"It feels so much better now that I’m inside." Leo took off the jackets, feeling much lighter instantly.
Outside the villa, it was freezing. Even with so many layers of clothes, he was shivering. Now that he was inside, he was much more comfortable, especially since multiple heaters were running, keeping the place warm.
"Fortunately, I don’t have to rely on the power grid of this planet." He snuck on his bed, and covered his body with a light blanket.
After experiencing the cold, the pleasure of the warmth of a bed in a warm room was truly heavenly, which was the only reason he loved taking a walk outside every night.
While Leo was in bed, multiple pillars of light shot into the sky from different parts of the inner planet.
Most of them lasted for a fleeting mont, but there were a rare few that were visible for tens of minutes.
"In a week, I would be a billionaire..." Leo mumbled, closing his eyes unaware of the strange changes beyond the everlasting winter that were engulfing this planet.
....
Leo woke up the next day to a ssage that had arrived from Lionel Family. Or to be specific, it was a ssage from Fiona, who hadn’t contacted him since their last eting.
"Hmm? What is it now?" Leo rubbed his eyes, barely awake. He tapped on the sender’s na, and was greeted by a ssage that was quite unexpected.
Fiona wasn’t inviting him to continue their negotiations. Instead, it was more like an interrogation.
"Your Alpha Corp has been spying on ?"
"Spying? I have no idea what you are talking about. I’m too busy to be stalking won," Leo fired a ssage back before closing his eyes.
A chine echoed, as a new ssage arrived.
"She seems quite upset, to be replying so fast." Leo yawned, before picking up the device again.
"I have the records before . Ever since you left last ti, Alpha Corp’s investnt portfolio expanded. And almost all the companies were where I had invested!"
"As expected, the Lionel Family is quite resourceful. They already realised what was happening?" Leo laughed, looking at the holographic ssage before him.
"But so what? Just because I have invested in the sa companies, what can they prove?"
"Really?!" He started typing a new ssage. "It looks like great minds think alike."
"Are you gaslighting ? I don’t know what you did, but ever since you started following my investnt pattern, things have started to go wrong."
"Hmm? Are you saying that it’s my fault that the companies aren’t performing well? Don’t forget that I also lost money in them. Do you think I am a crazy person that enjoys losing my credits?"
As he typed the ssage, he was inwardly nodding that he did love to lose credits. Still, Fiona didn’t need to know that.
"Or are you saying that the ’overvalued’ Alpha Corp is suddenly so powerful that it can ruin companies much stronger than ours?"
"I don’t know what you did. But I’m warning you! Even if I like you, but when it cos to money, I won’t hold back if you cross my red lines!"
"Oh? Is the great Lionel Family threatening a poor man like ? If you want to accuse , can’t you co up with better accusations that at least make so sense?"
If it was before, he might have been cautious about offending the Lionel Family that could make him disappear. But he was living off the grid. Could the Lionel Family even find him if he didn’t want to be seen?
"This man!" In another part of the spatial sector, Fiona was fuming at Leo’s words.
Even though she also didn’t understand how he was doing these things, she had a strong feeling that he was behind everything!
How could there be such a confidence that her net worth started going down since Leo started following her tracks?
"Did you find out the leak? How did he get the information about my investnts?" she asked the person hiding in the shadows nearby.
"Not yet. If there’s a leak, it might be at the highest level..." A voice ca from the shadows.
"From the highest levels? You an even with the Lionel Family’s resources, we can’t keep my investnt records a secret?" Fiona’s frown deepened.
"For now, that seems to be the case. It looks like his backing isn’t simple. Do you want to continue my search?" The woman in the shadow asked.
"A backing that even surpasses Lionel’s? If he had that level of backing, why would he co to us with a re hundred and fifty billion loan? Keep searching!" Fiona nodded.
She further instructed, "Even if you have to use my father’s na, I want to find out everything about that person and his backing!"
"It shall be done." Ca a response as the presence disappeared.
Her chest was heaving up and down as she glanced at Leo’s ssages again. She tossed her phone away, to stop looking at it.
"Mamma?" A childish voice ca from a nearby room.
"Yes, My Child?" Fiona stood up, and rushed to her daughter’s bedroom, forgetting all her anger.
She quickly rushed inside the room, where a little old baby was sitting on the bed, painting sothing on the paper with crayons.
In the canvas, there was a landscape, which looked like it was drawn by a child with shaky lines. There was heavy snowfall in the scenery, as the sun was hidden behind clouds.
The child looked back at Fiona, but there was no sense of innocence in those eyes anymore. Her eyes were pitch black, and even looked a little demonic.
....
Leo waited for a reply, but nothing ca from Fiona’s side anymore.
"Did she pass out in anger? She stopped replying suddenly?" he wondered. "Even I don’t want to trouble you, Fiona. It’s just that you created a little too many hurdles for ."
He kept the glass slab aside and fell back on the bed. "Because of you, I had to take the long route. So you can’t bla for this."
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