yun hi tu mere saath rehna

Chapter Forty Six

Kaveri was going through the firm's financials and records from the past few months, troubled. Things had spiraled and not in a good way. She had never thought it would come to this. It had barely been a month since Armaan had resigned, and maybe three since Rohit had taken over his cases, but already, things were too dire. She had known that Armaan was an important asset to the firm, but had never realized just how much. 

In the time that Armaan had not been working for the firm, Rohit had lost almost every single case he'd been assigned. He'd managed to win only three of the fifteen cases he was working on, and of those, two were last minute victories where he had gotten lucky. The fact that they were on the verge of winning eight other cases and were fighting hard on two others when Armaan was looking after them was worse. Rohit hadn't managed to win even the cases where Armaan had practically done all the work already. 

Sanjay's mentorship didn't seem to be working at all. Kaveri wasn't even aware if Sanjay was actually mentoring Rohit or not. She wasn't born yesterday. She knew that Sanjay had designs of taking over the firm, but she also knew that he didn't have the courage to actually do it. He might siphon funds and think he was being oh-so-sly, but she had eyes everywhere and knew of the embezzlement. She just chose not to do anything about it because she needed him. After all, it was only Sanjay who she could trust to do her dirty work for her. Both her sons were useless. 

And especially Manoj, who had not been able to make his mark as a lawyer even after so many years in the profession. He was hard-working, Kaveri would never deny that. In fact, she would argue that he worked harder than all of them. But, what use was his dedication if it did not bring in any tangible results? Even that girl, who had only been practicing for less than a year, was more competent than Manoj in court. 

Everyone who had lost their cases had fired the firm as their representatives, seeking other lawyers. Many had left after they'd heard about Armaan's resignation. Overall, they had maybe five clients as regulars. The others were only one-off clients with petty disputes who didn't bring in a lot of money. She had hoped that Manoj would prove useful in convincing the clients to not jump ship given his amicable and easy-going nature but he had failed at that spectacularly as well.

Everyday, more doors closed for the firm than they remained open. If things continued like this, the once pristine reputation of their firm would be in the mud and their legacy would be a thing of history. All of Kaveri's life's work, all the work their family had put in, would be for naught. She could overcome everything, but even Kaveri Poddar had to admit that she would never be able to live with this stain on her person. 

To turn things around, she needed to do something, and fast. Unfortunately, the easiest path for that was through that girl. “Abhira,” Kaveri sneered in derision. Never had she ever thought that her fate would rest in that girl's hands. But here they were. 

The girl was somehow the heir to the Singhania legal empire, and who better to get their reputation back on track than the Singhanias? Krish Singhania had the backing of everyone who was someone in the city. His father had even more clout. Together, the two of them commanded both fear and awe. And they were both putty in Abhira's hands.

Kaveri had seen as such on Rakshabandhan. The way they doted on her, the way they hung onto every word from her, the way they orbited around her the entire time. They cared for Abhira a great deal, and she was sure that if Abhira so asked, would bring the entire world to her feet. She didn't understand their sprawling, complicated family tree well enough to know just how Abhira was related to them, or even the Rajvanshes for that matter, but that was of no consequence.

What mattered was that Abhira was extremely important. They would do everything to make her happy. And what would make Abhira happy? Well, marrying Armaan again, of course. Neither Armaan nor Abhira had made a secret of their vehement desire to be husband & wife. They had also not been secretive about the fact that they would marry only with her blessing.