My Ex-Wife Invited Me to Dinner to Humiliate Me — She Had No Idea I Owned Her Lover’s Company

Chapter 1

The invitation arrived on a Thursday afternoon.

Dinner this Saturday.

That was all the message said.

No apology.

No explanation.

Just an address to an expensive rooftop restaurant overlooking downtown Manhattan.

The invitation came from my ex-wife, Victoria.

We had been divorced for eleven months.

Our marriage had lasted seven years.

Our divorce had lasted six weeks.

She had moved on in less than two.

Her new boyfriend was Adrian Cross, a famous investment banker who had recently become one of the youngest partners at a major financial firm.

At least, that was what everyone said.

Victoria had always loved impressive things.

Expensive cars.

Luxury apartments.

People with titles.

I had never been any of those things publicly.

I worked in an ordinary office.

Drove an ordinary car.

Wore inexpensive suits.

What Victoria never knew was that my “ordinary office” was actually one of the holding companies through which I controlled a massive private investment group.

I had inherited a fortune from my grandfather three years after marrying Victoria.

He had one condition.

Never let money determine who loved you.

So I kept the inheritance private.

I wanted to know whether people loved Daniel Mercer or the name attached to his bank account.

Victoria failed that test without ever knowing she had taken it.

After the divorce, she believed I had walked away with almost nothing.

She was partly right.

I had left the marriage with almost nothing because I hadn’t wanted anything from her.

Now she was inviting me to dinner.

I almost declined.

Then I noticed the final sentence.

Adrian would love to see how you’re doing.

I smiled.

That wasn’t an invitation.

It was a performance.

So I replied:

I’ll be there.

I just didn’t tell her that Adrian Cross was walking into a restaurant owned by one of my companies to ridicule a man he thought had nothing.