After My Brother Stole Everything, They All Came Crawling Back

My brother was the kind of man who thought himself above the frost and snow. The princess every nobleman in the realm would kill to marry? He found the whole thing beneath him.

He eloped with an actress instead.

Me, though? I was the vulgar one.

After I married the Crown Princess in my brother's place, I spent every waking hour crunching numbers and chasing profit.

In just one year, the Crown Princess's Estate overflowed with gold and jade, its businesses spanning the entire nation.

Even the old gatekeeper ate meat three times a month.

The Crown Princess declared before everyone:

"Meeting Andrew Dickerson was the greatest fortune of my life."

Business was booming. Then my brother came back, alone, with nothing but a worn cloth bundle on his back.

He jabbed a finger at my face:

"A man who reeks of money like you, and you think you deserve to be the princess's consort?

"You've turned this entire estate into a den of greed! Have you given a single thought to the princess's reputation?"

With that, he dropped to his knees before the princess:

"My brother is crude and unworthy. He has tarnished Your Highness's good name! I am willing to take over the household and restore dignity to this estate!"

The Crown Princess looked at my brother's refined, austere face.

Her cheeks flushed.

"Granted."

A divorce decree landed on the table.

I became the laughingstock of Kingsport.

I didn't argue. Didn't make a scene. I packed my things and left like I was told.

So why did they all come begging me to come back?

When Crown Princess Rosalind Abbott said "Granted,"

I was caught off guard.

I had rolled up my sleeves and poured myself into running her estate for an entire year.

She had praised me more than once in front of others.

She said I was the greatest fortune of her life.

And now, after one look at my brother's face,

she was ready to hand him everything?

Elmer slid me a sidelong glance, dripping with contempt.

It was always like this.

He had been a prodigy with poetry and literature since childhood.

All I ever knew was arithmetic, the lowly craft of merchants.

Every time he dazzled a room with some effortless verse, he would turn and give me that same look. That quiet, cutting dismissal.

I always assumed he would stay up on that pedestal forever.

But now, staring at his threadbare bundle,

I wasn't so sure.

The steward's seal passed into his hands.

He straightened his spine and swept an arm toward the carved beams and painted pillars I had built for the estate:

"Rosewood and gilded dragons! This kind of gaudy excess is exactly why the estate has gone to ruin! Tear it all down within three days!

"Replace every piece with jade panels, carved with cranes, to reflect the dignity befitting a princess's household!"

I swallowed hard.

Swapping everything for jade would cost ten times what the rosewood and gold had.

The house steward winced:

"Sir, we don't have enough silver for that."

"How can the Crown Princess's Estate not have enough!"

Elmer Dickerson's brows drew together like a blade.

"Sir, the treasury has always been managed by the prince consort. Everything was under his control."

"Ha."

Elmer's expression shifted to one of grim understanding:

"The entire estate's wealth was in the hands of someone as base as Andrew? Andrew, you've treated the princess like she doesn't exist!"

"Guards."

Rosalind's voice was ice:

"Hand over the prince consort's treasury keys to Mr. Dickerson Sr."

I stared at her.

I had thought this was a passing whim. I hadn't imagined she truly intended to give my brother everything I had built.

The gold and silver I had earned for this estate over the past year filled the treasury floor to ceiling.

The moment the doors swung open, the blinding glare of gold forced Elmer back two steps.

Something flickered in his eyes.

He smothered it quickly, replacing it with disgust:

"So this is the source of the rot! This is what turned the princess's estate into a house of vulgar excess!"

He spun around and threw himself to his knees before Rosalind:

"Andrew hoarded all of this for his own indulgence, with no regard for the princess's reputation or dignity! What kind of man does that?"

He was trembling with righteous fury.

That ethereal face of his, all sharp angles and cool detachment.

Like some exiled immortal descended from the heavens.

Rosalind couldn't look away.

"From this day forward, everything in this estate falls under your authority."

Rosalind helped Elmer to his feet with her own hands.

"The money, the staff, the land, and every business venture. All of it goes to Elmer."

Everything I had built.

One sentence from the Crown Princess, and it all belonged to Elmer Dickerson.

I dropped to my knees.

"Your Highness, I request a divorce."

Rosalind stiffened.

She was about to speak, but Elmer tugged gently at her sleeve.

"Your Highness, if my brother stays any longer, he'll only taint the dignity of your household. Better to grant him what he asks."

Rosalind swallowed whatever she'd been about to say.

"Granted."

When I walked out of the Crown Princess's Estate with the divorce decree in hand, the bystanders on the street all stopped to stare.

Some speculated about what I'd done wrong.

Others said I deserved it.

That my head was full of nothing but money, nothing like my brother and his lofty principles.

I ignored every last one of them.

The truth was, marrying the Crown Princess had never been entirely about honoring my brother's engagement.

As a member of the royal family, Rosalind could secure a merchant's license with almost no effort.

With that license, I could ship goods as far as the Western Seas and no one would interfere.

Now that the Crown Princess had cast me aside, the license was gone with her.

My gaze drifted toward another estate on the west side of the city.

The younger princess. Rosalind's sister.

In truth, she was the one I'd been meant to marry in the first place.

My brother and I had each been matched to one of the two princesses.

But Elmer ran off on his own, and to save face with Rosalind, who held the greater power, the family had no choice but to send me in his place.

In the year since, Evelyn Abbott had remained unmarried.

The door opened, and I looked at her.

"Princess Evelyn. The old betrothal between us. Does it still stand?"

I had prepared myself.

If she refused,

I would bow and leave without another word.

After all, it was the Dickerson family that had slighted her first.

Evelyn studied me for a long time.

"It stands."

On the first day of our marriage, I secured the merchant's license.

To repay Evelyn's trust, I threw myself into the work with even more drive than I'd had at the Crown Princess's Estate.

She told me that every cent the estate earned would be recorded under my name.

"Princess, could it be that you actually like me?"

I was genuinely curious.

She only smiled and said nothing.

Evelyn was a princess who had never been favored by the court.

But I would make sure every woman in the capital envied mine.

Before long, Princess Evelyn's Estate, once half in ruins, had a brand-new two-story wing rising above its walls.

Things at the Crown Princess's Estate, however, had taken a different turn.

Elmer declared that the stench of commerce would no longer be allowed to corrupt anyone's spirit.

Every servant's monthly wage was slashed to a single copper coin.

Only without the temptation of money, he reasoned, could people stop obsessing over profit.

Only then could they preserve their noble integrity.

My portrait was even turned into a cautionary display.

The entire household was made to remember how vulgar and base life had been when I was in charge.

The Crown Princess's Estate was renovated from top to bottom.

Crane motifs and calligraphy scrolls adorned every wall and corridor.

The place looked like something out of a painting.

You could smell the flowers from halfway down the street.

Passersby marveled: "Mr. Dickerson Sr. truly is remarkable. Look how refined he's made the princess's estate!"

Even the King heard about it and brought the Queen for a personal tour.

But nobody seemed to realize

that all this elegance

had been bought with the fortune I'd built for the Crown Princess's Estate.

It wasn't long before the estate ground to a halt.

A crowd gathered at the front gates.

They were demanding their back pay.

Elmer had burned through nearly every cent in the treasury on his little vanity project.

And even if there had been money left, it wouldn't have mattered. Elmer had already decreed: one copper coin per person, per month.

Enough to kill any illusion that work here would ever pay.

The household guards didn't truly try to stop the crowd.

After all, with no wages of their own, they could barely feed themselves.

Elmer's voice cracked with fury:

"Is money all you people care about?!"

Someone pointed at the jade pendant hanging from his belt:

"That gold-inlaid jade alone could cover every last one of our back wages! What right do you have to lecture us?!"

"Pay us! Yeah! Pay us what we're owed!"

The crowd surged forward. Elmer's face went white.

"These ungrateful wretches! That bastard Andrew must have spoiled them rotten!"

"Rush him! Strip the clothes off his back and sell them for what we're owed!"

"Go!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

Elmer staggered as hands grabbed at him from every direction, barely keeping his footing.

"Decree from His Majesty!"

A column of soldiers marched through the gates, hauling chest after chest of royal gifts into the estate.

It turned out that King Walter Craig had visited the Crown Princess's Estate recently and taken a great liking to Elmer's renovations.

These were his rewards.

Elmer sank to his knees, trembling:

"I humbly thank His Majesty for this gracious bounty!"

The workers who had been seconds from rioting dropped to their knees as well, faces drained of color.

None of them had expected this.

The King himself was backing Elmer.

Elmer reached into one of the chests and pulled out a gold ingot at random.

He tossed it at their feet:

"Take it. That's enough to cover several months of your wages.

"And if you don't get back to work and end up disrupting the estate's business operations, don't be surprised when your heads roll!"

They had their money.

And the King had made his position clear.

Everyone scrambled to bow their thanks and scattered.

Elmer surveyed the chests of royal gifts filling the courtyard.

A cold smile spread across his face:

"Just as I thought. My approach was right all along.

"If that bastard Andrew hadn't thrown so much money at these ungrateful wretches before, they'd never have developed such an insatiable greed."

His handmaid kneaded his shoulders. "The King himself admires your integrity, my lord.

"The Dickerson family has always been a house of scholars. That Andrew is a disgrace to the family name!"

Elmer's smile turned sharper:

"Starting today, one copper coin per month becomes one copper coin every two months."

The handmaid froze.

Elmer's voice was ice. "Andrew spoiled these workers. I'll train it out of them."

It didn't take long. Within weeks, even more workers walked off the job.

Elmer, furious, dragged several of them before the magistrate.

He charged them with "willful negligence," "inciting unrest," and "disturbing the public order."

But even with men thrown in jail, the rest still refused to lift a finger.

My side of things was a different story entirely.

Business grew by the day, profits climbing steadily, and I paid the highest wages in all of Kingsport.

The people working for me were terrified of not doing enough.

Elmer seemed to think he'd found the root of the problem.

I was directing my crew to hang the sign above our new shop when Elmer's men shoved their way forward.

One of them swung and knocked the signboard clean off its hooks.

It hit the ground and split in two.

The leader glanced at the jade bracelet on my temp worker's wrist and sneered:

"So it's true. You're the one corrupting people's hearts with money."

I stared at the shattered signboard. My voice was flat:

"What exactly do you think you're doing?"

"Take your people and get lost! Stop spreading this filth! It's because of money-poisoned vermin like you that everyone's heads are full of nothing but profit!

"You call yourself a Dickerson? Our family is a house of scholars! And you drag our name through the mud like this!"

I said nothing.

I just looked past him at the men he'd brought along.

My temp workers could afford jade bracelets.

His attendants still had patches sewn onto their trousers.

I clapped my hands together.

"New shop opening! Five cooks, ten clerks, one manager needed! Three silver a month, plus commission! Sign on and get equity shares!"

The men standing behind Elmer visibly froze.

From the moment they'd arrived, their eyes had been drifting over to my people.

Every few seconds, a flash of envy crossed their faces.

"Me!"

Someone was the first to throw down his club.

"Me too! Me too!"

"You!"

One by one, the men around Elmer bolted toward me.

I waved them off with a laugh. "Too many, too many."

"I'm strong! Pick me!"

"I'll work part-time! I don't need the shares!"

Elmer's teeth ground together.

"You worthless dogs! Ungrateful scum!"

I looked up.

"Fine. I'll take all of you. Now, escort the prince consort back to his estate nice and safe. And while you're there, tell your brothers at the house that I'm hiring."

"Yes, sir!"

Elmer was dragged toward the carriage by his own men. He stared back at me, seething.

"You bastards! How dare you betray me! I'm the one who hired you! Let go of me!"

"Stop!"

A hand shot out, grabbed him, and pulled him behind her.

Before I could even register what was happening.

A slap cracked across my face.

Evelyn stared at me.

"You lowlife. How dare you."

I looked at her in disbelief.

The warmth and affection that once filled Evelyn's eyes when she looked at me were gone.

Replaced by nothing but cold indifference.

She turned and bowed to Elmer.

"He was never properly disciplined. Offending you like this is unforgivable."

Elmer steadied her by the arm.

He cast me a single frigid glance.

Evelyn spoke again.

"Everything Andrew just offered is void. All of you still work under Mr. Dickerson Sr. Anyone who tried to sign on with Andrew just now

"Stay behind. Thirty lashes each."

My eyes went wide.

"Evelyn!"

Even Elmer clearly hadn't expected it.

After a beat of surprise, he turned to me with that trademark sneer of contempt.

"Then I thank the princess for her kindness."

Elmer climbed into the carriage and left.

The men were forced to the ground.

Evelyn's own guards administered the lashes.

Not a shred of mercy.

Within minutes, the entire street echoed with screams.

"Your Highness, have mercy! We'll never work for the prince consort again!"

"Never in this lifetime! Please, mercy!"

"Evelyn!"

I lunged forward, half out of my mind with fury.

A maidservant caught my arm and held me back.

"Your Highness, please don't make things worse for yourself.

"Surely you know. The princess has been in love with your brother since they were children."

The air left my lungs.

I remembered asking her once whether she truly had feelings for me.

That smile she gave. Saying nothing.

In that moment.

I understood.

I understood everything.

Evelyn's gaze settled on me.

"You could have gone after anyone. But not him."

Her voice was ice.

"As of today, you and I are no longer husband and wife."

Because I'd poached her beloved's people, she'd sentenced our marriage to death.

I laughed. Bitter and hollow.

"Good. I didn't want to be your consort anyway."

In the span of half a year.

I'd received two divorce decrees.

Everything I'd earned through my own business.

By law, it all belonged to the princess's household.

Evelyn tossed me half without a second thought.

She was just like my brother.

She looked down on every cent I'd made.

I secured a merchant's license for a trade route.

And started a business on the river.

After that public beating in broad daylight, almost no one in Kingsport dared work for me anymore.

I had no choice but to hire workers from out of town.

Elmer, on the other hand, had it easy.

With a princess backing him up, he had leverage I didn't.

Workers were conscripted and forced to labor under his command.

But at two copper coins a month, people started fleeing before long.

Some disguised themselves as out-of-towners and came to work on my ship instead.

With no one left at the estate, the businesses under Princess Evelyn's name had no goods to move.

Elmer couldn't even put food on the table.

That was the day he showed up with soldiers.

All of them under Evelyn's authority.

He stared at my massive merchant vessel, a sneer curling his lips.

"Seize it."

I stepped in front of him.

"Brother, how can you be so unreasonable?"

He scoffed.

"If you hadn't been out here throwing money around and disrupting the market, the princess's businesses would never have failed!

"Buying loyalty with coin. You've dragged the Dickerson name through the mud!

"The only way to stop you from lining your own pockets is to hand all this cargo over to me."

He was about to give the order again. I blocked his path.

"Brother, this is my cargo. My business. You ran yours into the ground, so now you come to steal mine?"

"Steal?"

He sneered. "I'm simply purifying your soul, little brother. Do it."

"No!"

I scrambled to stop them.

Evelyn's voice cut through the air.

"Hold him down."

My men and I were slammed to the ground at the same time.

Every last bolt of goods I'd hauled all the way from the River Provinces was seized under Elmer's name.

He looked at the emptied ship and smiled coldly.

"Brother, why must you insist on working against me?"

I said nothing.

"Men, burn this ship. Make sure Andrew Dickerson never trades again."

"Yes, sir!"

"I dare you."

I smiled. "Raise the lantern."

A crewman yanked the cover off the lantern mounted on the bow.

Four words blazed in the sunlight: ROYAL TRIBUTE GOODS.

I rose to my feet.

Looked straight at Elmer's bloodless face.

"What nerve you have, brother.

"Stealing from the King himself."