Billionaire's Retribution

Chapter 1: Ashes on the Cake

“Daddy!” May spotted him, running into his arms, her cheeks flushed from joy.

Richard scooped her up, ignoring the murmurs around him. “My princess,” he whispered, kissing her forehead. “Are you having fun?”

“The best fun ever!” She pointed at the sparklers. “Can I blow them out now?”

“Soon. Very soon.” He smiled, his steel-gray eyes softening. “First, let’s let everyone sing for you.”

Daniella appeared then, shimmering in emerald silk that caught every eye in the room. She rested her hand lightly on Richard’s shoulder, the touch poised but cold. Her smile was dazzling, but her eyes never warmed.

“Richard,” she said sweetly, “the guests are waiting for your little speech.”

Richard nodded. He knew the game, appearances, always appearances. “Of course.”

He carried May to the stage. The crowd hushed, a hundred faces turning toward him: tycoons, politicians, celebrities, even a few enemies dressed as friends. His empire had drawn them all.

Richard placed May gently beside the cake, one arm still around her. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he began, voice steady, commanding. “Thank you for being here to celebrate the greatest treasure of my life, my daughter, May. She’s the reason I fight, the reason I live, and the reason I will always”

“fight the law as well?”

The interruption was sharp, slicing the moment in half. A voice from the crowd. Male. Mocking. Richard’s brow furrowed. “Excuse me?”

Daniella’s brother, Leonard, stepped forward, a glass of champagne in hand, his smirk dripping with contempt. “Oh, forgive me. I thought this was a celebration, not another one of your grand performances.”

The crowd rippled with uneasy laughter. Richard kept his composure, though his grip on May tightened. “Leonard, this is not the time.”

“Oh, but it is,” Leonard pressed, his voice carrying. “The perfect time, actually. To finally expose the truth.”

Daniella’s mother, elegant in her diamonds, chimed in. “A man like you should not be standing here pretending to be a respectable husband, Richard. Not when the world deserves to know what you are.”

Gasps scattered across the hall. May looked up at him, confused.

Richard’s jaw set. “Enough. Whatever quarrel you think you have with me, this is my daughter’s birthday. You will not humiliate her with baseless accusations.”

“Baseless?” Leonard chuckled darkly. He snapped his fingers. From the back of the room, two men in tailored suits wheeled in a television screen. The crowd murmured as the screen flickered to life.

On it appeared grainy documents, stamped with official seals, scrolling one after another. Bank transfers. Offshore accounts.

A voiceover played, dripping with accusation: “Richard Williams, fraudster, manipulator, thief. His billions are stolen, his empire built on lies.”

The room erupted. Guests whispered, pointing, some stepping back as if his presence tainted them.

Richard’s heart slammed against his ribs. “This is fabricated,” he snapped, voice rising over the storm. “Every word of it. I built my empire with my mind and my sweat”

Daniella’s voice cut through, sharp and clear. “Stop lying, Richard.”

He turned to her. Her expression was unreadable, but her words were daggers. “You’ve deceived us all long enough. Even me.”

Richard stared at her, the betrayal heavier than any chain. “Daniella… you knew these accounts were false. You saw the truth yourself.”

Her lips curved in a cold smile. “Did I?”

May tugged at his sleeve, voice trembling. “Daddy, what’s happening?”

He knelt, brushing her cheek. “Nothing, my princess. Just lies.”

“Lies?” Leonard barked. “Tell that to the investigators. Tell it to the authorities.”

The ballroom doors slammed open. Boots thundered against marble. Uniformed officers surged in, weapons at their sides, badges gleaming under the chandeliers. The room fell into stunned silence.

A commanding officer stepped forward. “Richard Williams, you are under arrest for fraud, embezzlement, and financial crimes against the state.”

The crowd gasped as if it were a stage play scripted for their shock. Cameras flashed. Phones recorded.

Richard rose slowly, his face stone, his mind racing. He met Daniella’s gaze. She didn’t flinch. Her silence was louder than Leonard’s accusations.

He whispered, almost to himself, “So this is how you planned it.”

Richard’s pulse hammered in his ears as the officers closed in, boots echoing against the marble floor. His guests shrank back, eager to avoid association.

Wealthy allies who had once begged for his counsel suddenly refused to meet his eyes. “Daddy?” May’s small voice cut through the tension, fragile, trembling.

Richard crouched, gripping her shoulders gently. “Listen to me, May. Daddy loves you more than anything. Remember that, no matter what you hear.”

“Sir!” an officer barked. “Step away from the child. Hands where we can see them.”

Richard rose slowly, raising his hands. His voice remained calm, though fury churned beneath his skin. “You’re making a mistake.”

“Richard Williams,” the officer announced, “you’re charged with large-scale fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy against the state. You will come with us immediately.”

The crowd buzzed, delighted at the spectacle. Leonard raised his glass in mock salute. Daniella’s mother dabbed at her lips with a napkin, her face smug. “Justice always finds its way.”

Richard’s gaze found Daniella. “And what do you call this?” he demanded, his voice cracking with restrained rage.

Daniella met his eyes without blinking. “Consequences.”

May struggled against her grandmother’s grip. “No! Mommy, let him go! Daddy didn’t do anything!” Her little fists flailed, but Daniella pulled her back sharply.

Richard lunged forward, but the officers seized him, iron cuffs snapping shut around his wrists. The sound was louder than the whispers, louder than May’s cries.

He strained against the grip, desperate to reach his daughter. “May! Look at me!”

Tears blurred her big brown eyes. “Daddy!”

“Silence him,” Daniella said coldly.

One of the officers shoved Richard forward. He stumbled, his dignity stripped with every step. The crowd’s whispers turned cruel: “Always knew it was too good to be true.”

“Billionaires like him always cheat the system.”

“Imagine the shame…”

Richard lifted his chin, forcing his voice steady. “Every one of you, remember this night. Remember who stood silent while lies destroyed me. Because I will remember.”

Leonard laughed. “Oh, listen to the criminal play the martyr.”

Richard stopped struggling. His steel-gray eyes fixed on Leonard’s smug face. “This isn’t the end. Not for me. But for you”

The officer yanked him forward before he could finish. As they dragged him toward the doors, May broke free of Daniella’s grip for one desperate moment. She bolted across the floor, sobbing. “Daddy!”

Richard dropped to one knee as she collided with him, pressing her tiny face against his chest. For a fleeting second, he was whole again.

He bent his head, whispering against her hair, “Be brave, May. I’ll come back for you. I swear it.”

Daniella’s voice lashed out, sharp and commanding. “Get her away from him!”

Two guards pried May off, her screams tearing through the hall. Richard’s muscles trembled, his fury nearly overwhelming. But the cuffs, the law, the betrayal, they held him tight.

“Daniella!” he roared as the doors opened. His voice thundered across the ballroom, shaking the chandeliers. “This is your doing!”

Her only response was a cold, triumphant smile. The doors slammed shut behind him, cutting off May’s cries.

The police car smelled of sweat and iron. Richard sat in the back, wrists burning against the cuffs, city lights flashing across the tinted windows.

His reflection stared back at him, disheveled, accused, broken in the eyes of the world. But not destroyed.

He closed his eyes, forcing himself into silence. Rage could not be his master. Not now. Behind his fury was a mind sharper than steel, a fortress of hidden wealth no one could touch.

They thought they’d buried him, They thought prison would end him, They had no idea. “Sir,” one officer muttered to the other, “you think he really did it?”

“Doesn’t matter,” the other replied. “The evidence is airtight. Men like him always slip up.”

Richard allowed himself the faintest smile, unseen in the dark. Evidence? Manufactured. Airtight? Only because Daniella had scripted it. But his empire, the real empire, remained invisible.

He leaned back against the cold leather, eyes glinting. They had taken his name, They had stolen his freedom, They had turned his daughter against him. But he still had the one thing none of them understood. Time.

Back at the mansion, Daniella stood before the shattered remains of the celebration. Guests drifted away in murmurs and gossip, eager to spread the scandal.

Leonard approached, smug as ever. “You played your part perfectly, sister.”

She exhaled, her smile calculated. “He was too blinded by love for May to suspect me. It was almost too easy.”

“And now,” Leonard said, raising his glass again, “you’ll inherit the empire.”

Daniella’s eyes gleamed. “Not all of it. But enough.”

May clung to her mother’s gown, still sobbing. “Why did they take Daddy? He didn’t do anything wrong!”

Daniella stroked her daughter’s hair absently, her voice cool. “One day, you’ll understand, May. Daddy built his life on lies. Mommy is protecting you.”

But May shook her head fiercely. “No! Daddy said he’s coming back!”

Daniella’s smile faltered for just a second. Then she tightened her grip on the child’s hand. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Far away, locked in his cell that night, Richard stared at the ceiling, the sound of dripping water echoing in the silence.

His hands still ached from the cuffs. His daughter’s cries haunted him. Daniella’s smile burned in his mind. But beneath the pain, a vow hardened.

“They think they’ve won,” he whispered to the darkness. “But I built my empire in shadows no one can touch. I will rise. I will return. And when I do” His voice cracked, then steadied, a promise carved into stone.

“they will beg for mercy.”

The darkness swallowed his words. And Richard Williams smiled.