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The Wife Falsely Accused of Being a Gold Digger
Novelix
Completed
"Three years into our marriage, my husband, Baron, still thought I was a gold digger. Because I kept asking him for money. At first, it was ten thousand dollars. Later, when our daughter Alva was hospitalized, it became two hundred thousand. He threw a stack of transfer records in my face. “Nora, thirty-six million dollars in three years. How much more do you need before you’re finally satisfied?” But his best friend and CFO, Cheryl, had only been sending me five hundred dollars a month. I showed him my bank statements. Cheryl’s eyes turned red. She said there had to be a system error. So Baron called me greedy in front of everyone. That night, Alva lay in a hospital bed, burning up with a fever that wouldn’t break. I had no choice but to call Baron again, begging him to pay the hospital bill. “A million dollars just hit your account. What are you acting out now?” Then he hung up. But my balance was only two hundred thirty-seven dollars. The next second, Cheryl’s Instagram story popped up. In the photo, she wore a ten-carat diamond ring. A brand-new sports car sat behind her. The caption read: “Year three of being chosen, firmly and without hesitation. Thank you, my good friend Baron, for spoiling me every month.” Baron had commented underneath: “You’re more reasonable than Nora.” I stared at those words and sent three years of bank statements to my lawyer. “File for divorce.” “And find out whose account that thirty-six million really went into.”"
Chapters (4)
第1章
Three years into our marriage, my husband, Baron, still thought I was a gold digger.
Because I kept asking him for money.
At first, it was ten thousand dollars.
Later, when our daughter Alva was hospitalized, it became two hundred thousand.
He threw a stack of transfer records in my face.
“Nora, thirty-six million dollars in three years. How much more do you need before you’re finally satisfied?”
But his best friend and CFO, Cheryl, had only been sending me five hundred dollars a month.
I showed him my bank statements.
Cheryl’s eyes turned red. She said there had to be a system error.
So Baron called me greedy in front of everyone.
That night, Alva lay in a hospital bed, burning up with a fever that wouldn’t break.
I had no choice but to call Baron again, begging him to pay the hospital bill.
“A million dollars just hit your account. What are you acting out now?”
Then he hung up.
But my balance was only two hundred thirty-seven dollars.
The next second, Cheryl’s Instagram story popped up.
In the photo, she wore a ten-carat diamond ring. A brand-new sports car sat behind her.
The caption read:
“Year three of being chosen, firmly and without hesitation. Thank you, my good friend Baron, for spoiling me every month.”
Baron had commented underneath:
“You’re more reasonable than Nora.”
I stared at those words and sent three years of bank statements to my lawyer.
“File for divorce.”
“And find out whose account that thirty-six million really went into.”
…
The doors to the emergency room opened.
The doctor pulled off his mask and asked, “The child’s father still isn’t here?”
I braced myself against the wall and stood.
My legs were so numb I could barely feel them.
“He’s out of town.”
The doctor glanced at the payment record, then shook his head with regret.
“We used the specialty medication, but the infection was too severe. She missed the best window for surgery. Go in and see her.”
Alva lay very still on the hospital bed.
She wasn’t even three.
The back of her little hand was covered in needle marks.
The nurse removed the monitor leads from her body and whispered, “At the end, she kept calling for Mommy.”
I bent down and pressed my face against her cold little hand.
My phone vibrated.
Baron had sent a voice message.
“Don’t use the kid to test my limits again.”
“A million dollars was just transferred. That’s enough for ten hospital stays. Be home before tomorrow morning, or deal with the consequences.”
The nurse heard it and couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Your husband doesn’t know how serious Alva’s condition is?”
“I called him seventeen times.”
The nurse looked at the two hundred thirty-seven dollars left in my account and fell silent.
The specialty medication had slowed Alva’s decline.
But I couldn’t scrape together the two hundred thousand dollars for surgery.
The million Baron talked about had never reached my account.
At dawn, the nurse handed me the death certificate.
I held the pen and stopped for a long time at the line for father’s name.
In the end, I still wrote Baron Hale.
By the time my lawyer, Rex, arrived, I had already changed Alva into the new dress she never got to wear.
He draped his coat over my shoulders.
“I found it. For the past three years, the fixed transfers you received were five hundred dollars a month. The sender was Hale Group’s finance department.”
I tugged at the corner of my mouth.
“Eighteen thousand total in three years. If I hadn’t worked several side jobs, Alva and I wouldn’t have made it this long.”
“And the thirty-six million?”
Rex lowered his voice. “What Baron showed you weren’t bank statements. They were internal payment records. The money went into a shell company called RHL. The funds were split into dozens of transfers. The trail is complicated.”
I cut the hospital bracelet from Alva’s wrist and placed it in a clear bag.
“Trace every single dollar.”
My phone rang again.
It was Cheryl.
“Nora, Baron asked me to remind you that the money has arrived. You and Alva have caused enough trouble. It’s time to come home.”
第2章
I looked at Alva lying on the bed, her eyes closed forever.
“Where’s the million?”
Cheryl let out a soft laugh.
“In your account, of course.”
“Alva only had a fever. Baron trusts me, that’s why he lets me manage Hale Group’s finances. I approved the two hundred thousand dollars for her surgery myself, and the transfer went through successfully. Don’t try to fool him with fake bills.”
I tapped save on the recording.
“Okay. I understand.”
Her voice stayed gentle.
“Baron hates gold diggers more than anything. Stop making a scene in front of him.”
The call ended.
The funeral home staff wheeled in a small stretcher.
When the white sheet covered Alva’s face, I reached out, straightened the collar of her dress, and tucked the hospital bracelet into her palm.
Then I sent Baron one last iMessage with the location attached.
“Three o’clock this afternoon. This funeral home. If you have time, come see Alva off.”
He didn’t reply.
Ten minutes later, I received a notice from Hale Group’s legal department.
Baron had applied to freeze every account under my name, claiming I had maliciously transferred marital assets.
At the same time, Rex’s phone rang.
After he listened, he looked up at me.
“Nora, the owner of that shell company died three years ago.”
On the day Alva was cremated, Baron was celebrating Cheryl’s birthday.
On a Hale Group employee’s Instagram, the top-floor conference room was covered in white roses.
In the photo, Baron was patiently sliding the diamond ring Cheryl had picked onto her finger.
The caption read:
“Boss said I’ve been protecting the company’s financial dealings for him, so I deserve the best reward.”
I turned off my phone and sent Alva into the cremation room.
The staff member asked, “Are we still waiting for the child’s father?”
I said, “No.”
The furnace door slowly closed.
Two hours later, I walked out holding the urn.
Baron’s mother, Mrs. Hale, stood at the entrance.
Clearly, Baron had treated my message asking him to come to the funeral home like a joke and forwarded it to her.
The second she saw me, she frowned.
“Nora, what are you acting out now?”
“Mrs. Hale, this is Alva.”
“You pushed Baron so far he doesn’t even want to come home. You spent more than thirty million dollars and still weren’t satisfied. Now you’re using an urn to scare who?”
“He didn’t tell you I asked him to come to the funeral home yesterday?”
“He was celebrating Cheryl’s birthday. You picked today to put on this show because you’re jealous of Cheryl, aren’t you?”
Mrs. Hale reached out to grab me and knocked the urn lid crooked.
I jerked back.
“Don’t touch her!”
Her face darkened.
“If you hadn’t gotten pregnant back then, I never would’ve let you marry into this family. You can’t even take care of your own daughter, and you still have the nerve to cause trouble?”
Rex stepped forward to block her and handed over the death certificate.
She glanced at it, then immediately pulled out her phone to take a picture.
“Forging a certificate is illegal. I’m sending this to Baron so he can see how insane you’ve become.”
I got into the car with the urn in my arms.
Before the door shut, she was already making a call.
“Nora is holding a fake urn and trying to fool me. Handle her. And make sure it doesn’t affect Cheryl’s mood.”
Back at the apartment, Rex spread the investigation files across the table.
“The owner of RHL used to be a janitor at Hale Group. She died of illness three years ago. Half a month later, a new account appeared under her name, and the registered phone number belongs to Cheryl. Every month, Baron had the family office wire one million dollars. On holidays, and whenever you asked him for money, he added extra. Total over three years: thirty-six million.”
I flipped through where the money had gone.
Sports cars.
A Manhattan apartment.
Jewelry.
And the villa where Cheryl’s parents lived.
Every reimbursement note had my name on it.
Rex said, “It’s still not enough. We need the original payment instructions and the backend system modification records. Otherwise, Cheryl can claim she only processed the transfers.”
The doorbell suddenly rang.
Hale Group’s legal team stood outside with several people.
“Nora, Mr. Hale demands the return of jewelry, vehicles, and real estate gifted during the marriage.”
I laughed because I was too angry not to.
“I never received any of those things. How am I supposed to return them?”
The lawyer handed me the notice.
“Mr. Hale said if you don’t return them before midnight, he’ll formally sue.”
第3章
I signed the date.
“Tell him I’ll wait for his lawsuit.”
After the legal team left, Rex flipped to the last page of the list.
At 10:47 last night, the one-million-dollar emergency medical payment had been confirmed as received by RHL.
At that exact moment, Alva was convulsing in the emergency room.
I took a photo of the page and sent it to Cheryl.
“A dead woman’s account received a million dollars last night. Do you think the police will believe that?”
The chat showed read.
No reply.
Five minutes later, Baron called.
“You threatened Cheryl?”
“She’s helped you handle fund transfers for three years, and instead of thanking her, you’re scaring her with fake documents. Nora, how did you become this vicious?”
I ran my fingers along the edge of the urn.
“Why didn’t you go to the funeral home today?”
“To cooperate with your little act about our child dying?”
His voice turned colder.
“Where did you hide Alva? Bring her back tomorrow morning, and I won’t pursue this.”
“No need to wait until tomorrow.”
I sent him a photo of the death certificate.
The moment the photo went out, a red exclamation mark popped up.
Baron had blocked me.
Then I heard a key slide into the lock outside.
The landlord hurried in.
“Nora, I’m sorry. Hale Group just bought this apartment. They want you out tonight.”
I took Alva’s urn to a hotel.
The front desk told me all my cards had been frozen.
I refused to let Rex pay. Instead, I took off my wedding ring and went to a nearby pawnshop.
The custom ring had cost six hundred thousand dollars.
Now it got me only eight thousand.
Just enough to cover Alva’s grave deposit and half a month in the cheapest room.
When I walked out of the pawnshop, Baron’s car was parked by the curb.
He rolled down the window and stared at the urn in my arms, his brows drawn tight.
“Still not done acting?”
I pulled open the rear door and threw the legal recovery list onto his lap.
“I’ve never seen any of these things. Since you want to sue me, remember to submit the delivery addresses to the court too.”
Baron’s voice was ice-cold.
“There are records for every dollar of the thirty-six million. You’re still going to deny it?”
I took out the police-issued photo of RHL’s owner.
“The transfers were routed to RHL. This is the company’s owner. You know you could verify with a few clicks whether she used to work for Hale Group.”
“The money didn’t go directly into my account. It passed through a company under a former employee first. Doesn’t that seem suspicious to you?”
Cheryl sat in the passenger seat, her eyes red.
“Baron, because the transfer amounts were so large, sending them directly into a personal account was complicated. That’s why a specialized finance company had to process them.”
“As for the owner being deceased, that’s commercial fraud. I’m a victim too.”
“But every payment arrived. For Nora to slander me like this is really hurtful.”
I looked at the diamond ring on her hand.
“The million dollars yesterday arrived too?”
Cheryl pulled her hand back.
“The money was transferred. As for why it wasn’t received, I wouldn’t dare speculate.”
Baron’s gaze landed on my face.
“Hand over the child. If you’re unhappy about the living expenses, take it out on me. Don’t use Alva.”
I pushed the urn forward an inch.
“She’s right here. Do you want to hold her?”
Baron’s face instantly darkened.
He grabbed my wrist.
“For money, you’ve used Alva again and again. Now you’ve even made up her death. Are you even fit to be a mother?”
He shoved the urn back.
It wasn’t hard, but I stumbled.
The urn hit the car door with a dull thud.
Cheryl said softly, “Baron, the board is still waiting.”
He looked at me coldly, his eyes full of disgust.
“Come to the company this afternoon. I’ll give you a chance to perform in front of everyone.”
The Hale Group conference room was packed with shareholders and finance staff.
The big screen displayed thirty-six million dollars in expenses.
Baron sat at the head of the table.
“You said you didn’t receive the money. Where’s your proof?”
I handed over my bank statements.
“Three years. Five hundred a month. Eighteen thousand total. My balance never went over twenty thousand.”
Cheryl’s tears fell.
“I don’t know whether those statements are real, but I’ll accept an investigation. Still, there’s something I need to say.”
She took out a stack of receipts.
“Nora has been gambling for a long time and owes massive debts. To protect the Hale family’s reputation, I transferred the money into the designated account at her request.”
第4章
The conference room erupted.
I picked up the IOU on top.
The signature looked like mine, but the final stroke curved upward out of habit.
Cheryl signed finance documents the same way.
“You said I gamble. Where?”
Cheryl bit her lip.
“You wore a mask every time. I didn’t follow you in.”
“If I owe that much gambling debt, where are the debt collectors?”
Cheryl looked nervous, but Baron cut me off.
“Cheryl has no reason to risk her career by lying.”
“So I’m lying with my daughter’s life?”
I slammed the death certificate onto the table.
“Alva died the night before last of multiple organ failure. The two-hundred-thousand-dollar deposit went into the dead account of a shell company.”
Baron didn’t reach for it.
Cheryl covered her mouth.
“How could you forge a death certificate? She wasn’t even three. No matter how desperate you are for money, you can’t curse your own daughter.”
The shareholders’ looks toward me changed.
Baron raised his hand and tore the certificate in half.
He looked at me.
“I’ll have someone pick up Alva tomorrow morning. If I don’t see her, I’ll file to change custody.”
“She’s already been cremated.”
I had been holding the urn the entire time.
He had clearly seen it.
But he had already decided it was just another prop in my performance.
I crouched down and picked up the torn pieces of paper one by one.
Under the table, Cheryl’s heel pinned one corner in place.
She bent down and whispered, “The money is with me, sure. But how are you going to prove it?”
She hurriedly stuffed the forged documents back into her bag, but accidentally dragged out a torn corner of an original receipt.
The scrap fluttered down beside my foot.
I saw the broken account number on it.
It ended in 0719.
The same as the account belonging to the dead owner of the shell company.
After the meeting, Cheryl shoved all the files into her bag and left quickly.
Rex waited in the underground garage and filmed the entire process of her handing the documents to her assistant for destruction.
That night, Baron filed for emergency custody protection.
A family court staff member called to ask about the child’s current condition.
I submitted the death certificate, cremation certificate, and emergency records one by one.
The person on the other end stayed silent for a long time.
“Mr. Hale stated in his application that you faked an illness to obtain property and concealed the child.”
I looked at the urn on the table.
“Then ask him to come confirm it himself.”
The next day, Baron came to the hotel with his lawyer.
After he entered, his eyes stopped on the box beside the bed.
“Where’s Alva?”
“In front of you.”
“Nora, I don’t want to hear that again.”
He placed the visitation agreement on the table.
“Hand over the child. I’ll drop the claims, and I’ll give you another hundred thousand dollars a month, still reviewed by Cheryl.”
“Thirty-six million isn’t a small number. Cheryl has been questioned because she tried to balance your accounts for you. At the very least, you owe her an apology.”
