Page 62 of The Circle of Exile
“Now.”
He did not think it would work but first Samar took his seat, then Amaal followed. On two ends of the hall. Atharva turned to Amaal — “Decide how you will do this but I want Saba first thing tomorrow morning. And when I’m done with her, she is out.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“The alternative is to keep her in my office, my secretariat, around my family knowing that she let Iram leave and never uttered a word? What were her intentions?”
“Not good, that I guarantee,” Amaal gave him a look. His mouth dropped open. “What do you mean?”
“You know very well what I mean.”
His eyes widened — “You can’t mean that!”
“It’s a possibility.”
Atharva scoffed, turning towards Samar who was quietly observing their exchange. They stared at each other.
“Iram told you this?” Samar asked.
“If you evenimplythat she is lying…”
“No, I didn’t mean that. I was just asking.”
Atharva relaxed. With the history there, every pointed question about Iram from his mouth fell like an accusation.
“What reason do you think she had, Amaal?” Samar went on, point-blank.
“It’s a bullshit reason. Maybe she is working for Sayyid Butt,” Atharva connected the dots. “How did I not think about this earlier…”
“She is not.” Amaal asserted.
“And how are you so sure?” He whirled.
“We run regular background checks plus deep dives on each of our staff members. You know it. You get the reports. After Iram, audits were run on each. It came clean.”
“So you say she did this out of some misplaced heartbreak?”
“Heartbreak?” Samar cut in. “At your hands?”
Atharva held his hands open at the absurdity.Can you imagine?Samar’s mouth quirked.
Fuck you,Atharva mouthed.
“Let me speak to her tomorrow,” Amaal cut their silent conversation short.
“I will speak to her,” Atharva commanded.
“No. Neither of you is equipped to deal with human resource issues. The last time you two ‘spoke’ to somebody she was ready to up and leave KDP.”
Samar burst out laughing.
“This is not funny.”
Samar wheezed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“This is insane. Some ex of yours let your wife run away and did not tell you.”
“My wife would have been home with my son that day had she said something!” Atharva thundered. Samar sobered.
