Serendipity

61

Vanraj Shah was no fool. As she sat in front of her lawyer, that thought kept repeating itself in her head.

Kavya should have known this. She had worked with him for a decade, had seen him in action. And yet her brain refused to connect that the corporate savvy Vanraj Shah would use some of those same tactics to protect his personal assets.

She should have questioned him. She should have asked for a prenup. But she'd been too elated with the marriage proposal to focus on the finer aspects. And she definitely didn't believe her life would get derailed. If only she hadn't believed all the lies she'd fed herself.

The lawyer's chatter brought her back to the present. She and her lawyer were currently reviewing the list of Vanraj Shah's assets they'd received as part of the divorce discovery package.

A car, gold jewelry worth Rs 50,000, personal belongings for 1 lakh, and an insurance policy that named Anupama as the nominee.

All of his other assets, his real estate investments, mutual funds, precious metals, had all been routed through trusts that had collectively named his three children as the beneficiaries. The trust was jointly held by Vanraj and Anupama. In case of the death of either, the other would continue to manage the trust until the kids turned 30. On their 30th birthday, each of the children would receive a pre-determined lump sum as a gift. After all of the children had received their endowments, any money remaining in the trust would continue to support Vanraj and Anupama. When both of them were no more, the remaining money would be donated to their village temple.

Kavya dragged her fingers to her forehead to massage a burgeoning headache.

As far as the books were concerned, Vanraj Shah was a pauper. Should she choose to request alimony during the divorce proceeding, it might be likely that she might end up as the one paying it.

"God," she muttered. She'd really dug herself a grave. After her last stunt, she had no way of going back to Vanraj.

She took a deep breath and instructed her lawyer to draft a divorce request based on mutual consent and waive any rights to compensation that she may have. Her only request was that they both file a joint petition so the process gets wrapped up as soon as possible.

"What are you planning to do once this is all sorted?" Kavya's lawyer asked her.

"Move to a different city and start again," Kavya replied nonchalantly. She still had age on her side and a lot of learning to bank on. Next time, she would be wiser.

Anupama was a fool. She'd spent a year in poverty when she could have lived the life of luxury. After all, Anupama legally owned half of Vanraj's assets.

Kavya shook her head. Anupama was not her concern anymore. She was no longer interested in whatever happened between Vanraj and Anupama going forward. She had her life to take care of.

But she surely wasn't going to make it easy for Vanraj.

The lawyer nodded and got back to drafting her paperwork. Kavya picked her phone up and booked a one-way ticket to Mumbai, three months from now. Mumbai was the city of dreams. Surely, her dreams could find some space there too.

She then picked up a pen and paper and wrote a note to Anupama, adding photocopies of all of the paperwork she'd received as part of the discovery. Sealing the rather large bundle of papers inside an oversized brown envelope, she neatly printed Anuj Kapadia's name and office address on the envelope. It would reach him tomorrow. She was eager to know what he would do with it.

*****

Kinjal sat quietly during dinner time, picking on her pulao. Anuj, Anupama, and GK observed her eating one grain at a time, her mind occupied elsewhere.