Page 109 of The Ex Factor

This newfound camaraderie led us to exchange stories about our jobs and their stresses. The excitement in Tara’s voice was unmistakable as she told me about embarking on a career as an artist. Something she’d always wanted and worked for and which was finally within her reach.

“You get the guy and the career of your dreams, eh? Talk about finding your happily ever after,” I teased as I finished up my egg and placed my silverware down.

She blushed, then studied me with a doe-like tender gaze. “You shouldn’t worry about what others think. I’m talking for real here. You aretheAarti Bhatia, and he’s Sujit freaking Rao. You’ll be the most charismatic, most dynamic power couple since…hell, I don’t even know any other power couple who can hold a candle to you. It’s a fucked up world, Aarti. Its lust for the misfortune of others will never be satiated. You go get your happily ever after. Claim it, grab it, and never let it go.”

I did the only thing I wanted to do at that time—grin wide and be grateful for the woman sitting across the table from me. “I think I’m going to do just that.”

“Now, that’s the kind of billionaire romance I can really root for,” she said with a wink.

SUJIT

Iknew it was Manoj the moment Aarti confirmed my suspicions.

Never before, since becoming Sujit Rao, the billionaire, had I captured the paparazzi's fascination. I’d had dinners with politicians, some of whom were my friends from college. I’d attended parties with celebrities and high rollers, but it had never been newsworthy. And certainly not tabloid-worthy. If I had ended up on the cover of a gossip magazine, a tawdry one at that, it had to be for one reason alone. Someone was bothered by my proximity to Aarti.

The choice of the tabloid was no coincidence either. It was a careful attempt at causing insult, injury, and humiliation. The only reason Aarti’s face wasn’t plastered all over the tabloid was because someone didn’t want to get on her bad side. Someone who had hopes that he could somehow charm her.

I didn’t have to look or think too far to figure out who that snake was. Well, scratch that. Apologies to all snakes everywhere. He was a human. A malicious human with everything devious that humanity is made up of. A human who dressed well and smelled good to hide the rot that was inside him.

Manoj was smart. A charmer who could sweet-talk his way into or out of anything he wanted. During college, I had held that he was smarter than me. But instead of using his brilliance for good, he had squandered away his energies trying to outdo me. Initially, it had been a response to his father’s affection and high regard for me. I’d been merely a pawn in his quest to gain his father’s validation and approval. Yet, in the long years he’d been obsessed with me, his envy had intensified. He was consumed by it. His actions were no longer motivated by gaining his father’s approval. This was about me.

Ironically, he also owed his success to me. Cyber security was new and hot at the time, and he’d nicked the idea from my notes, I later came to realize. We’d been brainstorming ideas one week, and the next, he said he had found his niche in cyber security. I had made detailed notes only days before. It felt uncanny that he had come up with an almost identical proposition, but I was naïve, and I trusted our friendship. After all, what person would do that to a good friend?

I let him pursue his startup idea as he gathered people and resources around him quickly. He was terrific at that. I was bookish and nerdy. Manoj was worldly-wise and a convincing orator. So while he tinkered with the options for cyber security and flaunted his new relationship with Tejal, I retracted to my safe zone in front of a computer and discovered another idea that I really liked. Software solutions for healthcare management. I had seen my uncle and aunt, both doctors, struggle with insurance filing and patient information paperwork. It was their kind faces that I kept before me as I worked hard to build viable solutions for small clinics.

For years, Manoj had toed the line and then looked for a reaction from me. Much like an errant child doing what it’s instructed not to do, then looking challengingly at the parents. I had kept him as a part of the group because neither Chris nor Jasknew about the real Manoj. And because Tejal had warned me to keep my enemies close. That’s what I’d done.

I had kept tabs on him for a long time. It wasn’t uncommon for companies to recap, but his frivolity and lack of vision kept running his to the ground. He used his charm and his beguiling ways to keep attracting capital to pump into his failing enterprise. The second time he was on the brink of a recap, I had asked Vinay to invest in his company. He did it as a favor to me, knowing full well that the company was headed downhill.

Manoj had made it his mission to become bigger and better than me. I didn’t mind that. My ego was neither bloated nor fragile to be intimidated by his ambitions. But this time, he had crossed the line. If he thought he could use Aarti to get to me, he had clearly misjudged me for all these years. There wasn’t much he could do to undermine me, but the day he learned that Aarti wasn’t interested in him, the next issue of that tabloid would be replete with filthy lies about her. That was a surefire way of hurting me.

I was about to make certain that didn’t happen.

Vinay was Dad’s former student. His first student who’d made it big in the tech industry and who had become a venture capitalist by the time I graduated. It could have been his regard for Dad that made him unflinchingly invest in my startup when it was still rough around the edges. He had always insisted that he saw the merit of my project. He knew the gaps in the industry, and he had long prophesied its massive success. I had never thought it would be sought after by everyone in the healthcare industry. But after it went big, Vinay had patted my back and sagely said, “I’m not going to saytold you so, but I did call it when I sent you that first check. Maybe now you can finally accept I’m a savvy investor.”

I don’t remember the exact moment our business relationship turned into friendship. But over the years, it hadslowly and quietly blossomed into a form of trust and loyalty that was rare in the cut-throat competitive market in which we operated.

Devi had given his office a heads-up, so Vinay was ready when I called.

“Hey, Suj,” he said in his deep, throaty voice. Authoritative.

A voice quite asynchronous with his gentle visage and mild manner. But then his mild manner also quite effectively masked the astute, ruthless businessman inside him. It was his ruthlessness that I needed right now.

“Vinay, I think it’s time,” I stated without preamble.

With Vinay’s acumen, we had a plan in place. He had already talked to the other investors about his interest in buying them out. He had primed them about the bloated valuation of the company, highlighting the need to change the leadership. While two major investors had agreed to sell their shares to Vinay, one had offered to support his decision to rid the company of Manoj. A change at the helm would get him a better return on his investment, he had argued. Vinay had been careful to keep my name out.

I didn’t believe in playing dirty, but Manoj had started it and had transgressed the boundary that he shouldn’t have. I was ready to do whatever it took to ruin him.

“Our best option is a leveraged buyout,” Vinay informed me. “It will shatter his credibility in the industry.”

“That is what I want.”

“It will take a few months, but he will be out.”

“Leave him with nothing,” I demanded.

“He will be left with a little,” Vinay countered practically, and I knew I would have to make peace with it. For the moment, at least.

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