All Chapters of My Wife Treated Me Like a Servant, Now I’m a Billionaire: Chapter 1
- Chapter 8
8 chapters
Chapter 1: One Billion Reasons
The old house smelled like dust and forgotten promises.Caleb Hayes stood in the middle of the living room with a garbage bag in one hand and a roll of tape in the other. Two days. That was all that was left before the thirty day cooling off period expired and his divorce from Natalie became final. After that, this crappy little house would be the only roof over his head again.He opened the hallway closet and started pulling out boxes he had not touched in years. Old shoes, yellowed envelopes, a broken alarm clock. He tossed them one by one into the bag until his fingers brushed against something small wedged between the wall and the shelf.A USB drive.He turned it over in his palm. The plastic casing was scratched and faded, and for a moment, he could not place where it came from. He walked over to his old laptop sitting on the kitchen counter, plugged it in, and opened the single file stored inside.A long string of letters and numbers filled the screen. Below it, a short note."T
Chapter 2: A Beautiful Lie
Caleb stared at Natalie's name flashing on his screen. His jaw tightened. His thumb hovered over the answer button for three full seconds before he finally pressed it."Hello?""Caleb, it's me." Natalie's voice was flat, the kind of flat she always used when she talked to him these days. Not angry, not mean, just empty. Like he was a bill she had to pay. "There's a parent child event at Mason's school tonight. Some last minute thing they organized. So we're going to be late coming home."Caleb watched through his windshield as Brandon opened the passenger door of the black sedan for Natalie. She climbed in with a smile that could melt ice. Mason was already buckled in the back seat, kicking his little legs and laughing about something."A school event." Caleb repeated the words slowly, letting each one sit on his tongue like something rotten."Yes. A school event. I just told you.""Is it just you and Mason going, or is someone else joining you?" He kept his voice steady, but his knuc
Chapter 3: Strangers Under One Roof
The front door opened at 7:14 in the morning.Caleb heard them before he saw them. Mason's sneakers squeaking on the tile. Natalie's heels clicking behind him. The smell of expensive cologne that did not belong to anyone who lived in this house drifting in with them like a ghost.He was crouched by the hallway closet, filling a duffel bag with clothes, toiletries, and a few items he had carefully selected over the past hour. Among them, tucked inside a ziplock bag at the bottom, was a juice box Mason had been drinking from last night before they left. Still had the boy's saliva on the straw. Right next to it, wrapped in a tissue, was a strand of his own hair.Natalie stopped in the doorway and stared at him. Her brow furrowed, not with concern, but with the kind of confusion a person shows when their furniture has been rearranged without permission."Why are you here?" Her voice carried that familiar flat tone. Not warm, not cruel, just transactional."I live here. For two more days,
Chapter 4: Not His Blood
Victoria walked him to the elevator, her heels clicking in rhythm with every word."The first batch of funds should clear within five days." She pressed the down button and turned to face him. "But there's one thing you'll need to handle personally. The initial Bitcoin cash out requires your authorization on site. You'll need to fly to the Caymans before we can move anything.""How soon?""Within the week, ideally. The shell company will be registered by Wednesday. After that, it's just your signature and a biometric confirmation at the offshore bank." She folded her arms and looked at him with that sharp, calculating stare. "Can you make the trip without raising suspicion?""Nobody's watching me, Ms. Sloane." Caleb stepped into the elevator. "Nobody's been watching me for a long time.""Good. Keep it that way." Victoria held the door with one hand. "I'll have my assistant send you the flight details tonight. And Mr. Hayes? Don't use your main phone for any of our communications. Buy
Chapter 5: Cracks in the Mask
The name hung in the air like a grenade with the pin pulled.Natalie's face went through three expressions in two seconds. Shock. Confusion. And then something she covered so fast that most people would have missed it entirely. Fear."Who?" Her voice came out a full beat too late."Brandon." Caleb repeated the name slowly, watching every muscle in her face. "I asked you a simple question, Natalie. Who is Brandon?"Natalie shifted Mason higher on her hip and let out a short laugh. It was the kind of laugh people use when they are buying time. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know any Brandon.""You sure about that?""Yes, I'm sure." Her chin lifted. "Where is this coming from? Are you going through my phone now? Is that what this is?"Caleb said nothing. He just looked at her. The silence stretched for five seconds, then ten, and Natalie's composure began to crack at the edges like paint peeling off a wall."You know what, I'm not doing this." She set Mason down and p
Chapter 6: The Whole Truth
Brandon's reply came thirty seconds later.Natalie pressed the phone to her ear the moment the call connected, her voice a frantic whisper."Brandon, he knows your name. He asked me straight to my face. He's never done that before. Something is different about him.""So?" Brandon's voice on the other end was loose, unbothered, like she had just told him the weather forecast."So? That's all you have to say?" Natalie's grip tightened around the phone. "He refused the divorce, Brandon. He's not signing off. Do you understand what that means?""It means he's throwing a tantrum. He'll calm down.""This isn't a tantrum. You didn't see the way he looked at me. He's never looked at me like that before. Not in six years." Her voice was climbing, her composure unraveling thread by thread. "What if he saw us? What if he followed me to the school yesterday?""You're overthinking it." Brandon yawned. She could actually hear him yawn. "Even if he suspects something, what's he going to do? The man
Chapter 7: The Taste of Money
Owen leaned back in his chair and let the silence sit for a moment. The name Lily Ashford was still hanging between them like smoke that refused to clear."Life's unpredictable, isn't it?" Caleb finally spoke, his voice quiet. "Three days ago I was a guy working three jobs who couldn't afford new shoes. Now I've got a billion dollars in a wallet, a wife who's been lying to me since day one, and a son who isn't mine.""And your ex just moved back to town." Owen added it like a footnote."Yeah. And that." Caleb rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the floor tiles. "But I'm done feeling sorry for myself, Owen. Whatever happens next, I'm going to live my life well. On my own terms. For the first time in six years."Owen watched him for a long beat. Then he leaned forward, his elbows on the desk, his voice dropping lower."What about Lily?"Caleb looked up."Have you thought about going back to her?" Owen's expression was careful, measured, like a man defusing a wire he wasn't sure wa
Chapter 8: The Color of Betrayal
The dealership had detailed the car until it gleamed like a mirror. Caleb pulled out of the lot at 2:15, which gave him just enough time to make it to Westbrook Elementary before the final bell.He parked right at the front gate this time. No hiding across the street. No watching from the shadows. When Mason walked out of the building with his backpack dragging on the ground, the boy stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the black sedan like it had fallen out of the sky."Is this yours?" Mason's mouth hung open as he walked around the car in a slow circle, running his fingers along the fender."Get in." Caleb opened the back door for him.Mason climbed inside and immediately started touching everything. The leather seats, the sunroof button, the armrest that folded down with a cup holder built into it. His eyes were wide and bright, the way only a five year old's can be when confronted with something shiny and new."Did you buy a new car?" Mason looked at him through the rearview m