A SON IN LAW TURNS BILLIONAIRE AFTER DIVORCE

Chapter 6

Susan hung up the phone with a derisive, bitter click of her tongue.

She tossed her device onto the bed and sneered. Marrying Leonard had never been about love—it was nothing more than a masterstroke of convenience. Nine years ago, it had been a hasty shield to avoid the dark scandal of an unmarried pregnancy, keeping her real lover’s reputation completely pristine.

Better yet, Leonard had been criminally easy to manipulate. He was essentially a live-in servant who cooked, cleaned, took care of the kid, and handed over nearly every single dollar he earned without asking a single question. Now that Mark was eight years old, the threat of scandal had long evaporated. It was just a minor shame to lose such a reliable, free laborer.

The next morning, the sun broke over the county courthouse. Susan arrived right on time and found Leonard already standing outside near the entrance, his hands tucked inside his coat pockets.

She strutted up to him, crossing her arms and attempting to reign him back under her control. "Don't think divorce is this simple, Leonard," she warned, raising an eyebrow with cold arrogance. "There's the house, the marital assets, custody... it's a total mess. If you think you're going to drag me through court, my father will destroy you."

Leonard met her gaze with chilling indifference. "I don’t want the house. I don’t want the savings. You keep the kid, and I'm not paying a single cent in child support."

“What?”

For one stunned second, Susan thought she had misheard him.

After discovering the affair and proving that Mark was not biologically his, Leonard could have hired a ruthless lawyer and demanded his fair share of their marital assets. He might even have been able to pursue massive financial compensation for the years of emotional deception.

Instead, this absolute idiot was offering to walk away with nothing?!

Exactly as I’ve always believed, Susan thought, a wave of smug satisfaction rushing through her chest. He’s hopelessly weak.

“If that’s really what you want...” She lowered her eyes, pretending to hesitate like a reluctant victim. “I suppose... I suppose I can agree to those terms.”

Leonard saw through her pathetic performance immediately, but he said nothing.

She had no idea that his surrender was deliberate. He needed this divorce completed today, before he purchased the lottery ticket. If he fought Susan over the house or their tiny bank balance, the legal proceedings could drag on for weeks. By then, the jackpot would become part of their marital dispute, and the greedy Millers would descend on it like starving animals.

So, he surrendered everything. Once the apocalypse hit in ninety-one days, he would have plenty of brutal ways to settle the score.

Barely able to hide her excitement, Susan turned on her heel. "Well then, let's get this over with."

Inside the registry office, the process moved with astonishing speed. With Leonard officially waiving all rights to the marital property and the DNA report removing any question of paternal responsibility, the clerk stamped the files in record time.

STAMP!

Just like that, their nine-year marriage was legally dead.

Stepping back out into the open air, a crushing, suffocating weight lifted completely from Leonard’s chest. He tilted his face up toward the blazing morning sun. For the first time in nine long years, the sun was shining on a free man.

And now, his real plan could finally begin.

Leonard killed time around the city until two o'clock in the afternoon. Then, with steady steps, he pushed open the glass door of a small lottery retailer two blocks away.

He didn't hesitate for a single second. Pulling a paper betting slip from the plastic rack, his pen dug into the thin paper, shading the numbered bubbles with mechanical precision. It was a sequence of numbers burned permanently into his cortex through ten years of apocalyptic hell.

He walked to the counter and paid in crisp cash, buying a hundred identical wagers for the upcoming evening drawing. The jackpot had maxed out at a jaw-dropping five hundred million dollars.

With the legal timestamp printed on the ticket and the official security footage at the county registry, his timeline was ironclad: this ticket was purchased solely as a single man. Not one single cent would go to Susan or the Millers.

Satisfied, Leonard tucked the ticket into his wallet, hailed a taxi, and rode straight across the city to Sydvale’s wealthiest district.

He stepped into the marble lobby of one of the most extravagant hotels in the city, placed his driver's license on the polished counter, and looked at the clerk. "I'd like your best suite for the night."

The receptionist smiled politely. "Of course, sir. Our penthouse suite is available, but I should inform you the rate is fifteen hundred dollars a night."

In his past life, a brutal, exorbitant sum like that would have twisted his stomach into tight knots. For years, Susan had kept him on a pathetic allowance of one hundred dollars a month, bleeding him bone-dry while he slaved away for a wife who despised him and a child that wasn't his. What an ultimate, tragic cuckold he had been.

Never again.

Leonard handed over his credit card without blinking. "I'll take it."

That evening, Leonard sat by the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of his penthouse suite, looking down over the vast skyline of Sydvale. The city glittered below him like an intricate map of light, pulsing with a vibrant, bustling life that was blissfully oblivious to the fact that it only had ninety-one days left to live. For the first time in two lifetimes, Leonard's heart was completely at peace.

Across the plush room, the ten o'clock drawing flashed onto the wall-mounted television screen. The broadcast chime rang out, and the colorful little numbered balls began tumbling inside their clear glass drum.

Pop.

First number: match.

Pop.

Second number: match.

Third, fourth, fifth... they fell, one after another, exactly as they were burned into his memory.

The final bonus number rolled smoothly into place. Match.

Leonard looked down at the slip of paper held loosely in his steady hand. Five hundred million dollars.

Outside his window, Sydvale continued to shine in the night, entirely unaware that its future king had just claimed his very first weapon.

Leaning back into the soft leather of his chair, Leonard felt no childish urge to shout, jump, or celebrate. There was only that same cold, crystalline clarity that had settled deep into his bones the day he read the DNA report.

He knew exactly what he was going to do next.

Picking up his phone, he dialed the number of the luxury real estate agent he had reached out to earlier that afternoon.

"Hello? Mr. Buck?" the agent answered promptly on the second ring.

"I want Estate Number Eight in Maple Grove," Leonard said, his voice smooth, calm, and commanding.

There was a slight, hesitant pause on the line. "Ah, yes, Mr. Buck! A phenomenal property! But... as your agent, I’m obligated to inform you that Estate Number Eight sits directly across the street from a prominent property owned jointly by the Buck and Miller family."

Leonard stood up, looking out over the glowing city. A faint smile touched his lips, but it never reached his icy eyes.

"I know," Leonard replied softly. "That's exactly why I want it."

Leonard Buck’s filthy-rich life began that morning.