Apocalypse Queen: My Space, My Rules Chapter 104: The Convict Lord and the Gold Stash

Before Harvey could press further, Viola shuffled over.

"What have you done now? Vere sent people. He says you lost his yacht and you need to pay up immediately. In supplies. Otherwise, the Grahams will answer for it."

Harvey went pale. "Vere's people are here already?"

Internally, he cursed his luck. When it rained, it poured.

"You lost an entire yacht? This is serious. Of course, they're coming fast!" Viola pounded her walking cane on the floor. "Is this because of that Roxanna girl again?"

Harvey saw no way to hide it. He came clean. "Her brother was kidnapped. The ransom was a yacht. The Shepherds had no options, so they came to me. I co-signed the rental. I thought once we caught the kidnapper, we'd return the yacht..."

"Ridiculous!" Viola erupted. "In a crisis like this, you co-signed a yacht rental for a hostage swap? Have you lost your mind? Are you trying to run this family into the ground?"

Harvey stood there and took it.

"That Roxanna is a jinx! A disaster! She's nothing but bad luck!" Viola's fury was building. Then, out of nowhere, she shouted, "She's not half the woman Mariella was!"

At least Mariella had been quiet, well-behaved, never caused drama, never dragged Harvey into trouble. She just put her head down and worked.

"Where's Mariella? Go find her. Get her to fix this!" Viola ordered.

Harvey's face flushed. "We broke off the engagement. Grandma, you remember—after the police incident, she wouldn't sign the letter of understanding..."

At the time, Viola herself had called Mariella an ungrateful wretch.

She'd also declared that Mariella would never be welcome in the Graham household.

"Couples fight. It's nothing. Go apologize. Bring her back. Then let her deal with Vere's people." Viola issued her solution.

Harvey's temples throbbed harder.

The old Mariella had been easy. Two sweet words and she'd melt.

The new Mariella? He had zero tolerance.

...

Mariella listened to Number One's full report and understood exactly how bad things had gotten.

The flash flood that had come out of nowhere had destroyed Liraelith's largest prison. Thousands of inmates were unaccounted for.

Everyone assumed the prisoners had been swept away.

The truth was far worse. Cockroaches survived everything. Not only had they lived, but they'd also organized.

The leader was a career criminal on death row. There wasn't a crime in existence that he hadn't committed. He deserved to be executed a hundred times over.

If not for the flood, he'd already be dead.

But fate had other ideas. The flood tore the prison apart. He survived, rallied over a hundred fellow inmates into a roving gang, and they'd been raiding, looting, and worse ever since.

The gang was brutal. They killed without blinking. Survivors already devastated by the flood were now living in even deeper terror.

With the government warehouse destroyed and casualties mounting, the authorities were scrambling to set up new relief stations. They had no bandwidth left to protect ordinary citizens.

Survivors were on their own. They had to fend off the flood and the gang. It was unbearable.

The worst part: some survivors had voluntarily joined the convicts, willing to serve as muscle in exchange for table scraps.

The gang's ranks swelled fast. They were getting bolder.

Word was, they were no longer satisfied raiding ordinary survivors. They'd turned their eyes toward the wealthy residents in the gated neighborhoods.

Mariella listened in silence. Her face showed nothing. Inside, the impact was significant.

The prison break and the crocodile attacks hadn't happened in her past life. This time, they had.

She couldn't predict where things were headed.

The one thing she was sure of: the natural disasters from her past life would still come. And new ones she'd never experienced might come, too.

...

Matthew brought Mariella to one of the storerooms and unlocked the door.

She followed him in. The lights were already on.

Inside: five leather cases, lined up neatly.

"Mr. Hancock sent Terrence to collect the 100 noise-dampening kits and 60 diesel generators. He left 340 pounds of gold. Five cases." Matthew opened each one for her to inspect.

Mariella glanced through them. Kieran's business practices were solid enough.

Terrence had been with the Hancock family for years. He wasn't the type to pull anything underhanded.