My Ex-Wife wanted Money, The Apocalypse wanted Everything

Chapter 7

At the exact mention of twelve million dollars, all three of them suddenly found a remarkable burst of wild energy.

Robert, Margaret, and Ryan shot out the front door like hungry dogs chasing a fresh piece of meat. They completely forgot about Victoria standing alone in the living room. They did not care about her feelings or her broken marriage. Their greedy minds were entirely focused on the massive fortune sitting directly across the street.

Robert and Ryan made it to the giant mansion first. They stopped in their tracks when they found a large crowd already gathered outside the property.

The massive estate sat behind an elegant and tall wrought iron fence. A beautifully landscaped front yard full of bright flowers separated the paved street from the main house. Since no one could get inside the locked gates, the curious neighbors had clustered along the metal fence. They were craning their necks high into the air for a better look at the luxury property.

“Robert is here!” someone in the large crowd spotted him immediately and pointed a finger.

Then came the loud and cheerful congratulations from the neighbors.

“Robert, your family really made it big this time!” an older man cheered happily. He clapped his hands together with genuine excitement.

“You lucky man,” a woman added quickly. She smiled a very bright and jealous smile. “Where did Victoria find a husband like that? He must love her so much.”

“Seriously, Robert, you never told us Ethan was this loaded!” another neighbor shouted from the back of the group. His voice tone was full of deep admiration.

Robert’s face grew darker and much more furious with every single word. His jaw tightened in pure rage. He knew he was not getting a single penny of that money unless he fought for it.

Ryan stood beside his father. He was panting heavily from the short run. Ryan stared at the massive house with naked and uncontrollable greed. His eyes were wide and fixated on the expensive stone architecture.

Unable to contain his temper any longer, Ryan strode straight toward the heavy metal gate. He raised his fist and pounded hard against the iron bars.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

“Ethan! Get your ass out here right now!” Ryan screamed at the top of his lungs. His face twisted into a vicious and demanding scowl.

Inside the quiet mansion, Ethan sat comfortably in his secure control room. He glanced casually at the bright security camera feed. A soft chuckle escaped his throat.

Of course the greedy Bennett family was here. It was completely predictable.

Ethan rose slowly from his leather seat. He had absolutely no reason to avoid them today. In fact, he was more than happy to let them see exactly what they had permanently lost. His thoughts drifted back to his previous life, remembering how they had stripped him of everything. The memory fueled his absolute determination to see them face the consequences of their actions. He had carefully planned this exact confrontation. Buying the house across the street was not just a strategic move for the apocalypse. It was a very deliberate psychological attack on their massive egos.

He walked across the massive green yard at a very easy and relaxed pace. He reached the front and clicked the button to open the heavy gate.

Ryan immediately barged forward with his chest puffed out.

“You son of a bitch!” Ryan spat aggressively. He raised his hands as though he intended to grab his former brother-in-law.

But Ethan blocked him easily before he could take another step forward.

Ryan lowered his heavy shoulder and tried to muscle his way past the blockade. He grunted loudly with the effort. No matter how hard he pushed, Ethan did not budge a single inch.

For all his large size, Ryan had spent the last several years doing very little besides eating heavy meals, drinking expensive alcohol, gambling away borrowed cash, and completely avoiding anything that resembled actual physical work. Against Ethan’s hardened resolve, Ryan might as well have been pushing against a solid brick wall.

Ryan breathed heavily. Sweat formed on his forehead. He realized how completely outmatched he actually was. Ethan stood his ground with the unmovable posture of a seasoned warrior.

“What the hell is this?” Robert snapped viciously. He pointed a demanding finger directly at Ethan. “Move aside right now!”

“You are not coming in,” Ethan stated completely flatly. His voice was icy and completely void of any respect.

“You bought this massive place with our family money, and now you will not even let us through the front gate?” Robert roared loudly. His temper flared out of control, and his face turned a bright shade of red.

Ethan looked Robert straight in the angry eyes.

“Did you somehow forget the legal paperwork?” Ethan asked smoothly. A mocking smile played on his lips. “Victoria and I are officially divorced. This is my private house. What does this property have to do with the Bennett family?”

Divorced?

That one single word sent a massive ripple of shock through the entire crowd of listening neighbors.

Several single women in the neighborhood immediately perked up their heads. Their eyes widened with sudden interest. If this incredibly wealthy man was currently single, that meant their own daughters actually had a shot. They could imagine marrying Ethan and becoming connected to his massive fortune.

“Do you think I am stupid?” Robert yelled furiously. He jabbed his finger toward Ethan. “You got officially divorced the day before yesterday. You bought a twelve million dollar mansion yesterday morning. Where exactly did that money come from?”

The loud crowd quieted down instantly. They all leaned in closer to hear the answer. That was actually a very good question.

Robert continued his aggressive rant.

“You did not make twelve million dollars overnight,” Robert deduced loudly. His voice was thick with greedy triumph. “That means you had the secret money while you were still legally married to my daughter. That makes every single penny of it marital property!”

Ethan just smiled at the older man. His facial expression was thoroughly mocking and completely unfazed.

“Property gets divided by actual legal evidence,” Ethan explained calmly. He crossed his arms over his chest. “It does not get divided just because some greedy old man shows up at my front gate and starts barking like a wild dog. If Victoria truly thinks she owns half of this house, you can tell her to hire a good lawyer.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone.

“But until then,” Ethan warned coldly, his voice dropping into a serious register. “This is private property. Get off my driveway, or I will call the police right now. I am pretty sure criminal trespassing is enough to cause serious trouble for both of you.”

That specific threat did the trick instantly.

At the direct mention of the police, the loud bravado of Robert faltered completely. He instinctively took a small step backward away from the gate, his face showing a flash of genuine fear.

But leave? Not a chance.

In Robert’s greedy mind, the massive mansion was already his property. He just needed to figure out how to take it.

Before Robert could charge forward again, another shrill and highly annoying voice came from the back of the crowd.

“Ethan!” Margaret screamed at the top of her lungs.

Margaret came stumbling into view. She was dragging little Noah closely in tow. She was gasping heavily for breath after running the whole way down the paved street.

“You heartless bastard!” Margaret wailed loudly. She slapped her own thigh for dramatic effect, and her face contorted into an exaggerated expression of distress. “My beautiful daughter wasted nine whole years of her precious life on you! Nine long years! And the exact second you get rich, you throw her away like trash and completely abandon your own young child?”

Noah still did not understand what was going on around him. He clung tightly to the sleeve of his grandmother and looked at the angry adults with wide eyes.

Margaret hugged the boy very dramatically. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, forcing a few fake tears to leak out and roll down her cheeks. She was an absolute master of emotional manipulation.

“Look at this poor, innocent child!” Margaret cried out to the watching neighbors. She pointed a shaking finger at Ethan. “His greedy father buys himself a massive mansion while his own flesh and blood gets thrown aside!”

Margaret only meant to smear Ethan’s good name and make him look bad. But without the full context, her sad story sounded incredibly convincing to the outsiders.

Ethan indeed had gotten very rich. He had divorced Victoria abruptly. And he had walked away from the young child he had raised for eight years.

The crowd immediately began murmuring amongst themselves. Very harsh and highly judgmental looks turned directly toward Ethan.

But Ethan was not bothered at all. He had been waiting precisely for this exact moment.

He wanted the reputation of the Bennett family to be thoroughly annihilated in public. He wanted them to become the ultimate neighborhood pariahs before the world ended.

“Do you really want to know why I divorced Victoria?” Ethan asked loudly.

He did not raise his voice to a scream. Yet the eerie calmness in his tone gradually silenced the entire angry crowd. Everyone waited for his answer.

“I divorced her because Noah is not my son,” Ethan stated clearly. His face showed absolute truth and zero regret.

The entire crowd went completely dead silent. Not a single person had seen that massive twist coming.

Ethan let the heavy words sink in fully before continuing his public speech.

“Victoria was already pregnant with the child of Derek Hayes when she married me,” Ethan explained smoothly. He looked directly at the pale faces of his former in-laws. “She desperately needed a convenient husband to cover up her scandal. So she chose me. And for eight long years, she let me believe Noah was my own flesh and blood.”

Robert and Margaret went entirely rigid. Their jaws dropped open in total shock. Clearly, this was completely new information to them too. Victoria had hidden the truth from everyone.

But Ethan was not finished exposing them.

“You want to talk about those nine years, Margaret?” Ethan challenged coldly. He stepped closer to the metal gate, and his voice was thick with righteous anger.

“I worked all day long at my job,” Ethan listed firmly. “Then I came home and cooked hot meals for you. I cleaned your house for you. I drove you around town. I fixed everything you managed to break. I took care of Noah every single day. And I handed over almost every single dollar I ever earned to your greedy hands.”

He pointed his finger directly at Robert.

“You ate the food I paid for,” Ethan continued loudly. “You lived rent free in the beautiful house my dead parents left me. You spent my hard-earned money on yourselves. And after all that sacrifice, you still treated me like your servant. Meanwhile, Victoria was still seeing Noah’s biological father behind my back!”

The crowd absolutely exploded with noise.

“What?!” a neighbor gasped loudly in pure shock. “She cheated on him all those years?”

“Is this awful family not afraid of karma?” another woman asked in disgust. She shook her head rapidly.

“How did Margaret actually have the nerve to play the victim here?” a man scoffed loudly. He crossed his arms and glared at the older woman.

The looks aimed at the Bennett family changed instantly. Whatever small sympathy they had enjoyed just moments ago vanished completely. It was rapidly replaced by open and highly vocal disgust.

Robert and Margaret stood frozen. They withered under the heavy contempt of the entire neighborhood.

“No!” Margaret finally snapped out of her terrified shock. She waved her hands frantically in the air. “That is complete bullshit! My Victoria would never do something like that to you!”

Ethan gave her a very cold smile.

“Really?” Ethan challenged mockingly. He held up his mobile phone for everyone to see. “Then how about I show everyone here the evidence right now?”

Ethan did have enough official DNA evidence to prove Noah’s paternity. He did not need to reveal every private detail. The evidence alone was enough to make his point.

But the Bennett family had absolutely no way of knowing what he might reveal next. And judging by the pure terror quickly spreading across their faces, none of them were willing to challenge him today.

“Let us go right now,” Margaret hissed quietly. Her voice was entirely defeated and highly panicked.

Robert and Ryan still looked completely ready to argue with Ethan. They hated losing the money. So Margaret grabbed their shirt sleeves and pulled them toward the street.

With absolutely no other choice left, Ryan jabbed a final warning finger at Ethan.

“This is not over yet!” Ryan snarled viciously. His face was twisted with hatred, and his voice was highly threatening. “When our expensive lawyer is done with you, you will be sleeping on the sidewalk like a stray dog!”

Then the Bennetts turned and stormed off.