The morning air over C&B's main office carried the faint chill of autumn, crisp and sharp against Jason's skin as he stepped out of his car. Normally, this was his favorite time of year — the air clear, the city quieter, and business always sharper. But today, there was a hum under the surface. A pulse he didn't like.
Inside, the building was already alive. Assistants darted between floors with armfuls of reports, and the executive elevators hummed with the weight of decisions being made above. Jason moved through it all with quiet purpose, nodding to those who greeted him but offering little conversation. He could feel it — something was off.
He found Hendricks and Natalie already waiting in the glass-walled conference room, a table of reports and financial statements spread out before them. Daisy stood by the window, arms folded, gaze fixed on the skyline as if it might give her answers.
"You're here early," Jason said as he stepped in.
Hendricks didn't smile. "We've got a problem."
That confirmed the pulse in Jason's chest. He pulled out a chair and sat. "Talk."
Hendricks slid a report across the table. "Two of our major distributors pulled out overnight. No warning, no explanation. Just canceled their next shipments and walked."
Jason scanned the papers. Both distributors had long-standing contracts with Eversage. Solid, reliable. The kind of partners who didn't spook easily. "And the reason?"
"None given," Hendricks replied. "One cited 'internal restructuring,' the other just paid the exit fee and ghosted us."
Jason's jaw tightened. "And the timing?"
"Within hours of each other," Daisy answered. "It's coordinated."
Jason set the papers down. "What else?"
Natalie tapped her tablet and projected a social feed on the wall screen. Posts were spreading across beauty forums and social platforms — whispers, rumors, and wild speculation. 'New miracle cream linked to skin irritation.' 'Unverified reports of chemical burns.' 'Experts question Eversage's rapid results.'
Jason scanned them silently. Most were clearly fabricated — accounts with no profile history, images with metadata stripped clean. Sloppy work, but enough to make noise.
"Organic?" he asked.
Natalie shook her head. "Astroturfed. We traced some of these accounts. Disposable proxies, likely bought in bulk. The same entity seeded all of them."
"Any trace to the source?"
"Not yet," she admitted. "Whoever's doing this knows how to cover their tracks."
Jason leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled. "First distributors, then public perception. They're probing."
"Probing?" Hendricks asked.
Jason's gaze stayed on the screen. "Testing our defenses. Seeing how quickly we respond. This isn't panic — it's precision."
A silence settled over the room. Jason's mind was already several steps ahead. Whoever this was, they weren't amateurs. And they had resources — enough to hit Eversage from multiple angles at once. He didn't have to guess who was behind it. There was only one company desperate enough and powerful enough to mount this kind of attack.
Titan Skincare.
Jason's lips curved faintly, though there was no humor in the gesture. "Malcolm Veyra."
Daisy glanced at him. "You're sure?"
"Who else?" Jason replied calmly. "He's the only one with both the motive and the arrogance."
Hendricks swore under his breath. "If he's coming for us—"
"Then we make him regret it," Jason interrupted.
Natalie hesitated, then asked the question hovering over all of them. "Can he trace us back? To C&B?"
Jason's eyes flicked toward her, then toward the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city sprawling beyond them. "No," he said finally. "Not anymore."
It was true. After the incident with his sister months ago — her impulsive, spite-fueled attempt to dig into his work without understanding what she was looking at — Jason had locked everything down. Layers of shell companies, encrypted ownership filings, offshore holdings, even paper trails rerouted through third-party investors. The connection between C&B and Eversage was now buried under so many false leads that even seasoned investigators would waste months chasing ghosts.
That incident had taught him a valuable lesson: even family could become liabilities. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
"They'll hit a wall," Jason continued. "All they'll ever find are Natalie and Hendricks. And if they try pushing harder…" A faint smirk touched his lips. "…they'll be knocking on doors that don't exist."
Daisy exhaled, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. "So what do we do?"
Jason stood and crossed to the window, hands in his pockets, eyes fixed on the skyline as if he could see the battlefield laid out there. "We respond — quietly."
He turned back to them, voice cool and deliberate. "Hendricks, reach out to smaller, independent distributors. Ones who aren't tied up with Titan's influence. Offer them incentives to carry Eversage exclusively."
Hendricks nodded. "Consider it done."
"Natalie," Jason continued, "I want every rumor countered with hard data. Lab results, dermatologist reviews, clinical trials — drown the noise with facts. And contact our PR team. It's time we told the story we want people to hear."
"On it," she said, already tapping notes into her tablet.
Jason shifted his attention to Daisy. "And you — start compiling a list of Titan's suppliers. I want to know where they're vulnerable."
Daisy blinked. "We're going on the offensive?"
Jason's smile was cold. "I don't plan to let them keep throwing punches without swinging back."
For the next hour, they dissected the situation, laying out contingency plans and drawing up new strategies. Jason moved through the meeting like a conductor guiding a symphony — precise, methodical, but with a current of controlled fury beneath every word. He'd spent too long building this empire from nothing to let someone like Malcolm Veyra tear it down with brute force.
By the time the meeting ended, the first moves were already in motion.
Three days later, the pulse had grown louder.
Jason stood in the logistics hub on the lower floors, watching forklifts load pallets of Eversage's flagship product into waiting trucks. The warehouse floor buzzed with motion, but the tension was palpable. Another supplier had pulled out that morning. A small one, but still part of their chain. And the rumor campaign online was escalating — now complete with faked photos and fabricated testimonials.
"Word from the western distributor?" Jason asked as Daisy approached.
"They're hesitating," she said. "They're still under contract, but Titan's dangling a pretty generous buyout in front of them."
Jason nodded slowly. "And are they biting?"
"Not yet," Daisy replied. "But they're thinking about it."
Jason's jaw flexed. "Make them an offer they can't refuse. Double their incentives if you have to. If Titan wants to bleed money playing this game, we'll bleed them faster."
Daisy hesitated. "It's risky. They might call our bluff."
"Then make sure it doesn't sound like a bluff."
She nodded and hurried off, leaving Jason alone with the steady hum of the warehouse.
He closed his eyes briefly, breathing in the cold scent of cardboard and engine oil. This was how wars started — not with gunfire or speeches, but with whispers, contracts, and vanishing signatures. And if Malcolm wanted a war, Jason was prepared to give him one.
His phone buzzed. Natalie.
"Talk to me," he said, answering without looking.
"I traced the accounts behind those rumors," she reported. "They're laundering the activity through a network of marketing firms. All of them trace back to shell companies based in Singapore."
"And?"
"And those shell companies are owned by a holding firm with ties to Titan's regional office."
Jason's lips twitched upward. "There's our smoking gun."
"What do you want me to do with it?"
"Nothing," Jason said. "Not yet. Let them think they're hidden. The more confident they are, the sloppier they'll get."
Natalie chuckled softly. "You really are something else."
"Just careful," Jason replied. "We're not fighting a company. We're fighting a man. And men like Malcolm always overplay their hand."
He hung up and slipped the phone into his pocket. His reflection stared back at him in the polished glass wall — calm, composed, and utterly certain. The world still saw Natalie and Hendricks as the faces behind Eversage. Let them. The longer Jason stayed invisible, the longer he could move without resistance.
And when Malcolm finally realized who he was really up against… it would already be too late.
That night, Jason sat alone in his office, the city's glow stretching endlessly beyond the window. The reports from the day lay scattered across his desk — some good, most not. There would be more delays, more rumors, more pressure in the days to come.
But he wasn't worried.
Titan was playing checkers. Jason was playing chess.
He reached for his pen and began sketching out new moves — distribution reroutes, countermarketing plans, targeted partnerships. Every line was another trap, another step deeper into a maze Malcolm wouldn't see until it closed around him.
The phone buzzed again. A message from Daisy: "Smaller distributors secured. Terms favorable. Titan will have to overpay to counter."
Another from Natalie: "Engagement with false rumors dropping 12%. Positive sentiment climbing."
Jason set the phone down and leaned back, letting the smallest hint of satisfaction touch his lips.
"First move's yours, Malcolm," he murmured into the empty room. "Let's see how well you handle the second."
The city below pulsed like a living thing, full of motion and hunger. And somewhere out there, Malcolm Veyra was staring at the same skyline, convinced he was the hunter.
Jason knew better.
He wasn't prey. He never had been.
The ripples had started. Soon enough, they would become waves.