Revenge is sweetest with $2 billion in Bitcoin

Chapter four

The investigator leaned forward and looked at the photo of the man standing outside the school. Christopher slid a small piece of paper across the desk next to the phone.

“Plate number 47 XKD. Red Lamborghini Urus" The investigator glanced at the paper, then back at Christopher.

“I want everything you can find on him. Full background. Where he works. Where he lives. Who he sees.” Christopher’s voice stayed flat.

“There’s one more name. Mary. That’s my wife. Pull whatever you can on her accounts and her messages. Especially anything that ties her to this man.”

The investigator sat back and studied him for a few seconds.

“How fast do you need it?”

“Tonight if possible.” The man held up two fingers.

“Two thousand dollars will be okay to start. The rest depends on how deep it goes.”

Christopher took out his card, paid, and stood up. He was already at the door when the investigator spoke again.

“Most people who come in here for this kind of thing regret it later.”

Christopher didn’t turn around. “If I was afraid of the truth, I wouldn't have come here.”

He stepped outside. The cold air hit him hard. He pulled his coat closed and checked the time. Almost four.

Christopher had just left the agency and reached his car when his phone vibrated.

He pulled it out and opened the message from the forensic testing center.

'Paternity Test Result: Excluded.'

Christopher froze for two seconds. He squeezed his eyes shut, then forced them open and looked at the phone again.

The conclusion sat at the top in bold:

'Based on the DNA genetic testing results, Christopher Norton is excluded as the biological father of the child tested.'

In the first second, he remembered the afternoon the boy was born — standing outside the hospital room, waiting for the nurse to bring the child out, smiling so hard his cheeks hurt when he finally saw that little face.

In the second second, he remembered the first soft, slightly slurred “Dad” and the tiny fingers that had wrapped around his own.

“She fooled me all these years… ahhh!” Christopher’s legs gave out. He dropped to his knees on the roadside, phone still clenched in his hand, and the tears finally broke free.

“Why me…?” His voice cracked. “Eemmm… is this how other women treat men? I gave her everything… everything… and this is what I get?”

He stayed there for a long moment, shoulders shaking, until the worst of it passed. Slowly, he wiped his face with the back of his hand and forced himself to stand.

The pain was still there, but beneath it something colder settled in.

He was sitting on nearly two billion dollars. A future large enough to erase every year of poverty. Whatever Mary and the boy had done, they were not worth destroying himself over.

“I signed that agreement when I still thought I had nothing. I’m not letting Mary walk away with the Riverside house and years of my money based on a lie. Once I have enough concrete evidence, I’m going to countersue her, drive her to total ruin, and make her pay for everything.”

---

That afternoon he returned home earlier than usual. He pushed open the front door.

Mary was sitting on the sofa with the boy beside her. The moment she saw him, her expression tightened.

“You’re back early. About this morning — you need to apologize for how you spoke to him. You had no right to treat him that way. He’s a child, and you’re his father.”

Christopher changed his shoes, then looked at her with a short, cold laugh.

“He spoke to me like I was hired help. I’m done answering to that. The next time he talks to me that way, he’s grounded. I can see you’re the one teaching him this nonsense, and I won’t condone it.”

Mary’s face darkened for a second, then she forced a thin, mocking smile. She leaned back and spoke in that familiar, superior tone.

“Don’t raise your voice at me.” Mary’s face tightened, the mocking smile gone.

“Five years of marriage and suddenly you’re about to lose your wife, your son, and the house, so now you want to take it out on everyone? You’re the one acting unstable. Whatever crisis you’re having, you still have no right to speak to him that way. He’s your son, Christopher.”

The words “your son” cut deeper than she could know.

Christopher’s fists clenched at his sides. He looked at Mary, then at the boy sitting comfortably beside her, and spoke through gritted teeth.

“Precisely because of that, I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going through with the divorce. I have no intention of simply walking away from you and the boy.”

Mary stared at him for a moment, then let out a short, disbelieving laugh.

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not.”

Her smile vanished.

“You already signed the agreement. You don’t get to change your mind now just because your pride is hurt. You’ve been drowning in debt for years.. are you seriously planning to drag me and the child down with you into that mess?

Christopher sat down opposite her, voice calm and steady.

“I never asked you to repay a single penny of that debt. For five years I provided the household money without fail. I paid the bills, paid for his school, and gave you almost everything I earned. If you still find fault with me after all that, then the problem lies entirely with you.”

Mary’s face went pale. Then she recovered and shot back, voice sharp with mockery.

“Is that why you’re shouting at me? Because your ego is bruised?”

The calm, poised expression she had worn earlier was gone. She had expected him to keep lowering his head. She had expected the old guilt to work the way it always had.

But the guilt was gone. Christopher stood and straightened his shirt.

“I won’t sign anything else.” He walked toward the stairs. Behind him, Mary remained frozen on the sofa.