| Colliding Hearts |

| Chapter Two: The Proposition |

"When did you return from Delhi?" Shri rose from her chair slowly and walked towards Jishnu after shaking off the initial perturbation.

"How did you get to know where I had been?" His ire took the better of him as he avoided meeting her eyes though she stood right in front of him. "Oh, your father must be spying on me, right? How low will he stoop to cover his truth? I want that old photo frame in the hall to be removed immediately!"

"Are you insane?" She glared at him as she bit down on her lip to control her anger. "This is not your office for you to think that you can pass orders!"

No.

She shouldn't have said that.

Shri instantly regretted her words but it was too late. They had already made an unwanted impact on Jishnu whose stance had turned fuming from irked. He, who had been trying to avoid her gaze, was looking at her straightly, with flames flickering across his eyes.

"Like father, like daughter, isn't it? Is this the reason behind your sitting on the proprietor's chair? After all, there's no difference between you and him!"

"Jishnu, listen to my words completely-"

"I have heard, heard it all! If this office is not mine, what's the purpose behind displaying my photo over there?"

"Papa had put it there..."

"So what? It has me and my family! If you do not remove it calmly, I'll have to remove it in my own way! BOT will have to report the chaos that took place in its office in tomorrow's edition."

"Why did you come, Jishnu?"

"To meet Mr. Vishal Gupta! To confront him and make him admit his guilt! To make him face the consequences of his actions! Call him here! I'll make your father himself remove that frame!"

Shri's eyes widened in horror as his intentions became clear to her mind. "Papa cannot come to the office..."

"Hiding the truth of his life, he has been running the Blaze Of Truth. But it seems like he cannot do justice to his work and workplace either."

"Jishnu, he's PARALYZED!" Shri almost screamed as the gravity of the situation was taking its toll on her composure. She had no idea how to handle something that she had least knowledge about but something that she was inevitably a part of.

"Paralyzed?"

"Only if you too spied on us!" Shri averted her face. "You are ignorant! Not just you, I too am ignorant about the past. Why do you conclude things based on what we have merely heard?"

"Past is not past, Ms. Shri Gupta! It is still alive in the present! I have faced and I'm still facing the repercussions of the past! How long can I stay quiet and suffer within?"

"Past is not past?" Shri shook her head, her voice slightly breaking. "If the past is still alive, our friendship must be alive too. If you can allow all the unwanted things to persist in your life, why did you let go of our friendship? If it is something that can be forgotten so easily, why are all these baseless things hard for you to forget?"

"Baseless things? Baseless things, Shri? Your father was the one who forgot friendships and broke relationships! We had met as the children of our fathers and when they were separated, we too were! You might not know and neither can I expect you to. You were just six years old when all this had happened. When you are old enough to understand, you seem blindfolded by your father's influence!"

"You cannot meet Papa. He's not in the position to talk to you!" Shri uttered, gulping the bitterness in his words and fighting with the hurt. "I don't think you are cruel enough to torture him in his vulnerable state! Leave him alone! Tell me if there's anything else."

"Is there any vacancy in the company?" Jishnu questioned, his tone firm and stern. "Well, even if there isn't, I'm not stepping back. I want to join BOT!"

"What?" Shri exclaimed, raising her gaze in utter astonishment at his unexpected, bizarre proposition.

"This newspaper was my father's cherished dream that had turned into a horrible nightmare for him and his family. Of course, I don't want to associate myself with the reason for his destruction but at the same time, I can't dissociate myself from something that was so intrinsic to my father's life. He died after he was broken by your father but he had nothing against BOT. It would have meant the world for him to witness the growth and the popularity of the newspaper. You cannot return my father to me and undo the havoc your father had caused but you can at least get me a place in this company."

"But what can you do?"

"I'm a journalist, and the file you had dropped there was my resume." Jishnu gestured towards the table with his eyes as he crossed his arms against his chest. Shri looked at him for a full minute without any reaction before she returned to the table and picked up the file that had fallen at the bottom of the rotating chair. Opening the file, she read through the content, skipping his name that she had already read.

"You worked at Delhi Witness? Really?" Shri could barely hide the suspicion in her voice as she side-glanced at him. His sudden appearance, his strange behavior, the fact that he wanted to work at BOT leaving a prestigious job back at Delhi, it all seemed chaotic.

"Such an intelligent way of questioning my honesty!" Jishnu chuckled dryly as Shri closed her eyes for a moment, holding her exasperation within.

"But you have years of experience, and a valuable work record too. All your qualifications and your merit is just..." Shri scratched her forehead, closing the file. "It makes you eligible for the Managing Editor post but it is not vacant. I cannot remove the employee. He's very diligent and on top of that..."

"On top of that?" Jishnu frowned.

"He's Kapoor Uncle's son. Roshan."

Jishnu's head started spinning as soon as the name fell on his ears.

"Ka... Kapoor? He..."

"Yes. Kapoor Uncle is still the official lawyer of BOT," she said, keeping the file on the table and exhaling. "When Papa was struck with paralysis, I hadn't completed my bachelor's yet. Kapoor Uncle had to manage the proceedings in Papa's place. But he couldn't do it for long as he had very little knowledge in this field. Roshan was already working in the company and he has a master's degree in Journalism. He helped his father until I decided to take over after getting my degree. For some reason, Papa wanted me to take over as soon as possible. The proprietor is still my father only but I'm his representative. I'm doing master's on one side and managing BOT on the other side."

Jishnu didn't know why his heart was abruptly and unnaturally sinking. What was it that was shaking him beyond his control? Was he feeling sympathetic or empathetic with Shri's position? Why was he so taken aback with the fact that the Kapoor family...

"It will be unfair of me to fire anyone who has been working for the welfare of the company through all ups and downs we have faced. At the same time, I cannot say that it'd be fair to give you any post inferior to your capacity."

"I don't mind working as a reporter, Shri. If you appoint me in an important position, there will be protests from all sides. At this moment, I just want to work here, and it will be better to have a less influential position at first."

"But you are overqualified for a reporter's job!" Shri exclaimed.

"I have my priorities set, Ma'am! If you have any objections, let me know."

'I don't know if you can be trusted or not.' Shri touched her head nervously as her indecisiveness weighed upon her  conscience. If she asked for suggestions from her well wishers, she knew no one would be ready to accept Jishnu Vyas. But there was only one consequence for not appointing him when he requested and that's infuriating him more than he already was. The issue was not less entangled that she would add ghee to the fire.

"Fine, Jishnu. But you have to go through the formalities if you wish to avoid complications. Chief Reporter will take your interview once you apply."

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