AMBITIOUS LOVE

Espionage

DISCLAIMER: This chapter has some legal jargon, so I'll be adding the meanings of words that everybody might not know, in bold, in between paragraphs.

If I had to describe Vihaan Randhawa in one word it would be intense. His presence demands to be felt. His eyes have a way of looking into your soul. Holding his attention feels like both a privilege and a curse. Of course, when my friends ask me about him, they receive a much simpler answer.

"He's an asshole. Just like I expected." I shrug. The girls all exchange glances, their faces telling me they don't believe a word I say. 

"Sure." Jannat smirks. I simply ignore her. The girls were waiting for me when I came back from the date, in my room. One look at me, and they were convinced that I didn't hate Vihaan Randhawa as much as I had claimed to. They had mistaken my relief after the conversation with him on our date, with my interest in him. Knowing that there were no expectations from either side in this arrangement, had removed a huge burden from my shoulders that I hadn't even realized was there. Treating this marriage like a business merger seemed more comfortable, something I was familiar with, something I could control, and so I had returned yesterday considerably more relaxed.

"If you decide to fall for him, Sammy, make sure you're not the only one." Megha tells me, a hand on my shoulder. 

"Don't worry, I don't plan on falling for him at all." I reply, looking her in the eye. She looks at me proudly. 

"That's my girl. Anyways, I'll be leaving now. I have a man to put in his place." Megha states, referring to her business rival. Jannat and Saanvi leave too, the former having a meeting with a brand and the latter an IT class. It's just me and Preksha, working on our respective tasks when Elena enters my cabin. 

"Sam, Ms. Luhania is here to see you. She's asking to push her evening's meeting to right now. She's insisting it's urgent." I nod at her and ask her to send her in. Preksha leaves the cabin just as Kavya enters. Kavya Luhania is a client and friend. We've known each other since high school and have always been each other's biggest cheerleaders. She supported my dream to become a lawyer, as I did hers of becoming an investment banker. Today, she owns the largest investment group and brings millions to my firm in billables. 

"Kavya, what happened? Why do you look so tense?" I ask her. One glance at her face and I know something is wrong. 

"We have a legal problem," Kavya grimaces, "You knew of my plan to take over Singhania Industries, right? Well, we were just going to start buying shares, when our largest competitor made a tender offer to the same company."

(A tender offer is a bid to purchase some or all of the shareholders' stock in a corporation. In this case, Kavya's largest competitor offered to buy Singhania Industries before she could take over the company.)

"That's unfortunate but not illegal, Kavya." I tell her.

"It is when they blackmail a member of our board to provide them with information about this trade, and then use it to move up their tender offer."

(Basically, Kavya is referring to how the other company used privileged information about Kavya's takeover plan and made the tender offer before she could execute her plan.)

"What? That is a huge accusation, do you have any proof of that?" 

"Not enough. All I have is some circumstantial evidence. We noticed some suspicious activity and upon investigation we found there is a good chance that one of our board members, Prashant Garg, was blackmailed to hand over company secrets. " I raise an eyebrow at this. 

"We can't accuse another company of corporate espionage based on circumstantial evidence. We need something more solid." I say thoughtfully. "What's the company you're talking about? We need to block their tender offer before they buy Singhania Industries before us."