Page 51 of Married in Vengeance

“Then why are you so fucking apologetic about sitting in that chair?”

“Because I’m half the age of the people who report to me!” Aadhya shouted. “And a woman to boot. Not to mention the factthat I’m the owner’s daughter. Don’t you see how they kick back at my authority?”

“Then you kick harder,” Aarush told her coldly. He leaned forward and tapped one finger on the file that lay between them. “I know you didn’t make these mistakes. One or two maybe but so many and so consistently? There is no fucking way. Someone is fucking with you and we’re going to find out whom.”

Aadhya stared at his finger, fury igniting through the haze of worry and shame.

“Look at me, Chinna.”

She looked up and met his furious gaze.

“Someone fucks with you. They fuck with us all. We’re going to find them and we’re going to bury them.”

Aadhya nodded, the fire her brother’s words lit in her bringing her fighting spirit to the fore. “Let’s do it,” she said, smiling for the first time in a while.

Aarush glanced down at his phone and smiled. “Perfect timing,” he muttered.

“For what?”

“I called for reinforcements.” A knock sounded on the door a second later and Aarush strode over to open it.

“Come in man,” he told someone who stood out of view of Aadhya’s line of sight.

Oh God no! If Aarush had called Ram in for this, she was going to disown her brother. But when Aarush finally stepped away from the door, Aadhya sagged with relief to see Virat smiling at her.

“Hi Aadhya,” he said, his smile carefully polite and meticulously devoid of any personal interactions they might have had.

“Hi,” she said weakly. “I didn’t know things were bad enough to merit hiring you.”

Virat didn’t bother correcting her assumption. If he was here, things weren’t just bad. They were catastrophic.

“We’re being sued.” Aarush stepped forward, his hands going back into his pants pocket, a nervous tell of his from childhood.

“Sued?” Aadhya repeated.

“By the investors and the homeowners.”

Sued? If they were being sued because of the structure collapsing…

“I’m being sued,” she said numbly, her lips feeling cold and rubbery. It was her signature on the drawings that were issued to the municipality so it would be her name on the lawsuit.

“You and the company,” Aarush admitted. “But we’ll beat this.”

She could feel her pulse pounding in her throat as she stared at them. “Shit,” she whispered. “Shit.”

“Aadhya.” Virat came to crouch in front of her, his hand reaching to tip her chin up. “I need you to breathe right now. Air is your friend.”

“Air is my friend?” A strangled laugh burbled out of her at the statement.

“Yes it is.” The polite but chilly smile he’d given her earlier warmed a fraction. “I need to tell you something.”

Aadhya struggled to take another clear breath but it still hitched in her chest. “What?” she managed around another puff of air. Air was her friend. The words swirled through her brain, floating around like spilled cotton candy at the fairgrounds.

“I’m very good at what I do.” He took her cold, shaky hands in his. “Very, very good.”

Aadhya looked at that ridiculously handsome face and saw only the fierce intelligence in his dark, intense eyes.

“Is this just about massaging your ego or were you actually going somewhere with this?” she rasped.

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