From Doormat to Doomsday Billionaire!

Chapter 8: At the gate

Michael and Henry reached the mansion first, wheezing, and found half the neighborhood already crowded against the wrought-iron fence.

Behind the gate, a manicured lawn rolled toward a villa so polished it looked like it had been cut from a magazine.

“Michael!” someone shouted. “There he is!”

Then came the congratulations, one after another.

“Your family finally hit the jackpot!”

“You sly dog! Where did Lexi find a husband like that?”

“You never told us Rhys was loaded!”

Michael’s face darkened with every word. Each compliment landed like a slap.

Beside him, Henry stared at the mansion with naked hunger.

He couldn’t hold it in. He strode up to the gate and hammered it with both fists.

BANG! BANG!

“RHYS! DRAG YOUR ASS OUT HERE!” He yelled and kicked.

Inside, Rhys watched the security feed on a tablet and laughed softly.

Right on schedule.

Vultures always found the carcass first.

He stood, adjusted his cuffs, and strolled out. He had no reason to hide. In fact, he wanted them to see exactly what they had thrown away.

He crossed the yard at an unhurried pace and opened the gate.

Henry lunged through. “You little piece of…”

Henry pushed a palm on Rhys’s chest but he stopped as though he’d hit a wall.

He lowered his shoulder and shoved again. 

Nothing. 

He shoved again, harder, and more, but Rhys didn’t move an inch.

For all his size, Henry had spent years eating, drinking, gambling, and avoiding anything resembling labor. Against a man who’d hauled corpses through blizzards, he might as well have been a toddler shoving a boulder.

“Out of the way!” Michael barked. “That house was bought with our family’s money!”

“No,” Rhys said.

“You don’t tell me no!”

“I just did.” Rhys met his eyes calmly. “Did you forget? Your daughter and I are divorced. This is my house. What exactly does it have to do with the Stowes?”

Divorced.

The word rippled through the crowd.

Several neighborhood women perked up at once. Single? A man with a mansion, single? Their daughters suddenly looked a lot more marriageable.

“You think I’m stupid?” Michael jabbed a finger at him. “You divorced my daughter two days ago. You bought a twelve-million-dollar house yesterday. Where did that money come from?”

The crowd quieted. It was, honestly, a decent question.

“You didn’t earn twelve million overnight! You were hiding it during the marriage, which makes it marital property. Half of it belongs to Lexi!”

Rhys smiled. It was a thin, mocking smile.

“Property is divided by evidence, old man. Not by whoever shows up at my gate barking the loudest.” He took out his phone. 

“If Lexi thinks she’s owed a dime, she can hire a lawyer. Until then, this is private property. Leave, or I call the police. Trespassing and attempted home invasion should earn you a few quiet weeks behind bars.”

Michael’s bluster cracked. He took a step back.

But leave? With twelve million dollars sitting right there? Never.

Suddenly, a shrill voice split the air.

“RHYS!”

Britt came stumbling through the crowd with Chris in tow, her hair half out of its clip, gasping from the run.

“You heartless snake!” She slapped her thigh and wailed. “My daughter gave you four years! Four! And the second you get rich, you throw her out like trash and abandon your own child!”

Chris clung to her sleeve, confused. Britt pulled him into a theatrical hug.

“Look at this poor boy! His father buys himself a mansion, and his son sleeps in a cold bed! What kind of monster does that?”

She meant only to smear him, but without context, her story sounded convincing. Rhys really had gotten rich, divorced Lexi, and walked away from the boy he’d raised.

The crowd began to murmur. 

Judgmental eyes turned on him.

Rhys let them.

He had been waiting for exactly this.

He wanted the Stowes’ good name burned to the ground. 

He wanted them to walk this street as pariahs.

“You want to know why I divorced her?”

He didn’t need to raise his voice. The calm in it made the crowd go quiet anyway.

“Because Chris is not my son.”

Silence. 

“Lexi was already pregnant with Curry Barker’s child when she married me. She needed a husband to hide the scandal, and I was the stupidest man in the room. For years, she let me raise another man’s son.”

Michael and Britt went rigid. Their faces told the crowd everything: this was news to them too.

“You want to talk about four years?” Rhys’s voice sharpened. “I worked all day. I came home and cooked for you. Cleaned for you. Drove you. Fixed everything you broke. I raised the boy. I handed over nearly every dollar I earned.”

He stepped closer to them, but they instinctively jerked back.

“You ate the food I paid for. You slept in the house my parents left me. You spent my money like it was water. And you still treated me like a servant. Meanwhile, your daughter was in bed with Chris’s real father.”

That was when the crowd erupted.

“She cheated on him the whole time?”

“And they have the nerve to play the victim!”

“This family is rotten to the core!”

Every eye on the street turned. 

Sympathy turned to disgust in one breath.

Michael and Britt stood frozen in the middle of it, wearing the contempt of the whole neighborhood.

“That’s a lie! Lexi would never!” Britt finally shrieked. 

Rhys gave her a cold smile.

“Really?” He raised his phone. “Then let’s show everyone the videos.”

The videos, in truth, were mostly a bluff. Rhys had the DNA report. He had his past life’s memories. The rest was theater.

But the Stowes had no way of knowing that. And as he watched their faces, he saw that none of them dared to risk it.

If those videos played, they would never show their faces on this street again.

“Let’s go,” Britt hissed, her voice cracking.

Michael and Henry were still trembling with rage. She she grabbed them by the sleeves and dragged them along.

Henry twisted back, jabbing a finger at the gate.

“This isn’t over! When our lawyer’s done with you, you’ll be begging on the sidewalk!”

“I’ll bring a cup. Bring a bigger one for yourself.” Rhys called after him.

The Stowes turned and fled, whispers trailing behind them like smoke.

They had one more person to deal with now.

Lexi.