“You cannot let it happen.” She tenses, gaze widening. “Wait… Do you want me to confront him about this to somehow stop him from going into business with Javed?”
“Didn’t you tell Kian you want to make my father pay for his sins?” Tilting my head, I quirk an eyebrow. “This will kill two birds with one stone.”
“Him, yes. But not Javed. I don’t want to get in the crosshairs of his family.” Pressing her palms flat on the table, she warns, “Don’t get involved in whatever business Rakesh has with him, Nathan. Don’t poke around in their history. It’s not worth the risk.”
“Risks are for men who have something to lose,” I say with a cold smile. “I have nothing or no one.”
“That’s not true.”
“You don’t know me at all to make that assumption.”
“I know you have an older brother who cares deeply about you.”
“His world begins and ends with Iris,” I reply. Sadness contorts her soft features. Before it deepens into pity or something equally abhorrent, I circle back to the topic. “When you saw them, did you hear what they were talking about? Did you see them again, even from afar? Did Javed ever visit him at work?”
“No, he always met him at a club on his business trips. I don’t remember what they discussed. Whenever Rakesh and I were alone,” her tone hitches at the last word, “he didn’t talk about work. I was so much under his spell that I missed the red flags. I never realized he was using me as a distraction from his marriage.”
Those ‘distractions’ have led my parents to loathe each other and live separately behind closed doors. My mother isattached to her extravagant lifestyle that my father provides and pretends to be the perfect housewife in their circle of fake friends.
“Plus, it was after I quit and disappeared that they went into business together.”
“But you do feel something notorious was happening? That my father was involved in something illegal?”
“I believe so.”
I hate that my suspicions are correct. The sooner I find concrete evidence about their seedy deal, the faster I can put an end to it before we get tangled up with the likes of Javed and Arnav again.
My sixth sense is screaming that the father-son duo is back in our lives for a terrible reason.
“I wish I could be of more help,” says Sonya apologetically.
“It’s okay. But if you do remember anything that could help me, call or text me.”
“Of course.” She slips out of the booth to leave.
“Keep a low radar, Sonya,” I advise her. “If my father catches wind you’re back, he’d make my grandfather look like an angel.”
Once she’s gone, I shoot a text to my assistant, Erika.
ME: I want all the files on Javed Gehlot on my desk on Monday.
Erika is one of the few people I trust at my company. She’s been with me since I joined the company, so I’ve earned her loyalty. I know too well it can just as easily be bought. But I pay her enough to keep her satisfied.
It isn’t like I can shun every employee. I have to gamble by delegating to a few.
The reason I’m meeting Arya and Sonya in discreet places is that I know my every move is being watched at work. Myentire day is cataloged and being reported back to my father ever since I became tight-lipped.
I’ve had no qualms that my dad is a horrible man, whether as a husband or a parent. Nevertheless, I thought he was a good leader. Only to be proven dead wrong.
Now, I’ve made it my mission to expose his ugliness to everyone.
It’s his biggest fear.
He used mine against me. I will do the same to him and he won’t even see it coming.
Chapter Eighteen
Arya
