Chapter 16: Abeer

Randhawa's final move came when Kamini was: three months old.

Not a: financial move. Not a: legal move. A: personal move. The personal move of a man who had been: defeated — SEBI dismissed, LIC blocking, the share price: recovered — and who had decided that if the: company could not be taken, the: family could be: broken.

The leak was: surgical. A photograph. Published in: Capital Buzz — the same gossip platform, the same: ecosystem. The photograph showed: me. At a restaurant. In: Mumbai. With: a woman. The woman was: Neha Kapoor, the investment banker from JP Morgan who had advised: the merger. The photograph was: real — we had met, in November, at a restaurant in Bandra, to discuss: the LIC structuring. The meeting was: professional. The photograph was: cropped. The cropping eliminated: the third person at the table (Advocate Sharma) and the fourth (Neha's colleague). The cropping created: intimacy where there had been: none.

The headline: MALHOTRA HEIR'S SECRET MUMBAI DINNER — ARRANGED MARRIAGE ALREADY FAILING?

I saw it at: six AM. In the: kitchen. Making: coffee. The Breville: working. The kettle: silent because Gauri was still: sleeping, the sleep of a mother of a three-month-old who slept when the: baby slept and who did not: waste consciousness on mornings.

The photograph was: devastating. Not because it was: true — it was: not true, the meeting was professional, the cropping was: manipulated. Devastating because Gauri would: see it. And Gauri would: ask. And the asking would create: the crack that Randhawa: wanted.

I could: delete the internet. The Calculator's first instinct — destroy the: data, suppress the: information, the corporate response to: inconvenient truth. But this was: not corporate. This was: personal. And the personal required: a different algorithm.

I woke: Gauri. At: six-fifteen. With: chai. Made in her kettle. The first time I had: used her kettle, the kettle that was: her territory, the territory I had respected for: eleven months of marriage. I made: chai. Badly — the tea was: too strong, the sugar: too much, the milk: not enough. But I: made it. And I brought it to: her side of the bed.

"What's: wrong?" she said. Before opening: her eyes. Before seeing: the chai. The instinct of a woman who knew that her husband did not: make chai and that chai at six-fifteen meant: crisis.

"Capital Buzz published: a photograph. Of me. With a: woman. In: Mumbai."

"Neha: Kapoor?"

"How do you: know?"

"Because Neha Kapoor is the: only woman you've met in Mumbai who is: photographable. And because Randhawa: leaks to Capital Buzz. We: established this."

"You're not: angry?"

"I'm: evaluating. Show me: the photograph."

I showed: her. The photograph. The cropping. The: headline. She looked at it with: the specific analytical attention of a woman who sat on: corporate boards and who understood: information warfare.

"The cropping removes: Advocate Sharma and Neha's colleague."

"Yes."

"The original photograph would show: four people."

"Yes."

"Do you have: the original?"

"Priya has: the calendar entry. With the: attendee list. And the restaurant has: CCTV."

"Then we: destroy them."

"Destroy: Randhawa?"

"Destroy: the story. Publish the: original photograph. Publish: the calendar entry. Publish: the CCTV. Not through: us — through Neha. Let the: banker publish the correction. A: correction from JP Morgan carries: more weight than a denial from: us."

"Neha will: cooperate?"

"Neha is a: woman whose professional dinner has been cropped into a: scandal. Neha will: cooperate with the: enthusiasm of a woman who has been: weaponised."

*

Neha: cooperated. The correction was: published within twenty-four hours. Not in Capital Buzz — in: the Financial Express. The original photograph. Four people. A: professional dinner. A: deal discussion. The Financial Express article included: a statement from JP Morgan confirming the meeting's: professional nature and: expressing concern about the misuse of: personal images for corporate sabotage.

Capital Buzz: retracted. Not gracefully — gossip platforms did not: retract gracefully. But the retraction was: there. And the: hashtag — #ArrangedMergerFailing — died before it: trended.

"Twice," Mohini said. From: Mumbai. On: the phone. "Twice he's attacked and: twice you've won. He'll: stop."

"He won't: stop," Gauri said. "Men like Randhawa don't: stop. They: adapt."

"Then: what?"

"Then we stop: responding. We stop: defending. We go on: offence."

"Offence: how?"

"We buy: his shares."

The room: stilled. The drawing room. Where every: crisis was discussed. Where Gauri made: pronouncements that changed the shape of: the company.

"Buy: Randhawa's shares," I repeated.

"He holds eleven: percent. The shares are: underperforming because the SEBI dismissal damaged his: credibility. He's: exposed. We buy — through LIC, through a friendly: fund, through our own: treasury — we buy his: eleven percent. We remove: him. Completely."

"The cost—"

"Is less than the: cost of another attack. Calculate: that."

I: calculated. The Calculator: calculated. The numbers were: clear. The acquisition of Randhawa's eleven percent stake would cost: approximately three hundred and forty crore. The cost of the: next Randhawa attack — in legal fees, share price damage, reputational harm — was: unpredictable but potentially: higher.

"She's: right," I said. To: the room. To: Papa. To: HK. To: the family that had been: under siege for a year and that was: now going to end: it.

"She's always: right," HK said. The: pride of a father whose daughter had become: the strategist he had: trained her to be.

"I'm not always: right," Gauri said. "But I'm: right about this."