The smug look on Rum’s face said it all. The final piece of their puzzle, the person they had been waiting for to seal Bobo’s fate, had just entered the room. When Bobo turned to see who this mastermind was, the breath caught in her throat. To her absolute surprise, it was someone she was quite familiar with, someone she had trusted implicitly with the future of her company.
"Ramon?" Bobo stammered, her eyes wide with disbelief. "What are you doing here?"
She stared at one of her lead researchers, a man she had hired to innovate, not to conspire. He was wearing his lab coat, but the way he carried himself was entirely different from the quiet scientist she thought she knew.
"What do you mean, ’what am I doing here’? Can’t you figure it out, Bobo?" Ramon asked, a condescending smile playing on his lips as he walked toward the empty seat at the table. "Think about it. Who would be able to get in contact with the directors in the facility so easily? Who has been on the ground floor with them every day?"
He placed his hands on the back of the chair, looking down at the board members who refused to meet Bobo’s eyes.
"Who would be able to connect the dots and tell a wealthy investor like Sir Rum to invest in a particular department? Who was it that convinced the CEO to place additional funding into specific projects just before all of this was set to take place?"
Ramon chuckled darkly, enjoying the look of horror dawning on her face. "If I have to spell it out to you, from the very beginning, all of it was me."
Bobo didn’t know how to react. She sat frozen in her chair, feeling the ground crumble beneath her. Her company, her inheritance, her sanctuary, it had all been snatched from right underneath her feet. And the worst part was, the coup hadn’t been led by a rival CEO or a family enemy, but by a worker. A subordinate.
"You know," Ramon continued, pacing slowly around the room, "there were actually quite a few departments that were ready to launch projects. Innovations that could have made the company profitable months ago. But, of course, I stopped them all."
Bobo’s jaw dropped. "You... you sabotaged us?"
"I delayed them," Ramon corrected casually. "I needed you to feel desperate. I wanted you to put all your faith, and your remaining capital, into my department. I needed to concentrate the resources."
He leaned in closer. "And as for where all your money went? It went on nothing of interest to help the company. It was all funneled for my personal gain and to grease the wheels for this little takeover."
The shock finally gave way to a surge of hot, blinding anger. Bobo slammed her hands on the table and stood up.
"You... you traitor!" Bobo shouted, her voice trembling with rage. "You can’t do this! I’ll sue you for everything you have. This is embezzlement! This is illegal! You are an idiot for admitting this right to my face in front of witnesses!"
Ramon didn’t flinch. In fact, he laughed.
"Oh, I’m the idiot?" Ramon mocked, raising an eyebrow. "You should really think about the situation you are in. Why is it that everyone at this table, your loyal directors, has agreed to join a simple researcher’s side? Do you really think I’m just a scientist?"
He gestured to the room at large. "I am not a simple researcher, Bobo. You go ahead and try to sue me. But litigation takes time. Before you even get me into a courtroom, the whole company will be mine. The transfer of power is already in motion."
He looked at her with pity, as if she were a child who didn’t understand how the world worked. "I just thought you should see the face and the real person behind this mess before you get kicked out of the entire company for good. And don’t worry, we will find more ways to make sure your shares dwindle to nothing while we take the facility for ourselves."
At this moment, Bobo was at a complete loss. She slumped back into her chair. This was supposed to be her new life. She had given away her family fortune to escape the toxicity of the Stern family competition. She had accepted a life of not wishing to compete anymore, wanting only to run this facility and enjoy the work.
From today onwards, she was just going to focus on what she enjoyed. And now, in the blink of an eye, even this humble dream had been taken away from her.
Panic began to set in, but through the fog of fear, a small, desperate thought sparked in her mind. She began to do the mental math regarding the shares.
Ramon and Rum have the board... that’s roughly forty-five percent, she thought frantically. I have my shares, but with the dilution... wait.
Although they held a massive block of shares, they didn’t hold all of them. There was one other entity involved in the company. One group of people who currently held a percentage that could tip the scales.
"The Billion Bloodline group," Bobo mumbled under her breath.
Her eyes lit up slightly. "If I convince them to be on my side... if I can get their voting power... then the balance shifts. Things will stay the same, or at least I can block you."
She looked up at Ramon with renewed determination. "And once I have them, now that I know what you plan to do, I’ll fire your entire research team, Ramon!"
However, a seed of doubt remained. Convincing the Billion Bloodline group might not be easy. Considering they weren’t in the room, Bobo had to suspect, or at least hope, that Ramon and his conspirators hadn’t been able to get to them yet.
She still had some personal money left. Maybe she could buy back their shares to regain absolute control? Or perhaps she could simply offer them money to side with her in this dispute. It was her only play left.
Ramon saw the gears turning in her head and smirked.
"The Billion Bloodline group, right?" Ramon said, his voice oozing with arrogance. "Well, why don’t you go ahead and call them? See what they say."
The way Ramon was acting, with such supreme confidence, made Bobo nervous. It felt like a trap. Had they already bought them out? Still, she had no other choice. She had to try something. With trembling hands, she picked up her phone and dialed the contact number she had for their representative.
At this exact moment, a little before Bobo had entered her meeting, the scene was quite different in another part of the city.
Max was sitting in his office, the atmosphere calm and calculated. By his side were his trusted associates: Warma, Aron, and Na. They were all gathered in the same room, staring at a single object.
Max’s phone was placed in the center of the table. They were waiting.
"Are you sure they are going to call?" Warma asked, breaking the silence.
Max leaned back in his chair, his expression unreadable. "I’m positive," he said smoothly.
He looked at his team. "Remember what I told you to look into earlier? After seeing what the Gilt Rats syndicate did with Karen, I wondered why it was that Evon was spotted at Bobo’s base."
Max stood up and walked to a whiteboard where he had mapped out the connections.
"The most likely answer is that they were trying to take everything from the Stern family members that they saw as easy pickings. The Gilt Rats are scavengers. They see the Stern heirs fighting amongst themselves, and they swoop in to eat the scraps."
He tapped the board. "When I saw the structure of the current business Bobo is running, I realized what could possibly happen. It’s not the first time a syndicate has done this to a legitimate company. Usually, they infiltrate, pump up the value, sell the shares back at a higher price, and get an easy payout before disappearing."
"So, they want to sell?" Aron asked.
"No," Max corrected. "That is the usual play. But in this case, they aren’t just manipulating stock. They are trying to take over the entire facility. Usually, they wouldn’t do that because there is nothing a criminal syndicate can really do with a research lab."
Max’s eyes narrowed. "But this gives us the perfect chance. Although we don’t own the majority of the company, we are positioned perfectly. We are the swing vote. We are the deciding factor between two warring sides, Bobo on one hand, and the Gilt Rats’ puppets on the other."
He looked back at the phone on the table.
"I bet the Gilt Rats know this as well. They probably think they can intimidate us or buy us out later. But right now, we hold most of the cards... and unlike Bobo, we know exactly what the Gilt Rats are going to do."
Right then, the silence of the room was broken.
Ring. Ring.
The phone on the table lit up. Max glanced down at the screen and saw the caller ID.
It was Bobo.