Ex-wife laughed as she divorced him and left only the ruined mansion for him. In the courtroom, Claire’s laughter cut through Marcus like glass. She’d taken his company, his homes, his accounts, leaving him only the crumbling mansion on Millstone Hill.

That dump. He can keep it. She smirked, certain she’d destroyed him.

What she didn’t know was that years earlier, Marcus had turned that worthless house into his hidden fortress, stacked with cash, gold bars, and jewels no court could touch. Months later, while her empire drowned in debt, Marcus stepped back into the spotlight, stronger than ever, before we go any further.

The gavel cracked like a snapped bone, and the room flinched. Marcus Hayes didn’t. He stood there, shoulders squared, the kind of stillness you get when you’ve already bled out everything that can bleed.

Fluorescent lights hummed overhead, cold and merciless. The judge read out numbers, assets, valuations, words that used to mean late nights and payroll and pride. Today they sounded like inventory being rolled off a loading dock.

Across the aisle, Claire crossed one leg over the other, smooth casual, like she was settling into a flight upgrade. A tiny smile crept at the corner of her mouth. Her lawyer slid a paper forward.

Pens clicked. Someone in the back whispered. What’s up with this guy lost it all? Another voice, lower, leaning into the gossip.

He married up, man. Married wrong. Wow.

Marcus pinched the ridge of his tie, not to tidy it, just to feel something. His palms itched. The air tasted like dust and old files.

He glanced down at Jasmine, ten years old, chin tucked into the collar of her sweater, trying to be invisible. Her small hand folded around two of his fingers, and he locked his jaw so the emotion didn’t leak where cameras could drink it. The court awards the petitioner controlling interest in Hayes Innovations, subsidiary holdings, primary residences in Rivercrest and Lakeview, liquid accounts totaling.

The list didn’t end. It just dissolved into a hiss. Then, that last line, dry, routine, lethal, except the secondary property on Millstone Hill…