Page 141 of Dex

“You want us to go to him and offer to buy the company?”Matteo asks.

“Not buy,” Rio replies.“We contact outside investors who have a vested interest in AO Eletronica.”

“Are these people legit?”Enzo asks.

“Yes, they will be,” I reply.“That’s the beauty.We’re not going to fabricate anything.We’re just guiding the narrative.”

“How are you going to find them?”

“My father-in-law, will help,” I answer smoothly.“I’ve already spoken to him and apologized about the way the old man handled things, about how he tricked him into signing over the shares.”

“That must have been a heavy call,” Rio says.

“It was, but he apologized.Said he felt bad for what he’d done, cooking the books and all that.Said he felt the worst for Daniela, for not being honest with her.I told him we’re not going to dwell on the past.We’re going to fix this.The guy’s not in a good place.He didn’t tell his daughter the whole truth, and she walked into a marriage of convenience blind.That kind of guilt eats you up.I know it does.”I take a moment to inhale.To think about how Daniela saved me, how she made me see.And now I want to fix things for her.“If something happens to him … she’ll never forgive herself.I’ll never forgive myself.”I reflect on how much Daniela loves her parents.How much they love her.“I want him to recover from this.He had to be in a desperate place to do this.”A quiet murmur goes around the table.“I told him it has to be our secret.That he can’t tell Daniela, or anyone, not even his wife.”

“How’s that going to help?”Matteo asks.

“We just drop the right whispers in the right ears and let their interest do the rest,” I reply.

“How?”

“We don’t approach the old man directly.Instead we quietly stoke real investor interest in AO Eletronica by talking to people who already have an interest in the company.Arminio has a list of old players, some of whom have history with AO Eletronica.Some just see it as undervalued tech ready for revival.”

“I still don’t see how that will help.”

“These whispers build buzz and speculation that will reach Paul through his own channels; his legal team, PR advisors, industry journalists and so on.Then we manufacture a crisis.Maybe a foreign investor consortium is preparing a hostile takeover of AO Eletronica or some regulatory risks if Knight Enterprises holds a majority in a foreign-run tech company, something like that.Something that would hurt Knight’s quarterly numbers, and maybe even trigger shareholder panic.The purpose of this crisis is to scare the old man into thinking that AO Eletronica is now a liability.It’s classic corporate manipulation.”

Rio sighs as if he’s been enlightened.“The old man ends up hearing exactly what we want him to hear, but it feels like it’s coming from independent sources.He never suspects that we’re behind it.”

“Exactly.”

“Smart,” Rio says.“You’ve been working hard, dude.”

“I haven’t slept.”

“You look like shit,” Matteo comments.

“Thanks,brother.”

Enzo looks thoughtful.“You should take care of yourself.This isn’t going to be easy, going up against our father.”

“It’s easier compared to the thought of losing Daniela.”

Matteo and Enzo look at me.You care about her?Is what I read on their faces.

“Let’s stick to the task at hand,” Rio says.“So,” he points a finger at me, “ … the old man takes the bait, he’ll panic, thinking AO Eletronica is a liability now, and he’ll look to quietly dump the fifty one percent holding before it implodes.”

“Correct.Then, a shell company, it’s probably better that you three form that,” I say to the Italian Knights.I trust Rio implicitly, and I trust Matteo and Enzo because I know they’d do Rio’s bidding.Keeping my name out of it entirely is probably a better bet.“You’re behind the shell company and you offer to buy the fifty-one percent.The old man thinks he’s outsmarted the market, but the shell company is secretly owned by you three, and the moment the deal is done, you own the majority stake.”

“And then what?”Enzo asks.“You give it back?”

Rio nods.“We return control back to Daniela’s father.It’s all done through a shell company.The old man will never see it coming.”

“Why would he give up the shares in the first place?”Matteo asks.

Rio clicks his fingers.“Focus dude.The hostile takeover or regulatory issue.”

I take over.“Yes, exactly that.We leak that holding onto the company could bleed Knight Enterprises.Something like that.I’m still working on the finer points.The old man doesn’t like losing money.He’ll offload the shares.”

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