10/07/2025
Time to meet the sharks,’ my daughter-in-law whispered before she shoved me overboard. My son watched, smiling, as the sea swallowed me. Their goal? To claim my ten-million-dollar fortune. But when they returned to the mansion, triumphant, I was waiting for them — with a ‘gift.’
‘Say hello to the sharks,’ my daughter-in-law whispered as she pushed me off the yacht. The Atlantic closed over me. I watched the blue sky fade away above me, replaced by the cold suffocation of seawater. When I struggled to surface, coughing and gasping for air, I saw them one last time: my son Michael and his wife Evelyn, calmly leaning on the rail, champagne glasses raised in a toast.
They thought I was done for.
At seventy-one, I was no longer the spry sailor I had been, but years of swimming every morning in Cape Cod had taught me how to endure the sea. My lungs burned as I rowed, but survival was nothing new to me. I had worked my way up from the son of a construction worker to a real-estate magnate with a net worth of over ten million dollars. And now my own blood had thrown me overboard like unwanted trash.
For years I suspected that Evelyn’s smile hid more calculation than warmth. She was all designer dresses, Instagram dinners and whispers of “plans for the future.” Michael, my only son, had drifted since college, softened by luxury. I told myself he would toughen up, become the backbone I once carried in my back pocket. But that night, under the yacht’s lights, I realized he had chosen his backbone: Evelyn.
Salt stung my eyes as I swam toward the faint silhouette of the shore. The distance was brutal, but my anger ran stronger than the tide. Each stroke was fueled by betrayal. By the time I reached the rocky beach hours later, my muscles screamed, but my mind was keener than it had been in years.
If they wanted me gone so they could have my fortune, fine; let them savor their victory. But when they walked into my mansion, dripping saltwater and pretending to mourn, they would find me waiting. And I would not simply confront them. I would give them a ‘gift’ they would never forget..."