CHAPTER 6

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ADHWETA SINGH'S POV:

A predator always recognizes it's prey and now I realized the truth behind this statement as soon as my eyes landed on Lucas knight. A shiver of excitement and nervousness ran through me. Squashing it down, I masked my expressions as I walked inside. Everyone seemed to be glued to their seats as they continued to gawk at me.
Guess I.V.bags are the new fashion statement to catch attention.

Pasting a professional smile on my face
I regarded the people sitting around the rectangular table. On one side of the rich mahogany table sat Lucas knight with his horde of minions whereas my lost-case of a friend cum brother sat on the other side with his team. One end of the head seats was occupied by Mr.Blake Wright for whose contract the two teams were contending . My eyes took in everything from the slight flare of recognition in Mr. Wright's eyes to the astonishment in Vikram's eyes and also the lewd appraisal given by Lucas knight. But nothing explained the feeling of having a pair eyes boring into me.
The gaze felt unlike the searching glances given by Mr. Wright or the worried looks cast by Vikram or the leering gaze of Lucas. It felt as if someone was trying to figure out which puzzle pieces formed the real me and which were there to confuse others and to keep them away from reaching me. A sheen of sweat appeared on my neck as goosebumps littered my arms.

"Do I know you miss?" Mr.Wright asked me as he tried to figure me out.
"Well I really hope you do sir. It would be an honor to be remembered by you." I replied as I arranged my binders and notes. Wiping off the sweat I took control of my being.
"Good morning gentlemen and my apologies for barging in like this . I am Adhweta Singh, financial and legal advisor of BRICS and CO. and I'll be the one to give the presentation.  I am extremely sorry for the delay but as you can see I needed to go and get myself chained to an I.V."

Everyone nodded their approval and Mira began to set up the projector for the presentation.
"Pardon me ,but miss you were not present here to listen to our presentation. So how will you put forward the advantage of your pitch against ours ?" A smug minion asked.
Giving him a sarcastic smile  I looked down at my notes. "Well I suppose you must be familiar to a device called smartphone. I was on a call with Mr. Kaushik's assistant the entire time. So yes I know everything there is to know."

Raising my head I looked at the smug looking face getting reduced to the size of a puck as he gave me a fake smile.
Controlling the urge to roll my eyes I turned towards Mr. Wright .

"Sir the site where you want to construct the luxury hotel is every construction company's dream location and the estimated outline of material cost  to be involved and the labor to be charged as presented by Mr. Knight is rather lucrative to look at. However, there is one drawback..."
The room got engulfed in a pensive mood as all the eyes focused on me some scrutinizing while some were enraged.
"What is it Ms. Singh? After listening to Mr. Knight's proposal I must say I am quite impressed and to be honest your company needs to have an exceptionally good offer to make me sway from giving this project to him." The said vermin sat back on his chair while showing his vomiting inducing smile.

" Well sir as per your wish the  maximum time limit for the contract is ten years since you want it to be perfect and Mr knight here is offering you a  time and material contract wherein you would have to pay for all the material which would be used . Apart from that you would have to pay wages to all the  laborers for all the days irrespective of whether they come or not. His offer would have been perfect only if his workers and laborers had not declared a strike for underpaying for the past four months. Also a suit for not meeting the required safety standards for workers has been filed against him as of yesterday. Now I hope you can imagine the amount of wages you would have to pay before the work actually starts. I must say Mr. Knight you did a good job at hiding these information...just not good enough for me." And as an additional measure I also gave  legally verified reports by the court to Mr Wright as proof.

After reading the documents Mr Wright served Mr knight with cold glares along with compliments as sweet as tar as a side dish while the said subject flailed around as a cornered duck.
"I think it's time to present the pitch prepared by DSR in collaboration with BRICS and CO. So shall we?"
The lights dimmed as the projector started. The feeling of being deeply watched by someone continued to plague my heart as I spoke. By the time I was finished my body felt hot as nervous shivers continued to rake my spine.

" If I am not wrong miss,then you are the one who helped my wife in clearing her legal issues regarding her company. It feels good to finally meet you in person. Congratulations! The deal is yours . I'll send the papers by tomorrow. " Mr.Wright shook my hand and gave me a big smile.
"It is a pleasure sir. And I am sure BRICS  will be delighted to work with you."

The room got drenched in silence as soon as Mr Wright left. The great nincompoop stood up and forwarded his hands in my direction as his eyes raked over my figure. "It is a pleasure to be in the presence of such a beautiful lady. I hope we get to work together someday, let's shake hands on that,yes?"
Glaring at his hand , I straightened my posture, "I would love to do that but as you can see I'm freshly out from a hospital and the doctor has advised me to stay away from germs so maybe next time? ....You know Mr knight back in my country there is a saying 'Nakal karne ke liye bhi akal chahiye.' It means you need to use your brain even for cheating . Your plan was good but you forgot that every company prepares their budget and plans as per their requirements and conditions. So better luck next time."
Giving him a saccharine smile I folded my hands in a namaste. Forcing a smile  he walked out with a red face.

Turning around I picked up my things to move out. "Adhu what happened to you? And why are you here? And how did you know about this presentation?" The soon to be castrated idiot asked. I continued to arrange my binders ignoring his presence completely.
Vikram got up from his chair and walked upto me, "Adhu are you even listening to me? Talk to me dammit"

Giving him a poisonous glare I asked,"Did you listen to Shreya?"

"Adhu I know it is my mistake. I am sorry." My hands itched to strangle him as I tried to rein in my anger.
"Do you even know where she is? How she is? Did you even call her?" I shouted at him.
"Adhu trust me things are not what it seems to be. I admit it was wrongful of me to shout at her but I did not do it intentionally. "  I continued to glare at him as he went on with his explanation.  After looking at my face for a few seconds he sighed , " Look you won't listen to me till you calmn down. Atleast wait for sometime and meet the ceo of DSR your presentation saved both of our companies reputation . He will be glad to meet you."

Folding my arms across my chest I bit out, "I did not do this for you or for DSR I did this only because Shreya asked me to. And I can't see the head of DSR here. If he considers today's almost- about- to- happen mishap as something too trivial to devote his time to then I am sorry I don't want to neither have the time to meet him."
Passing my last frosty glare over to him I spun around on my heels. Shaking my head I adjusted my I.V. Engrossed in my thoughts I took a step forward only to come across a well suited broad chest.

"But I would like to meet you." A deep baritone voice lulled my anger as I tried to collect my bearings.

HELLO MY DEAR READERS . HOPE YOU ALL ARE DOING WELL. FINALLY DEVEN AND ADHWETA ARE GOING TO MEET EACH OTHER.

ARE YOU LIKING MY BOOK SO FAR?

MY STUDIES ARE GETTING A LITTLE BIT HECTIC SO THE UPCOMING UPDATES MIGHT BE SLOW AND IRRATIC.
DO VOTE AND COMMENT. STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY.

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