“The babies need their big brother,” my aunt—my father’s mistress—begged me. They had destroyed my mother to build their dream life, and now they wanted me to play along. I looked at my father and said, “Okay, I’m in.” He handed me the keys to his empire, thinking he had bought my loyalty. He didn’t know he had just handed me the weapon I would use to destroy him. I logged into his laptop, and the first email I opened made my blood run cold…

My father cheated with my aunt, a betrayal so profound it shocked my mother into a hospital bed and fractured our reality. Years later, he demanded I help raise the children born of that deceit, assuming time had eroded my loyalty. He was wrong. My revenge didn’t just close a door; it shattered the foundation of the house he tried to build on quicksand.

I am twenty-eight years old, my name is James, and I am the architect of their downfall. But to understand the collapse, you have to understand the facade.