions' core tech. The stock shot up twentyfold overnight.

My 1.5 million dollars multiplied into 30 million dollars.

I made my first fortune.

Overnight, Starlight Capital became a name, and I became a force in Silverport finance.