Chapter 1

“Damn, I’m so late today!” Neha Sharma swore aloud, tapping her hand on the steering wheel of her BMW X6, waiting for the signal to turn green. The quarterly management meeting was scheduled to start at ten in the morning and she was already forty-five minutes late. Being Technology Chief of Gupta Systems, she was scheduled to make a presentation in fifteen minutes. This meeting was extremely important and though they might forgive her for the late arrival, she most certainly would not be forgiven for missing her presentation slot. “What a mess,” she said, looking at the crawling traffic in front of her. She had returned to Mumbai late last night after attending a successful business meeting in Vienna. The long hours she had put in the previous week to ensure that the meeting was successful had started taking their toll. She had slept right through her alarm, thereby waking up super late and in spite of skipping breakfast and driving as fast as she could, there was nothing she could do about the chaotic Monday morning Mumbai traffic. The signal turned green and Neha pressed her foot hard on the accelerator, zipping as fast as she could until she finally entered the gates of the sprawling ten-acre campus of the Gupta l Corporation. She parked her car in the first available slot she found and rushed out. Neha entered the lobby of The Gupta Systems building and ran to catch the elevator. Pressing the button for the top executive floor, she glanced at her face in the elevator’s mirror. Her hair looked unkempt and was all over her face. Waist length and dark, she usually tied it into a topknot while at work. But today being the scuttle that it was, she had barely run a comb through it. Shit! She couldn’t attend the meeting looking like she did! She exited the elevator and flashed her access card at the entrance door, which swung open as she pushed. The boardroom was directly in front of her. She could see through its glass doors that the meeting was in full swing. She dashed down the left towards the rest rooms, the sound of her heels muffled by the plush carpeted floor beneath her feet. Neha rounded the corner and walked straight into a human wall. Her breath caught in her throat as she fell backwards. Her eyes squeezed shut knowing there was nothing she could do to stop her fall. But before she could hit the ground, strong hands grabbed her waist and steadied her. One second she was about to fall and the next she was firmly held in a tight grip and pressed flush against a very virile male body. Her eyes popped open and she looked up into her savior’s face. A gasp escaped her lips. Neha found herself drowning in eyes the color of molten honey and a face that could be on the cover of any glossy magazine. God! He was…gorgeous. He was fair with features so chiseled; it felt like they were carved out of rock. His dark hair was cropped and spiked as per the latest trend. On second thoughts, he must have been on the cover of a magazine because she was certain that she had seen him somewhere. Before she could consider that thought his luscious and full lips curved into a smile. Shit! He had caught her ogling him. Belatedly she realized his hands were still holding her and she was pushed up against his chest. A strange sensation enveloped her body and mind. Every inch of her that was in contact with him tingled. Shaking herself out of this unknown reaction, Neha stepped back from him. “I’m so sorry!” she told the stranger. She gave him a regretful smile. “I was in a hurry and I just didn’t see where I was going.” “No damage done,” he responded, with a smile. “Well, thanks for stopping my fall. I really do need to rush now.” She gave him another smile and rushed forward. Aaryan Gupta was zapped. He couldn’t believe that his body had reacted so spontaneously to this unknown woman who had run into him. She was about five-four, five-five max, with dark eyes, dark hair, and a creamy complexion on a heart shaped face. She was quite pretty although she wasn’t the type of woman he was normally attracted to. But her body was curved in all the right places. Who was she and more importantly what was she doing on the executive floor of his company? Perhaps she was one of the assistants of the managers currently in the board-room. Well, there was no way he could know who she was! He had only just returned from London a month ago, succumbing to pressure from his grandfather to take his place as the managing director of the Gupta Corporation. His grandfather Janak Gupta had started this company from scratch forty years ago and had built it to be one of the most successful business empires in the world. They had a foothold in several businesses starting from real estate, to hotels, automobiles, telecom and media and also IT. They also had a presence in several countries. He himself was heading the US and European offices and until recently had operated primarily out of London and New York. The ringing of his cell phone jolted him back to reality. He had left the board meeting only to answer this call! He hurried towards his office, which was in the left wing of this executive floor. His grandfather occupied the right wing on this floor. He shut his office door and answered the call. “Yes.” “Mr. Gupta, I’m calling from the investigative agency you…” “Yes, I know. Do you have the information I asked for?” Aaryan asked, cutting off the guy. “Yes sir, my agency has gathered preliminary information that a woman was involved in the last two failed contracts with ACC.” “Do you have a name?” “We suspect a woman, Neha Sharma; she works as the Technology Chief in Gupta Systems.” “What evidence do you have that proves it was her?” “We have recent photographs of her dining with the owner of one of your competitor organization, Fortuna International.” “That’s not enough evidence to prove that it was this woman, Neha, who had passed on the necessary information,” Aaryan remarked, his tone cold. “True. But since the first contract was won by Fortuna International, the suspicion does pile up. Also a source from the other competitor, Eclipse Systems, has confirmed that there was a woman involved from Gupta Systems who gave them the information on your prices. Since Miss Neha is the only woman with apparent access to such information in your office, we are presuming it’s her.” “And what else?” Aaryan queried. “Additionally, Miss Neha’s personal account shows two payments of fifty lakhs, one before the first transaction failed and the second after the second transaction failed. We haven’t yet been able to verify from which accounts the money was transferred.” Aaryan scraped a hand down his jaw, thinking. This woman was being paid extremely well for passing on sensitive information. But that made sense since the contracts were worth multimillions of dollars for the organization that won them. A moment later, he asked, “What else do you know about this woman?” “She has a degree in software engineering from a reputed institute in Mumbai and has over the years studied and completed a part time course in Business Management while working with Gupta Systems. She has grown very fast and very high in your firm. Being in the position she currently is in, allows her easy access to a lot of confidential information. Furthermore, she is only twenty seven years old, and her photographs show her to be very good looking.” The man hesitated before he spoke next. “There is one more thing, Sir, rumor has it that Miss Neha is involved with a very senior member of your organization.” “Who?” Aaryan frowned, staring outside the wide glass wall on one side of his office. “Mr. Janak Gupta.” “What?” Aaryan roared. “I hope you know what you are insinuating.” “Yes Sir, in fact, if you check with your HR, you will learn that Miss Neha was hired five years back without any prior work experience on the insistence of Mr. Janak. That too without even a formal interview round.” The man continued, “Miss Neha's immediate family is a younger brother studying in England, whose education is being paid for by Mr. Janak. Additionally, she drives a latest model BMW car and has a plush apartment in Bandra. Both of these bought and paid for by Mr. Janak.” Aaryan's jaw dropped. What the hell was going on? Bandra was considered the most up market residential address in Mumbai. His own family home was a sea facing mansion in Bandstand, Bandra. Aaryan had grown up in that house and though he had lived abroad for so many years, this house was and always would be home for him. His grandfather had built this house and had moved out, leaving it to his eldest son’s family, on the death of his beloved wife, some fifteen years back. His reason being, that every wall and corner of that home reminded him of his wife. Now he stayed in an apartment close by. Aaryan smiled thinking of his grandfather. To overcome the loss of his wife, Janak Gupta had put all his energy into his work, making his organization one of the most successful businesses in the world. Overnight, he had changed his lifestyle from family man to someone who worked hard and partied even harder. He realized that life was too short and he wanted to enjoy every minute of it. Hence, his affairs became legendary. Though he was old, Janak Gupta had in no way lost his charm or charisma. He was tall, had high cheekbones and a fair complexion now weathered by age. Even though his once dark hair was sprinkled with an abundance of grey, Janak Gupta was a dashing man indeed. Hence, money was not the only thing that attracted women to him. He was extremely active on the Mumbai social scene and attended every event with a different woman on his arm. His women came and went and the only thing they had in common was that they were extremely beautiful and quite young. The older lot of Aaryan family were embarrassed by his grandfather’s rather public display of his affairs. But Aaryan loved the old man and he knew that all the partying and women were just a social front for a very lonely man. However, two things did not fall into place here. In the past his grandfather had never ever spent so much money on a woman and the second was that he couldn’t believe his grandfather was involved with one of his employees. That was most unlike him, as his grandfather never dated anyone from his staff, ever. “Sir, are you there?” The voice on the phone interrupted his thoughts. “Yes!” “I’ll send the evidence that I have to your office by tomorrow.” “Fine.” “Is there anything more that you need from us?” “Not for the time being,” Aaryan responded, ending the call. He stood still for a moment, thinking through everything. Over the last several years Janak Gupta had taken a personal interest in only his software and media businesses. Though he was chairman of the entire corporation, he had handed over the reins to his grandsons, Aaryan, Sameer and Rishi. Aaryan personally looked after the telecom business, apart from the European and American operations of the company. Now on his grandfather’s behest he would be taking over the software business too. This was why he had been specifically asked to attend today’s quarterly meeting. As far as he knew his grandfather hadn’t yet announced his decision with regards to the media business. He was still at the helm of things there. The media business was extremely large, second only to the telecom business and everyone assumed that Aaryan would take it up eventually, but his grandfather had yet to involve him in it. His cousin Sameer looked after the real estate and hotels part of the business and Sameer’s younger brother Rishi was involved in the automobile business. Each of them had been trained since childhood to excel at what they did and thus stepping into their respective business roles had come naturally to each of them. The three cousins were extremely close and looked up to each other for support and guidance whenever they needed it. Aaryan smiled fondly remembering his cousins. The two of them were extremely excited about Aaryan taking over from their grandfather. Aaryan had learnt of the two failed contracts, with ACC, last year during a board meeting of the Gupta Corporation. They were both important contracts and losing them was a big blow to the software company’s financial estimations, especially since these were renewal contracts with the same company. But his grandfather in his usual style had brushed them off saying, “you win some and you lose some, that they had bigger fish to fry and that’s what the software organization would work towards.” However, last month Rishi had gotten a tip that there was some fraud involved in these two cases. On further investigation Rishi had found that the contracts were lost because the competitors were offering a better price. This had immediately raised an alarm in his mind because Aaryan knew that the rates they offered for providing software services were incomparable to others. Therefore he had hired an investigative agency to look further into this. He was glad that he had. His suspicions were confirmed now. Someone was selling sensitive information for a very high price and jeopardizing his company. Aaryan had to tread carefully and find out what was going on. Several questions came to his mind. Firstly, who the hell was Neha Sharma? What influence did she have in his grandfather’s life? Why had he not heard of her or seen her in any of the newspapers and magazines that regularly flaunted the old man’s affairs? Ever since returning to India last month, he had been meeting the key people in all his companies, as advised by his grandfather. But he hadn’t met Neha yet. Was his grandfather deliberately keeping her away from him? Today’s meeting was intended to present the quarterly report of the software arm of the Corporation namely Gupta Systems. The entire management team of this company was here. Being the Technology Chief, Neha Sharma had to be there to present her report. But he was introduced to all present in the meeting and she was most definitely not one of them. Where was she and why was she not there for the meeting today? He had to learn more and soon before she caused any more damage. He walked out of his office, shut the door and returned to the boardroom. Neha entered the restroom, feeling flushed. Thank God she had managed to stay calm despite her heart beating like a drum inside her ribcage. She scolded herself. This was not the time to think like this. She removed her hairbrush out of her handbag and brushed her hair, tying it with a rubber band. That was the best she could do in the time she had. She hurried to the boardroom, refusing to pay any heed to the encounter from earlier. However, he did seem familiar. Who was he? Had she met him before? Why could she not place him? Sighing, Neha entered the boardroom and walked into the middle of an ongoing presentation. Everyone went silent as she entered. She raised her hands up. “Sorry for being late. I hope I didn’t miss much.” Her boss Munir, glared at her. He extended his arm and tapped a finger on the watch on his wrist. She gave him a wry smile and mouthed a “Sorry” to him. Her eyes darted around the oval shaped table to find a place to sit. Almost immediately she heard, “Welcome Neha, we thought you won’t make it today.” She pivoted towards the source of the voice and smiled. Janak Gupta was sitting at the head of the table, watching her. He flashed her a warm smile and pointed to the vacant chair next to him. The presenter continued his report as soon as Neha was seated. A minute later the door opened again and the stranger Neha had run into earlier sauntered inside. He paused when he saw her. Recognition hit Neha and she gawked at him. This was Aaryan Gupta, Janak’s eldest grandson and heir to the Gupta Corporation. More importantly, he was the brother of one of her best friends, Sheena Gupta. How could she not have recognized him? She knew he had returned to India to take over from Janak and the announcement was going to come any time soon. She was also aware that he would be taking over Gupta Systems. Somehow, over the last month since he had returned, she hadn’t seen him even once in passing and right up till now she had completely forgotten that he was going to attend this meeting. If only she had remembered this detail, she probably would have recognized him outside. She had met Aaryan Gupta once before, but that was so long back. Ten years ago!!! Three things struck Aaryan the moment he entered the room - the least important being that the girl who had run into him earlier was sitting in the chair that he had vacated. The second was that he knew who she was. And from the stunned expression on her face, she too had recognized him. He ought to kick himself for not having made the connection earlier. He was normally good at names and people. This girl now occupying his chair was none other than Neha Sharma. She was one of his sister’s closest friends and now if the information from the investigative agency was to be believed, then she was supposedly involved with his grandfather and a suspect for a business fraud. He took the vacant chair opposite her and thought about the last time he had seen her. Ten years ago she had been a gawky teenager, wearing a baggy tee over leggings and thin as a reed. He remembered her sprawled on a beanbag in his sister’s room, laughing at something his sister and another girl were arguing about. He had walked in on them and they all had turned silent. Sheena’s two best friends Neha and Raashi were introduced to him. He couldn’t remember the other girl, but he remembered Neha very well. She was slightly taller than the other two girls in the room and had an attitude that said that she couldn’t care less about anyone or anything. She had stared at him for a full two seconds before focusing on the TV that was playing in the background. He had tried to talk to her, but had got only curt replies back. He had exchanged a few words with Sheena and then had waved to the girls and had gone off. He never had a chance to meet her again. Of course the fact was that he had hardly ever come to India in the past few years and when he did they were just short business trips. Most of the time, his family had visited him in London or New York, depending on where he was in residence at that time. And in the intervening years, he had heard passing remarks from Sheena about her two best friends. The Neha he had met back then was nowhere close to the woman sitting opposite him now. No wonder he hadn’t recognized her earlier. He sneaked a peek at Neha sitting across from him and ran his eyes over her. She was good looking, no doubt. It was going to be interesting reconnecting with Neha Sharma and bringing her to retribution if she was in anyway involved in jeopardizing his company. With Aaryan's ardent gaze fixed on her, Neha couldn’t concentrate on the presentation and the ensuing discussion. Had he recognized her too? A tide of memories washed over her and she just let them flow through her mind. Neha considered the day she had met Sheena and Raashi as the best day of her life. The day she and her little brother Akash were admitted to an exclusive boarding school after their mother had passed away and their father had handed custody of both the children to their mother’s father, Dhiraj Mishra. Dhiraj Mishra and Janak Gupta had been friends for a very long time. It was on Janak’s insistence that he had admitted his two grandchildren to the prestigious boarding school set in the beautiful valley of Dehradun in North India. Neha, only thirteen then, had formed a life-long friendship with two girls, whom she trusted with her life and who loved her back with the same fierceness that she felt for them. Though the girls came from different backgrounds, they were inseparable during their years at Dehradun and Neha's brother Akash who was three years younger to them had found a close circle

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