Se connecterOn Christmas Eve, my wife, Abigail Balmer, publicly announced her relationship with her forty-ninth boy toy. [My forever love, @Dwayne Porter.] [My forever love, @Abigail Balmer.] Then she turned to comfort me. "He just lost a dare game, that's all. Don't take it to heart." Everyone mocked me as the man who'd married into money, too spineless to fight back. But I never made a scene. What they didn't know was that I'd struck a deal with the System. Every time Abigail was unfaithful, one year of her lifespan would transfer to me. By my count, of the eighty years she should have lived, she now had exactly one left. All I had to do was survive until the New Year, and she'd meet her natural end. And I would walk away with our three children and inherit the Balmer family's trillion-dollar fortune.
Voir plusI took over the Balmer Group's operations, and things quickly settled into a steady rhythm.Six months later, Dwayne came back. He stormed straight into the Balmer Group's lobby."Brett! Get out here!"I'd just stepped out of the elevator, two executives and a secretary trailing behind me.He charged toward me, eyes bloodshot."You lied to me! Abigail never wrote a will at all! If I'd inherited everything, what would a hundred-million-dollar debt have mattered?"Hand over the CEO position right now. It should have been mine!"I laughed softly."I gave you a choice. You chose to walk away from it yourself."Dwayne's breathing turned ragged with rage, his chest heaving."I'm suing! That renunciation agreement was signed under duress! And that fake memory..."I raised an eyebrow and smiled."Seems like you could use a reminder of whether you signed that willingly, or under duress."Five minutes later, a screen on the side of the lobby lit up, playing back the footage of Dwayn
Suddenly, something occurred to him, and Dwayne's head shot up."The insurance. Abigail's accident policy names me as the beneficiary. Five million dollars. You can't take that away from me."I nodded calmly."That's right. The policy is valid."But as Abigail's legal husband, you've also inherited the couple's shared debts."I gestured, and Abigail's assistant, Denise Anders, stepped forward with a loan agreement."Ms. Balmer personally guaranteed a bank loan for one of the Balmer Group's subsidiaries," Denise said. "A total of one hundred and twenty million dollars. Here's the loan agreement and the guarantee contract. It was signed on December twenty-ninth, during the marriage."Dwayne's eyes went wide."This, this is a company debt! What does it have to do with me? I didn't even know about it!"We'd been married a week before she died. Why should I be the one carrying this debt?"I looked at him, unmoved."You knew you'd only been married a week when you showed up wantin
Late at night in the study, after Dwayne had left, Abigail took a document out of the safe and handed it to me. It was an Estate Distribution Agreement."Brett, I know the divorce is hard on you. Don't worry, I've had this notarized. Everything I own, the Balmer Group shares, the real estate, the investments, all of it goes to our three children."I took the document, my fingers trembling.Abigail patted my shoulder."I know what you're worried about. That Dwayne won't agree to divorce when the time comes, that he'll try to grab a piece of the estate."Don't worry. I know exactly what I'm doing. Our children, yours and mine, are the future of this family."The memory faded out.The living room fell into dead silence.Dwayne looked like he'd been struck by lightning, frozen in place.A few seconds later, he erupted."How could there be a will? That's fake!"It's forged! Abigail never once mentioned an estate agreement!"I stood up and pulled a paper document from my bag, unf
Everyone turned to look at me."Abigail's memories are the proof," I said calmly. "Lucent Dynamics can extract memory fragments from the deceased within twenty-four hours of death. One look, and we'll know the truth."The smugness on Dwayne's face froze."Memory extraction. What, what would that even prove?""Whether your marriage was ever real." I held his gaze. "Dwayne, are you brave enough for that?"His eyes narrowed, fists clenching. He was hesitating, calculating.Then he smiled."Sure, why not. Abigail and I loved each other for real. What do I have to be afraid of?"That night, the Balmer estate's living room had been turned into a makeshift courtroom, with lawyers, a notary, and police officers all present.A machine sat in the center of the room, connected to a tangle of thin wires. It was Lucent Dynamics' memory extraction device.A technician in white gloves attached electrode pads to Abigail's cold forehead.The screen flickered to life with static."Beginning






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