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?"