My Deadbeat Ex Emptied Our Joint Accounts And Left Our Sick Baby For His Spoiled Mistress, But His Millionaire Mother Discovered His Secret Betrayal And Hatched The Ultimate Retribution

Inside the house, chaos erupted into full-blown screaming within seconds of the locksmiths drilling out the front deadbolt.

Vanessa was pacing across the imported Italian marble floor of the foyer, hurling porcelain vases into the hallway wall.

"Your mother?!" she shrieked, her voice reaching a piercing register that made Eric cover his ears.

"You told me your mother was a senile old woman living off a tiny pension in a retirement community!"

"You told me that you were the sole managing director of Vance Heritage Properties!"

Eric sat on an unpacked cardboard crate in the living room, running his trembling hands through his unwashed hair.

"She was supposed to stay out of my business, Vanessa! She hasn't touched the corporate accounts in seven years!"

"You lied to me, Eric! You told me you owned this house outright!"

Vanessa kicked an empty designer shopping bag across the floor, her face twisted in utter revulsion.

"I left my fiancé for you because you promised me penthouses, private club memberships, and an executive board seat!"

"And now I’m standing in a rental house with locks being drilled out while the neighborhood busybodies film us for TikTok?!"

Before Eric could formulate a defense, Vanessa’s smartphone began to buzz violently against the marble countertop.

The caller ID flashed with a single terrifying word: DAD.

Vanessa swallowed hard, wiped the mascara from her cheeks, and answered the call with a trembling voice.

"D-Daddy? Good morning—"

"What the hell have you done, Vanessa?!" Richard Kane’s voice exploded through the phone’s speaker so loudly that Eric flinched across the room.

"Daddy, please listen to me, there’s been a horrible misunderstanding with Eric’s mother—"

"Shut your mouth and listen to me right now!" Richard roared, slamming what sounded like a heavy glass down on an office desk.

"Barbara Vance just called an emergency meeting with the county zoning board twenty minutes ago!"

"She is the primary guarantor on our forty-million-dollar mixed-use development project on the East Riverfront!"

"She just informed the city council that she is withdrawing all financial backing and corporate endorsements immediately!"

"She cited a moral turpitude clause and gross character misconduct involving our family!"

Vanessa dropped onto the edge of the sofa, her hand shaking so hard she nearly dropped the phone.

"Daddy... she can't do that over a family dispute—"

"She just did it, you spoiled little idiot! The city commissioner just suspended our commercial building permits indefinitely!"

"My lenders are calling my office every thirty seconds demanding loan covenants and collateral verification!"

"And then Barbara Vance sent an email directly to the entire executive committee of the Country Club!"

"She attached bank statements showing that the degenerate you’re living with stole seventy thousand dollars from a woman undergoing an emergency C-section!"

Richard’s breath came in ragged, wheezing gasps over the speakerphone.

"The entire business community knows that my daughter is shacked up with a thief who abandoned a premature baby in the NICU!"

"Daddy, Eric told me his ex-wife was just a crazy stalker—"

"I don't give a damn what that pathetic fraud told you!" Richard screamed.

"If you are not out of that house within one hour, I am cutting off your trust fund, canceling your credit cards, and removing your name from my estate."

"Pack your bags right now, Vanessa, or you can sleep on the street with that deadbeat loser!"

The line went dead with a deafening click.

Vanessa slowly lowered the phone, staring at Eric not with passion or romance, but with pure, undiluted hatred.