A SON IN LAW TURNS BILLIONAIRE AFTER DIVORCE

Chapter 2

CRACK!

The sharp sound of skin slapping skin echoed through the glass walls of the private office.

Leonard’s head snapped sideways. Pain flared across his right cheek, warm and stinging. He didn't fall. He didn't stumble. He just stood there, slowly bringing a hand up to touch his face.

He stared directly into the eyes of the woman standing over him.

"Why did you slap me?" Leonard asked. His voice was dead even, stripped of all the heat and passion he had thrown at her in the snow ninety-two days in the future.

Susan rolled her eyes, her chest heaving under a tailored blazer. "What is wrong with you today, Leonard?! I said sign the paper! Didn't you hear a single word I just said?!"

Leonard didn't answer right away. He slowly turned his head, taking in his surroundings.

Warm sunlight poured through floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Outside, yellow taxicabs and city buses hummed along paved streets. Above him, a soft, cool breeze blew quietly from a sleek central ventilation unit.

No ice. No screaming mutant beasts. No blood freezing on dark steel.

They were standing in a bright, spotless private conference room inside the city’s largest bank.

Across the desk, a female bank manager sat with a pen frozen in her hand, staring at them in absolute shock.

Right... Leonard thought, a cold, bitter realization washing over him. This day. I remember this day.

In his past life, on this exact morning, he had come to this very bank because Susan had cried and begged him for three days straight. She needed him to mortgage his late grandfather's house—his only inheritance—to secure a five-hundred-thousand-dollar business loan for her useless younger brother, Joseph Miller.

Joseph had claimed he had a revolutionary tech startup. Leonard, desperate to be the good, supporting husband, had signed every document without reading them.

And what happened? Joseph took the money, went straight to an underground casino, and gambled every single dollar away in less than thirty days. When the bank came to seize the house, Susan had simply shrugged and said, “He’s my brother, Leonard. Family helps family. You can just buy another house.”

Classic Millers.

"Leonard!" Susan’s sharp voice dragged him back to the present. She aggressively slammed a heavy black pen into his palm, leaning across the desk. "Sign it now! Stop wasting everyone's time! It's not like we're stealing your stupid house. Joseph 's company is going to make millions. You should be thanking us for letting you invest in it!"

"Investing," Leonard repeated softly.

"Yes! Investing!" Susan snapped, glaring at him. "Now put your signature on the last page so we can leave. Joseph is waiting outside in the lobby, and he needs the confirmation receipt right now!"

The bank manager looked nervously between the two of them. "Um... Mr. Buck? If you need a few moments to review the mortgage terms again—"

"He doesn't need to review anything!" Susan cut her off, her voice rising an octave. "He already agreed to this at home! Just let him sign!"

Under Susan’s furious, impatient glare and the manager’s awkward stare, Leonard slowly picked up the multi-page loan agreement from the desk. He looked down at the signature line.

Then, his hands moved.

RIP!

The clean, violent sound of paper tearing filled the silent room.

Leonard didn't just rip it once. He folded the thick stack in half and tore it straight down the middle again.

RIP!

White scraps of the half-million-dollar mortgage contract fluttered through the air like paper snow, landing across the dark mahogany desk.

Susan froze. Her jaw dropped so wide it looked like it might unhinge. "Have you... have you lost your damn mind?!" she shrieked, her face turning bright red. "What the hell did you just do?!"

Leonard didn't even look at her. He turned his eyes directly toward the stunned bank manager and spoke with absolute, terrifying clarity.

"I am officially cancelling this loan application," Leonard said, his tone as cold as the ice that had killed him. "Furthermore, I want you to immediately revoke every authorization, joint privilege, and power-of-attorney my wife currently holds on my personal and business accounts."

The bank manager blinked, thoroughly bewildered. "I... pardon me, Mr. Buck?"

"You heard me," Leonard said calmly. "From this second onward, no transfers, no cash withdrawals, and no account changes are to be approved unless I appear here in person with my valid primary identification."

"Leonard! Stop it!" Susan scrambled over to the desk, her nails digging into the edge of the wood as she leaned toward the manager. "Don't listen to him! He’s having a nervous breakdown! He doesn't know what he's saying! I’m his wife, I have full authority—"

"Actually, Mrs. Buck," the manager interrupted, her customer-service persona kicking back in with firm professionalism. "The primary asset portfolio and all linked primary accounts are registered under Mr. Buck’s name alone. If he verbally revokes access in person, we are legally obligated to follow his instructions immediately."

The manager turned her computer screen toward herself and began typing rapidly. "Sir, would you like me to process the freeze on all secondary card access right now?"

"Immediately," Leonard answered without a single second of hesitation. "Block every card issued under her name from my account."

“What?!” Susan went completely rigid.

For fourteen years—in the past life and up until this very morning—she had treated Leonard’s bank account like her personal piggy bank. He paid her rent, he bought her designer clothing, he funded her mother’s luxury vacations, and he paid off her brother’s constant debts. He had never once said no to her. He had never raised his voice.

And now, with a few words, he was cutting her off completely.

She stood there, frozen in utter disbelief. She couldn't comprehend it. She couldn't wrap her brain around why the quiet, obedient husband who worshipped the ground she walked on was suddenly acting like a total stranger.

"What is wrong with you?!" Susan exploded, stepping right into his space, her eyes screaming with pure fury. "What are you trying to prove with this pathetic little stunt?! Are you trying to humiliate me in front of strangers?! Is that it?!"

Leonard just stared at her, his face a complete mask of indifference. That quiet, empty gaze terrified her more than if he had screamed back.

"Fine! You want to play games?!" Susan spat, reaching into her designer handbag with a shaking hand. She pulled out a small, dark velvet jewelry box and threw it violently straight at his chest. "I can't take this anymore! You think you're some big man now?! All you ever give me are cheap, pathetic little trinkets like this! You never give me anything I actually want!"

The heavy box bounced off Leonard’s chest and smacked onto the hard floor, popping open upon impact.

A plain, unadorned gold ring rolled out of the velvet lining, spinning across the floorboards until it bumped against the toe of Leonard’s boot.

It was dull. It looked cheap. It had no diamonds, no engravings, and no shine.

It was his family heirloom.

The spatial dimensional ring.