A SON IN LAW TURNS BILLIONAIRE AFTER DIVORCE

Chapter 8

“What do you mean that bastard divorced you?!”

Michael Miller’s face turned an ugly, mottled purple as he stared at the official divorce certificate held in his trembling hands. He glared at the red stamp on the paper as if staring at it long enough might somehow make the crisp ink vanish into thin air.

In this house, Leonard had been nothing more than an obedient, quiet dog. He cooked every meal, drove them wherever they wanted to go, fixed whatever broke, and meekly handed over practically every single cent he earned without a word of protest.

Yet somehow, that spineless mutt had bitten back and run off?!

Michael simply could not accept it. He couldn't digest it.

“Where is that son of a bitch?!” Joseph shouted, leaping up from the leather couch with his fists balled tight. “Where is he hiding?! I’m gonna go find him and beat the shit out of him!”

Little Mark, sitting on the rug surrounded by his toys, immediately piped up with an eager, cruel grin. “Where’s Daddy? I wanna hit Daddy too!”

“That prick is dead to us!” Magret snapped, clutching her chest from the kitchen doorway.

Instead of crying or being confused, eight-year-old Mark clapped his hands excitedly, bouncing up and down on the carpet. “Daddy’s dead! Daddy’s dead! YAY!”

Mark had spent his entire life watching the Miller family treat Leonard like trash on the bottom of their shoes. Naturally, the boy had learned to do the exact same thing.

“Seriously, Susan, why the hell did you agree to sign the divorce papers?!” Joseph leaned forward, glaring at his sister with intense, selfish frustration. “What am I supposed to do now? You know I’m completely broke! Where is my startup funding coming from?!”

“Exactly!” Michael began pacing back and forth across the living room rug, his fury mounting with every single step. “We were counting on Leonard’s salary! We’ve got house bills, groceries, gas, utilities, Magret’s expensive heart medication... who the hell is supposed to pay for all that now? You?!”

In his mind, Michael had already divided Leonard’s monthly paycheck ten different ways for the upcoming year. Now, overnight, that steady, reliable stream of cash had simply vanished into thin air.

To Michael, losing that free money was ten times worse than Leonard catching his wrist and shoving him at the dining table!

Susan sat on the armchair, feeling another sharp pulse of irritation throb violently behind her temples.

Her nine-year marriage had just ended forty-eight hours ago, yet not a single person in her family had bothered to ask how she was holding up. Not one of them cared about her emotional state. All they cared about was the money.

Then again, why was she surprised? Hadn’t her family always been like this?

“Remarry him,” Michael declared suddenly, stopping dead in his tracks.

“What?” Susan looked up, blinking in complete shock.

“You heard me. Get him back.” Michael jabbed a thick finger directly at her face. “Call him right now. We can’t let that ungrateful bastard walk away from us this easily!”

Remarry Leonard? That was easy for Michael to say.

Leonard already knew the absolute truth—he knew Mark was not his biological son. He had the DNA report! How on earth could she possibly manipulate or convince him to come crawling back after a revelation like that?

However, Susan had no intention of telling her family the truth about Mark. She could already imagine the sheer, catastrophic chaos that revelation would cause in this house.

Before Susan could open her mouth to argue—

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A loud, frantic pounding suddenly erupted at the front door, rattling the frame and cutting through the screaming match in the living room.

“Who the hell is it now?!” Already boiling over with rage, Michael stormed across the foyer and violently yanked the front door open.

Mrs. Justina was standing right in the hallway, practically bursting out of her skin with excitement.

“Oh, Michael!” she gasped, her eyes gleaming with delicious neighborhood gossip. “My goodness! Your family certainly knows how to keep a massive secret!”

A secret? Michael’s stomach dropped. Had that bastard Leonard already gone around screaming to all the neighbors about the divorce?!

“That ungrateful bastard!” Michael exploded, veins popping on his neck. “He attacked me, forced my daughter into a divorce, and now he’s spreading lies all over the neighborhood?! After everything we did for him?! After we let him live under our roof?!”

Mrs. Justina blinked, her jaw hovering open. This was far, far more dramatic than the news she had actually come over to share!

“Wait... what?” Mrs. Justina gasped, craning her neck to peek past his shoulder into the messy living room. “Susan and Leonard actually got divorced? Oh, Michael... your family really is something else, isn't it?”

She gave him a slow, mocking thumbs-up. The smug, amused grin plastered across her face made it crystal clear that it was definitely not a compliment.

"Anyway! I didn't come to talk about your messy marriage," Mrs. Justina continued, leaning in closer and lowering her voice dramatically. "I just heard your son-in-law..." She paused on purpose, letting the silence stretch out. "...excuse me, your former son-in-law, just bought that massive luxury estate down the street. Twelve million dollars! Paid in full cash! Didn’t even bother to haggle the price down!”

“What did you say?!” Michael stared at her, completely frozen, unable to process the words coming out of her mouth.

Leonard? Bought a twelve-million-dollar mansion?! Impossible!

That spineless bastard had handed over practically every single penny he earned to Susan for nine years. He had walked away from the courthouse yesterday with nothing but the clothes on his back! How the hell could he afford a house, let alone a twelve-million-dollar estate?!

“It’s the absolute truth! I swear on my life!” Mrs. Justina urged, pointing down the tree-lined street. “Go see the moving trucks for yourself if you don’t believe me!”

Michael was still standing there, his brain short-circuiting, when hurried, clacking footsteps echoed down the tiled hallway behind Mrs. Justina.

Mrs. Dawson from the third floor came rushing toward them, completely out of breath, her face practically turning green with pure envy.

“Michael! Oh my god, your family has really made it!” Mrs. Dawson gushed loudly, clutching her throat. “I just heard the news! I can't believe Leonard bought that massive estate for twelve million dollars! You must be thrilled!”

Michael’s knuckles turned white as his grip tightened around the wooden doorframe until it creaked.

So it was true... Leonard really had somehow produced twelve million dollars out of thin air?!

Mrs. Justina turned toward Mrs. Dawson with a wide, wicked grin. “Oh, you haven’t heard the latest update, darling? Susan and Leonard just got divorced yesterday!”

“WHAT?! Seriously?!” Mrs. Dawson’s jaw hit the floor. She looked at Michael, then back at Susan sitting inside, her expression turning into sheer disbelief. “You... you divorced a son-in-law like that? Are you out of your minds?!”

Mrs. Dawson’s eyes narrowed into a thoughtful, calculating look. “Well... my daughter Jenna is still single. Since your family clearly doesn’t want a man like Leonard anymore, maybe I should go over there right now and introduce the two of them!”

She was not joking in the slightest.

A man who could casually drop twelve million dollars in liquid cash on a mansion was the exact kind of son-in-law families would fight to the death over. Who cared if he was divorced?! With that kind of staggering wealth, he could have been divorced five times and there would still be a line of beautiful women stretched around the block waiting for him!

Besides, everyone in the neighborhood knew Leonard. He was hardworking, polite, soft-spoken, and had spent nine years waiting hand and foot on the ungrateful Millers.

Only a complete set of idiots would throw a golden goose like that into the street!

“BULLSHIT!” Michael suddenly snapped back to his senses, his initial shock instantly exploding into a terrifying, vein-popping fury. “That mansion was bought with OUR family’s money!”

Leonard had divorced Susan only forty-eight hours ago! There was legally, logically no way that worthless bastard could have legally made twelve million dollars in less than two days! That meant the money had to have existed before the divorce papers were signed—which meant Susan was legally entitled to at least half of it!

“That son of a bitch planned this whole thing from the very beginning!” The more Michael thought about it, the more his greed and rage took complete control of his mind. “He tricked Susan! He rushed her through the quick divorce, hid his secret millions, and then turned right around the next morning to buy himself a luxury estate!”

“Of course!” Magret and Joseph caught on almost at once, their eyes widening in sudden realization.

Greed, hot and blinding, crept across every single one of their faces. Twelve million dollars... if they got their hands on half of that, they would never have to worry about money ever again!

Susan, however, felt a cold knot twist in her stomach. She couldn't shake the eerie feeling that they were missing something very dangerous. Leonard hadn't looked like a man hiding a secret fortune—he had looked at her with pure, lethal hatred.

“Wait a minute!” Susan shouted, raising her hands to block them as they surged toward the door. “Listen to me! Let me call Jonathan first! He knows a top corporate lawyer. We should at least find out what our legal options are before we go rushing over there and—”

Not a single person listened to her.

Michael was already aggressively shoving his feet into his leather shoes. Magret rushed back into the bedroom to grab her heavy coat. Joseph was already out the door and halfway to the elevator, no doubt already calculating in his head how much of a monthly allowance twelve million dollars could provide him.

“Hey! Wait for me! Don't do this!” Susan hurried after them, but her frantic protests fell on completely deaf ears.

Within seconds, all three of them were charging out the building's front entrance, storming directly across the street toward the front gates of Leonard’s new estate.

They were going to corner Leonard in his own home. They were going to force him to explain where those millions came from, and more importantly...

They were going to force him to hand every single cent over to the Miller family.