After Six Months of Silence My Ex Wants Half My Demolition Fortune

The moment the demolition notice came down, Zane Vance rose from the dead.

This was the same man who, after I caught him cheating, had thrown a tantrum out of sheer embarrassment and subjected me to a month of radio silence. Now he stood before me clutching a bouquet of half-dead roses, wearing reluctance like a cheap cologne.

"Something as huge as your family getting a demolition settlementwhy didn't you tell me?" His tone dripped with entitlement. "We've been together for years. I've long considered you my wife, so the replacement housing your family receives must be split with me. I want ten units."

I blinked.

For a moment, words failed me completely. In my book, the silent treatmentespecially one lasting a monthwas synonymous with a breakup.

But Zane didn't give me a chance to speak.

With the confidence of a man holding a royal flush, he shoved the wilted flowers into my arms and barreled forward. "Monday is the day after tomorrow. I'll wait for you at the Civil Affairs Bureau. We'll get the marriage certificate done immediately so it doesn't affect the housing allocation."

A pause. He adopted what he probably thought was a benevolent expression.

"Me telling you to marry me and split the property isn't me scheming against you, Sara. I'm helping you secure more assets. Don't overthink it."

Staring at that smug, victory-assured face, something broke loose inside my chest.

I couldn't help it.

I laughed.

He only knew my family was involved in a demolition projectdid he not realize the property being demolished actually belonged to my *husband's* family?

I tried to suppress it, but the absurdity was too potent. A snort escaped, followed by a peal of laughter that left me gasping for air, tears pricking at my eyes.

Zane's expression slowly curdled. We had known each other since kindergartenchildhood sweethearts, technicallyso he recognized the mockery in my voice instantly.

"Sara Delgado, what is this act?" he snapped. "You deliberately blocked me on WeChat and cut off all contact just to force me to come propose in person, didn't you? I waited under this blazing sun for five hours, and this is how you treat me?"

I wiped a tear of mirth from my eye and covered my nose. "I was wondering where that sour stench was coming from. Thought someone had dumped rotten pickles on the road."

I looked him up and down.

"Turns out, it's just you."

Zane bristled, anger flaring across his features like a brushfire.

"Is this because I ignored you for a few months? Do you still not realize where you went wrong?"

*I* was wrong?

I pointed a finger at myself, incredulous. Zane nodded as if explaining basic math to a toddler.

"Of course you were wrong," he declared. "I admit, privately contacting your best friend was a mistake, and being alone in a room with her was inappropriate. But you? Dragging relatives and friends from all three families over with gongs and drums to catch us? Was that right?"

He stepped closer, voice climbing. "Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for me? You scared me half to death! I had to go to the hospital multiple times. I even had to leave the province just to recover from the trauma. You caused all of that. That is why I gave you the cold shoulder!"

Looking at him now, I honestly couldn't fathom how I had stayed with Zane Vance for so long.

I knew his type. The more I argued, the more he would twist it into me "admitting my mistakes" and begging for forgiveness.

So I simply raised my left hand.

The diamond caught the light, throwing tiny rainbows across his stunned face.

"Zane, a month of silence is a breakup," I said flatly. "We're done. In fact, we've been done for a while. I'm already married. If I go to the bureau with you, I'd be committing bigamy."

He stared at the ring, expression blank with disbelief.

Understandable. I had always been cautious with relationships. Even though we grew up together, I had made him wait years before I agreed to date him.

But I never expected the shift. Once we were officially together, Zane changed. At first, I thought my standards were just too high. Then I discovered he was juggling two relationships, sleeping with my best friend behind my back.

That was the final straw.

Zane finally scoffed, a condescending smile playing on his lips. "You're smarter than I thought. Buying yourself a fake diamond ring to scare me?"

He shook his head slowly.

"Nice try."

"Sara, we've known each other since we were kids." Zane's voice dripped with false intimacy. "You aren't the type to have a shotgun wedding or betray true love. Besides, you love me too much. How could you possibly bear to leave me?"

I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt.

I reached for my phone, intending to pull up a photo of my marriage certificate. But Zane wasn't interested in evidence. He glared at the diamond on my finger and sneered.

"Did you assume I couldn't afford a ring, so you bought a prop to save face?"

A dismissive wave. "I won't fuss about the ring. With your family's demolition settlement, you'll be allocated plenty of houses and cash soon enough. But let's get one thing clear: after we're married, I manage the finances. If you want to spend money, you apply to me in advance. The days of you spending recklessly are over."

He puffed out his chest like a rooster who'd won a cockfight.

"And getting the certificate? That's not for meit's for you! Housing allocation is based on the household registry. If we marry, that's one more head count, one more allocation!"

He wasn't done.

"As for the ten units I demanded, that's just standard. Post-demolition assets are marital property. As a grown man, I can't live in a house with only your name on the deed, can I? How embarrassing would that be?"

My patience didn't evaporate.

It combusted.

"Zane, do you have brain damage?" I stared at him with unmasked disgust. "And did you miss the part where I said I already got the certificate? I. Am. Married."

To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure if Zane had ended up marrying my former best friend, Gabriella Jennings.

Back when I caught them, I was so blinded by rage that I lied to everyoneparents, aunts, cousinsscreaming that the two of them were attempting a double suicide. The crowd broke down the door, scaring the cheating pair half to death.

After I walked away from the wreckage, Gabriella's family nearly beat Zane into a coma. She'd had a fianc at the time, and the scandal caused her family immense loss of face. Rumor had it that Zane's family paid a hefty bride price and rushed a marriage just to quell the chaos.

Seeing me mention marriage again, Zane grew even more arrogant. He ran a hand through his greasy hair, slicking it back like some low-budget villain.

"See? You claim we broke up, you lie about being married, but you've been secretly keeping tabs on me the whole time. You know I got the certificate with her." A knowing smirk. "And you still say you don't love me?"

He stepped closer, lowering his voice conspiratorially.

"Yes, Gabriella and I got married, but that was only because you caused such a scene! But we have a deal. Once the divorce cooling-off period ends in a few days, we'll get the official divorce decree. Then I'll marry you. It won't affect the housing allocation timeline."

He wasn't finished. Of course he wasn't.

"Actually," he continued, looking self-righteous, "this is why I need ten units. If I marry you, I'm technically letting Gabriella and the child in her belly down. Half of those ten units will go to her as child support."

His gaze traveled down my body, turning predatory.

"Are you free right now? Perfectlet me in. I'll take a shower. We'll be husband and wife soon anyway. Let's see if we can get you pregnant quickly. If we add a baby to the registry, maybe we can scam the government out of another unit."

Bile surged up my throat.

Without a word, I lashed outdriving my foot hard into his groin. As he doubled over with a strangled wheeze, I slammed the door in his face and locked it.

One more second of looking at him and I would have physically vomited.

Outside, Zane was howling.

He rolled on the ground in agony but refused to leave. Between groans, he banged on the door, shouting loud enough for every neighbor to hear.

"Sara Delgado! We have a history! I just made a mistake that every man makesare you going to deny everything we had because of that?"

"I'll change! I really want to change!"

"You can't just throw away a relationship the moment there's a problem! You have to compromise! Can't you tolerate me just this once?"

I was too exhausted to open the door and argue, and I certainly didn't want to provide free entertainment for the neighbors.

So I called the police.

Zanea classic bully who crumbled before real authorityfled the moment the officers arrived. He left behind a pathetic "I'll be back!" as he scurried away like a rat caught in kitchen lights.

It didn't matter. I was moving anyway. He didn't know the address of my new home with my husband.

I wasn't worried.

Just as I predicted, Zane didn't dare ask around for my new location. Instead, he bombarded me digitally. He cycled through different phone numbers and social media accounts, sending me "little essays"walls of text thousands of words longevery single day.

Every message was a cocktail of deep, fake reflection and hollow apologies. Calling the police was useless; apparently, harassment via apology wasn't a high-priority crime.

I blocked every number.

Then the money started coming.

Zane began transferring funds to my bank account. The amounts were always specific: $0.13, $0.14, or $0.52numbers that sounded like "forever" or "I love you" in Chinese.

He sent so many micro-transactions that the bank flagged my account for suspicious activity and froze my cards.

That was it.

I snapped.

I compiled a PowerPoint presentation detailing every receipt, timestamp, and photo of his affair with Gabriella Jennings. I sent the file to him with a simple message:

Zane, I saved you some dignity by only telling our families. If you bother me one more time, I will upload this to every local forum and social media platform. The whole internet will know what you are.

Perhaps he realized I wasn't bluffing. The silence was immediate. Though he occasionally replied insisting he "must marry me," the harassment slowed to a trickle.

For a while, I stayed in, enjoying the peace of my new life.

But I never expected to run into him again so soon.

I went to my husband's office to deliver some documents and drop off his lunch. In the lobby, I collided with Zaneand he wasn't alone.

Gabriella, the friend who betrayed me, was clinging to his arm.

The moment they saw me, their eyes lit up. It was terrifying. Zane's eyes flashed with the golden gleam of greed, while Gabriella's glowed green with jealousy.

Zane closed the distance in two strides. "It really is you! I knew iteven though you talked tough, you still have me in your heart. You followed me here!"

He grinned, manic.

"You know the cooling-off period is over and I got the divorce certificate, so you came to find me to legalize our marriage, right? Sure. Let's go right now. Finally, my childhood wish is coming true."

Gabriella's expression was a masterpiece of conflicting emotions. She looked like she had swallowed a live fly, but she forced a smile and stepped forward.

"Sara." Her voice was sugary sweet, cloying enough to rot teeth. "I know I let you down in the past, but it's been so long. I hope you can forgive me. We can still be best friends. In the future, we'll all get along like one big happy family!"

In truth, I hated Gabriella far more than I hated Zane.

There is an old saying: *Sisters are like hands and feet; lovers are like clothes.* Clothes are disposable, but limbs are vital.

Before I ever dated Zane, I had asked for Gabriella's opinion. She had encouraged me to be with himall while secretly harboring feelings for him herself. If she had just been honest back then, I never would have looked at him twice.

I never suspected anything because I trusted her.

It was only when she got impatient and started sending me provoking messages that I realized the truth.

I looked at the two of themone delusional, one shamelessand scoffed.

I lifted the insulated bag in my hand. "You've misunderstood. I'm not here for you. I'm here to bring lunch to my husband."

The smiles faltered.

They didn't believe a word of it.

Especially Gabriella Jennings.

"Sara, no one understands your attitude toward relationships better than I do," she cooed, rubbing her swollen belly with a smug, self-satisfied air. "Get angry if you want, but are you really going to marry just anyone out of spite?"

Her gaze drifted down to her stomach, then back to me.

"Do you remember what we used to talk about? You said you might not want kids and joked that I should have one for you. Well, I jokingly agreed back then, but now" She patted her belly. "It's coming true."

Zane Vance stepped forward, eager to pile on. "Right. And remember last time I said I wanted ten apartments, and you got upset? Well, I've decided to change the plan."

He straightened his posture, chest puffing out like he was bestowing some great honor upon me. "After we get married, I'll get a vasectomy. We'll adopt the child Gabriella is carrying. That way, you can become a mother without any of the pain."

He wasn't done.

"And if you aren't satisfied with the gender, Gabriella and I can always have another one for you."

"Think of it like those period dramas you watch," Zane continued, his voice dripping with condescension. "You can treat Gabriella like a concubine or a kept woman. It doesn't matter. You'll be the one in chargethe main wife. *My* wife. That should be enough for you."

A pause. His expression shifted, turning grave.

"But in the future, you need to treat Gabriella better. For you, for me, and for the child... she really has sacrificed too much."

Their words were utterly fantasticalbordering on insanityyet their expressions remained dead serious.

I nodded slowly, feigning deep thought. Setting my lunch box on the side table to free my hands, I pulled out my phone and tapped the screen a few times.

"Alright," I said.

Zane and Gabriella blinked. Almost in unison: "What's alright?"

A bright smile spread across my face. "Zane, I know you want to marry me for the apartments, but I really don't want you to feel so wronged or pitiful."

I held up the phone. "So, I've thought it through. I'll give you ten villas as a wedding gift."

Their faces lit up with naked greed.

"Really?" they breathed.

"Of course it's real." I turned the screen toward them, displaying the order confirmation. "I even paid for expedited delivery. You should hurry homethese paper villas will likely be delivered early tomorrow morning."

It took a moment for the realization to hit.

The "villas" I had ordered were paper replicasfuneral offerings meant to be burned for the dead.

Their expressions snapped from delight to fury in a heartbeat.

"Sara Delgado!" Zane roared. "Don't push your luck. We've been together for so long; we were practically husband and wife already. I'm offering to make it legal, and you're throwing it in my face?"

"Yeah, Sara." Gabriella stepped closer, her sneer sharpening. "I'm giving you my child and my man. What exactly are you dissatisfied with?"

They grabbed at my arms, trying to physically corner me.

I froze. Struggling too hard wasn't an optionGabriella was heavily pregnant. If anything happened to her or the baby, they would pin the blame on me without hesitation.

*Should I call for security? Scream for help?*

A deep, commanding voice sliced through the chaos from behind me.

"What is the meaning of this?"

I turned.

Before I could say a word, Zane released my arm, his arrogance evaporating instantly.

"CEO... uh, sorry, sir. We'll leave right away."

Gabriella, sensing the shift in atmosphere, grabbed my hand and tried to drag me along. She lowered her voice to a desperate hiss.

"Even if you really got married, you can always divorce. How could some random husband be better than Zane? He probably only married you for the demolition compensation, too." Her glare burned into me. "Marrying Zane is the only safe bet. You know his roots; you know his bottom line!"

Zane echoed her in a frantic whisper. "Last time, the company suffered because you made a scene. You are *not* allowed to come here and cause trouble again. Even if you're getting apartments, I'm a grown manI can't be jobless."