Chapter 2: The Misunderstanding

It was supposed to be her breakthrough.

The Paragon acquisition pitch had Kavya’s name all over it—her research, her strategy, her sleepless nights spent tweaking forecasts down to the decimal. She’d sent the final file late at night, double-checked every figure, and saved it under a secure folder. It was perfect.

But the next morning, something went terribly wrong.

The presentation that loaded on the screen was not the one she had submitted.

Her key numbers were replaced with outdated projections. Her clean layout was swapped for a generic template. The core idea—the thing that would’ve won the client over—was missing entirely. She stared in shock, frozen in her chair, pulse pounding, as Arjun calmly stood up, walked to the front, and picked up the pitch like it had always been his.

He delivered it flawlessly. Confident. Articulate. Charming.

And she sat there, invisible.

Later, a congratulatory email came from the director, thanking Arjun by name for his leadership and sharp thinking.

Kavya didn’t go to the celebratory drinks afterward. She went home, pulled out her laptop, and dug through her email records. Her version of the presentation was there, timestamped and intact. She compared it with the version used in the boardroom. Subtle but crucial changes had been made—enough to dull the edge of her ideas and erase her voice.

She didn’t know how.

But she knew who had benefited.

Arjun.

Since that day, her entire approach toward him had changed. Where there had once been a grudging professional respect, there was now only cool detachment. She kept conversations short, avoided unnecessary contact, and locked up her files with encryption.

Because in her mind, the truth was simple: Arjun Rathore had sabotaged her.

Present day.

Kavya stared at the message again: Joint Lead Assignment – Project Aurora.

Her stomach churned. She could practically hear the universe laughing.

The one person she didn’t trust was now her partner on the firm’s most ambitious international expansion.

And it wasn’t jusT any project. Aurora was huge. If they nailed it, it meant visibility, promotions, and power. It was the kind of assignment careers were made of.

She couldn’t afford to walk away.

But she couldn’t let him get close either.

Her fingers curled tightly around her pen as she mentally drafted a new battle plan.

Across the hall, Arjun Rathore leaned back in his chair, watching the ceiling fan spin slowly. The Project Aurora memo still glowed on his screen, but his mind was elsewhere.

He’d sensed the chill between him and Kavya for months now. At first, he thought it was just competitive friction—two alphas vying for the same victories. But then it got personal. Too personal.

She ignored him outside of meetings. She responded to emails like he was a stranger. She never looked at him unless absolutely necessary.

And he didn’t understand why.

Until last week, when he overheard a conversation between Kavya and her assistant in the pantry.

“…he hijacked the Paragon deal, Ananya. My slides were replaced, and he acted like he didn’t know. Of course he knew.”

That stopped him cold.

Was that what she believed?

He had never touched her slides. He remembered opening the deck minutes before the presentation and realizing it was messy. He assumed she had panicked and sent an incomplete draft. With the director watching, he did what he thought was best: step up and save the pitch.

But now he saw how it must’ve looked.

And he realized—he had unknowingly stolen her moment.

The guilt was immediate and heavy.

But the damage was already done. And now they were forced to work together on the biggest project of their careers.

He wasn’t sure if she’d ever believe the truth.

That afternoon, they sat across from each other in a private meeting room reserved for Project Aurora planning.

The silence between them was glacial.

Kavya opened her folder without acknowledging him. “I’ve outlined our timeline. We’re behind on the initial client interface, so we’ll need to split tasks. I’ll handle the Asia market analysis. You can take Europe.”

Arjun raised an eyebrow. “No discussion? Just orders?”

She looked up, her tone flat. “It’s not about orders. It’s about efficiency.”

He held her gaze. “We’re supposed to work as partners, Kavya. Not subordinates.”

“Then act like one.”

He exhaled slowly. “Is this how it’s going to be the entire time?”

“Only if you keep pretending you didn’t screw me over last year.”

He leaned forward, voice quiet but firm. “I didn’t. And if you’d just—”

“Don’t.” Her voice cracked like a whip. “Don’t gaslight me. I know what happened.”

He hesitated. “Do you? Because I only saw your version five minutes before the pitch. It wasn’t your file. It wasn’t mine either. I thought something went wrong, and I—”

“Finished the show without asking questions. Without even checking with me. Without giving me a second of credit.”

“I didn’t know,” he said, eyes dark with something that almost looked like regret. “I honestly didn’t know.”

She looked away.

“Doesn’t matter now,” she muttered, standing. “Let’s just get through this. The faster we deliver, the faster we go our separate ways.”

Arjun watched her walk out, the door closing behind her with a soft click.

He knew then: fixing this wasn’t going to be about apologies.

It would be about proving she could trust him again.

And that, for the first time, scared him more than the project itself.

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