By her side.
Dammit, she was starting to understand what his expectations were.
“Robert,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “With the company sale, I’ll be flush and have some time to reassess my priorities. You know, I haven’t been to Bali yet.”
“This is a joke to you?” His voice was back to a reasonable volume. “Well, how about this one? WTA is still a major shareholder of Bharat. My company has every right to propose that Bharat stop the acquisition.”
She froze, but kept her calm, cool expression firmly in place. “And how do you plan on doing that?”
“By filing an injunction.”
“On what grounds?”
“Bharat can’t buy you out if you’re in the middle of litigation.”
She felt a prickle at the back of her neck. There was something she’d missed, something she hadn’t planned on happening that Robert obviously had. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not in the middle of litigation.”
“Oh? What do you think your divorce is?”
“We’re settling,” she bit out.
“Not anymore.” His grin was ugly now, and all of the good memories she’d had of him over the years, the late-night TV shows, the heated arguments over business, the friendly meals that one would have with a roommate, were tainted forever.
“You’d seriously stop our divorce for WTA? For a company that probably thinks of you as disposable?”
“Nice try, darling,” he said. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer. Looks like the divorce is going to take longer than you thought.”
With that parting shot, he turned on his heel and left the same way he’d come. Raj waited, thinking through the best way to handle the situation. It took her less than a minute to plan out her strategy.
Her first call was to her head of IT and her security department. “I need you to scan every corporate email account and cell phone to see who has been in contact with Robert over the last month. Start with the legal department.”
“What are we looking for?” her employee asked on the other end of the line.
“Anything that shares our company information with him.”
“And if we find something?”
“Send it to Tracey. I’d like to fire them personally.”
After a few more instructions, she put in a call to her divorce attorney, who assured her that Robert’s only course of action was to delay the inevitable.
Tracey walked in just as she finished up and left a paper takeout bag. “You have ten minutes to eat before your first meeting,” she said.
“Thanks, Tracey.”
That also meant she had ten minutes to call Bharat about Robert’s threat. Ajay needed to know about her morning visit from her ex-husband. She didn’t want him to be blindsided.
Even though she wanted to talk to him, to text him, to connect with Ajay personally, she honored his wishes and put in a call to Tushar. Ajay’s head of Legal would just have to relay the news. She had work to do.
Chapter Seventeen
Ajay
“Have you listened to a word I’ve said?” Bhram called out in Punjabi. “I’ve been trying to talk to you about this for over a week.”
His cousin’s voice broke through the clouded mess of Ajay’s thoughts. He’d been staring out at the crystalline New York skyline. Chrome, glass, and steel buildings glinted against a robin’s egg blue backdrop. He loved his view. Ever since Bharat had built out office space in the Park Avenue location, he’d come stand in his father’s office, now his, and just watch the city. It was even better than the sparkling cityscape from his penthouse.
He faced his cousin, who looked way too alert for taking a red-eye from London. “Sorry, Bhram, run that by me one more time.”
“You don’t care two tits about our UK office expansion.” His cousin’s expression softened. “Have you heard from her?”
Ajay shook his head. “Since the news broke, we’ve both been busy.”
“I’m sure, but brother, either you go to her, you talk to her and clean up the mess between yourselves, or you let her go. You have to get your head in the game, and your personal life is distracting you from what’s always been the most important thing in your life.” He held up his tablet with the opinion section of the Financial Times on display. “These are serious allegations that are getting visibility. They can ruin your chances of securing the CEO seat.”
Ajay took the tablet and scanned the text. The article was ugly, just like the three that had come before it since the news broke on Friday.
Bharat, Inc., is attempting to bolster its market value and its reputation by acquiring a cybersecurity and physical security services company. Although, on its face, the acquisition appears to be a sound decision to expand the Bharat portfolio, the company in question is owned by Rajneet Kaur Hothi.
This means one of two things. The first is that WTA succeeded in establishing itself as the technology giant pulling strings on Bharat’s next move (see yesterday’s article on the relationship between Rajneet Kaur Hothi and WTA). The second, which is more of a commentary on business engagement in a globalized economy, is that South Asian entrepreneurs are banding together to fight the lack of diversity and inclusion in the business world.
One truth remains: the heir apparent of Bharat, Ajay Singh, has not made a public statement regarding the company’s position, which doesn’t give investors confidence in the man touted as the next CEO of Bharat.
Ajay dropped the tablet back on the dining table. “Wouldn’t they love to know that my own brother is the reason why I’m not at a press conference right this moment? That Zail is holed up at Bharat Mahal waiting for me to say something so that he can make a move against me and against Raj? Both my brother and father are convinced this is a lesson that I have to learn on my own as a leader. Easy for them to say. They never had to deal with something like this before.”
Bhram shrugged. “I’m still stuck on the racist bullshit about South Asians banding together to take over the world. These colonizers, man. Always feeling threatened.”
“You’re not helping, cousin.”
Bhram stood and buttoned his suit jacket. “I think you need to go to Bharat Mahal and stay with your family until you can talk this out and come up with a solution. I’m happy to watch things here while you’re busy. I’m staying . . . nearby.”
“No, you need to head back to London. Even if you have to go for a weekend and then come back for next week’s meeting. I don’t trust our uncle alone with the caretakers. He hasn’t been in recovery long enough.”
“Don’t worry about Gopal,” Bhram said. “The people in charge are very qualified. You have enough on your shoulders to think about. Focus on the acquisition and leave the rest to the competent people in the company.”
“Thanks, Bhram.”
Rafael knocked on the doorframe. His gaze slid over to Bhram, held for a moment, then returned to Ajay. “Sri is here to see you.”
As if his day couldn’t get any worse. He’d been avoiding his head of security until he could compile the information he needed before terminating Sri’s employment.