Enemy Within

Chapter 13

Durga Prasad sat in this office. He was with the company secretary Mr Das, Corporate Finance expert Mr Seth and a new lawyer this time, Mr Dedhia, who had been appointed after the misadventures of the previous lawyer Mr Gupta.

"Are you sure this will work, Mr Dedhia? Remember, I don't give second chances to anyone. Make one mistake and you are destroyed. I don't want any misrepresentation of facts here. So I ask again, is this going to work?" Durga Prasad warned

"Yes, Sir. Both Mr Seth and I have looked into this from every angle. With this, the existing structure of Maheshwari shares will completely change. His stake will automatically get diluted. While we will need board approval for the first step, it is so common place and innocuous that it will not raise any concern even in his mind. By the time he can realize anything, we will already have made the stage two changes, which will not need board permission at all." Mr Dedhia assured him

"I hope what you say is true" he looked at them critically before adding "For your own sake"

"When will you have this ready? If it is going to need board approval, I want to know each and every small detail in it." he asked them.

"We will have the initial documentation ready for you to have a look tomorrow itself"

Durga Prasad nodded at them and dismissed them. It would be time to blow the conches soon. He could already feel the anticipation and the exhilaration of the upcoming battle.

Sanskar was standing in the terrace of his office. It had been a month since the blast. He had been discharged from the hospital two weeks back and had been resting at home since then. He had tried to do some work from home, but Swara had been persistent in trying to get him to rest as much as she could. Even today, his first day back in office, she had clearly instructed him that he was to return home early, or she would come over and drag him back home. She had been on tenterhooks for most part of his earlier stay in the hospital, and he wasn't keen to add to her worries, so he had agreed.

His hands were in his pocket, and his sight, as always, on the Maheshwari Industries building. But unlike always, his focus wasn't on the building today, but on the conversation he had had with his wife, last night. He remembered the tentative look that Swara had given him before starting the conversation. He had to coax her a bit before she agreed to go ahead.

"It is about Ragini" she started

"What did she do now?" Sanskar asked with a bit of worry and bit annoyance at that girl

"Nothing" Swara answered, before tentatively adding "She told me about the drugs and who the person was"

"She did?" Sanskar asked surprised, he hadn't expected her to be so generous with them. While he was sure she wasn't evil in the true sense of the word, he also didn't see an angel in her, ready to help her sister "Who was it?"

"She said it was you" Swara added quietly. Sanskar only raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear this. He would have said more, asked if Swara believed her, but he didn't need to. He realized the reason for Swara's tentative behavior. She didn't believe it was him, but was worried about how he would take this information. While once she may have suspected him to be behind this, almost in another lifetime, today she was feeling guilty about even linking his name to it, even just to provide him the information.

He held her hand to reassure her it was okay and pulled her closer to himself. They had been sitting together on their bed. "Did she say why she believed it was me?" he asked

"Do you remember the first time you met her?"

"When Badi Maa introduced us?" Sanskar asked furrowing his brow, trying to remember