*Empty streets with no street light*

*a woman wearing long frock\, drinking alcohol on the top of a 5 floor building\, in a penthouse\, with a cake box on the table beside her and three empty beer bottles*

Finishes the 4th beer and places the bottle on the wall. Sitting down in front of the table, she opens the cake box

and lights the candle. She remembers what her dad said during her 12th birthday.

Flashback- her mom lights the candle and her father tells, “Close your eyes and make a sincere wish, baby. It’ll come true.”

She removes the candle as it was melting. She puts another candle and lights it.

“I’m 28 now, my wish has been the same…since last 5 years.”

She takes a deep breath, shuts her eyes, and exhales. She makes a wish while holding her hands together. She pressed her lips tightly, a cold breeze brushing her hair and her white skin glowing in the moonlight...."I want my parents to die," she wishes as she opens her eyes and blows out the candle.

She cuts the cakes and serves herself a piece and goes out. Looking at the sky, she smiles and eats the cake with tears running from her eyes.

*Phone rings* - Someone was calling her. She goes inside. She

looks at the phone. It was her best friend.

She answers the call, “what?!”

“hello sudh, ha…happy birthday!”, he wished her with a cranked voice. “Oh my! You made my day, you see. How should I thank you now?” she replies with a sarcastic tone.

“I know you’re angry with me”, he answered. “huh ….Am I? No, I don’t think so. I’m not angry, Abhay, I’m hurt!! I am…...seriously hurt!!.....You were the only one I could trust blindly and yet….arghh..”, she falls on the couch and shouts, "why?!!! What did I do wrong?.............Answer me damnit." after a stern silence he replied, "I can explain, but you need to calm down first." Hearing this she got more furious, "I know what to do!!!"cutting the call, she threw her mobile on the couch.

She walks into her bedroom and grabs a towel from the wardrobe and goes into the bathroom, stripping her clothes. She takes a hot bath warming her muscles, she washes all the scars on her thighs and stomach and her back, knowing they won’t let her live in peace. After a long bath she goes back to the wardrobe and picks a dark blue t-shirt and changes into it. She throws herself on the bed and closing her eyes she asks herself, “Why is it so

complicated?”

Next morning, the alarm rings.

Sudh’s pov:

I woke up to the alarm shouting at me. It was 4 am in the morning. Honestly, I didn’t get enough sleep and want to sleep more, but I have a lot of things to deal with.

I called Mr. Raman, my bodyguard, and asked him to prepare breakfast for me at the office. He has been with me for the past few years, and he deals with my security and even took the leverage of handling my meals. And I didn’t stop him. He is like an elder brother to me. I saved his daughter who was kidnapped by a few gangsters, which got me one of the scars on my body. He was an ex-cop and so I asked him to be my bodyguard, he agreed without

hesitation.

I got myself off the bed and went down to the 4th floor, where I did my routine gym for an hour and went back to take a quick bath. I wore a white shirt with a black coat and a pencil skirt. Did very little makeup and curled my hair. I like getting ready. I want everything to be perfect. I left the house wearing my black heels.

It was 6:45 am, and I would be at the office by seven usually, but today I’m a bit late. Raman was waiting for me in the basement. “Good morning, sudh”, he said with a small smile. “Good morning,” I replied in my usual cold tone.

We reached the office by 7: 15. I stepped out of the car and took a moment to look at the building.

Sudh’s pov:

We reached the office by 7: 15. I stepped out of the car and took a moment to look at the building.

‘Unicorn constructions’, I named this in the memory of someone, someone really special. My secretary, Sarah, was waiting for me at the reception. She has been working for me since I started this company and is a very close friend of mine. We did our MBA together.

“We have a lot of things to deal with. So don’t waste my time greeting and get what I asked you for.” I was pretty annoyed, beyond my yield point, after what my so-called-best-friend did. “Everything’s ready on your table.” She replied confidently.

We walked into my office after reaching the 15th floor. I sat in my chair and took the files into my hands. I took some time to examine all the documents. And called for Sarah along with Nikhil, who’s the Chief operating officer (COO) of my company, for a meeting.

“After studying all the documents, I came to two conclusions.” I said looking at them.

“Tell us what’s on your mind.” Nikhil asked.  “One, Abhay’s company must have faced a crisis to act on us like this. His company called off all our projects, making us fall into a debt of a few million dollars.”

“By pushing us into debt, how would they gain anything?” Sarah asked innocently.

“They’d gain double of what we lose.” Nikhil started explaining, “We signed all the projects on the note that, if, in future, any project is to be cancelled then we would have to pay half of the total agreed budget of the project. So, if the projects together buckle up a debt of $50 million dollars, they gain a minimum of 100 million dollars considering $25 million dollars from each project. This is the simplest way I can explain this to you, Sarah.”

“I’m not dumb. So, we have a debt of $150 million dollars? How did we sign those documents without checking?” Sarah asked, looking at us. “You are the secretary, here. Why don’t you answer that question?” Nikhil asked her,

narrowing his eyes.

“It was my fault. I asked her to just read the summary of the agreement as we were already late for the launch.” I said without looking at them. “Even if we were in a rush, we read the agreement before signing it. Why would you do that?” Nikhil asked with disappointment.

“Well, it was because….” I said, turning my eyes to them, “I trusted him. We discussed all the terms and conditions before documenting. I never expected he'd add something without my knowledge.”

“What’s your second conclusion, Madam?” Nikhil asked.

“Well, things might get tricky here. I hope this is not the case.” I frowned. Two pairs of eyes asking for an explanation, “Tell us” they asked together.

“Second, they might have found our underground business.”

“NO! That can’t be the case. It will be a big problem, if so.” Sarah was shouting standing up. “Walls have ears, Sarah” I said to her with a warning.

“I don’t think they are capable of that. Maybe, you’re overthinking, Madam?” Nikhil stood up looking at me. “Our men saw him near the assembly last week. I thought they mistook someone else for him. And, even if he found our secret, he can’t go against us. It’s just a speculation, though.”

“Well, we own 16 percent of their stocks and moreover Mr. Abhay would never do this to you. I think the first one might be the case. I think we should look into their company’s recent projects.” He suggested.

“That’s illegal.” Sarah said, offending. “Do it. I’ll leave it to you then.” I asked Nikhil to leave.

Sarah was upset, but only because she realised how the world is.

The entire day passed hectic. Raman brought the dinner and insisted on leaving only after I finished eating. Sarah was preoccupied with the list of meetings and clients we had to deal with.

I wasn't concerned about my debt. We can finish it in a week. But the company's reputation will be impacted. I've been working my tail off for this firm for the past three years. There were no worthy opponents to stand up to me. However, losing four projects at once might cause the resting foxes to wobble.

To compensate for the financial effect of this loss, I decided to undertake three large-scale initiatives. This might be perilous, but business is all about taking chances. One of the three projects is truly unique. It's a contract that I obtained by jeopardising my clandestine identity. It was a collaboration with the world's top IT corporation. 'GRAE' is a massive and powerful international technology corporation. Its IPO and subsequent rise in share price established a few billionaires and valued around 19,000 millionaires among its employees. They have lately begun investigating

Blockchain, a sort of DLT made popular by BitCoin. They launched extremely high-tech initiatives. This is the only firm that has piqued my interest. However, no one knows who the CEO of this firm is. With my influence, I can confirm that he is a member of the subterranean secret society in both the actual and the underground world. I saw it as a task to track him down. Then there was this project; I would never pass up such an opportunity.

"May I enter, Madam?" Nikhil was standing at the door.

"Please come in."

"May I enter, Madam?" Nikhil was standing at the door.

"Please come in."

"I found it. Mr. Abhay had a rather serious difficulty, indeed. There's a project he started with a prominent corporation, but they called it off unexpectedly, laying a debt of 150 million dollars on them. Despite their

best efforts, they were unable to persuade them not to cancel the project."

"How come they cancelled the project?" Sarah, who had been eavesdropping, got up from her table and ran to us.

"That I don't know, and the most aggravating part is that, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't dig into that company's details. To begin with, not even the name."

"I get what you mean. Let's put an end to this. Get a paper ready by tomorrow, Sarah, declaring that we no longer wish to do business with Abhay's company." I said turning down the computers.

“What? But we have worked with them for three years now. You should think this through.” Sarah asked shockingly.

“We can’t continue our cooperation with them anymore. They can’t be trusted, Sarah.” Nikhil replied to Sarah.

“Can you not interfere, Nikhil. I am talking to the CEO and not you.” Sarah was literally shouting.

“Well, I’m the COO, you should know whom you are talking to, Secretary.”

“Excuse me? Is that how you talk to your wife?” Sarah jumped from the chair and asked him angrily, like a kid. And the atmosphere suddenly changed to playful.

“Wrong move, Mr. COO”, I couldn’t stop teasing. “Sudh, I want to divorce this guy.”

“Well, you started it Sarah. But I think you guys should actually get divorced. I’ll call the lawyer tomorrow and arrange everything. Don’t worry!”

“Hey!! Are you even my friend?” Sarah said, giving me a questioning look. Well didn’t she herself just want that?

"Babe, why are you so quiet? You really want to divorce me?" She was making an adorable puppy face at Nikhil. “Didn’t you just say you want to divorce me?” Nikhil said, folding his hands. “So? Will you simply let me?”,  “Of Course not! I'll just take you home and lock you in our room, and you know .....” Nikhil smirked, clearly implying something mischievous. Sarah was shocked, yet she was blushing profusely.

“Oh oh, noo. You husband and wife, better cease your PDA. Why don't you go home?” I exhaled a sigh.

“Yes, we will. But first, let's eat supper together. It's your birthday after all.” Sarah proposed.

“You know I never celebrate my birthday. Raman, on the other hand, should be waiting for me. His daughter will be home for dinner. I had missed her so much”,  it has been three months since I met her. She’s been staying in a hostel close to her institute.

“really??, please take me. I miss her, too.” Sarah said.

“No, you're going to eat her cheeks. Her final complaint was that your hug choked her to death.” It's wonderful taunting her.

“Didn't she grumble about my presents and candies? She's such a naughty child. I'll pluck both of her ears." Sarah said with a slight pout.

We all left the workplace by 8:30 p.m., and Nikhil and Sarah liveonly five minutes away, so they generally walk to work. It was 9 when I came home, I walked upstairs directly. It seemed strange that all of the lights were turned out. I put on the lamp and walked to open the door. It wasn't locked. When I entered, a sweet scent hit my nostrils. Of course, the dare devil’s home today, I walked to the couch and sat there. I know how to get her to come out.