Prejudice

25. Fears Come True!

Arjun flinched as the deep voice verberated through his phone.

His elder cousin and Dev's elder brother, had landed in Mumbai that night.

"You can be exceptionally careless. Is this how you are going to look after the business?" the angry voice boomed and Arjun blinked.

He looked at Dev and Dev shrank in his seat and requested him to not hand over the phone to him.
Arjun sighed and licked his lips, ready to listen to more of insult.

"We were taken off-guard Bhaiyya." Arjun tried to put down his point.

"You should be more careful." The man on the other end suddenly softened.

Arjun heaved a deep breath of relief when the phone was disconnected.

It so happened that, a tender issued by their company was sold to another company, precisely, to Pranav's company, by a traitor.
Pranav, a ruthless businessman, did not realize whom he was dealing with. He had in the heat of the moment, had plotted a young woman in the rival company, to get the details of the much awaited tender.

What he did not realize was, the rival company was equally powerful, and, the owner that lived in shadows was more powerful and much ruthless than him.

The deceived and furious young man landed in Mumbai to settle the scores with the young woman.

He found her and chased her, while she drove towards her home at an insane speed. In the interim, she lost the control over her car and crashed into a tree on a deserted road.

The young man, who was following her, stepped down his car to see the damage. He shook his head in disappointment as he realized that the girl was crushed to death.

His fury skyrocketed. The last straw to the clue as to who planted her in his company and other details had vanished with her life. He could not blame anyone else than his useless brothers. If both Arjun and Dev were a little more careful about the discreet information, he could have been saved from the losses.

For him, the loss was not financial, but, reputational.

The proud and able businessman in him took it as a blow to his hard earned reputation that he was stripped of the tender.

Dev and Arjun reached the point of the accident, only to find their brother, leaning leisurely on his car and taking a long sip of water from his crystal bottle.

"Looks like she was pregnant. Take care of everything and clean up the mess." He ordered in his deep voice.

Pulling the hood of his jacket above his head, he skillfully maneuvered his car and speeded off towards the apartment shared by the cousins.

The cousins looked at the lifeless body of the woman and found a small baby bump. Their heart moved at the scene. But they knew, if the woman had risked herself to betray their mighty brother, she was completely aware of the dangers ahead. It was evident that it was completely consensual and she knew what she was doing.

According to their investigation, she was in a relationship with a florist. He had immediately denied to have any relationship with her, when her dirty deeds were out in the light. Ajay and Dev had no other way than to get rid of the body on their own.

---**---

Pranav was surprised to find Jay's car in the parking.

He walked inside the villa, to find his year old son playing with Neetu in the living room.
He looked around in suspicion.

"Is Jay here?" He asked.

Neetu smiled at him.
"Yes Bhai. He is here since morning."

Pranav had his heart sinking at an unknown fear. He sprinted towards Jay's floor and knocked impatiently on the bedroom door.