Chapter 4: The Breaking Point
907 Words
Three days passed.
For three days, Barry lived a double life. During the day, he was the invisible servant. He cleaned toilets. He washed clothes. He cooked meals for people who didn't respect him. He took insults from Jonathan and cold treatment from Laura.
But at night, he watched his bank account grow to unimaginable numbers.
One hundred and fifty trillion dollars.
Two hundred and thirty trillion dollars.
Three hundred and five trillion dollars.
The trades kept executing automatically. Every second, his account grew by hundreds of billions of dollars. The system—whatever it was—never stopped. It kept buying and selling, making money out of nothing.
Or so it seemed.
Barry had tried to understand the trades better, but they were too complicated. They involved currencies from countries he'd never heard of, cryptocurrencies with strange names, and digital assets that shouldn't even exist. But they were making money anyway.
On the fourth day, something happened that almost exposed everything.
Barry was in the library, dusting the books, when Laura came in with her mother, Catherine. Catherine was Laura's biological mother, and she was just as snobbish as her daughter.
"Mother, I think Barry is stealing from us," Laura said casually.
Barry's entire body went cold.
"What makes you say that?" Catherine asked.
"He's been acting strange lately. Last night, I heard him typing on his phone at three in the morning. He looked excited about something. Servants don't get excited about anything unless they've stolen something to sell."
Barry's hands shook as he pretended to dust.
Catherine called him over. "Barry, come here."
He walked over slowly, trying to look calm.
"Have you been stealing from this household?" Catherine asked.
"No, ma'am," Barry said. His voice was steady, but his heart was pounding.
"Then why have you been acting strange?"
Barry's mind raced. He needed an excuse. He needed something that made sense.
"I've been playing a game on my phone," he said. "A mobile game. It's gotten me a bit excited because I'm close to winning the highest level."
It was a stupid excuse, but it was simple enough that they might believe it.
Laura rolled her eyes. "I told you, mother. He's obsessed with that game. It's pathetic."
Catherine looked disappointed. "Well, don't let it interfere with your work. You're here to serve, not to play games."
"Yes, ma'am," Barry said. "I'm sorry."
They left him alone, and Barry finished dusting with his heart still racing.
That night, he checked his phone.
His balance had reached five hundred and forty-two trillion dollars.
Five hundred and forty-two trillion.
It was so much money that Barry couldn't even imagine what to do with it. He could buy the Raven family a thousand times over. He could buy entire cities. He could buy countries.
And he was still just a servant, washing dishes and dusting books.
Something inside Barry snapped.
He couldn't do this anymore. He couldn't pretend. He couldn't serve people who had humiliated him while he held the key to unlimited wealth in his pocket.
That evening, Reeves came to the house.
He was visiting Laura, trying to convince her to go on a date with him. He strutted into the dining room like he owned the place, wearing an expensive suit and expensive shoes.
Barry was serving dinner. He placed a plate in front of Reeves with more force than necessary.
"Careful, servant," Reeves said, smirking. "Don't break the fine china."
Something inside Barry exploded.
"You know what?" Barry said, his voice shaking with anger. "I'm tired of this. I'm tired of serving you. I'm tired of your arrogance. I'm tired of being treated like garbage."
The entire room went silent.
"What did you just say to me?" Reeves stood up, his face turning red.
"You heard me," Barry said. "You're an arrogant jerk, and everyone knows it. You throw your money around like it makes you better than everyone else. Well, guess what? It doesn't."
"Barry!" Jonathan shouted. "Apologize immediately!"
But Barry couldn't stop. Three days of anger and humiliation and fear came pouring out of him.
"No," Barry said. "I'm done apologizing for things that aren't my fault. I'm done being treated like I'm nothing. I'm done—"
"You're fired," Jonathan said coldly. "Get out of this house. You have one hour to pack your things and leave. And if I ever see you again, I'll have you arrested."
Barry looked at Laura. She wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Fine," Barry said. "I'm done anyway."
He walked out of the dining room and went to his small bedroom. He threw his few possessions into a bag. He didn't have much. Nothing that mattered.
Thirty minutes later, he was standing outside the Raven mansion with a single bag in his hand.
He had nowhere to go. He had no money except the billions and trillions in his untouchable account. He had no job. He had no family.
For the first time in his life, Barry was truly alone.
He was also, unknown to anyone else in the world, completely and utterly rich beyond imagination.
As he stood there in the darkness, his phone buzzed.
His balance had passed seven hundred and thirty trillion dollars.
Barry looked down at his phone and made a decision.
He was done being invisible.
He was done being weak.
Starting tomorrow, everything was going to be different.
And nobody was going to know what hit them.
- Writer
