Chapter 4

I pulled out my phone and tuned into Julian's live stream.

The viewer count had already crossed three hundred thousand.

The number in the top right corner kept climbing.

On screen, Vivian walked out of the bedroom holding an empty duffle.

"Chloe, I found it! Can you walk?"

Her voice froze.

She realized the living room was completely empty.

"Chloe? Chloe Carter?!"

She frantically searched the entire apartment.

The chat went berserk.

"Did the streamer just blow it? Did the wife run away?"

"What the hell! I was waiting for the show and you give me an empty room?!"

"Is this staged? Faking an escape just to bait more donations? Scammer!"

The top tipper started spamming rage in all caps:

"Refund! You promised fifty grand for the full labor stream! Where the hell is she?!"

Vivian's face turned completely white.

I let out a cold smirk and opened Julian's chat app on my tablet.

Sure enough, their private group was losing its mind.

Julian: "Vivian, how did you lose her?! I told you not to leave her side!"

Vivian: "She asked me to grab a bag from the bedroom, and she vanished in two seconds! She locked me inside the apartment!"

Austin: "Where could a heavily pregnant woman about to pop even run? Did she call an ambulance herself because of the pain?"

Ryan: "She's definitely throwing a fit because Julian didn't stay with her! Classic spoiled brat, ruining our bag right at the finish line!"

I could practically feel Julian's fury through the screen.

Julian: "The top donor is about to jump on a private link to tip! Find her and drag her to the hospital, no matter what it takes!"

Ryan: "Just leave her alone for an hour. Julian already capped all her credit cards. With no cash and nowhere to go, she'll crawl back begging."

Watching their messages fly by, I burst out laughing.

They seemed to have forgotten that I was the sole legal heiress to the Carter estate.

The vast majority of the family trust and corporate shares left by my late mother were registered solely under my name.

My brother, Ryan, was nothing more than an unemployed bum living off Dad's allowances.

All these years, to protect Julian's fragile male ego, I had handed him our day-to-day finances.

That didn't mean I was a helpless victim.

My phone buzzed again.

A text from Julian:

"Chloe Carter, what the hell are you doing?!"

"Vivian gave up thousands of dollars in modeling gigs just to be there for you! Do you have any shame?"

"Do you know how massive of an investment deal I just lost because of your petty tantrum?!"

"You're carrying our child. If you keep acting like a lunatic, we're done. I'm filing for divorce!"

Staring at the screen, I laughed out loud.

Even now, he genuinely believed I was just throwing a tantrum because he skipped my delivery.

I didn't bother to reply.

The car arrived smoothly at the private hospital. The second the medical team wheeled me into the delivery room, a bombshell dropped online.