The Military Son-in-Law Who Owned Tomorrow

Dossier 2 - Trillion Dollar Fortune

ADRIAN VANDERLEIGH

Adrian couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Betrayal and disappointment twisted inside him, cold and suffocating, tightening around his heart until it felt like he could barely breathe.

“What are you doing, Alyssa Auremont?”Adrian asked, his voice broken.

His voice distracted them and Alyssa turned immediately and when she saw Adrian her brows squeezed only in surprise, Alyssa didn’t look ashamed.

She looked annoyed. “How did you get out of prison?”

That was the first thing she said. Not Adrian. Not you’re alive.

Just a question, as though his return was an inconvenience. Reese glanced toward him and scoffed.

“Has your trash husband become a fugitive now?” He looked him over with contempt. “How did you escape prison, delivery boy? And where did you steal that army uniform?”

Adrian heard them, but the words barely registered. His gaze was fixed at Alyssa, he couldn’t believe his sight, 

His wife. Alyssa. With the very man who had destroyed his life. The same man Adrian had fought because he was trying to protect her.

Three years ago, he had married into the Auremont family because an ancient betrothal contract had suddenly been brought forward by unknown trustees. His ancestors and Alyssa’s had made the agreement generations ago, binding their bloodlines together long before either of them was born.

Adrian had accepted it. Alyssa had loved him first… even when he complained that her family didn’t want him, but she insisted until he fell in love with her. 

He waited on her hand and foot. He cooked their meals every day. He worked delivery jobs from morning until night just to make her happy and prove to her family that he wasn’t useless.

He cleaned the dogs’ and cats’ mess. Mowed the entire estate lawn. Ran errands. Did every dirty job they threw at him.

And he never complained. Then he spent three years in Blackridge prison. Three years in a place people entered and never left alive…  All because he had protected her.

And during those few years, Alyssa had told him she loved him. She had promised that she was only staying away because of her family’s opposition.

Adrian had believed her. He had even believed every excuse she gave him for refusing to let him touch her. It wasn’t the right time. She wasn’t ready for children. They needed to wait.

So he slept on the floor while his wife slept comfortably in their bed. He accepted every rejection because he thought Alyssa was a woman of principle.

A woman worth sacrificing everything for. Yet today, he had returned from hell… Only to find her with another man.

Adrian stared at her. For the first time in three years, he wondered if the woman he had been fighting to return to had ever existed at all.

“I thought you were a woman of principle,” he said, his voice trembling beneath the weight of everything he had endured. “Why did you deceive me all these years? If you never loved me, why pretend? Was it because you were waiting to become the D’Aubery boy’s toy?”

Alyssa’s expression hardened. “Why?”

She pulled the sheets around herself and looked at him as though he were the one who had done something wrong.

“Because my husband is nothing but a useless delivery boy.” The words struck harder than anything Adrian had endured in Blackridge Prison,

Alyssa continued, her expression hardening as she looked at him. “Maybe I loved you at first. Maybe I really did. But do you even know who the D’Aubery family is, Adrian?”

She gestured towards Reese, almost as though she were presenting him as the obvious answer to everything Adrian lacked.

“His family owns the D’Aubery Group, a luxury furniture corporation worth an estimated ten billion dollars.”

Her eyes travelled slowly over Adrian, taking in his plain clothes and the man who had just returned from three years in Blackridge.

“And what do you have?” Adrian said nothing.

“You deliver packages. You clean up after my family’s messes. You mow their lawns. You spend your entire day running errands for people who actually matter.” Her lips curled into a cruel smile. “Did you really think I was going to spend the rest of my life with a man like you when someone like Reese wanted me?”

Adrian’s fingers slowly curled into fists. But he wasn’t going to waste another punch on a man who wasn’t worth the trouble.

Reese noticed the movement and smirked. “What are you going to do? Punch my jaw again, fugitive?” Adrian’s eyes lifted towards him, but before he could say anything, Reese’s smile widened.

“He wouldn’t dare.”

Alyssa suddenly turned towards the telephone. “I’ll call Blackridge right now. Let them know a fugitive has entered my house.”

The words struck Adrian harder than he expected again, it wasn’t their shared matrimonial home anymore, he was now a stranger.

Alyssa picked up the telephone and dialled the Blackridge number. The call rang through before someone finally answered.

“Hello. I have a fugitive in my home right now. His name is Adrian Vanderleigh. Auremont Estate, Manor Twelve.”

There was a brief silence on the other end before the voice that answered became firm.

“Hello. This is the residence of Mr/Mrs Vanderleigh. And I believe you are referring to Sergeant Adrian Vanderleigh?”

Alyssa’s expression changed slightly.

The voice continued, “He has been exonerated of his sentence and decorated as a dutiful and honourable soldier of the country. You will address him with respect, not with a word such as ‘fugitive’. Calling a serving member of the country’s military a fugitive is an insult to the country. Thank you.”

The line went dead.

Adrian looked at Alyssa, then at Reese, and saw the shock spread across both their faces, But what hurt him was the telephone itself and the realisation that Alyssa had known exactly how to reach Blackridge.

She had called them without hesitation. She knew their number and knew how to get through to them, which meant she could have called at any point during the three years he had been imprisoned there. She could have asked about him. She could have found out whether he was alive, whether he was safe or what had happened to him. But she had never once made that call.

“How did this rat become a soldier?” Reese suddenly snapped, his face twisted with anger. “He’s supposed to be rotting in that prison.”

Alyssa immediately moved closer to Reese and wrapped her arms around him, leaning against him as though Adrian wasn’t even standing there.

“So what?” she said dismissively. “A mere low-ranking soldier shouldn’t ruffle your shirt in the slightest. I don’t even know what he’s here for, but I’m filing for divorce anyway.”

She looked towards Adrian again.

“Do you know what people will say? Do you know how many deals I’ve lost because my useless husband is a criminal in Blackridge? I can’t continue being seen with you anymore, Adrian.”

Adrian’s face became completely expressionless.

The words should have angered him, but after everything he had heard, his emotions seemed to retreat somewhere deep inside him. He had spent three years imagining his return, imagining the moment he would finally stand before Alyssa again, but none of those fantasies had prepared him for this. He had returned believing he was coming home to his wife, only to discover that the woman he had been holding onto in his mind had already discarded him.

“I need the divorce papers within twenty-four hours,” he said quietly. “Alyssa, call your lawyers.”

He turned his back on them and began walking towards the exit. For a moment, Alyssa seemed stunned by his response. Then she burst into laughter behind him.

“What? What does a useless piece-of-shit jailbird husband like you think this is?” she mocked. “Do you think the divorce is up to you? What would you even do without me?”

Adrian didn’t stop.

“You’ll regret this within twenty-four hours after signing, Adrian!” Alyssa shouted, clearly trying to provoke some reaction from him.

He continued towards the door without looking back.

“You arrogant piece of shit!” she yelled, following him. “Did you expect an apology from me? You live under my roof, eat my food and survive because of me, and you have the nerve to ask me for a divorce?”

Adrian finally reached the doorway and stopped for a moment before turning his head slightly towards her. His face remained cold and unreadable, and there was no trace of the man who had once begged for her love.

“Bye, Alyssa.” Then he walked out. He had barely made it past the estate gates when the sound of engines approached from behind.

Four exotic cars came to a smooth stop along the road. Adrian slowed. The doors opened almost simultaneously.

Four men in perfectly tailored black suits stepped out of each vehicle. Then, to Adrian’s disbelief, they bowed.

“President Vanderleigh.” Adrian’s brows furrowed.

Before he could respond, two familiar figures stepped out from the first car. Adrian recognized them immediately.

The two trustees.

The same men who had appeared out of nowhere three years ago and presented him with the ancient betrothal contract that had bound him to Alyssa Auremont.

But this time, they weren’t carrying marriage documents. They walked toward Adrian with solemn expressions.

All sixteen of them stopped before him and bowed deeply. “Congratulations, President Adrian Vanderleigh-Rothmere.” They chorused. 

Adrian stared at him. “…What did you call me?”

The second trustee smiled.

“President Adrian Vanderleigh-Rothmere, Chairman and rightful heir of Vanderleigh-Rothmere Global Holdings, the world’s largest private conglomerate.”

Adrian’s expression slowly changed. The first trustee continued. “Your thirty-year protection period has officially come to an end.”

“For twenty five years, the Vanderleigh name, your inheritance, and your true position were kept hidden from the world to protect you from those who sought to harm you and  control the empire through you.” He bowed again. 

“Today, that protection ends.” Adrian stood completely still. The trustee extended a black folder toward him.

“Your grandfather’s final instructions were structured and clear. The moment you completed the protection period, everything belonging to the sole heir Adrian Vanderleigh was to be returned to him.” 

He looked Adrian directly in the eyes. “The Vanderleigh Empire is yours now.”

Adrian looked down at the folder, then at the fourteen men standing behind the trustees. He couldn’t believe his ears. The Vanderleigh Empire, worth a trillion dollars—the very empire his humble late father had always insisted had nothing to do with them, claiming their shared surname was merely a coincidence was actually a lie, and he was the sole heir to this trillion dollar fortune.