My Brothers Betrayed Me at the Card Table , So I Took Everything They Had

My so-called brothers invited me over for poker, and all night long I couldn't stop winning.

I was riding so high I'd practically forgotten my own name when a weathered old voice cut through the haze beside my ear.

Foolish boy. Sitting there grinning like an idiot.

Your wife's been sneaking around behind your back every time you work late. Tonight she's got a man in your house right now. She sent these three to keep you busy so she could have her little rendezvous in peace!

The voice was coming from my family heirloom ring. Blood rushed to my head and I nearly flipped the table, but the voice spoke again.

"Hold on! I can see the fortune clouds above their heads. Every one of them has a massive windfall coming."

"Let me guide your hand through the rest of this game. Not only will you win back every cent they've skimmed off you over the years, you'll steal their luck right out from under them. After tonight, you could walk downstairs to buy a pack of smokes and find cash on the ground. Buy a lottery ticket and hit the jackpot every single time!"

The rage drained out of me. I sat back down.

"Come on, boys. We're playing till we drop tonight. Nobody leaves!"

Across the table, Caspar Lambert had a cigarette dangling from his lips, lazily sorting his tiles.

"Thaddeus Dickerson, what's gotten into you tonight? Normally you're home by eleven sharp, rubbing your wife's feet. It's past one in the morning. Aren't you afraid Beverly Fox's gonna make you kneel on bottle caps?"

Humphrey Finch chimed in from beside him. "Seriously, man. Your wife's gorgeous. All alone in that big empty bed, so lonely. Maybe we should call it a night so you can go home and take care of business?"

The moment those words left his mouth, every man at the table exchanged a knowing, filthy grin.

Ten minutes ago, I would've laughed it off as the usual dirty jokes between brothers. But now, Great-Grandfather Abbott's voice echoed through my mind, dripping with cold contempt.

"Boy, you see that red mark on Caspar's neck?"

"Your wife meets up with him all the time, using 'project meetings' as her cover. He's been making a fool of you for years!"

"And Humphrey. Look at the lighter in his hand. Isn't that the limited-edition one your wife claimed she lost last week?"

My eyes locked onto the Zippo Humphrey was fidgeting with, and my vision went red.

That lighter was a gift Beverly had hunted down across every corner of the internet for our fifth anniversary.

"What's the matter, Thaddeus? Eyes all bloodshot. Can't handle losing?" Joe Whitney, sitting to my left, tossed out a tile with a smirk that didn't quite reach his eyes.

I drew a long breath and forced the murderous rage back down into my gut.

You bastards. You eat my food, drink my liquor, and I treated you like real brothers. And this whole time you've been laughing behind my back?

And Beverly. I handed over every paycheck, every single month. Had to beg for permission just to buy a pack of cigarettes. She claimed she was a germaphobe, barely let me touch her. Meanwhile she'd been sleeping around with God knows how many men?

"Steady, boy!" Great-Grandfather's voice cut through. "Two of these lowlifes just landed major construction contracts, and the third hit a lottery jackpot. Their luck is at its absolute peak right now."

"You can always find another wife. But fortune like this? If you don't siphon it off tonight, the chance is gone forever!"

"Play all eighteen rounds. By the time I'm done with them, they won't be able to scrounge a warm meal for the rest of their miserable lives!"

Great-Grandfather Abbott was nothing if not ruthless.

I rubbed my thumb across the jade ring, and my heartbeat steadied.

What was done was done. But the future? The future was going to go my way.

"You think I can't handle losing?"

"Whoever walks out that door first tonight is a goddamn coward!"

I slammed my wallet on the table. "My contract payment just cleared. A hundred grand, sitting right here. You've got the guts? Let's raise the stakes. Ten thousand a hand!"

The second those words left my mouth, all three pairs of eyes lit up like slot machines.

They'd always been itching to get their hands on my money. The only thing that ever stopped them was that I'd been too tight-fisted to give them the opening.

I had money now, and these three weren't about to let a payday slip through their fingers.

"Sure thing, Thaddeus! Since you're so eager to give your cash away, don't mind if we help ourselves!" Caspar shot a look at the other two.

From that moment on, the atmosphere at the table shifted.

The three of them started signaling each other nonstop, coordinating hands to bleed me dry.

On any other night, they'd have cleaned me out down to my underwear.

But tonight, I had Great-Grandpa in my head, and the old man could see every tile on the table.

"Don't take that five. Caspar's sitting on a flush. Wait for Humphrey to discard the eight. The second he does, you declare a kong!"

"Joe's hand is garbage. He's bluffing. Break your pair and hit him with a last-draw win!"

"Kong!"

"Match!"

"That's a win. Flush with a kong bonus. Thirty grand each. Pay up."

For the next two hours, the only sounds in that private room were me collecting money and the three of them breathing harder and harder.

First round, I cleaned out every dollar of cash they'd brought.

By the fifth round, they were sending payments by phone.

By the tenth, Humphrey slammed his car keys on the table, eyes bloodshot. "You're cheating, Thaddeus! How the hell are you winning every single hand?"

I let out a cold laugh, scooped up the keys, and dropped them into my pocket.

"Humphrey, there's no friendship at the card table. If you can't handle losing, don't play."

Humphrey ground his teeth so hard I could hear it.

That was when Great-Grandpa's voice came through, trembling with excitement:

"Yes! Yes! The first thread of fortune has shifted to you!"

"Boy, see that golden glow above their heads? It's turned dark gray. That's the mark of catastrophic luck. They're done for!"

"Last round. Go for the throat! Force them to put up their company shares and property as collateral!"

By five in the morning, even the parlor owner was nodding off.

Caspar's hand shook as he signed his name on a handwritten IOU. He'd wagered the entire profit share from that five-million-dollar construction contract he'd just landed. Every cent of it, pledged to me.

Humphrey lost his Audi and six hundred thousand in savings.

Joe got the worst of it. He signed over the deed to his building supply store.

"You played us hard tonight, Thaddeus."

Caspar slumped in his chair, face white as paper.

He clenched his jaw and added, "But you won this much. Beverly's going to grill you the second you walk in. You'd better head home and get your story straight."

I stood, tucked the thick stack of IOUs and transfer receipts into my jacket, and gave Caspar a light pat on the cheek.

"Relax, Caspar."

"My wife's probably too worn out to sleep right about now."

"I'll head back and give her a nice little surprise."

Outside the parlor, the predawn air carried a faint chill.

"Grandson, beautifully done! Your fortune is blazing now. Those three bastards will have blood on their hands within a week!"

Great-Grandpa roared with laughter.

I pulled my jacket tighter and spoke through gritted teeth. "So what do I do about Beverly? Do I go home and catch her in the act?"

"Catch her doing what? That little weasel pulled his pants up and slipped out the fire escape half an hour ago!"

Great-Grandpa's tone went cold.

"That woman is poison, and she's smarter than you think. If you go home and make a scene now, all she has to do is deny everything, flip it around on you for gambling all night, and use that as grounds to file for divorce. You'd walk away with nothing."

"Why do you think she had Caspar and the others keep you pinned down tonight? Because she just finished moving two million dollars out of your company account this evening!"

I'd just started the engine. The moment those words landed, my foot slammed the brake. A vein pulsed at my temple.

"Two million? That's the payment I owe my crew next week!"

Great-Grandpa let out a sharp, bitter scoff and continued:

"That's not all. She also took out an accidental death policy on you, and guess who the sole beneficiary is? Her. This woman never planned to build a life with you. She's been scheming to devour everything you have and leave you in the ground."

When I heard all of that, something inside me went cold. Went dead.

Seven years.

I'd been with her since college graduation. We sold trinkets from a folding table on the sidewalk. We lived in a basement apartment with no windows.

Then I started the construction company, drinking myself half to death at client dinners night after night until I was vomiting blood from a stomach ulcer. All of it so she could have that sprawling downtown condo, so she could live like a rich man's wife.

And she took the money I'd nearly killed myself to earn, brought other men into our bed, and spent it on them.

She even wanted me dead.

"Great-Grandpa, what do I do?" My jaw was clenched so hard I felt a molar crack.

"Go home! The USB drive with the transferred assets is sewn into the lining of that designer handbag of hers! And the videos she filmed with those men are on a burner phone hidden in a secret compartment under her vanity! Get the evidence first, then make her wish she'd never been born!"

Half an hour later, I finally walked through my front door.

The apartment was pitch black. The bedroom door swung open and Beverly came out in a silk camisole, rubbing her eyes.

In the dim glow from the hallway, I could see it clearly: the hickey on her collarbone that hadn't fully faded, and the wide bruises darkening both her knees.

I clenched my teeth. Every muscle in my body screamed, but I forced the rage down.

"Honey, what took you so long?" She padded over, already leaning into me the way she always did, her voice a playful whine. "You reek of smoke. It's gross."

I stepped back half a pace, feigning exhaustion. "I'm wiped. Just need to rest. Go pour me a glass of water?"

The moment her back disappeared toward the kitchen, I slipped into the bedroom and locked the door behind me.

"Hurry! Bottom drawer of the vanity. There's a hidden compartment inside!"

I crossed the room in two strides, yanked the drawer open, and ran my palm along the underside. My fingers found it: a seam sealed with tape.

I ripped the tape away. An old iPhone tumbled out.

"The passcode is Humphrey's birthday. 1024!"

I punched it in. The screen unlocked.

What I found inside nearly made me crush the phone in my fist.

Thousands of photos. Dozens of high-definition videos. Beverly was in every single one.

But the men changed. And among them were all three of those bastards I'd sat across the card table from tonight.

In one video, Beverly laughed without a shred of shame. "Humphrey, you're so much better than Thaddeus. That useless waste comes home every night and passes out. I can't even stand looking at him."

"Caspar, once we drain Thaddeus's company dry and saddle him with the loan sharks, we'll buy a villa in Australia..."

My eyes burned red. I forwarded every last video to my encrypted cloud drive, then wiped the send history clean.

"Don't stop. The walk-in closet. The USB drive is in that designer handbag. Rip open the lining!"

I gritted my teeth, turned, and went straight for the closet. I found the bag and tore into the lining without hesitation.

Deep inside, my fingers closed around a small USB drive. This was it. Every record of her siphoning money from my company, every doctored ledger, every piece of ironclad proof.

I hid the drive, put everything back exactly as it was, and by the time she came in carrying the glass of water, I looked like nothing had happened.

"Honey, did you have fun tonight?"

She pressed herself against me, clinging.

But now, every time I looked at her, the images from those videos flashed through my mind. My stomach turned.

"Won a little money at cards last night. I'm exhausted. Going to sleep." I pushed her away.

That made Beverly angry.

"You! I went and got your water for you!"

"I said I'm going to sleep. Don't bother me."

I shot her a look.

She stormed out and slammed the door behind her.

Around noon, I was jolted awake by someone pounding on the door.

I opened it. Beverly stood in the doorway, and right beside her was that acid-tongued mother of hers.

"Thaddeus Dickerson! You think you're a big man now, is that it? Gambling all night, not coming home, making Beverly cry?"

Mrs. Fox jabbed a finger at my face, spittle flying with every word.

Beverly stood behind her, eyes rimmed red, playing the part of the wronged little wife to perfection.

"Mom, Thaddeus won money yesterday and flat-out refused to let me hold onto it for him. I was just worried he'd go off the rails and start keeping some woman on the side..." Beverly sniffled between words.

Listening to her nearly made me laugh out loud.

That was when Great-Grandpa's voice rumbled to life again.

"Boy, quit wasting your breath on her! Fortune's riding with you now. Lay your cards on the table! By the time today's over, she'll wish she'd never been born!"

I narrowed my eyes, then walked over and dropped onto the living room couch. Lit a cigarette.

"You know what, Mom? Beverly's right. I have gone bad."

I blew a slow ring of smoke and watched Beverly through the haze. "So let's get a divorce."

The room went dead silent.

"You... what did you just say?" Beverly's eyes went wide.

"I said divorce." I gave her a flat look.

"Thaddeus! Have you lost your mind? You get a little money and suddenly you want to throw away the wife who stood by you? I'm telling you right now, not a chance in hell!"

Mrs. Fox snapped out of her shock and lunged at me, nails first, screeching like a banshee.

I pinned her with a cold stare. "Fine. No divorce. But here's the thing. Yesterday I borrowed five million dollars from loan sharks to play cards. Lost every cent. The guys I owe said they're coming this afternoon to take my hands."

"Since we're staying married, that's marital debt. Beverly, you're on the hook for it too."

"What?! Five million?!"

Both of them screamed at the same time.

"No! I'm not paying your debts!"

Beverly stumbled backward in horror. "Thaddeus, you bastard, you set me up!"

"You're the one who insisted on managing my money. Well, now there's no money left. Just debt." I stood and closed the distance between us. "What happened to 'for better or for worse'?"

"Divorce! Right now!"

Mrs. Fox grabbed Beverly by the arm and yanked her behind her. "My daughter was a pure, innocent girl when she married you! You couldn't even provide for her, and now you're borrowing from loan sharks? This marriage is over!"

Beverly was rattled, but she recovered fast.

"Fine, Thaddeus. You want a divorce? I'll give you one. But the house is mine, the car is mine, and I'm not touching a single penny of your company's debt. You walk away with nothing!"

"Deal." The word left my mouth before she even finished.

That same morning, we went to the courthouse and signed the papers.

When we walked out, my three so-called brothers happened to pull up right on cue.

Caspar spotted me first and let out an exaggerated holler. "Well, well! Thaddeus, my man, you actually went through with it?"

Humphrey didn't even bother with me. He walked straight to Beverly and slid his arm around her waist. "Babe, I always told you that broke loser didn't deserve you. Come on, the boys are taking you out to celebrate."

Beverly swatted his chest with a coy little pout. "Oh, stop it. What's the rush?"

"Thaddeus, for old times' sake, we're booking a table at the Grand Regency tonight. A little party to celebrate Beverly's fresh start. You should come have a drink." Joe pulled a hundred-dollar bill from his wallet and flicked it at my feet. "Here. Cab fare."

I looked down at that bill lying on the pavement, and something in me went so cold it came out the other side as a smile.

"Boy! Don't blow your top! Look at their foreheads, all four of them!" Great-Grandpa was cackling inside the ring. "Black as pitch! Death hanging over every last one! They're not headed to a celebration tonight. They're walking into a death trap!"

A low, quiet laugh escaped my throat.

"Sure. The Grand Regency, tonight. I'll be there."

I watched their taillights shrink into the distance, all swagger and noise, and rubbed my thumb slowly across the ring.

"Great-Grandpa, what's our next move?"

"What move? You dense boy, your fortune luck is about to burst out of you! Go buy a lottery ticket! That set of numbers I calculated for you last night, the drawing's at nine-thirty tonight! Eighty million dollars in the jackpot, and it won't wait around!"