Rekha believed he was new to the position and was making mistakes out of inexperience. But what I’d seen today wasn’t inexperience. It was ambition. Vision.
And setting aside our friction over the last two weeks, I found him to be hardworking. Intelligent. Dedicated.
I typed down the usual: ‘Meetings and campaign ideas’, then added: ‘He’s planning to start a new line. It …’
This was exactly the kind of information Rekha had asked for.What he’s working on. What he’s prioritising. She’d want to know about this. A whole new line? That was major.
It was suspicious of him to hide it from the board and his family. Right? Or maybe ...
I stared at the blinking cursor.
‘There’s something I’ve been working on. It’s not set in stone yet, so don’t tell anybody.’
‘I won’t.’
He’d trusted me. Opened up about his vision, his frustrations, his dreams for the company. He’d apologised. He’d confided in me. And now I was going to report him to his mother?
I erased the last line and hit send before I could second-guess myself.
The message delivered. The grey checkmarks turned blue.
I stared at my phone, waiting for the guilt to hit.
It didn’t come.
What came instead was something worse: the creeping realisation that I’d just chosen a side.
And I wasn’t sure it was the right one.
5
A Day Out
Jai
Soft light filtered through glass panels. The rooftop restaurant’s altitude dulled the chaos of the city below and offered a gleaming view of the Mumbai skyline. ‘They’ve shelved the collection without a word. No press interviews, no internal leaks,’ Nakul, my lawyer’s associate, said. ‘We caught it just in time.’
‘It still costs us a lot.’ We conducted a review and discovered that they had copied three of our designs. When that was relayed to Meera, she promised that she could change them in time for production. It would just mean tighter deadlines, longer hours and her whole team working day and night until the project was completed.
‘They want to settle,’ he said. ‘Private apology, financial compensation and withdrawal from the bridal segment for a year.’
‘One crore.’ My lips thinned. ‘They offer a rupee under it, we go to court.’
Nakul closed the file. ‘We’ll get it done.’
‘Good.’ I stood, buttoning up my suit. ‘Thank you for your time.’
Ananya rose, falling into step beside me.
‘They think an apology and a cheque will make this go away.’ My voice was low but hard. ‘Months of hard work. Hours of stitching, dyeing, revisions and fittings. All wasted.’
The tight leash I’d kept on my anger for this meeting had finally snapped, and rage coursed through me. ‘I was at the same goddamn conference as them two months ago. We smiled. Chatted. Shook hands. And they were planning to stab us in the back the entire time.
‘I trusted my karigars. Paid them above-market salaries, credited them publicly. And they walked. For what? A bigger envelope? Hell, if they had just told me wanted more pay, they could have come to me.’
My jaw clenched. ‘I’d have figured it out. But no. They took our work and handed it over like it meant nothing.’
‘They only took three designs. We still have people who stayed. Those who showed their loyalty to the brand. To you,’ Ananya said, her voice steady. ‘And Meera is reworking the compromised designs and is on schedule to finish in time. We’re still in control, Jai.’
