NOVEL NEXT CHAPTER 222
At that moment, upon hearing what Malisa just said, Cora's expression shifted instantly. Her brows drew close, and without thinking, she shot up from her seat like the name had lit a fire underneath her.
"Wait… wait are you talking about Mr. B?" she asked in disbelief, eyes wide, her voice filled with a mix of surprise and urgency.
Malisa gave a slow, confirming nod. "Yes. Mr. B."
Cora's heart skipped a beat. Mr. B? Of all people?
Her voice came out sharp now. "So… what do you have on him?" Her fingers tightened into a fist. "Please tell me it's something good. Something solid. Something we can finally use against that snake."
Malisa took a deep breath. She could see how much Cora wanted this. How much she needed a win. And Malisa was ready to deliver but not in this situation.
"I went deep, Cora. I asked questions. I pulled strings. I even reached out to people I haven't spoken to in years. You know I don't do that unless it's serious. I contacted some of the highest-level informants I know people who owe me favors just to make sure I wasn't chasing shadows."
But before Malisa could finish, Cora quickly cut her off, her patience already hanging by a thread. Her voice was sharp and direct.
"Just go straight to the point, Malisa," she snapped. "What happened?"
At that moment, upon hearing what Cora just said, Malisa drew in a long, deep breath. Her fingers clenched slightly around the phone in her ear, and her eyes didn't leave the empty report message on her tablet. Instead, she looked off to the side for a second, gathering her thoughts, steadying her voice, and preparing herself for what she knew wouldn't be easy to say.
"Cora," she finally said gently, "please… calm down. I'm not trying to frustrate you. I just need you to let me finish because what I'm about to say… it's not easy to explain. I'm trying to say it the right way, so you'll understand how serious this is."
Cora, though clearly agitated, closed her eyes, exhaled slowly, and nodded. "Okay," she muttered, trying to keep her voice from rising. "I'm calm now. I'm listening. Just say it."
Malisa looked at wall directly this time. "From everything I've gathered… all the calls, all the contacts, all the digging I've done Cora, I'm beginning to believe Mr. B doesn't even exist."
Immediately Cora blinked. "What do you mean he doesn't exist?"
"There are two strong possibilities," Malisa said, her voice more firm now. "One: 'Mr. B' is not his real name maybe a Ghost, or a placeholder for someone else pulling the strings. And two…" She hesitated, "...there might not be a Mr. B at all. No legal documents. No official identification. Not a single verifiable trace."
Cora's eyebrows pulled together sharply. Her body tensed as she leaned forward. "Melissa, don't play games with me. Are you saying you found nothing?"
"Nothing that makes sense," Malisa confessed. "I spoke to every single man who sold their shares to him. Every. Single. One. And Cora…"her voice dropped slightly"…they don't even know who they sold to."
"What?" Cora's voice cracked with disbelief.
"They said he never showed his face. Everything was handled through phone call. Shadowy ones. Every document was signed electronically with third-party authorizations. No one saw him in person. No one spoke to him directly. It's like he's a ghost, or worse, a smokescreen."
Malisa took a deep breath and continued. "Even the legal firms I traced… shell companies. Offshore registrations. The trail always ends somewhere blank. Blank records, blank names, blank profiles. Even the pictures I got from the hotel security? Blurred. Deliberately blurred, like someone scrubbed the system before we got there."
Cora sank back into her chair slowly, her legs feeling weak beneath her. The silence between them stretched out.
"So you're telling me," Cora said finally, her voice flat and hollow, "that after all this effort… you still don't know who Mr. B is?"
At that moment, Malisa slowly nod her head on the phone, her expression filled with the weight of uncertainty. "Yes," she said softly. "I don't have anything. Nothing. It's like this person doesn't exist."
Cora's eyes didn't blink for a moment. Her lips pressed into a tight line as she slowly turned and began pacing in front of her desk. The silence in the room was heavy. Her heels clicked softly on the floor. Then she placed her fingers on her forehead, trying to steady her thoughts. Then she looked up and said, on the phone, "This just means one thing. A warline has been drawn."
She turned to Malisa fully, voice growing firm. "Whoever this Mr. B is… he's not here to play. He's here to take over. He's not testing the waters he's already swimming in them. The percentage of shares he's holding now gives him a strong voice in ZXZ. That's not something done on a whim. This is an attack."
Her voice cracked with anger for just a second, but she quickly recomposed herself. "Could it be James?" she asked, almost as if she didn't want to hear the answer. "It's all beginning to feel like it's James's work. The timing, the secrecy, the sudden appearance of Mr. B and these shares… it smells like James."
Malisa frowned and shook her head immediately. "I understand why you'd think that, but honestly, I don't think it's James," she said with certainty. "Cora, listen to me. I know James. He might be many things, but I don't believe he's capable of pulling off something like this at least not this clean. Not this silent. You know how he works… he's louder. He leaves footprints. This… this feels like something else."
Cora the took a seat and leaned on the edge of her desk, still skeptical but trying to listen. "So what then? You're telling me this mystery man just rose out of nowhere, bought a massive percentage of our company, and nobody knows who he is? You want me to sit here and believe that?"
Melissa held her hands up. "That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying whoever this Mr. B is… he's dangerous. He's either hiding under a very strong cover, or… he doesn't exist. Which is even more dangerous."