2026-07-10 19:10:01"I never thought you'd actually divorce that useless piece of trash. I told you ages ago he wasn't worthy of you!" Bianca rushed over to Valentina's house the second she hung up the phone.
"Pfft. At least he brought in $3,000 a month and kept only a hundred for himself, handing the rest straight to me. Who knew the bastard would suddenly demand a divorce?" Valentina curled her lips in disgust, acting as if she hadn't just lost a husband, but rather a human cash cow.
Bianca shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, since you're divorcing anyway, you better squeeze every last drop of value out of him. A girl's youth is priceless—you have to make him pay!"
Valentina let out a cold laugh. "Pay? He gets $100 a month in pocket money; pay with what? The only thing left of any value is this house, but the bastard actually expects us to move out!"
Bianca huffed in anger. "Where does he get off?! Don't worry, I'll definitely make that kid bleed cash! I'm a professional divorce lawyer, after all!"
In truth, Bianca had constantly skipped classes back in law school. Even now, after working for five years, she was still just a junior paralegal.
However, Valentina had already mentioned that an idiot like Marco couldn't even afford a lawyer. When the time came, Bianca could just spout a few made-up legal clauses to scare him. Given that coward's spineless nature, wouldn't he obediently hand over the house?
When all was said and done, she could charge her best friend a few thousand dollars in legal fees—more than enough to live it up for a month!
At that thought, Bianca immediately urged Valentina, "Call that useless ex-husband of yours right now and tell him to come over so we can settle the property division!"
Marco had just stepped out of Dante's law firm when he received the call. He let out a cold sneer—it seemed his ex-wife truly couldn't wait. He casually agreed, sending the address over to Dante right after.
Dante's reply was direct: I'm gathering the documents now. Leaving in 10 minutes. Do not agree to any of their terms before I arrive.
Marco: OK.
Taking a deep breath, Marco's eyes darkened. Everything Valentina owed him from his past life—he was going to make her repay it tenfold!
Shortly after, Marco arrived home.
The moment he stepped through the door, he saw Bianca and Valentina chatting and laughing on the sofa.
Seeing Marco walk in all by himself, Bianca flashed a confident smile.
Just as I thought—the guy can't even afford a lawyer!
Without missing a beat, she tossed a thick stack of documents onto the coffee table and demanded arrogantly, "Sign it!"
Marco rolled his eyes. Where did this idiot come from, telling me to sign right off the bat?
He picked up the agreement and quickly skimmed through it.
"Don't bother reading every detail. The terms are simple," Bianca said impatiently. "Full ownership of this house goes to Valentina, and you'll pay her $10,000 a month in alimony. That's all."
"These are our conditions. Sign it already! Otherwise, if we go to court, we'll strip you down to your last pair of underwear! Valentina is being incredibly generous by offering such lenient terms given your actual situation!" Bianca spoke with a sharp, aggressive tone, as if the ridiculous conditions on paper were a grand act of charity to Marco.
Scanning the absurd clauses line by line, Marco burst out laughing.
"And this is your idea of sincerity?" he asked mockingly, looking at the agreement Bianca had shoved into his face.
Clearly infuriated by his attitude, Bianca slammed her hand on the table and yelled, "What's that supposed to mean?! Valentina spent years married to you, wasting the best years of her youth! Don't you owe her compensation?!"
Marco rolled his eyes. "Youth? She's the only one who had a youth, and I didn't? After we got married, she didn't work, didn't do housework, and even moved her entire family into the house my parents left me! On top of that, I had to earn money every single month to feed her whole freeloading family!"
"What contribution has she ever made to this home?!"
"This contract? I. Am. Not. Signing. It!" Marco hurled the agreement to the floor, sending paper flying everywhere.
"You... you're completely unreasonable! Valentina is pregnant with your child! You absolute scumbag, I'm going to expose you to the whole world!" Bianca shrieked.
"Oh? Pregnant?" Marco let out a satirical laugh. "Why don't you ask your dear best friend who the father really is?"
Bianca's face froze. She turned to look at Valentina, whose expression turned thoroughly embarrassed. Still, Valentina forced herself to bark back, "What proof do you have that the child isn't yours?!"
Marco sneered. "I haven't slept with you in six months, so how many months pregnant are you? Do you take me for an idiot? We can do a paternity test even during pregnancy. Do you dare to take one?"
"You... you..." Valentina stammered, at a complete loss for words. Bianca could tell that her best friend might actually be in the wrong on this one.
Still, a useless loser like Marco doesn't know a thing about the law. He's easy to fool!
"Marco, you really are a scumbag! Even if the child isn't yours, can't you still pay child support?! Valentina is still your wife, after all!" Bianca declared righteously.
Marco's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. He had always known his ex-wife was a terrible person, but he never expected her best friend to be even worse—how could anyone say something so shamelessly absurd?
"Listen to yourself. Is that even human logic?! It's not my child, yet I have to pay child support?!" Marco found the whole thing utterly ridiculous.
"That's right! What about it?! That's what the law states!" Bianca doubled down, bluffing hard.
"Oh? I'd certainly love to hear which law in our country states that."
Before Marco could even respond, a man pushed the door open and walked in with effortless elegance.
Dante Acerbi had finally arrived right on time.
Marco complained, "Didn't you say ten minutes? You're 20 minutes late."
Dante smiled smoothly. "In a moment, you'll see that those ten minutes were well worth the wait."
"Who the hell are you, and where do you get off barging into my house without permission?!" Valentina shrieked, completely failing to notice that Bianca beside her had turned deathly pale.
"Me? I am the attorney retained by Mr. Ferretti, here specifically to assist him with the division of property," Dante replied graciously.
"Oh? You hired someone to play dress-up as a lawyer? How amusing!" Valentina scoffed coldly. "Don't think I don't know—you don't have a single dime to hire a lawyer!"
"Don't hold back, Bianca! Show them that a fake can never stand up to a real lawyer!"
Yet, Bianca didn't utter a single word.
"Bianca? What's wrong with you?" Receiving no response, Valentina turned around in confusion, only to find Bianca's face looking horribly off.
"Say something! Aren't you a hotshot lawyer? Are you really getting intimidated by a fake?!" Valentina urged anxiously.
Bianca could only squeeze out a forced, trembling smile as she slowly stood up.
"Professor Acerbi... I... I never expected to run into you here."
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CHAPTER 217
Wendy opened her eyes and straightened. Her voice came out sharper than anyone expected from someone that tired."Casualties. That is what I keep thinking about." She pushed a strand of hair from her forehead. "Every fight we have had so far, people got hurt in ones and twos. This will be different. If Colton hits us with real force, I could have twenty wounded at once. Maybe more.""What do you need?" Marco asked."A proper triage setup. Three stations, not one. Stretchers, tourniquets, blood clotting packs, and at least six people trained to carry the wounded without dropping them." She looked around the table. "And I need them trained this week, not the day the shooting starts.""Diane, give her whoever she asks for." Marco looked at Diane, who was already writing. "Pull them off scavenging if you have to.""Done." Diane did not hesitate. "I will redo the whole labor schedule tonight."The meeting stretched for three hours. Marco asked questions, Okafor argued, Delgado found holes
CHAPTER 216
Perry arrived at the safe house before sunrise with frost in his beard and a folded report clutched against his chest. He did not sit down. He did not take off his coat. He laid the paper on the kitchen table and stepped back as if it might bite him."Read it." Perry's voice was thin and tight. "Please."Marco picked up the report and read it twice. Tank watched him from the floor, ears forward, sensing the change in the air before anyone spoke."Colton finished his purge." Marco set the paper down slowly. "He found someone to blame for the leaks.""Not Okafor." Perry pushed his taped bifocals up his nose, and his hands were shaking. "A sergeant named Harlan Voss. Caught stealing medical supplies a week ago for a completely unrelated reason. Colton decided he was the traitor, put him in front of the whole mall, and shot him. Case closed.""Closed." Marco repeated the word and tasted how bitter it was. "He found a convenient corpse and declared victory over his own paranoia.""And the
CHAPTER 215
"Yesterday morning, two people in this community were caught stealing from the communal food storage." Marco's voice carried across the garage without effort. "Four cases of canned protein and two bags of rice. Hidden under their floorboards."A ripple of anger moved through the crowd. Someone near the back muttered a word that Marco chose to ignore."I want you to understand why they did it." Marco raised his hand to quiet the murmurs. "Dennis and Patricia Hartley survived six weeks on snow water and scavenged scraps. They watched people die around them. When they arrived here and saw that we have food, their fear told them it wouldn't last. So they took extra and hid it."He looked directly at Dennis, who flinched."That's not greed. That's terror." Marco's voice was firm but not cruel. "And I'd bet every person in this room has felt some version of it."Heads nodded slowly. A woman in the second row wiped her eyes."But here's the rule." Marco's tone sharpened. "Everyone contribute
CHAPTER 214
Marco had spent weeks building a fortress, an intelligence network, and a trained security force. Nothing had prepared him for the problem that landed on his kitchen table at seven in the morning, delivered by a furious Diane Kowalski with her clipboard held against her chest like a shield."Third complaint this week." Diane set the clipboard down and rubbed her temples. "The Hendersons in Building 2 say the Garcias are stealing their water ration. The Garcias say the Hendersons are lying because their kid spilled half the jug. And two of the construction workers are fighting over who gets the bottom bunk in the barracks.""Over a bunk." Marco stared at her. Tank lifted his head from the floor and looked between them as if waiting for someone to explain what was happening."Ninety people who didn't choose each other, living in cramped quarters, surviving on rations." Diane's voice was dry and tired. "Everything becomes a fight eventually. I've handled most of it, but some of these dis
CHAPTER 213
Marco walked back to the garage and stood in front of Delgado. The former sergeant sat on an overturned crate with a thermal blanket around his shoulders, his hands wrapped around a cup of hot water that one of the patrol volunteers had given him without asking permission. His people sat behind him in a loose cluster, some of them already asleep on the cold concrete floor, their bodies giving up the fight against exhaustion the moment they felt even a fraction of safety."Here's the deal." Marco folded his arms. "Same offer I give everyone. You contribute labor, you eat. Scavenging, construction, security patrols, medical work, whatever your skills are. Two meals a day. Warm shelter. Clean water. In exchange, you follow the rules, you take orders from the people I've put in charge, and you don't cause problems.""What kind of problems?" Delgado looked up, and his eyes were sharp despite the exhaustion behind them."The kind that end with bodies in my courtyard." Marco didn't flinch. "
CHAPTER 212
The cameras picked them up at seven in the morning.Eleven figures moving through the grey sleet toward the neighborhood's damaged gate, huddled together like a herd of animals crossing open ground and expecting to be shot at any moment."Contact at the south gate." Okafor's voice came through the walkie talkie from his patrol position on the Building 2 rooftop. "Eleven individuals. Mixed group. Civilian clothing. No visible weapons. They look half dead."Marco walked to the monitor and studied the feed. The group moved slowly, some of them limping, one being supported between two others.Their clothes were torn, their skin was grey with cold, and at least three of them had the blackened fingertips and swollen joints that came from severe frostbite left untreated for weeks."Could be real survivors." Natalie stood behind him, watching the screen. "Could be Colton's people wearing rags.""Could be both." Marco zoomed in on the man at the front of the group.Tall, square shouldered desp
