Chapter Five

Andrew thundered down the stairs, his heavy, irritated footsteps echoing through the upper floor. His designer shirt hung open at the collar, and his face was flushed.

“Mom, what the hell are you screaming about? Have you lost your mind?”

A second later, Susan emerged from the upstairs master bedroom. She casually smoothed her rumpled silk dress and tidied her tousled hair. She followed Andrew downstairs, apparently unbothered, her cheeks still warmly flushed.

Andrew entered the living room, then stopped short, his nostrils flaring in disgust.

The apartment was a disaster. Flies swarmed over the rotting garbage on the coffee table. Dirty dishes, unwashed frying pans, and moldy coffee cups had been piled in the kitchen sink for days, sending a foul smell through the hallway.

On the carpet, Leo was throwing a violent tantrum, kicking his legs and screaming. While the two of them had been enjoying themselves upstairs, he had been left entirely to his own devices.

“You’ve been busy with each other while this place falls apart?” Veronica shouted, pointing a trembling finger at Andrew before turning on Susan. “Look at it! Flies everywhere! Filthy dishes! Neither of you has touched a broom since she left! Susan, why are you sitting around like a queen while that child screams?”

“I’m not a maid, Mom!” Susan shouted, walking past the wailing child without so much as a glance. Tears of anger and frustration filled her eyes. “Those harsh detergents give me a rash! Why are you yelling at me? Andrew, tell Mom to leave me alone! Why don’t you hire professional cleaners?”

“With what money?” Veronica snapped, her voice hoarse with strain.

“With what money?” Andrew echoed, waving a hand as though the answer were obvious. “The money Vanessa sends, of course! Come on, Mom… Susan and I were having a nice time. Did you get the snacks?”

Veronica stared at him in disbelief, her voice trembling with fury. “This is exactly why we’re in this mess! You sit around doing nothing, fooling around with your sister all day, and still expect Vanessa to pay for everything!”

“Mom, calm down.” Andrew scoffed and ran a hand over his hair. “Did you get the organic snacks or not?”

“Snacks?” Veronica’s face reddened as she strode toward the sofa. “You’re sitting here thinking about organic snacks while our lives are falling apart! Andrew, my card was declined at the register! I was driven out of the store! The whole neighborhood saw me humiliated over a few groceries!”

“What?” Susan’s eyes widened. “Declined? But you said we still had unlimited credit!”

“Vanessa’s locked us out of every account!” Veronica shrieked.

Andrew raised both hands in irritation. “Mom, calm down! I told you, she’s playing childish games with the joint accounts. She’ll unlock them before tonight. She always calms down after one of her meltdowns. She can’t survive without me.”

“She isn’t playing games, you idiot!” Veronica slammed her palm against the sofa, making him jump. “She bought a house!”

“She did what?” Susan sat upright. “With what money?”

“She bought that two-million-dollar villa on the hill across the street! Cash! Under her maiden name, Axerold! She paid twice the other offer—Miss Axerold!” Veronica cried, almost breathless.

The room fell silent. The arguments over dirty dishes, the screaming child, even the discarded clothes seemed to fade into nothing.

Leo stopped crying, sensing the sudden, suffocating tension. Susan stood with her mouth half-open, while Andrew stared through the balcony windows at the estate on the hill, his face white as a sheet.

“Two million… in cash?” he repeated, barely audible, staggering toward the window.

Across the asphalt road stood Vanessa’s house. Heavy cranes and industrial trucks were beginning work under her direction. The hostility in the apartment abruptly gave way to pure, feverish greed.

“Two million…” Susan murmured, her eyes sharpening with calculation. The disgust vanished from her face. She walked over to Andrew and wrapped her arms around her brother’s waist from behind, pressing close. Her fingers brushed his side with the familiar, discreet intimacy of an affair they had carried on under Vanessa’s nose for years.

“Andrew, you need to get a lawyer right now!” she said urgently, her voice low and tense. “You were married for years! Anything she’s spent since filing for divorce should be recoverable under marital property laws. You have every right to demand half the value of that house!”

“She’s right!” Veronica stepped closer, her voice ringing with indignation. “She used our address for all her legal correspondence! We supported her and put a roof over her head for ten years! Even if you signed those ridiculous papers, she still owes this family for everything we’ve done. She can’t walk away with millions and leave her own family starving!”

“Wait… so she’s actually rich?” A sly, greedy smile spread across Susan’s face. “Andrew, if you get half her money, we could have three villas! We could hire a full-time maid!”

Andrew’s mind raced through the figures. Half of two million? No… if he handled this properly, he might be able to get all of it.

“Lawyers take forever, and their fees are outrageous,” he said. He smoothed the creases from his collar, his gaze still fixed on the villa across the street. “Vanessa’s always been softhearted. She’s loved me for ten years. She can’t suddenly stop caring. This house, this whole divorce farce—it’s all just her way of making me back down.”

“But she canceled my card!” Veronica was still too agitated to settle. “At the store, I asked her to pay, and she walked away in front of everyone. You didn’t see her attitude. She doesn’t even think she’s done anything wrong!”

“That’s because you were the one asking.” Andrew turned toward her, certainty returning to his voice. “She wants me to come in person. Yesterday, she asked for a divorce, and I didn’t try to stop her. I just signed. Of course she wants me to see how well she’s doing without us.”

Susan caught his arm and looked up at him. “So you’re going to sweet-talk her? Andrew, don’t forget how she’s treated us. Even if she comes back, you need to sort out the house. She can’t keep all that money to herself.”

“I know what I’m doing.” Andrew patted her hand, then removed it from his arm. “You two stay here. She’s still angry. If we all turn up, she’ll feel cornered. She’ll be more willing to listen if I go alone.”

Veronica glanced out the window and finally nodded. “Then go now, before she wastes any more money on those ridiculous projects. And don’t forget to find out where she got it all.”

Andrew said nothing more. He went to the entryway, picked up his keys, adjusted his hair in the mirror, and left. As far as he was concerned, Vanessa had deliberately bought the house across the street because she couldn’t bear to go far. All he had to do was show up and give her a graceful way out, and this farce would be over.

Meanwhile, in her climate-controlled suite on a street near the fortified estate, Vanessa was carefully checking her digital inventory on a tablet.

• 500 cases of freeze-dried military rations: Delivered and stored in Warehouse A.
• 10,000-gallon purified-water storage tank: Located on Basement Level 1 of Building B.
• Two-stage industrial solar generator and battery wall system: Installation in progress.
• High-performance thermal insulation and a closed-loop CBRN air-filtration system: Sealed to prevent contaminants from entering.

A neatly packed crate of advanced medical supplies, industrial antimicrobial agents, and specialized cooling suits was being delivered to her underground garage.

She was about to check what else she needed when the video doorbell screen beside her workstation lit up.

Andrew was peering through the gate into the grounds. Workers carried batches of supplies into storage, and newly unloaded equipment stood neatly beside the garage. Behind him, the apartment building looked cramped compared with the spacious villa. As he thought of the dirty dishes piled in the sink at home and the supplementary card that no longer worked, the smile he had prepared slowly disappeared.

She really intended to live here alone, paying people to move things and renovate her house while leaving them in that filthy apartment!

“Vanessa, did you buy all this?” The connection tone had barely sounded before he demanded an answer, his eyes still fixed on the grounds. “How much money have you been hiding?”

Vanessa didn’t answer immediately, but Andrew took her silence as confirmation. He moved closer to the camera and seized the bars of the gate. The more he watched the workers inside, the harder it became to contain his anger.

“You selfish, greedy woman! My mother couldn’t even pay for her groceries, and here you are spending two million on a house and hiring all these people to wait on you!” His voice rose sharply. “Did you plan this all along? Keep the money and live it up while you dump the rest of us?”

He shoved the locked gate. The lock rattled, and his expression darkened further.

“Vanessa, open this gate right now! Don’t think getting a divorce means you can keep all that money for yourself!”