The Indian Tycoon's Marriage Deal Read online

  ‘You Devs really know how to throw a party,’ Mike marvelled as he tucked into his food. ‘These are the most succulent kebabs I have ever had in my life.’

  ‘I will pass on your compliments to the chef.’ Krish grabbed a plate and piled some kebabs on it.

  ‘By the way, Maya gave me some invaluable tips on gardening. Your wife is quite a talented young lady.’

  As soon as Mike mentioned her name, Krish’s hackles rose. His jaw tightened ever so slightly. He sneered, ‘Now that you have her cell number you can call her any time for more landscaping advice.’

  ‘Man, I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ And then, as if it dawned on him, Mike gave him a nudge and a wink. ‘She’s got you wrapped around her little finger. Watch out, mate!’

  Mike’s joke slashed through him like a knife slicing open his gut. If he hadn’t been so furious at himself he would have laughed out loud. Here he was, only minutes ago agonising over doubting Maya, but it seemed as if he should have paid more attention to his gut feeling. His desire for her was clouding his judgement and that was unacceptable.

  Turning away from Mike with a muttered excuse, he snapped open his BlackBerry and speed-dialled Maya’s mobile number as his eyes scanned the hall for her. She was nowhere to be seen. And she wasn’t picking up the phone either. He felt a tightness in his chest as questions burned through his consciousness. What was she hiding? How deep did her lies go?

  * * *

  For a while Maya circulated the party, smiling and airkissing acquaintances, being the perfect hostess. But she was on tenterhooks; dying to get back to the cottage and read the documents. The longer she stayed, the more she fretted.

  Finally, she seized the moment and slipped away. The scents of the night wafted in the breeze that cooled her overheated skin as she hurried down the path. In the dark, she stumbled on the porch step and winced in pain. Rani had forgotten to switch on the light.

  A sudden childhood memory flashed through her mind. Ma had entrusted her with the task of switching on a light in the veranda of their home every evening. ‘A dark home is an invitation to evil spirits,’ Ma would admonish her whenever she forgot her task. Over the years, it had become such a habit that, even on that fateful evening when she was leaving for the hospital—full of hope about Papa’s recovery—she had instinctively reached for the light switch as she’d stepped out. Only to see the bulb fizz and explode. It had seemed like a bad omen but she had chided herself for reading too much into a fused bulb. In hindsight, it did seem as if some force out there was trying to warn her, prepare her for what lay ahead.

  The memory wafted away as she flicked on the porch light, pushed open the door and stepped across the threshold. Normally, Baloo was the first to greet her. But today Rani must have left him with Hari at their quarters. She felt a strange sense of foreboding, returning to a dark, empty home. Home. Since when had she started associating this place with home? she wondered.

  She rushed to her room, switched on the table lamp and spread the documents on the desk. She speed-read the pages, glancing over random details about various projects that Papa had been assigned to in his role of Consultant Botanist to Dev Horticulture Pvt. Ltd. There was a technical paper—handwritten in his distinctive scrawl—which listed in some detail the process of growing a new hybrid variety of lavender roses. Attached to it was a typed copy of the same document and a letter from the Patents Office. Her heart skipped a beat as she read the official notice granting ownership of the patent to one Manish Agarwal, Ph.D. at Mansarovar Agricultural College. The residence address listed was the same as the Dev mailing address.

  She stopped reading as things began to fall in place. So this was KD’s scam! Papa’s technical paper, containing drawings and process details, had been merely copied, given a new title and patented in Agarwal’s name, who was probably some junior flunky in KD’s office. Papa had probably trusted KD enough to share with him his original designs and technical processes. The handwritten paper was proof of that. And in return for his trust, KD had cheated Papa of his rightful claim, lodged a false complaint against him and had him thrown in jail. She paced the room as her mind processed the probable scenario. Another piece of paper fluttered to the floor—an affidavit on a judicial stamp paper signed by her father. It read:

  I hereby withdraw all claims to the hybrid lavender rose innovation and regret that I falsely claimed ownership of the same which is Manish Agarwal’s work and is currently patented in his name. I forfeit any future claims to the innovation.

  The legal document was dated 20th March, 2001. She froze with shock—that was the horrible day when her mother had been struck by a speeding van. Meena Mashi had spent the night at the hospital with Ma while she had been deposited at Meena Mashi’s place. She remembered how scared she had been. Nobody would tell her anything. All they would say was ‘Pray to God, Maya. Pray for your Ma.’

  The document dropped from her hand as she remembered how hard she had prayed that night. The next day, when Meena Mashi came home from the hospital, she was crying. She had run to her. ‘Mashi, why are you crying? Ma is going to be okay, no?’ But she had hugged her and sobbed her heart out. She had never felt so scared, so lost, so alone. Later that day, Papa had arrived but one look at his distraught face and she’d known it: Ma would never come back.

  The hurt, the pain, the loss…It all came crashing back. The document was the final piece of the puzzle. And it all fitted in perfectly, helping Maya to create a timeline of what had happened. On 20th March, a frantic Meena Mashi had called KD’s office and informed them about Ma’s accident. KD had used this tragic turn of events to his own advantage. He’d struck a bargain with Papa—his release from jail if he agreed to sign away the rights to his innovation. Distraught by the news of the accident, Papa had only one thought: to rush back to Ma. But by the time everything was put in place for Papa’s release, precious time had been lost. And when he’d finally reached the hospital, it was all over. The tears coursed down her cheeks as pain ripped through her in waves.

  Maya nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the sharp knock at the door. ‘Maya! Open the door!’

  Krish? What did he want with her at this hour? She glanced at her watch. Two thirty-five a.m. A second knock, more urgent this time, followed. He was not going away. She swiped the streaks of tears from her face. ‘Give me a moment,’ she called out. Hurriedly, she swept all the documents under the pillow and pulled the bedspread on top.

  ‘Come on, Maya. If you don’t open the door…’

  She pulled the door open and faced him defiantly. ‘Or else, what?’

  For a moment, he just glared at her. Tension simmered. She said softly, ‘Look, I’m really tired and I’d just like to go to sleep. Can’t we do this tomorrow?’

  ‘This shouldn’t take long.’ He pushed the door open and entered the room, closing the door behind him. He was inches away from her and her skin prickled to life; she edged back towards the bed. ‘You can’t just come barging in like this!’

  He leaned against the door and gave her a hard look. ‘Hiding something, Maya?’

  The revelations had left her feeling raw. Wounded. And Krish’s arrogant behaviour was like salt being poured on an open wound. She gritted her teeth. ‘What do you want from me?’

  ‘Just answer my question. What were you doing in KD’s office tonight?’

  ‘I already told you. I left my mobile behind.’

  His voice lowered a couple of shades as he warned, ‘I’ve had enough of your lies.’

  Her heart thudded against her chest. How did he know? He must have mentioned it to Mike. He inched closer, reading her thoughts. ‘Mike did not ask for your phone number. So, why did you lie to me?’

  How dared he be so self-righteous? Not when his father, the great Kamalkant Dev, had built an empire on a foundation of lies, deceit and manipulation. Yes, she had lied—because that was the only way to get to the truth of how his family had destroyed hers!

 
‘I lied because I needed to find out something…something that’s of value to me.’

  ‘I see.’ He had turned stone-cold. ‘Something so precious that you had to steal it.’ Behind his sharp accusation was a hint of dismay.

  ‘If that’s how you want to look at it—yes, I went in there to steal something.’

  He shook his head slowly, as if trying to deny something that he already knew was undeniable. Corporate theft. She’d planned this all along. Was everything she had said a lie? Was that the reason why she had married him—to get access to the Dev household? Why had he not suspected anything when he had gone through her dossier? The questions piled up till he thought his head would explode.

  He strode to the desk in the corner, switched on the table lamp and pulled open the drawer.

  ‘What do you think you are doing?’ Maya rushed forward to stop him.

  His voice was cold as ice. ‘Do you realise that corporate theft is a serious crime and you could spend several years in jail?’

  She stopped dead in her tracks at the look of contempt on his face. His tone was low but, to her ears, every word was a screaming accusation. ‘So what is this valuable thing that you were looking for? Documents? Something that you could sell for a price to some gossip rag? Or maybe to one of our rivals?’

  She had anticipated this all along and yet she hadn’t been prepared for the hurt that rumbled through her. Her voice was dead. ‘Go ahead…Why am I not surprised that the heir to the Dev empire is nothing but a bully, just like his father?’

  Krish turned to her menacingly and she found herself pinned to the wall, trapped between his arms on either side of her. ‘And who are you, Maya Shome? A sneaky scumbag of a reporter writing for some business gossip rag? Or an ambitious scandal-seeker looking for your fifteen minutes of fame?’

  She refused to be intimidated by his scathing words. Or the fire in his eyes. But she inwardly cringed at the contempt she saw in them. As if she was indeed the very scum of the earth. She wanted to tell him everything. Show him her stolen goods. Reveal KD’s fraudulent ways and how he had played havoc with their lives. Do it! Tell him the truth!

  Krish was breathing hard as he muttered almost to himself. ‘For God’s sake, Maya why?’

  For a moment she saw a flash of pain in his eyes. And her eyes brimmed with tears that she would not let drop. The time to tell the truth had long gone. From his point of view, she had already crossed a boundary. The boundary between trust and mistrust. Between truth and lies. Between loyalty and betrayal. The truth would not be enough to bridge that chasm.

  Her voice choked on a bitter sob. ‘Let me go.’

  His nostrils flared. ‘Tell me. Why did you do it?’

  She stared into his unforgiving face and pushed hard against his chest, trying to free herself from his grip. ‘Let. Me. Go.’

  He slammed her against the wall and his lips came down hard on hers in a scorching, brutal kiss that left her gasping for breath. Her mind rebelled against the humiliation even as she felt her body go soft against him. She felt hot, angry tears prickle her eyes and she bit down hard on his lip. She heard him curse against her mouth and realised she had drawn blood. She tore herself away from him and rushed to the door. He was close behind her and, as he whirled her around, she spat out her anger. ‘Get away from me, Krish.’

  His BlackBerry buzzed. ‘Goddammit!’ he cursed as he pulled it out and barked into the phone, ‘Not now, Rohan.’

  He snapped the phone shut. ‘Here’s the deal, sweetheart.’ She cringed as he spat out the sarcastic endearment and his fingers dug into the soft flesh of her arms. ‘You have till tomorrow morning. To give it all back…whatever you have stolen from KD’s office. Give it to me and then get out of my life for ever.’

  He thrust her away from him. As if repelled by her touch. As if every moment he spent in her presence nauseated him. Within moments, he had opened the door and was striding down the hallway.

  ‘Wait,’ she called out. But her voice was barely audible, her throat strangled by unshed tears. She ran to the bed, threw off the bedspread and fumbled for the documents under the pillow. Grasping them, she raced down the hallway. But Krish had gone and she heard the roar of the Prius as it screeched away from the driveway. Finally the tears poured down and, as they fell on the papers in her hand, she felt her heart wrench as if it was being pulled out of her body. She had seen the stricken look in his eyes moments before he’d thrust her away. And she knew that she would always carry that memory in her heart. She flopped down on the bed and with a cry of anguish she tore the documents to shreds.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THE MEETING WITH the angel investor should have been a cakewalk. Krish had expected to close the deal with Harshad Kumar for SHVP. Everything had been worked out—every financial I had been dotted and every T crossed. Besides, Kumar had been his mentor from his Harvard days and had known about his pet project since the time it was incubated. A couple of months ago, when Krish had sent him the architect’s plans of the resort, Kumar had been very impressed. And when Krish had tentatively asked if he would like to be one of the angel investors on the project, Kumar had been more than happy to jump aboard. ‘Signing on the dotted line is a mere formality,’ Kumar had assured him.

  And yet today’s meeting was a no-go. Kumar’s turnabout came as a shock. Worse, he had been most evasive—fobbing him off with excuses. But when Krish had pinned him down he had come clean. ‘The market is buzzing with all kinds of rumours about DGE. It’s just a case of bad timing.’

  Krish could barely contain his disappointment. ‘Mr Kumar, you know full well that my father has nothing to do with this project. He has no stakes in it, nor does DGE.’

  ‘I have complete faith in you, Krish, and I know that your project is independent of DGE. But the fact is that you can’t detach yourself from your father or his group. Right now, things are not looking good for DGE. Once word gets around that I’m investing in KD’s son’s project, it’s bound to impact my business reputation. I can’t take the risk. Let’s reassess the situation in a couple of months. And I’m sure by then DGE will be in a much stronger position.’ Putting an arm across Krish’s shoulders in a paternal gesture, he said, ‘Krish, I know you’re disappointed. But, trust me, this is not the right time for this deal. Don’t lose heart.’

  Don’t lose heart. In the five years that he’d been working on SHVP, for the first time his heart was no longer in it. It had got hopelessly entangled with his memories of Maya. He couldn’t even think of it without evoking memories of that night in his mother’s cottage in Deovan. The whiff of her floral perfume, her silky hair brushing against his skin, her chocolate eyes aflame with passion as she melted in his arms. Damn her! She had forever tainted the one thing in his life that he’d so cherished. He should be glad he’d returned the morning after their final argument to find her gone.

  His BlackBerry buzzed. He drew in his breath sharply as he found himself standing at the hotel car park, keys in his hand, staring into space. Cursing himself, he pulled out his phone. ‘I’m on my way, Rohan. Should be there in ten minutes.’ He got into the Prius and strapped himself in.

  Eighteen-hour working days had become the norm ever since things had spun crazily out of control only days after he had discarded Maya from his life. The ink on the DGE-Cosmo JV deal had barely dried when a series of issues between the partners had flared up. Before long, the Delhi and London teams were at each other’s throats. Frayed tempers, angry phone calls and emails went back and forth and KD had made it worse with his high-handedness.

  The deal was off. And then came the inevitable aftermath. News spread like wildfire through the business community, fuelled by scandal-mongering and speculative media reports. The share market reacted with shock—DGE stocks went into freefall, causing panic all around. Investors threatened to pull the plug on several crucial DGE projects. Pulling back the group from the brink of a public relations disaster proved to be near impossible as damaging stories about KD�
�s opulent lifestyle and his penchant for Bollywood starlets erupted in magazines and television talk shows like forest fires. Suddenly, KD, the darling of the media, had turned into its most lampooned celebrity. Krish had no option but to abandon his own project and take charge.

  The more he delved into DGE affairs, the more he was appalled at the sheer scale of mismanagement—this had been a disaster waiting to happen. Overhauling the group would require months of relentless hard work. Perhaps Kumar’s rejection had come as a blessing in disguise—he needed more hours in the day to bring back DGE from the brink and there was no way he could have added to his Sisyphean workload. He might as well forget about SHVP for now. Even if his father didn’t deserve his help, all the thousands of innocent DGE employees did and he couldn’t turn his back on them.

  And what wouldn’t he do to forget Maya? Her betrayal haunted him like a bad dream that darkened his every waking moment. No matter how hectic his day or how preoccupied he was with handling the corporate crisis, she was never far away from his thoughts. The more he tried to erase her memory, the more he yearned to feel her, touch her, smell her. She had invaded his soul and the harder he tried to free himself of her hold, the more trapped he felt. Despite her betrayal, he still needed her in his life, even though he repeatedly told himself it was crazy to feel like that.

  As he stormed into his office, he found Rohan at his heels. ‘Got a minute, Chief?’

  ‘I can spare a couple of minutes before my meeting with the HR team,’ said Krish as he swept into his tenth floor office overlooking Connaught Place.