"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 moment, 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 message that had arrived from Lionel Family. Or to be specific, it was a message from Fiona, who hadn't contacted him since their last meeting.

"Hmm? What is it now?" Leo rubbed his eyes, barely awake. He tapped on the sender's name, and was greeted by a message 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 me?"

"Spying? I have no idea what you are talking about. I'm too busy to be stalking women," Leo fired a message back before closing his eyes.

A chine echoed, as a new message arrived.

"She seems quite upset, to be replying so fast." Leo yawned, before picking up the device again.

"I have the records before me. Ever since you left last time, Alpha Corp's investment 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 message before him.

"But so what? Just because I have invested in the same companies, what can they prove?"

"Really?!" He started typing a new message. "It looks like great minds think alike."

"Are you gaslighting me? I don't know what you did, but ever since you started following my investment 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 message, 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 comes to money, I won't hold back if you cross my red lines!"

"Oh? Is the great Lionel Family threatening a poor man like me? If you want to accuse me, can't you come up with better accusations that at least make some 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 investments?" 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 came from the shadows.

"From the highest levels? You mean even with the Lionel Family's resources, we can't keep my investment 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 me 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 come to us with a mere hundred and fifty billion loan? Keep searching!" Fiona nodded.

She further instructed, "Even if you have to use my father's name, I want to find out everything about that person and his backing!"

"It shall be done." Came a response as the presence disappeared.

Her chest was heaving up and down as she glanced at Leo's messages again. She tossed her phone away, to stop looking at it.

"Mamma?" A childish voice came 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 something 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 came 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 me."

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 blame me for this."

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