Chapter Five

Heavy, irritated footsteps thumped violently against the upstairs floorboards as Andrea came charging down the staircase, his designer shirt unbuttoned and his face flushed red. "Mom, what the hell are you screaming for?! Are you insane?!"

A second later, Susan strolled out from the master bedroom upstairs, casually smoothing down her rumpled silk dress and fixing her messy hair. She stepped down the stairs right behind Andrea, completely unbothered, her cheeks still warm and glowing.

Andrea marched into the living room, but stopped dead in his tracks, his nostrils flaring in utter disgust.

The apartment was an absolute disaster area. Flies buzzed lazily over a decaying tower of greasy takeaway containers stacked on the coffee table. In the kitchen sink, crusty plates, unwashed frying pans, and moldy coffee mugs had been piling up for three straight days, releasing a sour, rotting stench that drifted all the way into the foyer.

On the rug, Leo was throwing a violent tantrum, kicking his legs and screaming at the top of his lungs—completely abandoned while the two of them had been upstairs together.

"You're fucking up there while this house is a mess?!" Veronica barked, pointing a shaking, rage-filled finger at Andrea, then rounding on Susan. "Look at this place! Flies everywhere! Unwashed dishes! Neither of you has touched a broom since she left! Susan, why are you sitting there like a queen while that child screams his head off?!"

"I am not a maid, Mom!" Susan yelled back, walking past the screaming toddler without even looking at him as tears of bitter irritation welled in her eyes. "My skin breaks out into angry red hives from harsh detergent! Why are you screaming at me?! Andrea, tell Mom to leave me alone! Why aren't you calling a professional cleaning service?!"

"With what money?!" Veronica roared back, her voice cracking under the stress.

"With what money?" Andrea replied, waving his hand casually as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "The money Vanessa sent! Mom, please... I just had a lovely time with Susan. Did you get the snacks?"

Veronica stared at him, her jaw dropping in sheer disbelief before her eyes narrowed into dark, murderous slits. "This is the reason we are in this mess!" she shrieked, her voice shaking with violent rage. "You're sitting here lounging around, playing house with your sister, expecting Vanessa to keep paying for your life while you do nothing!"

"Mom, calm down!" Andrea scoffed, running a hand through his styled hair. "Did you get the organic snacks or not?!"

"Snacks?!" Veronica spat, her face turning a dangerous shade of crimson as she stomped over to the couch. "You're sitting here asking about organic snacks while our whole life is falling apart?! My credit card was declined at the register, Andrea! Kicked out! Humiliated in front of the whole neighborhood over groceries!"

"What?!" Susan blurted out, her eyes widening in pure shock. "Declined? But you said we still had unlimited credit!"

"Vanessa locked every single account!" Veronica shrieked.

Andrea threw his hands up in mild annoyance. "Mom, calm down! I told you already, Vanessa is just playing childish games with the joint accounts. She’ll unlock them by tonight. She always calms down after one of her little emotional episodes. She can't survive without me."

"She isn't playing games, you idiot!" Veronica roared, slamming her palm down on the arm of the sofa so hard that Andrea jumped. "She bought a house!"

"She did what?!" Susan asked, sitting up straight. "With what money?!"

"She bought the $2 million hilltop villa directly across the street!" Veronica screamed. "Paid in cold, hard cash! Double the asking price under her maiden name, Miss Axerold!"

Instantly, the screeching stopped dead in its tracks. The squabbling over dirty dishes, screaming toddlers, and ruined laundry evaporated into thin air.

Leo stopped crying, sensing the sudden, suffocating shift in the room. Susan froze, her mouth half-open, while Andrea stared out the glass balcony door toward the hilltop estate, his face as pale as a bedsheet.

"Two million... cash?" Andrea repeated, his voice barely a whisper as he stumbled toward the window.

He looked across the asphalt road at Vanessa’s estate—where heavy construction cranes and industrial trucks were already assembling under her command. The bitter internal rivalry inside the apartment instantly transformed into a single, unified wave of pure, desperate greed.

"Two million..." Susan breathed, her eyes lighting up with calculating sharpness. The disgust on her face vanished in an instant as she slid over to Andrea and wrapped her arms around her brother's waist from behind, pressing close. Her fingers brushed against Andrea's hip in a familiar, subtle motion—a silent boundary crossed between siblings who had been carrying on a secret affair right under Vanessa's nose for years.

"Andrea, you need to call a lawyer right now!" Susan urged, her voice dropping into an intense whisper. "You were married to her for years! Any money she spent right after filing for divorce has to be contested under matrimonial asset laws! You can easily sue her for half of that house!"

"She's right!" Veronica chimed in, stepping closer, her voice thick with righteous indignation. "She used our family's address for all her legal mail! We fed her and housed her under our roof for a decade! Even if you signed those ridiculous papers, she still owes this family support! She can't just hoard millions in cash while her own family goes hungry!"

"Wait... so she's actually rich?" Susan asked, a sinister, greedy smile spreading across her lips. "Andrea, if you get half of that, we can buy three villas! We can hire full-time maids!"

Andrea’s mind raced, calculating numbers at a dizzying speed. Half of two million? No... if he played his cards right, he could get every single penny back.

"Lawyers take too long and charge ridiculous fees," Andrea said, a dark, smug grin slowly replacing his previous panic. He smoothed down his wrinkled collar, pulling his phone from his pocket. "Vanessa has always been soft-hearted. She loved me for ten long years. This whole house, the divorce stunt... it's just a desperate cry for my attention."

"Are you sure?" Susan asked, clutching his arm tight. "What if she doesn't answer?"

"She will," Andrea replied smoothly, his bloated ego taking over completely. "She's probably waiting by her phone right now, waiting for me to apologize so she can hand over the keys."

"Call her right now!" Veronica demanded, leaning over his shoulder. "Put it on speaker so we can hear her crawl back!"

Meanwhile, directly across the street inside the climate-controlled master suite of her fortified estate, Vanessa was checking off digital inventory manifests on her tablet with mechanical precision.

* **500 cases of freeze-dried military rations:** Delivered and stacked in vault A.

* **10,000 gallons of purified water bladders:** Positioned in sub-basement B.

* **Dual-stage industrial solar generators & battery walls:** Installation in progress.

* **Heavy thermal insulation and closed-loop CBRN air scrubbers:** Sealed.

A sleek crate loaded with high-grade medical supplies, industrial antibiotics, and specialized cooling suits was currently being lowered into her subterranean garage.

Her phone chimed softly against the workbench.

*Andrea calling.*

Vanessa paused, looking down at the glowing screen. A cold, dark amusement curled slowly at the corners of her lips.

She could easily block him forever. She could let them starve in silence as the extreme-heat apocalypse approached and the grid collapsed. But where was the fun in that?

She wanted to hear the desperate, slick lies dripping from his mouth. She wanted to watch up close as their boundless greed drove them to tear each other apart, clawing endlessly for a treasure they would never be allowed to touch.

Vanessa swiped her thumb across the glass and brought the phone to her ear.

"Hello, Andrea," she said smoothly, her voice light, calm, and delightfully pleasant. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"