Billionaire's 'lost' wife

Chapter 9- Three Problems

The morning could not have come sooner. Vit was feeling irritated and curious to know what was in the documents that Rukma had given him. He quickly freshened up and got ready to join the family for breakfast. Some of the extended family had started to trickle in but many were tired after the wedding. Even uncle arrived 15 minutes later than usual.

Vit tried to pick at the breakfast while responding to queries from the family. His engagement and marriage were being discussed. Everybody was discussing amongst themselves that the next major event will be Vit's marriage. Vit was not sure how he would survive the talk without screaming about his messed up marital status. He wanted the torture to end.

He stepped into the open balcony and called up Yash to check if the lawyer could join them for breakfast. The good news was that Yash was happy to join them for breakfast but would take another 15 minutes to arrive. Vit groaned and inched back into the hall. Uncle was directing the staff about the post-wedding wind-up activities to be completed. Yash arrived and Vit felt a bit better but he knew Yash would meet most of the family before getting down to business.

The torture of next half hour ended with uncle, Yash and Vit going to uncle's office area next to the hall.

Yash took out the documents and put them on the table. He said, 'This does not make sense.'

Uncle and Vit looked at him quizzically asking him to elaborate.

'There are three problems, first of all it talks of some IP stuff that Vit should not have any claim to.'

'Which IPs are these, I am not giving up any of those!'

'To the best of my knowledge these are defense related IPs and we have nothing to do with them anyway. What I don't understand is why are they mentioned here.'

Uncle and Vit took a few minutes to think about various aspects. Uncle asked in a measured voice, 'Though IPs is an intriguing point, we can investigate if they have a business relevance for us. Can I assume one of the problems is money. '

'Yes money is a problem. She has not asked for anything.'

'Nothing? No alimony?' Vit asked with a surprise.

'Yes and that brings us to the third thing, these are annulment papers and not divorce papers.'

'I am not sure if we should sign away saying that there has been no relationship between you two. I think you mentioned that you were together for a month in the forests near Goa after the 'marriage.'

'My memory loss is not helping us here.' Vit said ruefully.

Uncle said very thoughtfully, 'Vit, this girl is senior faculty at the Uni. We had budgeted for 100 crore (billion rupees) as alimony from that perspective. But annulment would mean no money, no rights to anything. What do you think can be her motive?'

'She works as senior faculty teaching Geology and has an interest in sustainability and  indigenous Indian traditions. That is how she became a target of those goons to serve as my 'bride.' She leads expeditions and works closely with business patrons like us, Roychowdharys, Sinhas and many more. '

Yash narrowed his eyes, 'In that case do you think she has a bigger fish to fry? Param mentioned that Mainak has been chasing her since long. Family wise they are smaller than us but one-on-one comparison he holds a bigger kitty.'

Vit was bit rattled. There had not been anything in Rukma's behavior to indicate a liking for Mainak or anyone else. But then his presence in the event was unexpected. 'As of now I cannot think of anything like that.'

Yash emphasized, 'It needs to be investigated thoroughly because, this document mentions a huge media penalty should the information of this 'marriage' be leaked.'

Vit was shocked to the core, 'So what possible scenario do you see?'

Yash replied,'She has someone else in sight who she wants to marry, but news of this 'marriage' can spoil her plans. Why else would someone file for annulment and ask for no money. Did you mention 100 crores to her?'

'I told her that when she was handing the papers, but she made no effort to make any changes. She threw a tantrum and asked me to read the documents.' Speaking anything further would have taken Vit into the dangerous territory of their kiss and he wanted to avoid that.

Uncle advised, 'I assume you both are on speaking terms. Can you call her up and ask about her plans?'

Vit felt a bit embarrassed and frustrated, the image of Param smiling into his phone came dancing to him. 'I don't have her number, I forgot to ask.'

Yash flipped through the document and pointed to a scribble on top, 'Here it is, try this one. My assistant checked it belongs to Rukmano Shandilya.'

Uncle sounded shocked, 'You are saying her name is Rukmano?'

'Yeah a bit of unusual name, but that's what it says. Right Vit?'

'She usually uses Rukma as the shorter version and the one I knew. '

'This marriage should not end without proper investigation.' Uncle decided. 

'I agree, as a lawyer and knowing the business stakes, we should look further into this.'

'Let us get the team to check on the IP bit, Yash you check on the annulment versus divorce scenario. And Vit can you discreetly check on the possibility of someone else she might be angling for.'

'Today is Saturday, I will share updates by evening.' Yash offered.