Making an entrance

The next day Lina woke up feeling determined.

Her memories were slowly coming back, the nightmares were reducing and her relationship was getting stronger.

The events of last night came to mind, how close she and Shen were to...doing it. A part of her felt resentful that her anticipation hadn't materialised because of that untimely phone call.

But another part of her was slightly relieved. She couldn't remember what exactly he liked and was worried she may have not been able to satisfy him.

However, her body was feeling stronger and healthier.

As she got out of bed, a more confident woman, she realised Shen's side of the bed was still made and he was nowhere to be seen in the bedroom.

Not even on the sofa, where he was exiled to some time ago.

Lina made her way to the study, still in her thin pyjamas.

There he was, her sweet, hard-working husband, asleep on the chair in front of his desk with an open laptop and documents spilling over his arm.

He looked so uncomfortable, since he had drifted off from exhaustion whilst working.

She went over to him to clear away his files and make more space for him to rest.

As she picked up a file, the label made her heart clench.

*Inventory and Checklist: Shipping Container 128 to Capital, Country A*

As she looked below she saw a familiar, bone chilling name.

*Goods ownership: Magnolia Holdings*

Why did this company Magnolia Holdings sound so familiar? Why did she feel a lump in her throat as she held this file?

She quickly shuffled around looking at other files related to Magnolia Holdings. All of them were from the same few months earlier that year.

In fact, the dates were eerily close to the day she was attacked and had fallen into a coma.

Between July to August, Magnolia Holdings had been using Moshi Corporation's shipping services to export their goods to Country A.

Did this have something to do with Shen's phone call the previous night?

He had seemed preoccupied before she fell asleep and hadn't even come back to bed.

After covering Shen with a blanket and placing pillows under his strained neck, she walked out of the study.

As much as she wanted to tuck her husband up in bed, she didn't want to wake him and waste the few precious hours of shut eye he had.

Lina immediately made a call to Mei.

"Meimei, I'm going to come back to work today. Officially. Make sure you prepare the briefings for me on each project. No more than one page, because I won't have time to get into more detail."

"Yes boss! Anything else?" her sprightly little assistant asked, eagerly.

"Yes. The top three matters our firm is dealing with...assemble the teams for a meeting today at noon. I want proper updates and their schedules have to be in place."

"Done! When will you get here boss?"

Lina looked at her watch. It was hardly 8 am. People would begin coming to work at 9 am.

"I'll be there by 9:30."

"Ok boss!"

"And Mei, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"Look into Magnolia Holdings for me. Keep this to yourself, and be discrete."

"Ok boss! Anything specific you want me to look for?"

"I don't know yet. Just let me know what you find."

With that, Lina hung up the phone and went back to the bedroom to get dressed.

-- At Moshi Corp Capital Offices --

Ayu had been in her office since 6 am, which was a torturous, yet regular occurrence for her.

There was nothing much at her empty home anyway.

She made a mental note to go visit Ro-kun at the hospital during her lunch break that day. She was there almost everyday.

But before that, she was sniffing out a very large rat.

Victor Tachibana.

He was at the top of Shen's list of people to investigate with regards to his wife's safety.

She had a lot to report to him and she had to be fast about it.

Once they lost the scent, these people would be hard to dig up again. And people of Victor Tachibana's skill and expertise, if what was to be believed from his getaway in the alley and ability to hold a knife to the Madam's back, were hard to capture.

Ayu sighed long and hard.

Unfortunately, to track these monsters, she had to work with one very slimy person.

Someone whose tongue had been recently cut off thanks to her boss' temper.

That made it all the more troublesome to communicate with him.

James.

She put her hands on her desk and pushed herself up, willing herself mentally to go down to that crazy scumbag.

She made her way to the basement dungeons in the capital city offices, where Shen Moshi imprisoned his most useful, and dangerous enemies.

There were two very special cells she passed before she got to James' cell.

These two prison cells housed two of Shen's closest competitors. They were deadly people. Not to be messed with. As she passed them, one man sneered at her from behind the glass doors.

The other man, seemed to be asleep, a lump under his blanket.

Both these men were extremely handsome, reminiscent, in a way of her boss. But he was in a different league altogether.

Ayu found James lazily lounging on the floor of his tiny room. He was humming a wordless tune, given that he couldn't form words anymore.

"Get up, James. There's work to do."

When James heard Ayu's arrogant, commanding voice, he glared viciously.

He had been a highly paid and sought after professional before Shen Moshi captured him. He didn't think he would be treated so poorly, seeing as Shen needed him.

But now, he was nothing more than a dog, his cut off tongue hanging from a bottle on his dog collar to display his subservience.

He grudgingly got up and followed Ayu out of his cell.

As they passed the two cells with the handsome men again, Ayu noticed something was amiss.

The one who had been sneering at her was still staring smugly, walking around in his glass prison.

But the other man, he was still an eerily still lump under the bed.

As a realization hit Ayu, she slammed her hand down hard on the red emergency button and screamed for security into the speaker phone.

"ARMED SECURITY TO THE DUNGEON RIGHT NOW. Search Shao Moshi's cell immediately! Proceed with caution."

Behind her, in the other glass cell, she saw Shigeo Moshi laughing.