Page 66 of Married in Vengeance

“Sir.” He looked around at the people standing in front of him and said, “Sirs, I mean. I didn’t know you were coming. I would have made arrangements. Please all of you follow me. We will go to the VIP conference room.”

“Thank you but no.” Agastya stepped forward. “This interview won’t air.”

“Sir.” The man paled but did his best to hold his ground. “You are interfering with the freedom of the press.”

“No, we’re not,” Harsh stepped up, a cheerful grin on his face. “We’re offering you a deal, a favourable one.”

“What deal?” The man’s eyes darted between the Kodelas.

“An exclusive live interview with me.” Harsh spread his arms out on either side.

“What’s exclusive about it?”

“It’s not only with him. It’s with us. All three Kodela siblings and their spouses. We’ve never been interviewed on one platform before. We’ll do it for your channel, if you kill the interview and the reveal of the tape.”

The man’s eyes widened.

“Come on man,” Harsh grinned. “You know who has more star power. It isn’t a lawyer and an architect who got married and got frisky. Given the population boom in our country, it’s fairly obvious everyone is getting frisky.”

“Rather than descending into the sleaze of a sex tape, you have the opportunity to interview the Kodela trio, including,” Harsh reached out and dragged Priyanka forward. “This reclusive one.”

Priyanka rolled her eyes but didn’t deny it.

“You guys don’t have to do this.” Ram’s terse interjection was ignored by everyone in the room.

“What’s it going to be?” Agastya stared at the sweating media guy. “The offer is valid for ten minutes.”

“Done.” He nodded, mopping his brow with a handkerchief he produced from nowhere.

“I want all traces of that video and the interview wiped out.” Aarush spoke for the first time since they’d got here. “We need proof of that before any of us sit down for an interview.”

Agastya looked at Virat who nodded and disappeared with one of the many people standing around and staring at them.

“I also want NDA’s from every person in this room, signed and delivered within the next half an hour.” Ram spoke up, a hard edge to his voice. Aadhya wondered if she was imagining the undertone of shame she heard in it.

“Okay. Okay.” The owner nodded so hard she thought his head would roll off. “Please have a seat. We’ll get it all sorted.”

Nobody sat. Ten minutes later when Virat reappeared and nodded to them, Agastya spoke, “Alright then, have the NDA’s signed and delivered to us and we’ll set the interview up.”

“Not recorded,” the owner said. “Live.”

If looks could kill, Agastya’s would have incinerated the man. “Do not assume for one second that you are in the driving seat here. Sleazeballs like you don’t get to apply conditions. You’ll be fucking grateful for the offer we made and remember to say thank you a million times as you rake in the money. Understood?”

The man paled further, sweat trickling down his temples.

“We’ll do it live.” Harsh stepped between his older brother and the media man before the second man had a heart attack and died at their feet. He shoved his brother back a step, not even bothering to disguise the move. “Live is good. Let’s pick a date that works with everyone’s schedules.”

It took another half an hour before things were settled to everyone’s satisfaction. They left the studio, a tense, quiet group with Agastya’s security fanning out around them to keep people at bay. Before they got into their individual cars, Ram stopped them.

“Thank you.”

Agastya turned on him, fury lining his face. “Why the fuck did you agree to this interview?”

“Because this solves nothing.” Ram faced off with him, equally enraged. “We don’t know who else has copies of this video and who else the blackmailer has sent it to. We need to control the narrative. We need to get ahead of it. This interview was supposed to do that. Squashing the story and offering another interview in return doesn’t do that! We don’t even know how many more copies of this videothisnews channel has.”

“None as of half an hour ago,” Virat answered. “I took care of that.”

“You should have come to us!” Agastya seethed as if Virat hadn’t spoken.

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