$100 Million Before Doomsday: My Doomsday Shelter System

Chapter 2: The Truth Beneath

Elena stood frozen in the doorway, her fingers gripping the frame so tight her knuckles had gone white. Her mouth was still half open from the shock of what Joshua had just said to her, and for a few seconds she couldn't even form words. Her brain was trying to catch up with what her ears had just heard.

This was not the Joshua she knew. The Joshua she knew would have already been on his knees by now, apologizing with his head bowed, promising to do better, begging her not to be angry. That Joshua was easy. That Joshua was trained.

This Joshua was looking at her like she was a stranger he didn't owe anything to.

"You need to calm down." Elena forced her voice into something soft and controlled, the way she always did when she wanted to steer him. "Joshua, listen to me. You're being impulsive right now. You don't actually want a divorce. Think about everything we've built together. Think about our life."

"Our life." Joshua repeated the words like they tasted bad in his mouth. "You mean the life where I work eighteen hours a day and hand you every cent I earn while you smile at me and lie to my face?"

"I never lied to you about anything." Elena's chin lifted and her eyes narrowed. "You're talking crazy right now. My father is lying on the floor in pain because of you, and instead of apologizing, you're standing here making accusations. What is wrong with you?"

"What's going on in here?"

A new voice came from behind Elena, and Joshua's whole body went rigid.

Lorry stepped into the room with his hands in his pockets and that lazy, unbothered look on his face that Joshua had grown to hate more than anything in the world. He was tall and lean, with clean clothes and soft hands that had never done a day of real work. His eyes moved from Gerald on the floor to Elena's tense face to Joshua standing in the middle of the room, and a slow smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth.

"Wow." Lorry let out a low whistle and shook his head. "The house dog finally learned how to bark. I could hear you two from the living room. What happened, buddy? Did someone forget to put food in your bowl this morning?"

He laughed at his own joke. The sound of it scraped across Joshua's nerves like a rusty blade.

"This is none of your business, Lorry." Joshua's voice was low and tight. "Walk away."

"None of my business?" Lorry tilted his head and took a step closer, still smiling that lazy smile. "Elena is my cousin. Her father is on the floor because you decided to play tough guy for the first time in your miserable life. I'd say that makes it my business."

"Cousin." Joshua let the word hang in the air between them.

Lorry's smirk didn't waver. "That's what I said."

Joshua crossed the distance between them in two steps. His hand shot out and grabbed the front of Lorry's shirt, and before Lorry could even flinch, Joshua swept his legs out from under him and drove him straight down into the floor. The impact knocked the air out of Lorry's lungs with a sound like a balloon popping. His head bounced off the wood and his eyes went glassy for a second.

"You have no right to interfere in my family's business." Joshua stood over him, breathing hard, his fist still clenched at his side. "None. You understand me?"

Lorry groaned and rolled onto his side, one hand pressed against the back of his skull. His face had gone pale and the smirk was completely gone now, replaced by something raw and rattled.

"Joshua!" Elena's scream was so loud it cracked at the edges. She rushed to Lorry's side and dropped to her knees next to him, her hands hovering over his face like she was afraid to touch him. The way she looked at Lorry, the panic in her eyes, the trembling in her fingers, told Joshua everything he had already known.

Nobody looked at their cousin like that.

"First you hit my father, and now you hit my cousin?" Elena's voice was shaking with fury. Tears were building at the corners of her eyes but they weren't sad tears. They were the tears of a woman who had been caught off balance and was scrambling to get her footing back. "What kind of monster are you? What kind of man attacks people in his own home?"

"The kind of man who's done being stupid." Joshua took a slow step toward her.

Elena flinched. Actually flinched. Like she was afraid of him. That tiny movement told Joshua more than six years of marriage ever had.

He lowered his voice until it was barely above a whisper, and he leaned down just close enough that only she could hear him.

"You know very well whether Lorry is really your cousin or not, don't you?"

The color drained from Elena's face so fast it was like watching someone pull a plug. Her lips parted but nothing came out. Her eyes went wide and her pupils shrank to tiny black dots, and a thin line of sweat appeared along her forehead.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Her voice came out thin and papery.

"Yes you do." Joshua straightened up and looked down at her. "I know about the baby, Elena. I know it's not mine. I know whose it actually is."

Elena's whole body went stiff. Her hand, the one that had been reaching for Lorry's face, froze in midair.

"So here's how this is going to work." Joshua kept his voice calm and even, like he was explaining something simple to a child. "You agree to the divorce. You sign the papers. You do it clean and quiet. Or I will tell everyone, every neighbor, every friend, every person you've ever smiled at, exactly what you've been doing behind my back. Every dirty secret. Every lie. All of it."

Elena's jaw clenched so hard the muscles in her cheeks twitched. She looked up at him with something between rage and terror fighting for control of her face, and for a long moment the room was completely silent except for Gerald's whimpering on the floor and Lorry's heavy breathing.

"Fine." The word came out through her teeth like she was spitting out something rotten. "Fine. I'll agree to the divorce."

"Good." Joshua nodded once. "Now pack your things. You, your father, your mother, and your cousin over there. All of you. Get out of my house."

"Your house?" Gerald had managed to sit up against the wall, still clutching his shoulder. His face was blotchy and swollen with anger. "This is our home! We've been living here for years!"

"This house was left to me by my parents before I ever married your daughter." Joshua's voice didn't waver. "It's in my name. It's always been in my name. I let you all stay here because I thought we were family. We're not family anymore."

Elena stood up slowly. Her tears had dried and something calculating had settled behind her eyes. She smoothed down the front of her shirt and lifted her chin.

"Fine. We'll leave." A cold little smile appeared on her lips. "But don't think for a second that this is over, Joshua. You want a divorce? We'll get a divorce. And I'll make sure I take everything you have left. Every single cent."

"You can try." Joshua moved toward the bedroom door. He grabbed his jacket from the hook on the wall and pulled it on without looking back at any of them. "But you're going to regret it."

He walked down the hallway and out the front door without stopping.

The house went quiet after the door closed. Elena, Gerald, and Lorry sat in the wreckage of the morning, staring at each other with the same confused, angry look on their faces.

"What the hell just happened?" Gerald's voice was hoarse. "That's not the same man. Something is wrong with him."

"He knows something." Elena's eyes were fixed on the front door, and her fingers were twisting the hem of her shirt over and over. "I don't know how, but he knows things he shouldn't know."

Lorry sat up slowly, rubbing the back of his head. "So what do we do?"

Elena pulled out her phone and started scrolling through her contacts. "I have a friend. A divorce lawyer. One of the best in the city." She found the name and tapped on it. "Joshua gave me every dollar he ever made. He has nothing left. He can't afford a lawyer, he can't afford a fight. We call my friend, we get the papers drawn up, and we squeeze every last drop out of him before he even realizes what's happening."

Gerald's face slowly shifted from pain to satisfaction. A greasy smile spread across his lips. "That's my girl."

Lorry leaned back against the wall and the smirk returned to his face, though it was smaller and more careful than before. "The dog thinks he can bite. Let him bark all he wants. He's got nothing."

All three of them nodded, confident and smug, already planning how to pick Joshua's bones clean.

Joshua, walking down the street with the morning sun on his face and the system countdown ticking away inside his phone, did not care at all.