Chapter 1
As soon as I pulled up to my mansion, Chloe, my wife, pinged me on SnapChat.
“Hey, hubby! I’m out with my girlfriends for a few days. If you miss me, you know we can always connect, virtually. 😉”
Chloe and I had been married for ten years. She was vain and a complete gold-digger, but in bed?
We were a perfect match. Even when we were miles apart, she’d make sure we connected, intimately.
She swore she was only mine and knew exactly how to drive me wild.
But deep down, I sneered. Playing around? She’d probably been busy warming other men’s beds for ages.
The next day, I blew off the invites from the city’s most powerful families.
I had a more important destination: the address on Brad’s wedding invitation.
As I stepped off my yacht, a massive, 10-foot wedding photo dominated the entrance.
Thousands of roses were meticulously arranged beneath it, forming giant letters: “Chloe & Brad: Forever Together.”
Brad stood in the center of our college classmates, soaking up their adoration like a king.
“Bro, Brad, you’re absolutely killin’ it! You actually landed a Lu family heiress!”
“The Lu family? They’re practically royalty! You’re set for life, man!”
“Brad, don’t forget us little people when you’re swimming in cash!”
Even Professor Davies, our notoriously stern college advisor, was practically fawning.
“Brad, you failed six courses in one semester, and yet, I still awarded you that scholarship. I saw it then! You were just too ‘cool’ to bother with exams, but I knew you had real-world hustle. You were destined for a massive glow-up!”
Brad puffed up with self-importance, his nose practically in the clouds.
But I just found it pathetic.
“Lu family heiress”? Chloe was an orphan.
Nobody special. Her real name wasn’t even Chloe Lu. She was just… Chloe Smith, born into nothing.
After we got married, she constantly complained about her ‘unrespectable’ past.
To make her happy, I pulled some strings and poof, she was a ‘Lu.’ I used my influence to grant her a new, powerful identity. I effectively made her a ‘Lu family heiress.’
And now, that gift was Brad’s biggest bragging chip.
I stepped forward. A few old classmates spotted me, their faces twisting with blatant disgust.
Noticing the yacht behind me, someone sneered, “Did he rent that yacht just to show off? Asher, did you take out a loan just to afford that rental?”
Others chimed in, laughing.
“Seriously, what’s with the act? Brad’s wife is a Lu family heiress. You’re not even in the same league as her, you pathetic loser!”
“Right? Why bother with this pathetic show-off stunt, renting a yacht, when you could just grovel for Brad’s mercy like the dog you are? What a waste of ego!”
The crowd erupted in jeers.
My voice was flat. “I didn’t rent it. I bought it. A billion dollars. Cash.”
The words hung in the air for a second, then several people doubled over, roaring with laughter.
Brad’s face turned scarlet. He snatched a champagne bottle from a nearby table and slammed it against my head.
“Stop trying to fool me, you ass! This is my wife’s yacht!”
“So that’s why you asked if she was really my wife. You’re her dirty secret, aren’t you? Her side piece! You leech! Being a sugar baby isn’t enough for you? You dare bring her yacht to my wedding to make a scene?!”
Blood trickled down my forehead, and the entire venue fell silent. Someone stammered, incredulous, “Brad, is he serious? Is this yacht really your wife’s?”
Brad scoffed, pulling a photo from his wallet. “Who else could afford something like this besides my wife?”
The photo showed two people in swimsuits kissing on the yacht. The stern featured custom couple art and engraved initials.
A few people circled my yacht, their eyes widening.
“Holy crap, it’s exactly the same!”
“Asher, you’re not even a man! Being a home-wrecker? Have you no shame?!”
Brad’s face was twisted with fury. “You disappeared for three years… was she hiding you away?”
At his words, everyone immediately looked at me with disdain.
“Remember how many rich women threw money at Asher back then, and he always turned them down? Guess the cash wasn’t enough for him. What a shameless loser.”
“Who knows how many sugar mamas he’s been milking dry? He’s probably got more STDs than dollar bills!”
“Being a home-wrecker is one thing, but to show up here, at our wedding? That’s just pure trashy audacity!”
Professor Davies and the other teachers looked absolutely disgusted. “You morally bankrupt individual! Don’t you dare claim you were ever our student!”
“I’m too ashamed to even know you!”
The wedding was being live-streamed. The commotion quickly drew all the cameras to me and Brad, the comment section exploding with hate. Insult after insult scrolled across the screen.
I ran a hand over the blood trickling down my face, my gaze locking onto Brad.
“You’re laying hands on people before you even know the full story?”
Brad’s arrogance swelled. “Yeah, I’m hitting you, you pathetic bastard. So what?”
With that, he barked at someone nearby to grab a can of spray paint. He snatched it, then started defacing my yacht, spraying haphazard lines across the hull.
“You’re a side piece! What right do you have to question me?!”
“ASHER IS A WHORE” blared in huge, ugly letters across the side of my yacht.
My voice was cold. “Destroying private property is a crime, you know.”
Brad scoffed. “Crime? What’s law got to do with it? My wife is a Lu family heiress! In this city, if I tell the cops to jump, they’ll ask ‘how high?’!”
“And you, you’re not just morally bankrupt and a home-wrecker! You’re parading around in my wife’s yacht!”
“After a piece of trash like you tainted it, I don’t even want this yacht anymore!”
He actually ordered the captain of a nearby vessel to ram mine.
The sickening crunch of glass and metal echoed across the water as a massive dent appeared in the hull.
“Brad’s going to be a Lu!” someone yelled from the crowd of classmates.
“We gotta teach this punk a lesson for Brad!”
A mob of them surged onto the deck, pouring corrosive liquids onto the yacht, scratching the paint, bashing the hull with anything they could find.
In no time, my yacht was a twisted, battered wreck.
I clenched my jaw, suppressing a tremor of rage.
“I advise you to stop now. Otherwise, the consequences will be far beyond anything you can imagine.”
Brad scoffed. “Consequences? Who do you think you are? My wife could crush you like an ant.”
Hearing this, the others laughed even harder, smashing with renewed vigor.
Suddenly, someone yelled, carrying a solid black, heavy-looking metal box. “This guy hides things so well! Is there something valuable in here?”
Brad snatched a small axe and brought it down, splitting the box open.
“What’s this? A crown? Must be fake gold, right? Some cheap trick, thinking he’s a king?”
I glared at him, a warning in my voice. “Don’t touch that. You can’t afford to pay for it.”
This was a priceless artifact, something I was meant to deliver to the national archives. I hadn’t yet processed it because I came straight to this wedding.
But Brad, hearing me, practically jumped in a fit of rage.
“What do you mean, I can’t afford it?! That’s hilarious!”
“My wife’s fiancé can’t afford your pile of trash? Who are you trying to impress?!”
He flung the crown to the ground, doused it in alcohol, and flicked a lighter.
The flames licked at the gold, but after a long moment, the crown remained utterly unharmed.
Someone’s voice, full of doubt, cut through the laughter. “That crown… it looks like… the Napoleon Coronation Crown. It could fetch billions at auction!”
Brad’s anger intensified. “Billions?! How could a side piece like him have that kind of money?! He must have stolen it from my wife!”
“So what if I turn it into junk right now? Trash like him deserves nothing but trash!”
He raised the axe again, smashing the crown until it was a mangled, unrecognizable mess.
I watched his furious, insane actions with a cold, detached gaze, saying nothing.
Trillions in assets? Laughable.
Chloe was always vain. After we got married, global limited edition haute couture gowns and custom jewelry? She owned every single piece. But she was still unhappy.
She hated being seen as ‘new money’ or some bumpkin because her ‘family’ had no real standing. To make her happy, I had her officially registered as a Lu.
But these idiots actually believed Chloe was a true Lu heiress, fantasizing about the Lu family’s trillions in assets.
With Brad leading the charge on the crown, the others were quick to follow suit. They rampaged through the yacht, tearing and smashing my other priceless collections.
I was about to intervene when my secure comms device buzzed to life. I answered immediately.
“Reschedule the meeting. Send my security detail to my location. Now.”
Brad’s cronies noticed my actions, snatched the device, and stomped on it repeatedly.
“You pathetic piece of trash, trying to call for backup, are we?”
“Laughable! Who’s he going to call? His ‘friends’ from the escort service? Don’t tell me a bunch of spineless pretty boys are coming to save you!”
“Seriously, you’re addicted to acting tough, aren’t you? We’re old classmates, we know what a loser you really are!”
“You’re a good-for-nothing! You actually think putting on airs will change the fact that you’re trash?!”
I looked at the shattered comms device, my voice sharp and deadly.
“I hope you’ll still be laughing this hard in a few minutes!”
Brad’s eyes bulged. He lunged, slamming his fist into my nose.
“Still trying to act tough now?! Your weak, pampered body is going to threaten me? I’m going to teach you a lesson today!”
I sidestepped, and Brad, propelled by his own momentum, face-planted onto the deck.
He scrambled up, enraged. “Everyone! Hold him down!”
Just then, someone held up a string of sandalwood beads. “This fell off the loser! Must be something valuable, right?”
My heart plummeted. My voice was a raw snarl. “Give that back!”
Brad snatched the beads, a cruel smile twisting his lips. “So tense? It’s just some cheap piece of wood. Is it an antique or something?”
I lunged for it. “It’s not valuable, but it’s important to me! Give it back now!”
My mother’s ashes were sealed inside those sandalwood beads. When I was a child, I was kidnapped.
My mother, to save me, bravely walked into the kidnappers’ hideout and offered herself in my place.
I watched, helpless, as she was chained to the ground, and the kidnappers, like savage beasts, unleashed their depraved cruelty upon her. When they were done, her body was drenched in blood, twisted into an impossible, grotesque angle.
After she died, I sealed her ashes inside that bracelet. It never left my wrist. I always felt like she was still by my side.
It was my only memento, my most sacred treasure. It was my red line, my absolute untouchable.
I would never allow anyone to take it from me!
Brad watched me, a triumphant, malicious grin spreading across his face.
“The more you care, the more I want to destroy it!”
He lifted it, making a show of tossing it forcefully into the sea. My vision blurred with rage.
“No! Just give it back, and I’ll do anything! Anything!”
Seeing my desperation, Brad laughed, his eyes glinting with pure malice.
“Alright, how about this? Get down on your knees and lick my shoes.
Then I might think about giving it back to you.”
A roaring static filled my head, my mind went utterly blank.
The metallic tang of bile filled my throat as I remembered my mother’s horrific death.
I squeezed my eyes shut, and slowly, painstakingly, lowered myself to the deck. With a numb tongue, I licked the filth from his shoe.
The cruel laughter spread through the crowd like a plague, but I barely registered it.
I urgently rasped, “Now will you give me back the beads?!”
“I said I’d consider it,” Brad chuckled. “Who said I’d actually give it back?”
He gave a sick smile, then slammed the beads onto the deck, shattering them into a million pieces.
“No!”
My eyes burned with unshed tears. I lunged, my fist smashing into Brad’s face!
“You deserve to die!”
Brad screamed, his face contorted in pain, as he spit out a mouthful of blood.
Just as I prepared to strike again, my old classmates rushed forward, pummeling me with kicks and punches.
“You got a death wish?! How dare you hit our Brad!”
“Brad’s going to be a Lu! Do you know who you’re messing with?!”
“That bracelet was probably just some payment from another sugar mama anyway. Just go service a few more rich old ladies, you can replace it, right?”
I clenched my fists, blood dripping from between my fingers.
“You will all regret this. I swear, I will make you pay a hundred times over!”
Piercing laughter erupted around me, laced with undisguised mockery.
“Pay a hundred times over? You’re telling jokes now?!”
“You’re a nobody! What else can you do besides mooch off rich women?! If you lick everyone’s shoes clean, maybe we’ll go easy on you!”
“You’re a homewrecker, preying on old classmates! You deserve to be gelded!”
Someone aimed a vicious kick at my knee, and I collapsed, hitting the deck hard. The mocking laughter swelled like a tidal wave, drowning me.
“Hahahaha, pathetic! He’s already on his knees! What a spineless loser!”
“If you crawl through our legs, one by one, maybe we’ll let you off, hahahaha…”
Professor Davies pulled out his phone, aiming it at my pale, bruised face.
“Look, everyone! This was our department’s ‘brain’ back then! Look at him now! I always knew he’d end up a total loser!”
Their sneering laughter stabbed into my eardrums like sharp needles.
I clenched the shattered fragments of the beads in my fist, the sharp edges digging into my skin. A desperate cough ripped through me, tasting of iron, mixed with flecks of blood.
The wedding live stream’s camera recorded my pathetic state, the comments section exploding with hate, insults scrolling past in a furious blur.
They stomped on me, grinding their feet into my ribs, the pain excruciating, bone-deep.
I bit down hard on my lip, the metallic taste of my own blood filling my mouth, and rasped out, “You will all regret this!”
Brad grabbed my hair, forcing my head up, and spat in my face.
“Still living in a fantasy world? Who do you think you are? I could piss in your mouth right now, and no one would stop me!”
The words had barely left his lips when a low, thunderous roar ripped through the air.
Hundreds of dark, predatory attack helicopters descended from the sky. Their doors slid open simultaneously, and fully armored special ops teams rappelled down in perfect synchronicity.
22
The sheer spectacle silenced the entire crowd. All eyes fixed on the formidable helicopter formation.