Married in Vengeance (Dynasty Rebels #4)

Chapter 32

Thirty-Two

AADHYA

Aadhya watched Virat and his team pore over reams and reams of documents. He’d arrived this morning with four of his employees and they’d taken over one of the conference rooms with their gadgets and files.

She sat to one side with her laptop, occasionally answering queries they had for her but mostly being ignored. She watched them tear apart every inch of her work life and analyse it, looking for a clue to who was sabotaging her and the company.

The door opened and she looked up to see Aarush Anna walk in with Karthik. “Will that be enough?” Anna asked.

“Will what be enough?” Aadhya piped up, not waiting for Karthik to respond.

“All we have at the moment is the documents on your hard drive and the difference between those and the ones submitted at the municipality,” Karthik replied. “It’s not enough to prove that the documents on the hard drive were the ones meant to be submitted. Especially since the submission had your COA stamp and signature on it.”

“My COA stamp is in my desk drawer. Anyone could reach it,” Aadhya commented.

Aarush glared at her. “Why would you leave it lying around like that?”

“It was in my cabin!” she protested. “I keep it there for convenience. How was I to know someone was going to screw me over like this?”

“Still doesn’t explain your signature,” Karthik interjected hastily before the fight between the siblings got worse.

“I can explain that.” Virat strode over to where they were huddled. “Every single signature on every document is identical.”

All three of them stared at Virat blankly. “Identical,” he repeated. “Right down to the last flourish and the swirl in the y.”

When they still said nothing, he prompted, “When is the last time you’ve signed everything exactly the same?”

Aadhya frowned. “I’m guessing, from your expression, the answer would be never?”

“You’d be right,” Virat confirmed. “It’s been traced or a template has been made but there is no way in hell every single document has been signed by a human hand, especially Aadhya’s human hand.”

Relief flooded through Aadhya at the information. It wasn’t much but it was something. She’d been starting to think she’d imagined the whole thing, that there was no one out to get her and she’d been the one to screw up all along.

“You should go home and get some sleep,” Aarush told her, his face softening as he took in the exhaustion lining her face. “You haven’t fully recovered from the viral.”

Aadhya stifled a yawn. “I should be here to help.”

“If we need your help, we’ll come to you.” Aarush bundled her out of her chair. “Get better, get back on your feet and then come back to office. We’ve got this handled.”

Aadhya wanted to argue but fatigue dragged at her feet making it hard to hold her ground. “Okay. But if you find out anything important-“

“You’ll be the first person I call,” Aarush promised.

“I better be,” she grumbled. “Don’t do the bro code thing and call Ram first.”

She saw the shadow that passed over Aarush’s face at the mention of Ram’s name and paused in the middle of collecting her laptop.

“What’s wrong?” she asked her brother. “What’s with the look?”

“What look?” he prevaricated, looking around the conference room like he needed to make notes of what was happening there.

“Anna?” Aadhya’s voice took on a warning lilt. “What’s going on?”

She glanced at both Virat and Karthik but neither gave her any indication of what was up with her brother’s weird behaviour.

“Get some rest,” Aarush said, kissing her forehead and patting her on her shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

And with that he was gone before she could react. Aadhya watched the door close behind her brother’s retreating back, a weird sense of foreboding descending on her.

“I’m not sure what this is about,” she told the other two men still standing around her. “But I will find out.”

Neither one was stupid enough to contradict her. Aadhya waved goodbye in their direction before leaving the office. She was walking towards the elevator banks in the outer lobby when her seniormost architect, Mr. Vara Prasad, waylaid her.

“Aadhya, how are you feeling?” he asked her with a fraternal smile.

“Better, Prasad Garu,” she smiled wanly. “Just tired. Have the municipal drawings for Goond gone out yet?”

“They’ll be done by the end of today.” He pressed the button to summon the elevator before she could. “You go home and rest. I’ll take care of everything. Don’t worry about a thing.”

The elevator doors opened but Aadhya didn’t get in. She turned to face the older man, the strange tingling she’d been plagued with recently resurfacing. “You worked on Nava with me, didn’t you?”

She saw it then in the slight twitch of his mouth, the narrowing of his eyes, and the involuntary flicker of his eyelid.

“I did,” he said, a smile stretching his lips but never reaching his eyes. “Was there any information you needed with regards to it?”

“No,” she replied thoughtfully, her mind teeming with doubts and insecurities. “Not at the moment.”

They stared at each other for a long moment before Prasad nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

Aadhya tipped her head in response, watching him go as her thoughts coalesced in her mind. She looked at the open elevator doors but didn’t step in. She walked back to her cabin instead. She packed up her stamp, locked all her drawers and changed the password on her desktop system.

When she was confident she’d secured everything the best she could, she finally left for home. At least at home she could be sure there was no one out to stab her in the back.