Niamh sat in her office, quietly multitasking–on one screen, she was subscribing to the newly issued shares of The Thomas Group as a major shareholder; on another, she was using Rising Star, a company registered in Coralis, to continue snapping up stocks from small–time investors eager to sell.
By the time her stake reached forty–five percent, Niamh had become the largest shareholder in The Thomas Group.
“Marina…”
She let out a cold, mirthless laugh at her computer screen.
“You really have been a tremendous help to me.”
It had all started with her: Niamh was the one who convinced Preston to send out that infamous tweet, hired an army of online trolls to spin Jonathan as a hopeless romantic, to push the narrative that Jonathan and Marina were destined for each other. She was behind the scenes when Carlisle hacked into the system, flooding the internet with clips from Marina’s old adult films.
Every move, every meticulously planned step, had been orchestrated by Niamh.
At first, all she wanted was to prove her innocence.
She’d had Carlisle pull the security footage from the night Marina was assaulted, discovering only a single van drove to the abandoned warehouse. The van had been rented. The owner of the rental agency said it was a foreigner who took it out; the security footage didn’t catch a clear shot of his face, but it did show the man’s
tattoo.
Carlisle’s investigation revealed the tattoo was the mark of The Vipers‘ Nest–a symbol all high–ranking members of the Blackspire gang bore.
Blackspire….
The name had been circling in Niamh’s mind for days.
If she remembered correctly, Marina had once studied abroad in Blackspire. It was there she was kidnapped by Daniel and nearly trafficked. Now, the suspects in Marina’s assault also appeared to be members of a Blackspire gang.
Niamh doubted all of this was just coincidence.
As luck would have it, Michael was in Blackspire on business and had offered to
help. Niamh seized the opportunity and asked him to look into Marina’s past while
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she’d been there.
She hadn’t really expected Michael to dig up anything substantial–just a lead or two for Carlisle to follow. But, to her surprise, Michael proved remarkably resourceful. He sent her videos–Marina’s videos.
In those videos, Marina looked younger, almost innocent: long, straight black hair, dressed in snowy white lingerie, exuding an air of naiveté. The film even opened with a coy introduction:
“My name is Snow, I’m from Aldonia, and I’m a college student…”
Niamh had suspected that Marina met members of The Vipers‘ Nest during her time in Blackspire, but she’d never imagined Marina had actually filmed adult movies there.
Whether those films had been made by choice or under duress was irrelevant now–the footage showed nothing that looked forced. Either way, Marina had brought it all on herself; Niamh felt no sympathy for her.
Besides, the public seemed far more interested in the tangled love triangle between her, Marina, and Jonathan than in Marina’s assault.
So, Niamh decided to use this indelible stain on Marina’s reputation to destroy her once and for all–and, in the process, swallow The Thomas Group whole.
Rising Star, the company she’d set up to take on the project Hayes had handed her, turned out to be unexpectedly useful yet again.
Jonathan had been so busy keeping an eye on Neville Corporation and another Blackspire–based company that he failed to notice her Rising Star quietly absorbing every share small investors sold. No matter how many were dumped, she bought them all.
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Combined with the ten percent stake she already owned, Niamh became the largest shareholder with a single leap.
She closed her laptop, leaned back in her chair, and shut her eyes for a moment’s
rest.
The past few days had left her exhausted.
Funny how things worked out–she’d once refused Jonathan’s offer of ten percent
in The Thomas Group with everything she had, yet now she’d set the perfect trap to seize control as its largest shareholder.
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