Chapter Seventeen
Nathan
I’m impressed by how thorough Arya is in her research, as I read the doc she shared about the board.
Every line is useful. She’s even highlighted the parts I can easily bring up in a conversation.
Marked topics as sensitive that I should steer clear of.
Mentioned things I can help them with to get in their good graces.
Too bad it’s a waste of time because I don’t plan to use any of it.
I lied when I told her that I hadn’t made efforts to gain the shareholders’ trust. I had done it long before I became the CEO, and I learned my lesson the hard way.
Those old men are set in their ways.
Letting me in their fold will be their downfall.
Setting down my phone, I peruse the tiny café from my corner in the shaded booth.
It’s brimming with people with boring nine-to-five jobs.
Despite the shadows under their eyes from giving their all to a corporation that doesn’t give a fuck about them past their duties, they wear smiles on their faces.
They sip on their teas and chitchat. Laugh at gossip that they’ll forget about as soon as they reach home.
Tomorrow, they’ll repeat the grind with the goal of achieving more.
Money. Recognition. Fame.
A better life.
Little do they realize that this is the ‘better’ they’re searching for.
I envy their simple, mundane lives. I’m not being ungrateful. I know the unflinching truth. Having everything at the tip of my finger hasn’t brought me happiness. It’s stolen my peace. My sanity.
The grass is always greener on the other side. What sets me apart from these people is the materialistic things I can buy. The joy only lasts for a minute.
The creaking noise of the door opening pulls my focus to the middle-aged woman stepping inside. She looks healthier than the last time I saw her.
Reuniting with your son would do that.
Instead of calling her over, I study her features as she nervously looks around.
She’s dressed in a simple T-shirt and jeans with her hair thrown in a bun.
Except for the color of her eyes and her tall height, there’s no similarity between her and Kian.
It’s why she slipped through his attention for years.
She fidgets, unable to locate me.
Slipping out of the booth, I strut toward her. “Sonya.”
Twisting around, she tilts her face up to me. A reserved and cautious smile pulls up on her lips. “Hello, Nathan.”
“Let’s go to my booth.”
“Sure.”
Settling down across from each other, I wait until she drinks water before speaking. “We didn’t get a chance to talk the last time we met.”
“It was understandable. Buried secrets coming to light can shake even the strongest of people.” Resting both hands together on the table, she idly plays with the ring on her index finger. “You needed time to think.”
“As happy as I am for you and Kian, it’s not why I asked you to meet me tonight.”
A curious frown eclipses her pretty face. “Is this regarding confronting your father? Kian shared he’s giving you trouble.”
“You worked the longest for him.” Six years, to be exact. He usually fired the other assistants within a year or two. “You know he’s corrupted despite what he portrays to the public.”
“I know it very well. I’m one of his victims.”
“I apologize for being blunt, but he took you on every work trip because of the affair. On one of them, you even shared a suite. I’m sure there was a time or two he let his walls down. You must’ve known every single person he met and interacted with. In and outside of work.”
Apprehension swirling with shame and regret darkens her gaze. “I did stay with him. However, he didn’t discuss anything beyond my duties as his executive assistant.”
“Does the name Javed ring a bell?”
“Uh…” she ponders with a deep frown. “No. I don’t remember anyone with that name working closely with Rakesh. Of course, it’s been a decade since I worked at Singhania and Sons.”
Reaching into my suit jacket, I pull out a picture and slide it to her. “Do you recognize this man?”
Dragging the black-and-white image closer, she gazes at the man. Dread causes her limbs to freeze, and she stammers, “He… I know him. I mean, I saw him around at a few parties Rakesh attended in Dubai. Is he still alive? Last I saw him, he was in his late forties.”
“Yes.” I take back the picture. “Evil men tend to live longer.”
Javed is a high-profile criminal with ties to the mafia and lives in Dubai. He has both legitimate and illegitimate businesses. I recently found out that he used to be our client when my father was the leader.
The past wouldn’t have mattered to me had my father not brought up signing a new contract with his oldest son, Arnav, who has a worse reputation than his father.
My father and I butted heads when I refused to do business with him. It would be suicide to associate ourselves with them. Once it gets out that we have a criminal family as a client, it would be impossible to curb the hit on our public image.
Of course, he thought I was being insane. “Money is money,” he had said.
The way he kept pushing, I knew something was up.
I ended up opening a can of worms.
“Why are you asking me about him, Nathan?”
“Did you see him and my father together?” I ask rather than answering her question. “Did he talk about him with you?”
“I walked in on them talking once at a club,” she murmurs tightly. “Rakesh yelled at me for interrupting and threw me out of the room. It’s why I recognized his face immediately. Since that instance, I made sure to knock and avoid disturbing Rakesh unless he invited me.”
“So only once?”
“Yeah.”
“Yet it was enough to make you terrified of Javed,” I hum suspiciously. She’s rightly petrified of the man.
An embarrassed flush colors Sonya’s cheeks. “Because Rakesh had never lost his cool with me. It made me intrigued. So, I found the man’s name and looked him up. What I learned rattled me to the bones. He’s involved in messed-up stuff. Is your father still in business with him?”
“Javed’s son has taken over the business, and my father is insisting I hire him as a client.”
“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 stress or risk.”
“Stress and risk 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 is attached 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 files on Javed Singh [RK10]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. My entire 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.