Chapter 4

Denise panicked.

As she was being escorted out of the premises, she still pointed her finger at me and screamed insults more colorful than the rainbow.

"Just you wait and see, Aiken Collins! I'm never going to agree to the divorce! I'm going to utterly destroy you!"

Finally, the company lobby was quiet once more.

I turned around and lowered my head apologetically at Paul.

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Wellington, for causing trouble for the company."

However, Paul just patted me on the shoulder and said, "Welcome back to the team, Aiken."

Over the next few days, Denise still tried to call me time and time again.

She lowered herself and begged me to come home. Meanwhile, Nancy was also crying on the other end of the line as she called out to me.

However, I know that they were lying. Their so-called repentance was nothing more than another trick to make me go back as their cash cow once again.

I ignored all of their calls.

One day, however, someone suddenly broke down the door of my rented apartment with a kick.

Dmitri showed up with a baseball bat in his hand as he strode into the place. Denise was right behind him, looking as angry and indignant as ever.

"Did you think you could hide, Aiken?"

Dmitri then smashed the only broken table with his baseball bat and cursed. "If you don't want to die today, then you'd better pay off the loan now, do you hear me?"

He didn't even bother looking straight into my eye as he spoke arrogantly. In his eyes, I was still the soft-spoken, useless piece of trash who would never fight back.

When Denise saw that I didn't say anything in return, she looked at me with a faux-pitiful expression and said, "Aiken, we've discussed this before.

"If you'll just drop to your knees and beg us for mercy and forgiveness, and pay off all of the outstanding repayments, we'll forget about the past and even let you come home to continue serving us."

I laughed coldly and remained seated by my bed without moving. I gripped the penknife I used for sharpening my pencils as I stared at them with an eerily calm gaze.

"Get out."

Dmitri was shocked. Then, he burst into laughter.

"Did you hear that, Denise? This piece of trash just told me to get lost!

"It seems like he's going to need some convincing instead!"

Dmitri raised the bat in the air, crashing it down toward my head.

"I'm going to break both your legs today! I wonder how long you can hold on."

If this had been in the past, I would have put up with the hit for the sake of keeping peace in the family.

But now, I had had enough.

I ducked sideways and kicked Dmitri right in the stomach. Before he could come back to his senses, I grabbed a handful of his hair and pinned him right on the ground.

Then, I unsheathed the penknife and pressed the blade against his pulsing jugular vein.

"Try moving if you dare," I said.

Dmitri was so scared he nearly peed his pants.

Denise screamed and rushed up to us, trying to pull me off.

"Aiken! If you dare to lay a finger on Dimi, I'm never going to forgive you!"

I chuckled coldly. "Scared now?

"Since you're all here, let's make things clear."

I stared at Denise and spoke slowly and clearly. "The 10,000 dollars from Dad's kidney sale, and all of the 80,000 dollars of my savings I'd transferred to you over the past few years—those were what paid for the down payment of Dmitri's two mansions.

"Since they're joint assets, I have the right to demand back every single penny of it.

"You have three days. You will either pay me back all the money you owe me, or you will sell the mansions and pay me back instead.

"Or else, I will see you both in court."

With that, I released Dmitri, who had turned into a pile of mush in my hands.

He held a hand to his neck and scrambled out of the door on his knees, leaving Denise behind as she gritted her teeth in anger.

"Just you wait, Aiken! You want the money back? In your dreams!"

I watched as both of them stumbled out of my apartment in a disheveled state. Then, I called up my lawyer.

"Mr. Lagerfeld, apply for property preservation immediately."

There was a long silence on the phone.

Finally, Samson Lagerfeld spoke.

"It's too late, Mr. Collins.

"Just half an hour ago, your wife mortgaged both the mansions to a loan shark company at a very low price for five million dollars in cash. The whereabouts of this money is currently unknown…

"Also, she just countersued you for domestic abuse, providing the police with doctored footage of you attacking her with a knife. The police are already on their way."

Before I could even grasp what was happening, I could hear loud police sirens stopping right outside my building.