All Chapters of The Worthless Son-In-Law's Trillion Dollars Secret: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
13 chapters
Chapter 1: The Bathroom Floor
Romeo's Point of ViewThe soapy liquid felt icy. It had been icy for nearly half an hour, but still I scrubbed since Mrs. Chen loathed dingy grout. My knees stung on the tough floor tiles, plus my lower back had this twinge I now ignore. Nobody cared for Romeo's aches.I dunked the brush back in suds and fought the grout streak dividing floor tiles. Mrs. Chen would check this bathroom in one hour, and should she see one speck of soil, she’d make me redo it. Three years as husband taught me her perfect vision, a level I could not quite meet. Yet, I tried hard.The big house felt still today. Mr. Chen was off trying to rescue his tanking firm, Margaret got her nails done at a ritzy place, and Emma still slept in her top floor room. That room sat near mine, except mine wasn’t truly a space at all. It was a storage place that held a mattress, a room that made me fade bit by bit.A noise rang through this bath space. It took some time to know it was my phone ringing. I rushed to grab it fr
Chapter 2: The Tower of Secrets
Romeo's Point of ViewFive o'clock came faster than I expected. I had spent the entire day moving through the Chen mansion like a ghost, doing my normal tasks but feeling completely different inside. Every time I mopped a floor or carried a tray, my mind was somewhere else. I kept thinking about Vincent Shaw's words. Your life as you know it is over.At precisely 5:30 PM, I told Margaret I felt sick and asked to leave early. She just waved her hand, lost in her phone call. That was simple to pull off. Nobody cared what Romeo did after work anyway. I found my only good shirt, bought long ago before Emma and I wed, then changed in my little storage room where I slept.The taxi to town felt endless but so fast too. I sat, hands jittery, watching bright city lights as we neared the heart of town. Buildings rose high above me. The roads appeared spotless. This place seemed alien, like another dimension. Turning the corner to see Phoenix Empire HQ, I gasped loud and hard.The building sprou
Chapter 3: Danger at the Mansion
Romeo's Point of ViewMy chest felt tight. For a split second, the air got stuck. My body froze stiff. My eyes locked on the screen of a dark car sitting near the Chen's big house. The men wore dark stuff, and they had this creepy vibe as they moved around. This wasn't by chance. This wasn't just folks dropping by. These men were predators, and they knew where to find food."Emma," I mumbled. Her name cracked apart, like something inside me just broke into pieces. "My wife sits inside that house.""I know," Vincent spoke. His voice stayed smooth, but his eyes jumped all over, figuring stuff out. "We got to go now. I got people headed there, but those men will get inside in five minutes. Maybe quicker."I jumped up so fast the chair tipped over and smacked against the floor. My brain ran wild. Three hours back, I scrubbed bathroom floors. Three hours back, my life felt small, wrecked, and trash. Now, man with guns chase Emma, and somehow that's all my fault. This happens because of me.
Chapter 4: Face to Face
Romeo's Point of ViewThe chuckle died. Time stood still. The world seemed to freeze just then. My bones knew what my brain now grasped. The monster who took my folks was near. In this home. Just past this wall's other side.Vincent hushed me with a finger to lips. He edged toward the door, peeking out. His face seemed still, but his jaw was tense. He beckoned me, and we crept forward to the main room, hugging shadows tight.What I saw chilled me to my very core.Emma was down, pressed against the far wall. Her fine dress was ripped, blood on her lip from a strike. Four men stood around her in dark clothes holding guns. But my eyes saw past them. My eyes locked on one man, in the room's heart. He seemed to own all, just by being there.He was big, wide-shouldered, with a scar down his face to the left side. The scar gave his face a cruel, strange look. He looked fifty, dark hair and dark eyes like dark holes. His face felt known, my gut turned sick. I had seen this face once. In dream
Chapter 5: Hidden Strength
Romeo's Point of ViewEmma shifted, quite in charge. Her elbow to Marcus Black wasn't a wild thing. It found the spot to hurt him and make him weak fast. She knew just where to land it. She knew fighting like a book.That flash flip-flopped all I knew of my wife, totally.Marcus Black jumped back, and that was my shot. My body went on without my brain's say. Three steps got me there, and I kicked the gun from his grip. It sailed over and struck near the glass. Marcus swung to me, eyes full of rage, plus something new. It was fear."Vincent, deal with his group," I spoke out. The words felt so right, like bossing was old, not new. "No one moves now. No one shoots now."The guards moved up and took guns from Black's guys quickly. It flowed so smoothly, like they did it tons. Maybe they did. Vincent stood by me, a grin on his face, like he was proud. Like he was waiting for me his whole life.Emma stood tall now, breathing tough. Her ripped dress and lip made her look wilder, not beat. S
Chapter 6: Running from Ghosts
Romeo's point of viewVincent moved quick, tugging us toward a door I had not seen before then. The loud sirens got closer, like they were chasing only us now. My silly heart beat so hard, I felt it would jump from my ribs. We dashed through halls of the Chen house, which I had scrubbed a lot but never known well."A way out is in the basement," Vincent said, yanking open a door to shadows deep down. "The Chen clan made it safe during the war back then. Your grandpa knew all of this place. He kept the great secret well."Emma held my hand so tight. I felt her fingers pierce my palm hard, but she did not turn away. She made no sound. She just ran with us to the shadows down. The sound of her breaths told me she was scared stiff, but her grasp told me she was strong.We went down the steps so fast that I nearly tripped twice there. Vincent flowed like he had done this a hundred times now. At the pit, he touched the wall, and a secret door swung wide open. Past it was a tunnel long and d
Chapter 7: Darkness and Doubt
Romeo's point of viewTotal shadow was all around. My own hand vanished from sight. Loud alarms wailed on, and the house seemed to lose control. Steps echoed fast. Doors shut loudly. People yelled words I did not get. My heart raced fast like it might give up."Stick with me," Vincent said low. His tone stayed still as our world turned upside down. "Stand still. Hush now."I held Emma's hand in the shade. She stood next to me, like I was all she knew. She shook slightly, but held tight. She made no sound. She stayed strong when fear took over.Red lights blinked in time—on, off, on, off. Enough light to see dark shapes around. Files of my past lie all around us. The photo of Marcus Black, plus his lost twin, glared with blank eyes."Who slipped past our walls?" Emma said softly. "This spot can't be broken into.""Someone with secret keys," Vincent said firmly. "Someone who knew all of our system. Someone I trusted like kin."I knew what it meant then. Someone close to Vincent now. One
Chapter 8: Family Secrets
Romeo’s Point of ViewTime was moving slowly. The gun in David Black’s hands was pointed right at me. There were at least twenty soldiers lined up behind him, all of them armed and ready to fire. The safe house was disintegrating around us. The battle was raging right outside our walls. And I was going to die.Now Margaret Chen fired her own trigger.The noise of the firing of the gun in the vault room was deafening. The sound of the gun was followed by the scream of one of David Black’s soldiers as the bullet hit him in the shoulder. The moment turned into chaos with the single shot. Vincent pulled me backward into the vault. Emma was already dragging her mother with her."Go! There's a back exit. Move!" Vincent yelled.David Black opened fire. The bullets stripped through the walls as if they'd been constructed of tissue paper. The vault itself was built to resist an attack, but it was not going to give an inch. Still, I knew we couldn't hole up there forever. There would come a tim
Chapter 9: Nowhere to Hide
Romeo's Point of ViewI pushed Emma and Margaret down into the boat cabin as the first helicopter began firing. The sound was thunder, loud and awful and misplaced. Bullets screamed through the air above, tearing through the old warehouse like paper. Federal agents on the dock fired back, but there were too many helicopters, too many men. It was like fighting the sky."Start the engine!" I was yelled at by Sarah Chen. She was firing at the helicopters, distracting them. Her team was doing likewise around her, but I could see they were being pushed back. They were in danger. "Go!" "Get out of here!" I ran to the engine and turned it on as quickly as I could. Suddenly, the boat lurched forward, and I had to grab the wheel to stay upright. A bullet went through the windshield right next to my head, leaving a hole with cracks spreading out from it like a spider's web. I ducked down and kept the boat moving away from the dock and out into the open water. "Wait a minute!" I yelled a
Chapter 10: Three Brothers
Romeo's Point of ViewThree Black dudes. Not just two. Not even one. Three. While I had been sneaking, while I had been finding out about my foe, I did not know how many foes existed. My grandpa killed a man named Alexander. Marcus was locked up. David and Thomas were free. Still hunting people. Still risky.The ships moved around us, coming near like big fish that picked up blood. There was no leaving now. The stream was thin, so we couldn't go anywhere. The trees were hard to pass through. We were stuck with no guns and no strength. This was what Thomas Black planned."Let me speak clearly," Thomas said. He was not as old as David and Marcus, maybe fortyish. His face wasn't damaged, but his eyes were still icy. "Your grandpa Edward Martinez stole from my folks. He made a fortune from us. He took cash from the Blacks. He killed my brother Alexander. He jailed my brother Marcus. Then he hid you, as if you were hurt."I didn't talk back. Anything I said would let him speak more, to tak