Chapter 17
The harsh, artificial lights of the Chaturvedi Group headquarters felt entirely different from the warm, cinematic lighting of the mansion.
It was a towering fortress of glass and steel in the absolute center of Delhi’s business district.
Poorvanshi had never been to Siddhant’s corporate office before.
She was an architect who loved construction sites, raw materials, and open skies.
This building, with its cold marble floors and endless rows of silent, terrified employees, felt like the actual belly of the beast.
And right now, she was being marched directly into the slaughterhouse.
Just an hour ago, Ishaan had arrived at the East Wing of the mansion with a grim, deeply apologetic look on his face.
He had informed her that the board of directors had called an emergency tribunal, and her presence was absolutely mandatory.
He couldn't tell her why, but the heavy, suffocating tension rolling off the security guards made it clear that something catastrophic had happened.
As Ishaan escorted her out of the private elevator and down the long, silent corridor of the executive floor, Poorvanshi tried to keep her breathing steady.
She wore a sharp, structured charcoal blazer over a simple white silk blouse, her dark hair tied back in a severe, no-nonsense bun.
She looked like a professional, but her heart was beating a frantic, terrified rhythm against her ribs.
Ishaan opened the massive double doors to the main boardroom.
The atmosphere inside was completely toxic.
Sitting around the massive, glossy black conference table were six of the most senior board members of the Chaturvedi empire. They were older men in expensive suits, and they were all glaring at Poorvanshi with pure, unfiltered hostility.
Sitting on the far side of the table, looking incredibly smug and victorious, were Raghav and Nandini Chaturvedi. They had no official power left in the company, but as major shareholders, they had demanded a seat at this emergency meeting.
And sitting at the absolute head of the table was Siddhant.
He looked terrifying. He was dressed in a pitch-black three-piece suit.
His broad shoulders were tense, and his perfectly clean-shaven jaw was locked so tightly that the sharp lines of his face looked carved from actual stone.
His dark eyes were completely unreadable, a cold, empty void that gave absolutely nothing away.
Standing right behind him, looking pale and deeply stressed, was Kabir.
"Miss Rathore," one of the senior board members, a harsh-looking man named Mr. Desai, said coldly. "Sit down."
Poorvanshi did not look at Mr. Desai. She looked directly at Siddhant. She searched his dark eyes for a sign, a hint of the man who had almost kissed her on the terrace just hours ago. But the Devil of Delhi had locked himself inside his fortress of ice.
She pulled out a heavy leather chair at the opposite end of the table and sat down, keeping her spine perfectly straight.
"What is this about?" Poorvanshi asked, her voice steady and clear, refusing to show them how fast her heart was racing.
Raghav Chaturvedi leaned forward, a nasty, triumphant smile twisting his face. He slid a thick, heavy red folder across the polished table. It stopped right in front of Poorvanshi.
"Open it," Raghav commanded.
Poorvanshi frowned. She opened the folder.
Inside was a massive stack of printed emails, server logs, and digital blueprints.
Her trained architect's eye instantly recognized the blueprints.
They were the highly confidential, eco-friendly structural designs for the multi-billion-rupee Singhania Corporation merger.
"These are the Singhania files," Poorvanshi said, looking up in complete confusion. "The ones Siddhant and I discussed at the private dinner."
"Yes, they are," Mr. Desai snapped, his face turning red with anger. "And last night, at exactly 2:00 AM, every single one of those highly classified blueprints, along with our private financial bids, was emailed directly to the private server of Viraj Khanna."
The name hit Poorvanshi like a physical blow. Viraj Khanna. The sleazy rival billionaire who had tried to touch her at the polo match. The man who was secretly funding Aryan’s escape.
"Viraj Khanna leaked the details of the merger to the financial press this morning," Mr. Desai continued, his voice rising in sheer panic.
"He completely undercut our financial bids.
The Singhania Corporation is furious. They are threatening to cancel the entire deal, claiming our security is a joke.
Our stock prices are already plummeting! "
"That is terrible," Poorvanshi said, her mind racing to understand the situation. "But I still don't understand why I am sitting here."
Nandini let out a sharp, cruel laugh. "Don't play the innocent victim, you little snake. Tell her, Kabir. Tell her what the IT department found."
Poorvanshi looked at Kabir. The friendly, easy-going lawyer looked physically sick. He swallowed hard, adjusting his glasses, completely avoiding Poorvanshi's eyes.
"We ran a full diagnostic on the leak, Poorvanshi," Kabir said, his voice quiet and completely strained. "The digital footprint of the emails... it was perfectly tracked."
Kabir pointed a shaking finger at the papers in the red folder.
"The emails containing the confidential files were sent directly from your personal architectural firm's email address," Kabir whispered, the words sounding like a death sentence in the quiet room.
"And the IP address used to access the server and send the files matches the private router located inside the East Wing guest suite. Your bedroom."
The entire boardroom fell into a dead, horrifying silence.
Poorvanshi stared at the papers. The numbers, the email addresses, the timestamps, it was all right there in black and white. The evidence was completely, overwhelmingly damning. It painted a perfect, flawless picture of corporate espionage.
"I... I didn't do this," Poorvanshi gasped, her voice barely a whisper as the sheer magnitude of the frame-up washed over her.
"Liar!" Raghav shouted, slamming his fist on the table. "You had access! You were at the private dinner with Vikram Singhania! You heard the exact details of the eco-friendly concrete designs, and then you went back to your room and sold us out to Viraj Khanna!"
"Why would I do that?!" Poorvanshi fired back, her shock instantly transforming into a fierce, burning anger. She stood up, her chair scraping loudly against the floor. "I am an architect! I build things, I don't steal them! I despise Viraj Khanna!"
"Because you wanted revenge!" Nandini shrieked, pointing a manicured, accusing finger at her.
"You are angry that my son Aryan abandoned you at the altar!
You are angry that you were publicly humiliated!
So you seduced Siddhant, gained his trust, learned our secrets, and then sold them to our worst enemy to completely destroy the Chaturvedi family! "
"That is an absolute lie!" Poorvanshi yelled, her hands trembling with pure rage. She looked at the board members, who were all shaking their heads in disgust. "You cannot possibly believe this! I don't even have the passwords to your corporate servers! How could I possibly download these files?"
"Viraj Khanna’s hackers obviously gave you backdoor access," Mr. Desai sneered, looking at her with absolute loathing. "It is the perfect crime. The spurned bride takes down the billionaire empire. You are a highly educated woman, Miss Rathore. You knew exactly what you were doing."
The board members began shouting in agreement.
"She needs to be arrested immediately!"
"Call the police! Have her escorted out of the building in handcuffs!"
"We need to issue a press release stating that the leak was the result of a rogue, external spy!"
The chaotic noise echoed off the glass walls of the boardroom.
Poorvanshi felt like she was drowning. They had completely cornered her.
The evidence was entirely fabricated, but it was incredibly well done.
Raghav and Nandini, desperate to regain their power and ruin Siddhant's life, had teamed up with Viraj Khanna to create the ultimate trap. They knew Siddhant’s only weakness was his heart, so they had turned the woman he loved into a weapon against him.
Poorvanshi slowly turned her head. She looked down the long, polished length of the table.
She looked at Siddhant.
He was sitting completely still, watching the chaos unfold. He hadn't said a single word since she walked into the room. He was just staring at the red folder in front of her.
The media called him cold. They called him calculated. They said he never forgave a betrayal.
Poorvanshi’s heart shattered into a million pieces.
If he believed this evidence, if his logical, business-driven brain looked at the IP addresses and the emails and decided she was guilty, she was completely finished.
She wouldn't just go to prison, she would lose the only man she had ever truly loved.
"Siddhant," Poorvanshi whispered. The room was loud, but somehow, her quiet, desperate voice cut straight through the noise, reaching his ears perfectly.
Siddhant slowly lifted his head. His dark eyes locked onto hers.
"Enough."
Siddhant did not shout. He spoke the word softly, but the raw, terrifying, absolute authority in his deep voice hit the room like a physical shockwave.
The shouting board members instantly snapped their mouths shut. Raghav and Nandini froze. The entire room descended into a breathless, terrified silence.
Siddhant slowly stood up from his chair at the head of the table. He buttoned his suit jacket with one hand, his movements completely calm and incredibly deliberate. He didn't look at the board members. He didn't look at his father. He kept his dark eyes completely, exclusively fixed on Poorvanshi.
He began to walk down the length of the long table.