The Billionaire Husband They Humiliated

From the outside, the mansion looked like the sort of place where a family might live happily ever after.

Inside, Isaac Thornton knew better.

“Isaac! Where the hell are you? What’s taking so long? Get over here and clean this up!”

Ruby Pugh stood in the living room with two other women, all three dressed as though they had never needed to lift a finger in their lives. Isaac kept his head down. He wiped the spots his wife had pointed out, then collected the bowls of water they had used to wash up and carried them away.

Before he could sit down, Ruby called him back.

This was his life as the Pugh family’s live-in son-in-law. He did the cooking, cleaning, laundry—whatever anyone demanded—and took the blame whenever something went wrong. In this house, he ranked somewhere below the family dog.

He and Ruby had been married for two and a half years. She had never treated him like a husband. In fact, she could barely stand the sight of him. He slept in a cramped storage room, away from the rest of the household, because Ruby refused to share a bed with him.

Once, he had forgotten to wake her on time, and she had slapped him until his face swelled. Another night, his phone had buzzed while she was trying to sleep. She had nearly broken his wrist and smashed the phone against the floor.

Isaac had learned not to fight back.

There had been a time when his life was very different. He was the adored son of a powerful business family, with a future laid out for him. Then he had made an aggressive investment in a coal-mining venture. The investment appeared to go disastrously wrong, leaving the family's company in serious trouble. His relatives accused him of trying to seize control of the business. They threw him out—and expelled his parents along with him.

Overnight, the three of them lost everything.

His old friends stopped returning his calls. No one offered a hand. By the time he married Ruby, Isaac had nowhere to go and almost nothing to his name.

The worst part was that he had once genuinely loved her. Even after everything she had done, a stubborn piece of that feeling remained.

“Ruby, you’ve got him trained like a dog,” Alex Howell said with a laugh.

Ruby snapped her fingers. “What are you staring at? Come here.”

Isaac stepped closer.

“Look at him,” Ruby told Alex. “Completely useless. We’ve got the family function tomorrow, and I’m embarrassed to bring him. Isaac, stop standing there. Go get the water for my feet.”

Alex gave him a contemptuous look. “He looks like he wandered in off the street.”

Then she turned back to Ruby. “Anyway, you said Vanguard Group was having trouble. How bad is it?”

Ruby sighed. “We’re short several hundred thousand dollars. If I can’t bring in an investor soon, we won’t have enough working capital to keep things running.”

“That much? And you’ve only got a few days?” Alex frowned. “What are you going to do?”

“I wish I knew.” Ruby paced the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Isaac carrying a basin. “Are you eavesdropping now? Hurry up and wash my feet.”

Alex laughed. “And when you’re done, you can take care of my laundry, too. Consider yourself lucky I’m letting you touch it.”

Isaac said nothing. Later, while loading the washing machine, he slipped in the clothes he wanted to wear to his high school reunion. He had no desire to show up looking even worse than usual.

His phone vibrated.

He glanced at the number and went still. He recognized the last few digits. The message had come from the Thornton family.

Mr. Thornton, we're terribly sorry. We were wrong about you. The company is in a financial crisis, and we desperately need your help. Please.

Isaac stared at the screen.

Help them? They had stripped him of everything. He could barely afford to live. What on earth did they expect him to do?

A second message arrived.

The coal-mining investment you made years ago has increased enormously in value. We've confirmed that your shares are still registered in your name. Without your assistance, the family business may not survive.

For a moment, he forgot to breathe.

That failed investment—the one that had destroyed his life—had turned out to be worth a fortune?

Isaac sank onto the floor. With trembling fingers, he took an old black premium bank card from his pocket. He had not checked the account in years. He called the bank's customer service line.

“Thank you for calling. How can I help you today?” a pleasant voice answered.

“Could you check my balance?”

“Of course, sir. One moment, please.”

A few seconds passed.

“I'm very sorry, sir. Due to the amount held in this account, I'm unable to disclose the balance through this service. You'll need to visit a branch in person.”

Isaac's hand went slack. The phone nearly slipped from his fingers.

Then he began to laugh.

He had been right about the mine all along. The investment had paid off beyond anything he could have imagined. After years of humiliation, his luck had finally changed.

Alex spotted him from across the room. “Ruby, look at your husband. He actually called the bank to check his balance.”

Ruby laughed. “What, does he think he's rich? I pay him a little for the work he does around here. Maybe he's managed to save a few dollars.”

“You're too generous,” Alex said. “I can't believe you pay him at all.”

Isaac only smiled.

Neither woman had any idea what was coming.