Chapter 84
At that moment the silence in the room grew heavy. Malisa clenched her jaw, her eyes fixed on Lovi as he went on. Cora’s arms remained crossed, her fingers slightly trembling—not from fear, but from sheer fury at the idea of James somehow crawling his way back into her empire.
Then Lovi leaned forward, placing both elbows on the table, locking eyes with Cora.
"That’s why this 20% matters. Right now, that remaining portion is still tied to you, still under your name, even if indirectly. That means James has legal grounds to argue that a merger benefits both parties. He can build a case around joint interest, shared assets, and company performance post-investment. And believe me, I’m sure his legal team is already working overtime."
He took a breath before delivering the key part. "So, the only way to stop that—permanently—is to transfer the 20% to a neutral third party. Someone who is not in the picture. Someone that James cannot trace to you or tie into your web. It has to look like a genuine offload. Like you gave up that portion for reasons totally unrelated to the feud."
Malisa quickly asked, "But even if we transfer it, what if James still argues the intent behind it?"
Immediately Lovi smirked, "That’s where the brilliance comes in. It can also be argued that the transfer was done to avoid bias, not out of spite. It would look like an effort to neutralize things. That way, James can’t say you’re blocking the merger out of vengeance, and you can’t be accused of hoarding power. In court, that 20% becomes a wall—a wall James cannot climb."
At that moment Cora was quiet, but her eyes now focused sharply. She hated being told what to do, but even more than that, she hated being cornered. And from the look of things, Lovi wasn’t trying to control her, he was giving her a survival plan. A shield. One that might just give her the upper hand again.
Lovi ended with, "It has to be done quickly. And it has to be someone James doesn’t even know exists."
At that moment, Lovi leaned back in his chair like a man who had just revealed the final piece of a perfectly constructed puzzle. A confident, slow smile crept across his face as his eyes flicked between Cora and Malisa. The air in the VIP room grew noticeably tense.
"That," he said, his voice smooth and deliberate, "is where I actually come in."