The Game of Balance.

The stars!

"I don't respond well to threats Ms. Raizada, you will be mindful of that!" The man all but sneered in my direction. Oh, how sad! This chauvinist thought he could get away with sexually harassing an employee and then firing her, unfortunate that that woman employee was my neighbour.
"I make no threats Mr. Singh, infact you would heed to me as a friend; I am sure Mrs. Singh wouldn't be too glad finding about the sexual harassment suit against her husband." I gave a sickly sweet smile, one dripping with venom. The man before me visibly blanched, his "listen to me, I am a man" persona fading into thin air. Yeah, that happened often in my corner office on the 20th floor. I wasn't the youngest Partner in the firm for nothing.
"You wouldn't!" He muttered through clenched teeth.
"Here, here Mr. Singh, you wouldn't know now, would you? Imagine my surprise when I got to know that you have fired 4 women in the past 9 months, all of these following their complaints to the HR about sexual harassment. Hmm, color me shocked when I got to know, all of them were fired for the same reason- inefficiency. The judges wouldn't take too kindly to that would they? Well your own board members definitely wouldn't, especially if one of them is standing for elections this time. It would be sad to lose out on your hard earned reputation and a job you apparently *love*." I let anger seep into my words, my eyes threatening every particle of this man's body. Threats my ass, he will lose his job and he will compensate; he couldn't fight this.
"What do you expect of Mr. Singh?" The opposing counsel asked, realising this was a losing battle.
"For Ms. Kiara to be reinstated in her post, with 20% hike and a the salary for the past month upfront." I said, all business.
"Consider it done." He replied too quick
"Do not interrupt me while I speak sir, it never ends well." I gave him a stink eye.
"Sorry, please continue" he said.
"A written apology from Mr. Singh accepting his act."
"Don't peg me for a fool Ms. Raizada, you know as well as I do that any written apology is going to be a hazard to my client's reputation." the counsel said.
"Well then, his resignation would serve the purpose well." I gave him my infamous resting bitch face.
"NO! NOT IN THIS LIFETIME!" Mr. Singh shouted at the wall behind me.
"It's either his resignation or the interview of these 5 young ladies will be released tomorrow morning on the 'The Times' first page; after all the editor in chief is my best friend." I said with a smirk. "I am sure the boss wouldn't appreciate that, and the board members would certainly not. You have 5 minutes to decide Mr. Singh." I told him with a straight face. I billed minutes, this man here was wasting time. Ofcourse I was helping Kiara out without charging any money, but my next client would be here soon and I needed to prep for that meeting.
I walked out of the office to my assistant giving these men some privacy. There sat Arvind, well Andy, since he gave himself that name, sifting through my schedule and making notes on his iPad.
"Hello, Andy!" I greeted.
"Hello, your hotness, red is definitely your colour". Andy said smiling, pointing towards my red suit, paired with black heels.
"Well; isn't every colour mine?" I chuckled and replied.
"Most definitely, now for your next meeting, Mr. Singhania is going to be here, not very certain but he might bring his son around, he is going to be taking over soon from him and I think he would want him to be well acquainted with the firm." He said, his gaze focused.
"Sure, I will see what it is. Why are you googling his son again Andy!?" This was exasperating.
"Well can you blame me, he looks like a devil dressed in a suit and with all the good boy charm dripping from his bad boy personality!" Andy told me innocently.
"Wattapad much dear Andy?"
We both laughed. Just then, Kiara entered, looking frightened and just like that, the business face was on.
"Rehmat!" She sighed. "Don't worry, all is done. Come in".
We both pushed in and saw Mr. Singh turning red.
"What will it be gentlemen, we don't have the whole day." I sounded bored.
"We accept your terms and conditions, Ms. Kiara will be reinstated within the next week. Mr. Singh will resign. However we want something from you as well". His counsel said.
"I am listening " I said.
"We want all the five ladies to sign an NDA about this deal and a promise that this wouldn't go out."
"The NDA will be signed and sent to you after Kiara successfully completes one month in the company." I retorted.
"What is the guarantee that she would remain quiet?" He looked at Kiara.
"None. You will just have to take my word for it, besides the fact that she isn't pressing charges as of now." I said.
"Okay, we will mail her the letter by today." The counsel said.
I nodded.
"Don't think this has ended here Rehmat, I will destroy you!" Mr. Singh bellowed.
"Listen to me you chauvinist pig, these threats, they get old and coming from men like you, they sound nothing but empty words. You will get up and get out of my office before I change my mind and drag your scrawny self to court, not to mention, become your wife's divorce attorney." I spat.
He turned and thundered out.
Kiara turned to me and said "Thank you, Thank you so much, I can't tell you how glad I am that I got this job back."
"Your welcome, it wasn't anything, anybody would've won this, it was easy." I told her with an easy smile. It was true, this was a fairly easy case.
"I will leave now, thank you so much, again." She said.
I nodded and showed her out of the room. The day was already off to a great start, I thought, smiling.