The Double or more Life of the Fake Heiress (Mirabella)

The middle-aged man on the floor was struggling to shake off the pounding pain, but his right knee, still reeling from that brutal kick, just wouldn't cooperate. He glanced up at the man sitting at the head of the table, disbelief written all over his face. They had waltzed in here with an air of confidence, never expecting the other guy to be so unbending, even going as far as to get physical. The current head of the Davis family was every bit as cold and hard as the rumors made him out to be.

Asa, noticing his companion might let slip something else reckless, stepped forward a bit. "Apologies, Mr. Davis. My buddy here tends to be a little too blunt for his own good. I hope you can let it slide." The middle-aged man balled his fists, realizing he had no choice but to swallow his pride and apologize too.

Jim sat there, emanating the same powerful presence as always, not saying a word, just fixing his gaze on Asa. The silence in the hall was so intense it felt like even the air had thinned out. After a tense two minutes, Jim finally spoke, but he only said three words: "Five minutes."

Though he didn't say much, everyone knew what he meant. Asa had only five minutes to make his case. For Asa, that was plenty. He leaned down to help the middle-aged man to his feet and said, "Mr. Davis, I didn't get to introduce him earlier. This is Mr. Santos."

Jim hadn't heard of anyone named Santos, so he stayed quiet, waiting for more details. Once Santos was steady, Asa let go and turned to Jim again. "I heard you've been looking for a woman named Hunter. Turns out, Mr. Santos here knows her."

Jim's expression changed at the mention of Hunter. His hands, resting on the armrests, trembled.

ever so slightly. How many year

had it been since he last heard that name? So long that the person it belonged to felt like a distant memory. noveldrama

Pulling himself together, Jim asked Santos, "You know her?"

Santos, leaning forward with his hands on his thighs, kept a calm but slightly wooden look. After getting roughed up earlier, he'd toned down his attitude. "Yeah, I do. Her real name isn't Hunter, it's Nellie."

Nellie? Jim paused, finding it hard to believe Hunter would use a fake name. Santos, noticing Jim's skepticism, pulled out his phone, flipped to a photo, and held it up. "Maybe this will help clear things up.”

Jim's associate took the phone and respectfully handed it to Jim. As Jim's eyes landed on the screen, his usually stern face showed a flicker of emotion. Seeing this, Santos knew Nellie was the one Jim had been looking for. A slight smirk appeared on his face as he added, "The Stevenson family folks rarely use their real names in public, so it's no surprise Mr. Davis was fooled."

But Jim wasn't paying attention to Santos's words anymore. His mind was fully occupied with the image on the phone. The photo was high-quality, definitely not an old snapshot.