The Marriage Contract

37 - Against His Will

Abhimanyu knocked on Harshvardhan Birla's cabin before stepping inside. There he came across a woman —the one who had bid on him till the very end, sitting opposite his father. Shreya Swamimaran. The woman whom Akshara had asked him about. And both his father and her looked like they had just been shaking hands.

"Yes, you called for me?" Abhimanyu spoke to his father, ignoring the woman completely.

"Ah, yes. I'd like to introduce you to the newest board member of Birla Hospital. Ms. Shreya Swamimaran. She is going to be taking over Mr. Iyer's position." Harshvardhan Birla introduced them. "And Ms. Swamimaran, this is Dr. Abhimanyu Birla, the mind behind children's wing and charity initiative proposal."

Shreya Swamimaran got up from her chair and walked up to Abhimanyu, holding her hand out seductively, with a wicked smile on her face as she leaned forward, making the indent of her cleavage very visible to Abhimanyu's naked eye.

"Hello, Dr. Birla."

Unwillingly, Abhimanyu extended his hand and shook her hand. "Hello."

"Nice to meet you again, Dr. Birla." She tried to make her voice sound alluring but failed miserably.

Uncomfortable with the way she was throwing herself at him in a bid to seduce him, Abhimanyu moved away from her and towards Harshvardhan.

"Can I have a word with you? In private." He demanded, unhappy with the sudden inclusion of Shreya Swamimaran into the list of board members. He did not have a good feeling about this. At all.

"Yes. Just after I finish discussing with Ms. Swamimaran what the next plans are. So Dr. Birla, one of the reasons Ms. Swamimaran chose to be a board member is because she is really interested in your proposal for the children's wing and the charity initiatives."

Oh, I'm sure that's what she's interested in, Abhimanyu grit out in his head, fully aware of the real reason why she decided to show up one day and take over Mr. Iyer's position as a board member and it certainly did not have to do with any of his ideas.

"I think what you have an excellent train of thought and I'll discuss it with the other board members as well but as far as I can see, we should not have any problems pushing the proposal through." Shreya added, just as Abhimanyu refrained from rolling his eyes at her.

"And Ms. Swamimaran wants to work closely with you on this project. Which I think is an excellent idea seeing how the board can't object if they have one of their own working hands on with us."

"And that way, I'll be able to provide them with timely updates, and handle any budget constraints. And trust me, the less board members you have interfering on your project the better." Shreya added, looking at Abhimanyu deviously.

"Which when she mentioned it, I thought was an excellent idea. And I didn't think you should have any problem with her helping out so I agreed to the deal on your behalf." Harshvardhan added, making Abhimanyu's blood boil.

"If everything goes according to plan, you will be well on your way to becoming the next CEO of Birla Industries, I'll make sure of it." Shreya offered, making Abhimanyu want to gag.

Abhimanyu wanted to scream and yell, tell both his father and Shreya that he did not agree to this deal. He did not want Shreya's expert advice in completing his dream project. He knew why she was doing all this and it wasn't because she had a kind hard and wanted to be charitable.

No.

It was because he had said no to sleeping with her. She thought she could seduce him or force him into intimacy by dangling his dream project above his head? Hell no. He would never allow it. He never mixed business with pleasure. Ever.