Revenge is sweetest with $2 billion in Bitcoin

Chapter two

Christopher’s hands were still trembling when his phone rang.

He was still sitting in his car across from the school gates as his eyes were locked on Mary, the man in the suit, and his son who had just called that stranger “Daddy.”

He watched her smile at the man. He watched the way she rested her hand on the boy’s shoulder as if nothing in the world was wrong.

“So this is who you really are,” he thought, staring straight at her. He looked down at the screen and saw her name: Mary.

For a few seconds he simply stared at it. Then he answered, keeping his voice steady while his eyes never left her.

“Hello?”

“Christopher, I’m calling to tell you something. There’s an unexpected parent-child event at the school tonight. I’ll be coming home late with our son, so don’t wait for us.”

Christopher’s gaze stayed fixed on the three of them. Mary was still holding the phone to her ear while the man smiled and rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder right in front of him.

“Just the two of you?” he asked quietly, watching her face for any reaction.

There was a brief silence. Then Mary’s voice turned sharp.

“What exactly do you mean by that question, Christopher? Are you trying to imply something right now?”

His fingers tightened around the phone. “I was only asking a simple question. Nothing more than that.”

“Are you questioning me now after all these years? Is the divorce making you insecure all of a sudden?”

Christopher didn’t answer. He just kept watching her.

Mary gave a cold laugh that he could almost see in the way her lips moved.

“We’ve been married for years. I thought at the very least you still trusted me enough not to interrogate me like this over a school event.”

“I didn’t mean anything by the question.”

“Forget it. I’ll overlook it this once. But don’t ever question me like that again.”

The call ended. Christopher slowly lowered the phone, still watching.

Across the street, Mary put her phone away. The man beside her leaned in and said something. She nodded, then glanced in Christopher’s direction for half a second before looking away.

Inside their car, the man asked, “Did he suspect anything?”

Mary shook her head. “No. He asked one careful question, but I shut it down. It’s handled.”

She gave a small, dismissive smile. “He’s still so easy to manipulate.”

In the back seat, their son was already talking excitedly about the amusement park. “When are we leaving?”

"Sweetheart, Now,” Mary said. The man started the engine. The three of them drove away together.

Christopher watched their car disappear into traffic. His hands tightened around the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.

For a moment a dark thought flashed through his mind.

'I can step on the accelerator and cause an accident'

His breathing grew heavier. He could almost saw it happening.

Then he slammed his palm against the steering wheel.

“Damn it… I’ve been such a big fool. What the fuck was I thinking all these years? Why the hell was I so easy to manipulate?”

He closed his eyes hard and clenched his jaw. “No. I can’t do that. I won’t destroy my own life because of them.”

He forced himself to loosen his grip and took one slow breath, then another. When he opened his eyes again, the anger had been replaced by something much colder.

The truth....“No… this can’t be real.” Christopher’s voice cracked. He pressed the heels of his hands hard against his eyes as tears finally spilled over.

“All this time… and I never saw it?”

Christopher couldn't believe his entire marriage had been a lie.

For five years he had carried guilt that was never his. Whenever Mary complained about money, he worked harder. Whenever she told him their family was suffering because of his debts, he blamed himself without question.

Every month he handed her nearly everything he earned and kept almost nothing for himself. He stopped buying nice clothes, stopped eating out, stopped living. He worked himself into the ground because he believed he owed them a better life.

And all that time, she had been using that guilt against him.

“I was such a fool,” he whispered. “I saw the signs… the secretive phone calls, the sudden coldness, the way she pushed for the divorce… and I still made excuses for her.”

He had given her everything because he believed he had failed her. But she had been cheating on him. And from the way the boy had run to that man and called him “Daddy,” it had not started recently.

Then a colder thought surfaced. “What if the boy isn’t even mine?” His voice was barely audible. “What if I’ve been raising another man’s child this whole time?”

He had called that child his son for years. He had worked for him, paid for him, stayed up with him when he was sick. And yet… what if none of it had been his blood?

Suddenly everything made a terrible kind of sense. Mary’s sudden push for divorce. The secretive way she handled her phone. The calls she never answered in front of him. The way she had grown colder. Even the boy’s recent distant “Dad.”

It was because the other man had come back. Christopher pulled out his phone. He opened a search and typed slowly.

“Divorce… property division…”

He scrolled through a few pages, then stopped when he reached the section on marital property.

“Assets owned before the marriage… remain separate if they were never mixed with joint funds…”

He read that part twice. “The Bitcoin was already mine before I ever met her. I never touched it. Never mixed it with anything that belonged to us.”

A quiet breath left him. “It’s still mine. At least there’s one thing she can never take from me.”

Christopher sat still for a moment, staring at the empty road. Then he began speaking quietly to himself.

“First thing… I move the Bitcoin somewhere safe. Carefully. No one can know it exists.”

He exhaled slowly. “Then I find out exactly who that bastard is… and how long that bitch has been fucking him behind my back.”

"And the boy… I’ll take something of his. Hair, a toothbrush, whatever I can get. I’m getting a paternity test. I need to know the truth, no matter what it is.” His jaw tightened

He was quiet for a few seconds before the last words came out colder than the rest.

“The divorce stops here. I’m not walking away with nothing again just so that woman can keep living her lie.”

He looked out at the direction their car had disappeared.

“I was ready to leave with just that old apartment. Not anymore.”

"If what I’m thinking is true, Mary… I will make sure you pay for it tenfold.” He started the engine, eyes cold