The Billionaire Amongst Us

CHAPTER 10

It was very quiet in the estate. Across the room sat Aunty Elora, Lord Harrison—Kairo's aunt.

She was thought dead, and also a victim of the same fire that the DeLanceys had set to destroy the Dunes.

Besides her stood the Mayor of the town who was flanked by two guards carrying a heavy briefcase and a grim look.

Lord Delancey clutched the opened file with trembling hands, his eyes scanning the damning documents over and over again as if denial could rewrite ink.

Donald stood stiff beside him, lips white with fury. Lady DeLancey had collapsed into a nearby chair, murmuring in disbelief.

Celesta and Colette huddled at a corner beside Uncle Hadrian.

It was true. The heir they had humiliated, mocked, and tried to erase had walked among them all along.

Kairo the humble houseboy, was Lord Harrison Dunes, the last of a lineage they’d tried to burn out of history.

He was also the one who stole, from the family library, the will and legal documents.

Elora’s gaze swept across the stunned family before landing on Kairo, her nephew. Her face softened, eyes shining.

“My boy,” she breathed.

Kairo—Lord Harrison—stepped forward, and the two embraced. It was wordless, but the warmth that passed between them filled the courtyard more deeply than any speech could.

The Mayor stepped forward and opened the case. “The documents are legal.

Elora survived the fire and kept the Dunes’ heir hidden, fearing another attempt on his life.

She preserved everything, the family records, the deed to the land, the estate titles. All belong to Lord Harrison now.”

He turned to Lord Delancey. “By order of the council, the estate is no longer yours. And your family business is now under the control of Lord Harrison, and by virtue, Kairo.”

Donald felt a tug below his stomach. The family's wine business was his only hope of hitting it big and now it has been lost forever.

On instinct, he surged forward, pulling a pistol from his coat. “You filthy...!”

But before he could aim, the Mayor had drawn faster. A c***k split the silence, and the pistol clattered to the ground. One of the guards pinned Donald to the wall.

“Enough blood has been spilt,” the Mayor growled.

Delancey’s hand loosened, and the file slipped from his grip. He collapsed into a chair beside his wife. “It’s over…”

Celesta stood quietly in the corner, as pale as a ghost. Her eyes were fixed on Kairo, wide and wet with disbelief.

The boy she had once teased, the houseboy she thought beneath her.

All this time, he had carried a truth too heavy for his shoulders. Her voice broke as she whispered, “You were one of them…”

Kairo turned toward her. “Yes.”

A beat passed, fragile and painful.

“My family killed yours?”

He nodded. “Yes mi' lady. Yet, here I stand with vengeance and truth.”

She turned to her father.

"How could you do this, Father? And your sister, you knew?" She felt betrayed. "Uncle Hadrian, Mom, you all knew?"

She looked down, shame washing over her features. “I was cruel…”

“You were misled,” he replied, gently kneeling beside her.

"I love you and would always do," he confessed. "There's no place I'd rather soothe my pain than in your bosom."

Celesta finally met his eyes and in them, saw not judgment, but something warmer and enduring.

Her lips trembled into a small, shattered smile.

"I love you!"

Elora stepped beside Kairo and addressed the DeLanceys.

“You destroyed my family.

You murdered innocents. But my nephew chose to walk into your home not with fury, but with patience.

He earned with grace, everything you had denied him."

Delancey didn’t respond; there was nothing left to say.

"And we've gathered enough evidence to lock you and your family away for years." She added.

"My brother, bless his soul, did not deserve such cruelty from you. He took you as his friend, brother and business associate; but you decided to bring chaos and deceit. But why?"

Delancey lowered his gaze, his countenance fazed, and guilt and remorse washed over him. It was over, they had lost.

Now he'll have to face the law, and that was his fate. He sighed.

And as dusk deepened, the Mayor declared the estate’s transfer and nodded solemnly to Kairo.

The truth had come. Blood had been spared, at least for now.

And as the estate doors creaked open behind him, Lord Harrison Dune walked through them, no longer the houseboy in an aproned shirt, but the heir to Lord Dune Wycliffe the second.

Beside him, Celesta followed, her heart still breaking but her steps uncertainly toward healing.

The house that once tried to bury his name now echoed with the footsteps of the man who could no longer be erased.

* * *

A cold fluorescent light buzzed above as the shutter clicked.

Lord Delancey stood stiff, shoulders hunched, a placard clutched in his trembling hands.

His name, inmate number, and the charges—fraud, arson, conspiracy to murder —were printed in bold.

The camera flashed again.

Next came Lady Delancey. Her once-elegant hair was frayed, her eyes vacant, hollow.

The dignity she wore like armour now lay in ruins. She barely looked at the lens, too proud to cry.

Camera flashes.

Donald came next. His hair was rough and unkempt and his eyes had in them the spark of a man who would serve jail, get released, and get thrown back again into jail.

The camera flashed.

Uncle Hadrian’s expression was blank.

The smirk that once lingered in his smug posture was erased. He held the placard like a man accepting a final checkmate.

He had known this day would come, but never thought he’d be on the losing side.

The camera flashed again.

Last was Evelyn. Dressed in prison grey, she wore her charm like a fading perfume.

Her eyes darted sideways, still searching for a way out, a man to manipulate.

But there were no more seductions to be done, just truth.

The camera flashes.

Six photos; six lives shattered.

Their crimes burned into court records, their family name blackened by the truth.

And far from the cold halls of justice, the Dunes estate stood tall once more, rebuilt, restored, reclaimed.

A soft tap reaches Uncle Hadrian's left arm, “Uncle Hadrian!" He pauses to observe. "Uncle Hadrian!! Are you there?”

“ou, Ouch!” Uncle Hadrian snapped out of his reverie of lost thoughts to realise all faces staring at his expressionless face, like they struck gold on his face.

“Uh! Uhm.. sorry, I was lost in my thoughts. Something fishy is boiling. The last time I fell into hallucinations in the broad day, ill—luck struck us.”

He paused the sniff in the energy of the room and continued.

“Where’s Kairo?”