Chapter 2
PART 2:
Three months earlier, Scott had not been rich.
He acted rich, dressed rich, and talked like wealth was something he had earned, but the truth was simple.
He was a man living on credit cards, borrowed confidence, and Avery’s patience.
Avery had been the steady one.
She handled the bills.
She answered the late-night calls from hospitals.
She sat beside Scott’s grandmother, Eleanor Collins, during chemo appointments when Scott said he was “too busy with work.”
She cooked soup when Eleanor couldn’t eat.
She helped her bathe when the nurses were unavailable.
She listened to old family stories Scott had heard a hundred times and stopped caring about.
Eleanor loved Avery.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
But deeply.
“You have a loyal heart,” Eleanor told her once, squeezing her hand. “That is rarer than money.”
Avery never repeated that to Scott.
She knew he would roll his eyes.
Scott had always believed love was useful until wealth arrived.
Then love became disposable.
When Eleanor died, everything changed.
At the funeral, Scott cried for exactly six minutes.
Then, in the parking lot, he asked Attorney Carter, “When do we read the will?”
Avery heard him.
So did Carter.
The attorney’s eyes shifted, but he said nothing.
The will reading happened four days later.
Scott wore a navy suit, polished shoes, and a watch he couldn’t afford.
Avery sat beside him.
Attorney Carter sat across from them and read carefully.
The estate was large.
The Collins house.
Investment accounts.
A trust worth approximately seven million dollars.
Scott gripped Avery’s hand under the table when he heard the number.
Not from grief.
From greed.
Then Carter continued reading.
There were terms.
Conditions.
Trust provisions.
Eleanor had not left everything outright.
She had placed it in a trust with instructions.
Scott was to receive distributions only if he maintained the Collins family home, stayed free of fraudulent debts, and did not use the estate to harm or abandon the woman Eleanor called “the only person who treated this family like family.”
Avery heard that part.
Scott didn’t.
He had stopped listening after seven million.
He was already smiling.
Already imagining the car.
The watches.
The business investments he never had the discipline to run.
The life he thought he deserved.
Carter tried to explain.
“Mr. Collins, your grandmother included personal conduct conditions. You need to understand—”
Scott waved him off.
“I understand enough. The money is mine.”
Carter looked at Avery for half a second.
Avery looked down.
That was the first moment she felt something cold move through her chest.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Scott had not been waiting for a blessing.
May you like
He had been waiting for permission.
👉 And once Scott believed the money was his, the husband Avery knew disappeared almost overnight.
