When I married Marcus Vane, I received a dowry of 200,000. Less than three months into our marriage, he suddenly asked for a divorce and demanded I return him 500,000.

Upon hearing this, my first thought was shock, and my second thought was that this man was out of his mind.

"What do you mean by saying this now? A dowry of 200,000, and you want me to give you 500,000? In just three months, the dowry has more than doubled. Even if I put it in a bank, the interest rate wouldn’t be anywhere near that absurd!"

The interest on 200,000 in a bank for a year wouldn't even reach 1,000.

Marcus kept a stern face. "That 500,000 is the money I spent on you. Now that we're getting divorced, I need to get that money back."

I scoffed, looking at him coldly. "Alright, then. Tell me, where exactly did you get this 500,000 from?"

I couldn’t help but laugh, watching him.

Marcus and I were what you’d call a "flash marriage." With the help of a matchmaking service, we blindly registered our marriage.

I had planned to settle down with him and live a peaceful life, but who would’ve guessed that, barely three months later, he would suddenly ask for a divorce?

The reason was simple: he no longer loved me, and he couldn’t go on.

But I knew that wasn’t the real reason, because there had never been any love between us.

At thirty, the idea of love had faded almost entirely from our lives. Marriage, for us, was merely a practical decision—something that happened because we each met some criteria for the other.

"When I married you, the wedding cost around 150,000, including the banquet and other expenses. The clothes, jewelry, and whatnot I bought you added up to about 50,000. And you haven’t even given me a child after all this time. Asking for compensation doesn’t seem unreasonable, does it?"

As he spoke, I barely held back my laughter. But when he mentioned the child, I couldn’t help it anymore.

I collapsed onto the sofa, laughing so hard I nearly fell off. My stomach started to hurt from laughing so much.

I swear, in all my thirty years, I had never heard such a good joke.

Seeing me laugh like that, Marcus's face grew darker with anger.

"You have to give me the 500,000 today. If not, I’ll take you to court. You took money from my family, so it's only right you return it."

I finally managed to stop laughing, wiping the tears from my eyes.

"Alright, if you're going to settle scores, I’ll settle mine too. I’ll go to the hotel and ask for the receipts. Let’s see if that pitiful wedding really cost 150,000. All the money we got from the wedding gifts was handed over to your mother, and I roughly calculate that it was about 100,000. I’ll return the dowry to you, but I’ll have to assess the price first. If you want the dowry back, then I should get my dowry back as well. And about the car downstairs, you can stop driving it. Hand me the keys. As for the 200,000 dowry you mentioned? Your mother took it back the day after our wedding. She kept telling me how hard it was to marry me, that she owed a lot of money, and now she needed the money to pay off her debts."

I laid everything out clearly.

Even if we were going to divorce, we had to settle everything properly.

He didn’t want to lose out, and neither did I.

"Don’t slander me. My mother never took money from you. Even if you don’t want to pay, at least come up with a less pathetic excuse. You’re just embarrassing yourself."

Marcus glared at me angrily, but when I pulled out the IOU, he immediately fell silent.

"It's all written clearly in black and white here. You can't possibly be illiterate, can you? Or should I say, do you recognize the handwriting your mother wrote? If not, you can always give her a call now."

I said slowly, making sure each word landed.

"I honestly don't get it. Your family keeps saying that you went into debt to marry me, but the house is in your name, which has nothing to do with me. The car was part of my dowry, and all the assets are under your name. How could this be about borrowing money to marry a wife?"

This question had been troubling me for quite a while.

I couldn’t wrap my head around it, especially when I saw those online posts where people cried about having to drain their parents dry just to marry.

With 20 grand, you could buy a decent car, but it was also enough to marry a woman to spend the rest of your life with.

When was the last time a daughter got married without a dowry from her parents?

At least in my family, I’ve never heard of a wedding where the parents didn’t contribute. Sure, I received a dowry of 200,000, but my own contribution matched that amount—after all, the car Marcus drove was already worth 150,000.

Marcus interrupted me impatiently. "Enough with the nonsense. Just say it—are you giving me this money today or not? If not, we'll see each other in court."

He didn’t even mention the promissory note, only fixated on making me hand over the 500,000.

"I don’t want to be anyone’s doormat, so fine, let’s go to court."

With that, I carefully tucked the promissory note away—this would be my best evidence if it ever came to a lawsuit.

Thankfully, we had only been together for three months, and our feelings hadn’t run too deep. So, even though he had done so many disgusting things, I felt nothing but disgust and a desire to sever all ties with him as quickly as possible.

"By the way, give me the car keys, and also give me the savings card. I brought a dowry of 50,000 when I came here. Anything that belongs to me, not a single cent will stay with you."

Marcus spoke with complete confidence. "You’ve got it all wrong. Now that you’re married into our family, that money belongs to us. Why should I give it to you?"

I snorted. "When you asked for the dowry, did you ever think that money was your guarantee for marrying me? What nerve do you have to say something like that? You’re already this old, and you’re not worried about embarrassing yourself?"

"Since you’ve brought it up and want to split, let's part on good terms. We’ll settle the accounts, and if you want a lawsuit, we can go there too. What’s yours, you can take, but what’s mine, you’ll have to give back, every last penny. You want to play the victim, but I’m not the one."

Not only was I not the victim here, but I was also a tough nut to crack—anyone who tried to take me on would regret it.

The things he had done today truly disgusted me. Just looking at him made me feel nauseous, and I grabbed my bag, ready to leave.

The first thing I did after walking out of Marcus's house was find the best divorce lawyer, Jonathan Reed.

We met at a coffee shop, and I laid everything out, telling him all the details. Then, I pulled out the promissory note.

"My goal is to divorce as soon as possible and get back everything that belongs to me. His things? I don’t want them."

Jonathan specializes in divorce cases, but after hearing my story, even he seemed a little taken aback.

“Did he seriously get kicked in the head by a mule to think he could ask for 500,000 in compensation?”

Jonathan realized how inappropriate his comment was only after he said it. He pushed up his glasses and cleared his throat awkwardly. “I apologize. As lawyers, we’re trained to be professional, and only when we can’t hold back do we say things like that.”

I suppressed a laugh and nodded. “Honestly, I’m starting to think he was kicked by a mule, too. But now he says he wants to sue me. Between the two of us, who has a better chance of winning?”

“From a professional standpoint, my advice is to first figure out what caused the breakdown of your relationship. If there’s infidelity involved, you need to gather evidence. That way, you’ll have the upper hand in court. Not only will you not have to return the dowry, but you might even get back the 200,000 he borrowed.”

“The law has always supported the idea that the dowry should stay with the woman. The worst-case scenario is that you’ll return half of it, but there’s no way you’ll have to pay the full 500,000 he’s demanding.”

Hearing this, I suddenly remembered something. I quickly pulled out my phone and played a video I had saved earlier that day.

“This is the recording I secretly made when he brought up the divorce. Do you think it’ll help?”

Even though I couldn’t see him, just hearing the venomous tone of Marcus’s voice in the recording was enough to paint a picture of the kind of person he was.

Honestly, marrying him was the biggest mistake of my life, without a doubt.

My parents were pushing me to get married, and I was beyond frustrated. After going through over 30 blind dates, Marcus was the only one I could tolerate.

His family was in a similar situation to mine, he was decent-looking, and he was polite and respectful.

But who would’ve thought that less than three months into the marriage, he’d show his true colors, and they were absolutely revolting.

Jonathan listened patiently before commenting, “It’s somewhat helpful, but not a lot. This recording could help prove that your marriage was a setup from the start.”

“So, what do I need to do now?”

I couldn’t afford to be careless with this lawsuit. I had to gather every piece of evidence that would work in my favor.

Like I said before—everything that’s mine, I won’t leave a single penny for Marcus.

“Well, you need to figure out the cause of the breakup. My guess is that he cheated, but it’s up to you whether you can get the evidence.”

“No problem.”

Marcus and I bought the house after we got married, but because he paid for the full amount, my name wasn’t added to the title.

I could understand that, and I accepted it.

But after we bought the house, he made it clear, both directly and indirectly, that I was expected to handle the renovation.

I wasn’t willing to be the sucker in this situation, so I kept putting it off.

Because of this, Marcus hounded me for a long time. When he saw I wasn’t budging, he turned hostile.