A SON IN LAW TURNS BILLIONAIRE AFTER DIVORCE

Chapter 9

At the mention of twelve million dollars in cold hard cash, Michael, Joseph, and Magret suddenly found a remarkable burst of energy and shot straight out the front door, leaving Susan straggling behind.

Michael and Joseph made it across the street to the estate first, only to find a large crowd of neighbors already gathered outside.

The massive property sat behind an elegant, tall wrought-iron fence, with a pristine landscaped front yard separating the quiet street from the main house. Since no one could get inside through the locked electronic gates, curious neighbors had clustered along the iron bars, craning their necks for a better look at the luxury villa.

“Michael!” someone in the crowd spotted him immediately and yelled out.

Then came the loud, envious congratulations from every direction.

“Michael, your family really made it big this time!”

“You lucky bastard! Where on earth did Susan find a husband like that?”

“Seriously, Michael, you never told any of us Leonard was this loaded!”

Michael's face grew darker and redder with every single word.

Joseph, panting heavily beside his father, glared at the massive, soaring house with completely naked greed. Unable to contain himself for another second, he strode straight toward the heavy gate and slammed his clenched fist against the iron bars with all his strength.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Leonard! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!” Joseph roared at the top of his lungs.

Inside the quiet mansion, Leonard casually glanced at the high-definition security feed on his phone screen and chuckled to himself.

Of course they're here, Leonard thought, a dark, cold smile playing on his lips. How completely predictable.

Leonard rose from his plush leather chair. He had absolutely no reason to avoid them. In fact, he was more than happy to step outside and let them see with their own eyes exactly what they had thrown away.

He walked across the landscaped yard at a smooth, easy pace, pulled a small remote from his pocket, and pressed the button. The massive wrought-iron gate unlatched with a loud click.

The second the gap opened, Joseph immediately barged forward. “You son of a—”

BAM!

Leonard stepped directly into the opening, blocking Joseph before he could take a second step onto the property.

Joseph lowered his heavy shoulder and tried to violently muscle his way past him. But no matter how hard he pushed, slammed, and grunted, Leonard didn't budge a single inch.

For all his size and tough talk, Joseph had spent the last ten years doing little besides eating, drinking, gambling away money, and avoiding anything that resembled actual physical labor. Against Leonard—who had spent a decade fighting mutated beasts in the frozen apocalyptic wastelands—Joseph might as well have been pushing against a solid concrete wall.

“What the hell is this?!” Michael snapped, stepping up behind his son with veins bulging on his neck. “Move aside and let us in!”

Leonard looked at them coldly. “You’re not coming in.”

“You bought this damn place with our family’s money, and now you won’t even let us through the front gate?!” Michael’s explosive temper flared, his voice echoing down the entire street.

Leonard looked Michael straight in the eye, his voice flat and terrifyingly calm. “Did you forget? Susan and I are officially divorced. This is my house. What the hell does it have to do with the Millers?”

Divorce?!

That single word sent an instant, shockwave ripple through the surrounding crowd.

Several mothers in the neighborhood immediately perked up, their eyes widening. If Leonard was officially a single man, that meant their own unmarried daughters actually had a shot! Imagine marrying a man like Leonard and moving the whole family straight into a twelve-million-dollar villa!

“You think I'm fucking stupid?!” Michael yelled, jabbed a trembling finger straight toward Leonard’s face. “You got divorced the day before yesterday, and then you turned around and bought a twelve-million-dollar mansion yesterday! Where did the money come from, huh?! Tell everyone where you got it!”

The gossiping crowd suddenly quieted down. Every head turned back toward Leonard. That was actually a very good question.

Michael, seeing the crowd listening, gained confidence and shouted louder, “You didn't make twelve million dollars overnight! That means you were hiding that cash while you were still legally married to my daughter! That makes every single cent of it marital property!”

Leonard just smiled. His expression was thoroughly mocking, looking down on Michael like a pathetic clown.

“Property gets divided by actual legal evidence, Michael,” Leonard said smoothly. “Not because some loud, greedy old man shows up at my front gate and starts barking like a dog. If Susan honestly thinks she owns half of this house, tell her to go hire a lawyer.”

He slowly pulled his smartphone out of his jacket pocket.

“But until then,” Leonard continued, his voice dropping into something sharp and dangerous, “this is private property. Get the hell off my lawn, or I’ll call the police right now. I’m pretty sure trespassing, harassment, and an attempted home invasion are more than enough to lock both of you up in a cell for a few weeks.”

That did the trick.

At the sudden mention of the police, Michael’s arrogant bravado completely faltered. He flinched, his jaw tightening, and he instinctively backed two steps away from the open gate.

But leave? Not a single chance in hell. In Michael’s mind, that twelve-million-dollar estate already belonged to the Miller family.

Before Michael could gather his breath to charge forward again, another shrill, frantic voice screamed out from the back of the crowd.

“LEONARD!”

Magret came stumbling through the wall of neighbors, dragging eight-year-old Mark in tow, gasping wildly for breath after running all the way down the street.

“You heartless, evil bastard!” Magret slapped her own thigh dramatically and began wailing at the top of her lungs for the entire street to hear. “My poor daughter wasted nine years of her precious youth on you! Nine whole years! And the very second you get rich, you throw her into the street and abandon your own flesh and blood?!”

Mark, still completely ignorant of what was actually happening, clung nervously to his grandmother's coat sleeve. Magret pulled him into a dramatic, tearful hug, weeping for the crowd. “Look at this poor, innocent child! His heartless father buys himself a massive mansion while his own son gets thrown aside like garbage!”

Magret only meant to smear Leonard’s reputation in front of the neighbors to force him to pay them off. And without any context, her dramatic story sounded horribly convincing.

To the neighbors standing around, it really did look like Leonard had suddenly struck it rich, immediately divorced his loyal wife, and walked away from the little boy he had raised for eight years.

The crowd immediately began whispering and murmuring among themselves, cold, judgmental looks turning back toward Leonard.

“Wow, leaving his kid like that?”

“I guess money really changes people...”

“Poor little boy...”

But Leonard had been waiting precisely for this exact moment.

He didn't just want a divorce. He wanted the Miller family’s public reputation to be thoroughly, completely annihilated. He wanted them to become the most hated, despised pariahs in this entire city.

“You all want to know why I divorced Susan?” Leonard spoke up.

He didn’t raise his voice or scream. Yet the icy, absolute authority in his tone gradually silenced every single person in the crowd until you could hear a pin drop.

“Because Mark isn't my son.”

The crowd went dead, suffocatingly silent. No one—not a single neighbor standing along the fence—had seen that plot twist coming.

Leonard let those four words sink deep into their minds before he continued, his eyes locked on Magret’s pale face.

“Susan was already pregnant with Jonathan Brad’s child when she tricked me into marrying her nine years ago. She was terrified of the public scandal, so she needed an idiot to cover it up, and she chose me. For eight years, she let me raise another man’s child, believing Mark was my own blood.”

Michael and Magret went completely rigid. Their jaws dropped open in absolute, horrified shock. Clearly, this biological reality was news to them too.

But Leonard wasn’t anywhere near finished.

“You want to talk about those nine years, Magret?!” Leonard’s voice cut through the air like a razor blade. “I worked sixteen hours a day, then came home and cooked for every single one of you! I cleaned up your messes! I drove you around like your personal chauffeur! I fixed everything you broke in that house, I took care of that child, and I handed over almost every dollar I earned to your daughter!”

He pointed a finger directly at Michael and Magret.

“You ate the food I paid for! You lived in the house my deceased parents built and left to me! You spent my hard-earned money! And after all of that, you still treated me like your fucking servant in my own home! Meanwhile, Susan was still fucking Mark’s real father behind my back the entire time!”

The crowd of neighbors absolutely exploded in an uproar.

“WHAT?!”

“She was cheating on him the whole nine years?!”

“Oh my god, that is disgusting!”

“Is this family not afraid of divine karma?!”

“Look at Magret! How the hell did she actually have the nerve to stand there and play the victim?!”

“What a bunch of shameless leeches!”