My Wife Hates Me Until I Become A Billionaire

Chapter 2 A Hundred Million Dollar Business

The Eisenhardt sisters, with the notable exception of Lindsey, were not at all pleased with Gabe.

Lyanna elbowed her sister Lisa, hissing softly, "Look, Sis. Look at how he misbehaves even towards Mum!"

Linda peeled a longan and stuffed it into her mouth and quipped, "I really fail to understand how you managed to put up with such a filth until now, Lisa."

"I would have long kicked him out of the house already."

A tinge of forlorn desolation wiped across her eyes for one fleeting instant. There was once upon a time when she herself was smitten with the handsome young man when they first met.

But she could so remember how disappointed she was when she heard about how poor he had become.

Her sisters were all matched with husbands with adequate if not remarkable backgrounds while she had had to contend with a sorry lame excuse of one.

She loathed all of it, hating how her parents had agreed to this engagement so early.

She regretted all of it, bemoaning that she should have found a proper boyfriend before she came back from her studies abroad.

She cursed all of it, that even after five years, her husband had not managed to reach her expectations after all.

For five years, Lisa had waited and after five years of looking forward to some sort of change, she was greeted with nothing but disappointment and anguish.

There was no point hoping to make a silk purse out of sow's ears.

"Nonsense, I think Gabe is a good brother-in-law. He's sincere and true to Lisa and is so much better than those rich and useless playboys."

Lindsey interrupted suddenly, speaking on Gabe's behalf.

Lyanna and Linda stared at her for one second before one of them got up to poke at her nose playfully.

"Silly girl. Just wait till you grow up. A husband and wife need money or you'll have no happiness, so stop having those girly dreams of yours."

While the sisters talked, the three brothers-in-law were sharing a chat of their own.

Francis Connor didn't speak a word. He despised Gabe from the bottom of his heart.

"Just look at this piece of filth. A useless brute."

Francis thought quietly, narrowing his eyes at Gabe like he was an insect.

He took out a beautiful present - a box wrapped in brocade silk and slid it across the table towards Regina.

"This is something I got for you during my business trip abroad, Mum. I hope you'll like it."

Regina accepted the gift, beaming at him before she scowled, "It's good that you remember me. Unlike some people here..."

She gave Gabe a scornful glance but Gabe stared at her straight in the eye.

That made her avert her eyes and she looked elsewhere.

She opened the little box and gasped with surprise and joy.

It was a small but ornate statuette of the Bodhisattva Guanyin carved from white jade.

As white as milk and glistening like the moon, the little white statuette looked so lifelike as if it was a living object. One could almost swear that the carving of the robes looked so real that they could almost flutter. Without any doubt, it must be a work of art of tremendous value.

Regina just couldn't let go of her new prize that was smooth and solid.

The Eisenhardt sisters, attracted by the exquisiteness of the white jade statuette, joined in as well, each of them full of heartfelt praises.

Linda was beaming so broadly and proudly.

"Francis knows how much you love to collect jade, Mum. He went through great trouble to choose this for you. It's pure white nephrite jade and the craftsmanship is top-notch."

"Splendid. It looks really splendid! Heavens, it looks just so divine!"

Francis knew his mother-in-law would be pleased. He stole a glance sideways and spied Gabe and Lisa sitting in a corner. His eyes flashed with glee as he suddenly had a devious idea.

"So what do you think about this gift, Gabe? Swell, isn't it?"

Gabe did not anticipate that Francis would suddenly toss a question his way. He nervously nodded and agreed how beautiful the statuette was, echoing everyone's sentiments.

"Then surely you know how much this has cost me? After so long with Lisa, I'm sure you've learned a thing or two?"

Everyone present could hear how vicious he sounded.

Such a venomous message with homonymous intentions: not only was he implying that Gabe was worthless and incompetent, but he was also trying to show everyone how much of an ignorant clod Gabe was if the latter failed to guess the price of the gift.

Gabe would once again play the fool and everyone could have more fun teasing him.

Regina peered at Gabe, knowing that he didn't know how much the statuette cost. But he was still his son-in-law, no matter how she loathed that fact, and her daughter's husband.

Then she had an idea to change the subject.

"All right, enough guessing games for now! Dinner is ready! Let's go!"

Only Francis was not about to give up and let Gabe go. He began to insist for Gabe to guess the price of the Guanyin statuette.

All eyes were on Gabe when suddenly, inspiration struck and he found an answer.

"A Guanyin statuette as elegant as this must be kept carefully to ensure blessing and fortune to the house. Is it right for us to value its worth base on money? Isn't it impiety to the greatness of the Bodhisattva? Surely you can concede that Her blessing and benedictions are priceless."

Those words took everyone by surprise.

Lindsey was the first to break out of the stupor by clapping and cheering, praising his witty response.

Philip too gave him an approving look, quietly flashing him a thumbs-up. Not a fan of Francis Connor, Philip had only refrained from berating his elder brother-in-law for the sake of harmony.

The rest of the Eisenhardt sisters and Regina were flabbergasted. None of them expected him to be able to answer with such acute ingenuity.

Apparently, that included Francis himself. Embarrassed for one fleeting second, he mumbled feebly, "Just admit that you don't know how much it costs, damn it. Spare us all those farcical answers. Join me for one trip abroad and you'll see how much you have yet to learn—"

That displeased Lisa. She cut Francis off, scoffing loudly, "So if everything has a price, Francis, isn't that pretty vulgar of you?"

Regina heard the sparks of an argument coming and she interfered, "All right, that's enough. Whatever its cost is, Francis was only being nice by giving me the statuette as a present and I love it!"

"By the way, Mrs. Hughs, tell the kitchens that we're having dinner soon."

"Where's Dad?" asked Linda.

"No need to wait for him. He's away on a business trip. It's just us tonight."

The table was soon laid full with dishes of sumptuous delicacies.

Everyone took their seats. Regina sat at the head of the table with her daughters all sitting on her left and her sons-in-law on her right.

The eldest son-in-law should be sitting beside her, followed by the second and the third in order of seniority.

Hence, Gabe was supposed to sit in the middle. But Lyanna had Philip changed places with Gabe, causing the latter to sit in the most junior seat.

Lisa looked similarly unhappy at the arrangement, but she proffered no objection at all to defend her husband.

Gabe could only swallow his anger, although he could feel that his rage was inching towards explosion.

So began the dinner, shrouded by an atmosphere of disquiet and trepidation.

After a few rounds of drinks, Lyanna had something to announce.

As it turned out, Phillip was going to be promoted to full professor, making him the youngest professor at Federnstadt University.

Phillip could only scratch his head, smiling sheepishly.

That filled Regina with joy. The Eisenhardts were rich, but to have a top intellectual such as Phillip in the family would bring great pride and respect.

Her daughter had chosen her husband well and she was happy that she did not misjudge him last time.

"That is good news indeed! The second good news of the day! Tell your father about this. I'm sure he'll be happy for you!"

Her eldest son-in-law was blessed with great wealth while her third was a richly-gifted academician.

That reminded her of Gabe, her useless second son-in-law.

Regina's face squirmed with annoyance. Quietly, she muttered, "Learn from your sisters, Lisa. Look at how well they helped their husbands. You could take a leaf from their books."

That was the straw that broke the camel's back and the spark that set alight the tinderbox.

He stood up abruptly, glaring at her with eyes so wide that they look like saucers. Hatred and rancor blazed in his eyes as he recalled the humiliation and contempt that he had tolerated all these years while his knuckles cracked as he balled his hand into fists.

He would have flipped the whole table in his rage and caused some noise and mess to put an end to this charade that they called a family dinner altogether.

But his final shred of sanity and rationale held fast, preventing him from doing so. A wave of the sourness, bitterness, and anger that he had felt swept through him. Right now, leaving this place was all he wanted to do.

"What on earth is wrong with you?! Sit down this instant! Or are you not listening?!"

"Look at your man, Lisa. What sort of behavior is this!? How rude!"

"There's no need to lose your temper even if you can't afford to buy Mum a present. Come see me at my office; we have openings at the garage."

Amid the throes of the rising crescendo of his fury, he could hear harsh beratement, jeering, and loud, sarcastic sighs...

He stole a look at Lisa, hoping to see or hear something from her on his behalf. They had been married for so many years and he expected something from her at least.

But Lisa merely kept her head down, eyeing her bowl intently as she scooped some food into her mouth while she chewed quietly.

Whatever love he once had for her withered at that moment.

Gabe no longer felt any reason to dawdle his life here.

He removed his shirt – the one thing that Lisa had bought him.

And without so much as a look back, he stormed out of the estate.

Regina's hands were shaking with indignation as she said, "What was that?! Goodness me! What an ungrateful wretch! We've been paying for everything he's using and eating, and how dare he disrespects me so! What a worthless ingrate!"

"Please, Mum, just stop!" Lisa threw her spoon and the porcelain tableware clattered loudly in the bowl. She got up from her chair and stomped up the stairs, ignoring her mother's pleas to come down no matter what.

So ended what should have been a happy and warm dinner at the Eisenhardt estate.

...

Gabe did not know where he should go to. Still reeling with disbelief after what happened, he himself was at a loss of what to do.

He found a little tavern by the side of the road, where he found a table inside and he ordered some food, ready to drown his sorrows by drinking all night.

He was thirsty; he had not even a single drop of water the whole night.

He sighed long and hard, savoring the freedom from leaving the Eisenhardts. It had been so long since he could breathe so easily.

One bottle after another, he slowly became drunk.

Lights from the headlamps of passing vehicles wheezed by outside the windows. Gabe faintly noticed the silhouette of a person clad in a dapper, sleek suit coming in the door.

Then the stranger stopped at Gabe's table and he asked a question: is this seat taken?

Gabe shook his head.

The stranger sat down.

Gabe grinned, thinking that this stranger only wanted a free drink. He called a waiter to bring another set of tableware and he filled the man's glass himself.

"Drink up! Drinks are on me!"

The man smiled without a word, lifting his glass in a toast.

"So... What brings the second son-in-law of the proud and dignified Eisenhardt family to a little tavern in such hinterlands?"

Gabe snorted. So even out in the sticks, he could find people jeering and laughing at him.

The mouthful of spirits in his mouth no longer felt tasty.

Gabe left a hundred dollars on the table and he got up to leave. He has no mood at all to bandy words.

"So you're gonna leave just like that? What are you going to do when you sober up tomorrow morning?"

Those words struck a chord. He's right, thought Gabe. Come the next morning when he would be waking up sober, he'll find himself no different from a homeless bum.

Feeling morbidly amused, Gabe allowed his legs to slack and he slid down on the ground right outside the door of the tavern. He burped and gazed up into the starry night sky, feeling at an utter loss of what he should do.

The man came out and sat down beside him. Patting Gabe's shoulder, the stranger whispered into his ear, "How would you like to rebuild your life? I have a business proposal."

Gabe might be tipsy, but he was still very much alert. "This man's a swindler!" he thought.

He shoved the man's arm away and berated fiercely, "I'm nothing but a poor man now! So if you don't mind, be on your way and leave me alone!"

The man was not angry. Calmly, he said, "And that means you have nothing that I would be interested to cheat, innit?"

That struck him like a gong. He was right, Gabe thought, sobering up almost instantly. Without even two pennies to rub together, he really did have nothing that any swindler could have been interested in.

He probed further. "What sort of business are we talking about?"

The man raised his index finger.

"Ten thousand?"

"Add another four more zeros at the back and read it out loud."

"Wait, isn’t that a hundred million?!"

The stranger nodded and confirmed Gabe's realization that made his jaw drop.

"A hundred million dollar business."