LOGINChapter 2
“Jake! Scarlett slapped Janet and me! She’s crazy! Help me, help!” It did not even take a second before Jake’s furious roar erupted from the speaker. “What?! Scarlett, are you insane?!" Seeing that Jake had fallen for Rachael’s tears, Janet rushed over too. “I only asked to borrow a little cash, and she suddenly flew into a rage and attacked me!” The other end of the line went dead for a few seconds. Then, Jake’s panicked roar exploded back, louder and shriller than before. “How dare you put your hands on my mother?! After all my family has done for you, taking you in when you were a penniless orphan—” “I guess your family is so poor that you all have to depend on a poor orphan for support,” Scarlett replied in her calm tone. She was not even sure why she bothered to reply to him. “Jack, I have decided to divorce you. I will have a lawyer send over the paperwork before the end of business today.” "Scarlett—" Jake barked again. Then, forcing his anger down, he tried to sound reasonable. "Don't do something stupid. Divorce isn't a joke. What about Ethan? Are you just abandoning him?" Ethan. The boy she had poured her heart and soul into for four years. Scarlett let out a bitter, mocking laugh, her eyes full of scorn. "How long did you think you could keep up the lie, Jake? Ethan isn't my son. He’s the bastard child you had with Rachael. You rushed to marry me back then because she was pregnant but wanted nothing to do with marriage. I was just a random nanny you picked out to raise your kid legally, wasn't I?" "Y-You... how do you know that?!" Jake’s voice crumbled, shaking violently. "It doesn't matter how I know. Remember what I just said, otherwise I will let everyone on the earth know about how ugly you and Rachael are." Silence stretched on the line. Realizing Scarlett held a deadly weapon against him, Jake completely broke. "Do you really think you can live without me, without my family?!” “Ethan's custody stayed with you. The house we bought after we got married stayed with you too. I didn't want any of it. I just wanted a divorce,” Scarlett said coldly. “Huh! Fine!” Jake roared, his anger almost bursting through the phone. “You've completely lost your mind! Go ahead and divorce me if you think you can. I'd like to see where you'll go after you leave this house. When you end up sleeping on the streets, don't come crawling back and beg me!” Hearing Jake’s words, the tears on Rachael and Janet’s faces dried up. Their faces turned pale with a strange sort of panic. They had only wanted to bully Scarlett into submission, like they always did when they threatened her with Jake’s name or outrightly reporting her to Jake. The last thing they wanted her to do was leave. Scarlett worked for a very good company that paid her a whopping nine thousand dollars a month. If she left, their thousands-dollar allowance would vanish. For years, she had handed her entire paycheck over to Jake who turned a blind eye as Janet and Rachael squandered Scarlett’s money like pocket change. Janet took a step forward, her hand reaching for Scarlett. Before she could utter a word, Scarlett stormed out the front door and slammed it behind her so hard that it rattled on its hinges. As soon as she got into her car, her phone rang with the ID from an unknown number. Scarlett’s smile returned easily. The lawyer. That was quick. In her past life, she had been in the kitchen when the call came in and answered it in front of Rachael and Janet. What a disaster that had been. “Am I speaking to Mrs. Scarlett Morrison?” Scarlett instinctively sat straighter as though he could see her? “Yes, you are, sir. How may I help you?” “I am Trevor Johnson, the lawyer representing the Morrison family, your biological parents. At the moment, they are deceased and have named you the sole heir of their estate.” He paused for a moment and Scarlett stayed silent, waiting for him to keep speaking. The lawyer did not comment further on Scarlett’s reaction and went on to answer her question. Sixty million dollars worth in multiple properties in several locations and twenty million dollars in cold hard cash. “You can claim your inheritance at any moment. We will arrange a meeting and I will sign over the documents to you—” “That would be perfect. Thank you very much.” She needed her divorce finalized before she could touch the money. “I can come in tomorrow but before then, I need you to help me draft something.” “What would that be, ma’am?” “A divorce agreement. I will send you the details now.” Trevor worked very fast and had the document ready for Scarlett within the hour. Scarlett immediately drove to the nearest department store to print out the paperwork. Just in case, she printed multiple copies of the documents and signed all of them before packaging the first one into an envelope and heading to the post office. In front of the doors of the post office, she scribbled Trevor’s firm address on a sticky note along with the instruction: Sign this and return it immediately. When the package was mailed out to Jake, Scarlett was finally able to relax. The next things were to wait for Jake’s signature, cash out on her massive inheritance before going on a shopping spree. But first, the pocket space. She drove to a motel and checked in for the night. Though the motel staff had looked at her weirdly for not having any luggage with her, Scarlett was unbothered. Her mind was hovering around the pocket space and what could be waiting for her. However, it did not take long for her to be disappointed. “Just a storage feature,” she muttered as she fell back onto the bed. Before she could sulk about it, her hands lifted and clapped her cheeks. “But it is already much better.” It was already a miracle that she could be sent back in time. Now, she wanted to start complaining that her pocket space did not have any other function besides storing items. What other thing was necessary for the apocalypse? Once the weather ravaged the Earth, the supplies she saved would be more valuable than gold. Even more so, she had firsthand knowledge of the future. With her resources added to this, she would rule the post-apocalyptic world like a queen. She continued testing her pocket space for a few more hours until she ran out of things in the motel room to put into the pocket space and bring out. Every object in the living room had worked. She would have to diversify her training options so she could test the limits of her space. Eventually, she succumbed to exhaustion as the sun was setting. She drifted into a deep sleep. When the sun rose again, she would begin a true new life.Scarlett stared at the number until it rang out. A text came in the next moment.Where is the woman? We were supposed to meet an hour ago!Scarlett scrolled through the former chats and was able to confirm that the person was from the gang in Maplewood Avenue.Whether it was the boss himself, Scarlett could not be sure.It made sense how they knew her by name. They still did not want to leave her alone after everything.Leon got to tying Lee up, hands and feet tightly bound so that the man could not move. He then knocked him out and put him inside the closet.Then, he came out and sat down beside Scarlett, stripping his jacket to put around her shoulders. “What are you planning to do now?”Scarlett’s fist tightened around the phone, so hard that the screen cracked. “I need to go and see where this place is.”Leon’s brow raised. “You want to go to see the people that want you dead?”Scarlett looked down at his bandaged shoulder and rubbed her forehead, thinking of what to do. She could
Leon watched them silently as they moved around the apartment, turning everything over to look for Scarlett.Intense anger swirled in his chest but he did not move yet. His finger tightened around the gun so he would not miss when they came into his line of sight again.“Vic, look at these walls. There is something off about them,” one of the men said, drumming his hand against the wall. “It feels thicker than the walls downstairs.”Vic felt the walls and clicked his tongue.“They must have used better materials for the top floors. Even the doors were a headache to break into.”The man who had spoken remained against the wall regardless. He lifted his gun and tapped the wall surface. “It feels like steel,” he muttered.Scarlett looked down at the wall beside her. The reinforcements were only obvious from inside the base.She was not sure if the fortress's strength would reflect inside the house but now, they had helped her to confirm that it did.Perhaps, the person who was speaking k
Nica expected to be dead.After all, they were on the top floor. There was no way she would jump and survive the fall to the bottom.However, no sooner had she jumped did her feet touch dry ground. Slowly, she opened her eyes and her lips parted in a soft gasp as she looked around.“What the…where are we?”“I will explain later,” Scarlett said and started to pull her so they could hide beside the wall.Nica remained silent, not fully understanding what was happening but she listened to Scarlett.A moment later, more men burst into the room, looking around.“Where the hell are they?! They killed the boss!”Scarlett peeked up through the window, counting the men in her house. Six of them.Nica said there were six more. If she was going to handle them, she needed to do it quickly so she would not still be caught in a battle when their back-up arrived.Leon’s hand closed over the gun. “Scarlett, let me do it.”Scarlett remembered then that he was in the special forces in the army. Even if
This was the third time that Scarlett had seen her, once at the door and the second time watching her in the garage. “Is he dead?” the girl asked, raising her pole again. Scarlett looked down at the blood pooling out from his fractured skull. “No one would survive that blood loss,” Scarlett said. “But you can hit him again for good measure.” The words were barely out of Scarlett’s lips when the girl started to batter his body. By the time she had let out all of her anger, the man was practically unrecognizable. When she was done, the pole fell from her hand and clattered to the ground. The girl’s knees buckled and before she could fall, Scarlett caught her. “What is your name?” Scarlett asked, holding the trembling girl. “Nica,” she whispered. “Thank you. Thank you so much for killing them. We were going to be sold tomorrow.” Nica burst into tears in Scarlett’s arms, repeating thank you over and over. Scarlett helped her into the apartment, letting her cry. “Leon! Leon!
Marcus opened his mouth to ask what she was trying to build and caught himself at the last minute.He nearly committed a rookie mistake: digging into the dealings of his clients. It was not his business what she wanted, as long as she paid.“How much of it do you need?”“As much as you can find,” Scarlett said and then paused. How was she going to pay for it?She had spent all of her real money on resources preparing for the apocalypse. Society had come back to dealing with cash again.She might have to find a way to make money before she thinks of continuing with her plans to build houses inside her base.“How much will it cost?” Scarlett asked slowly.Marcus blinked. Did she not have the money? So where was she getting her food from?“I’m not sure. A couple thousand maybe. I would have to really check to see if I can find someone…” Marcus trailed off, reading the look in her eyes.She must have spent all of her money on supplies because of the apocalypse. That said, she still had so
Lily skipped ahead of Scarlett and Leon on the beach. Her excited laugh that filled the air made the two adults smile.Lily was a very happy child normally but Scarlett had never heard her laugh like that.“Do you have to be so stubborn all the time?” Scarlett asked.Leon frowned at her words, his gaze darting to hers. She was staring up at the night sky with a serene expression on her face.“What do you mean by that?” he asked her, his voice level.Even now, he was still uncomfortable with being inside her base. This was supposed to be a paradise for her and as much as he would like to enjoy the safety of such a place, he did not want to impose.Scarlett pursed her lips. “Leon, you must realize that you are in a more unfavorable place than most people during an apocalypse. You have someone who is depending on you for their survival.”Both their eyes fixed on Lily.Leon hummed. “I know that. What are you trying to say?”“I am trying to say that as much as you do not want help from any







