Tangled || ArShi FF

Chapter 19 - A Split Second

A/N: A massive apology for the delay and irregularity in updating. I was occupied with a lot of stuff (personal and non-personal). Thanks to all who are still investing their time. :)

(July, 24-31)

That night Khushi cried. It was as if a dam inside her had broken. For years she had tried to take everything in a stride- whatever twists and turns life had thrown at her, she bore with courage.

But this time...

She had already lost Arnav- the man she thought she could spend her life with, the man she thought she loved... and by next week, she would lose her company- which was her dream. 2 major blows in a span of weeks and the worst thing was that one was responsible for the other.

In the early hours of morning, a sleepless Khushi was lying in bed, reflecting on how things turned out to be so morbid for her. Arnav was a ruthless businessman yet in these few months that he had been in Magnolia, she saw a different side to him- one that she admired. But now... everything would come to an end.

No! A voice in her head berated her. She had fought for everything in life then how could she let go of her company so easily?

Getting out of the bed, she washed her face and turned the laptop on. She swiftly composed an email and sent it to a very selective list of employees she trusted. She wrote them to come to office as soon as possible.

It was 4:30 am in the morning. Most of those people would be asleep. But sleep would never dawn on her, not at this moment. She hopped in for a quick shower, changed into office wear and drove to the office.

The others would read her email and come in a few hours. Till then she needed to make a strategy.

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When the team arrived at her cabin next morning, Khushi could tell the shock on their faces. A cacophony of noise erupted as all of them gathered around her.

The small group of 5 were people Khushi could trust- Lavanya, the general counsel - Pam, the chief products officer- Aman, Astha- the corporate controller and Shlok, the head of digital marketing.

After the initial shock of the pending vote mitigated, they started racking their brains on what to do next.

"Pam," Khushi addressed the lawyer, "Does Sheetal's case hold? Or can we challenge it?"

Pam replied solemnly, "I re-examined the addendum, Khushi. It doesn't mention either of your names, just the designations. It doesn't even specify which MD. It could be the group or the company or both. It's vague."

"That's what Sheetal is taking advantage of." Khushi sighed.

"So the law is in her favor." Astha spoke. "Is there's nothing we can do?"

Khushi spoke. "If it's a vote between the 3 of us, they'll win. What we can do is..."

"Swing one of them in our favor?" Astha completed the sentence.

"Arnav." Shlok chimed in. "I think he can back us. Sheetal is completely irrational. But Arnav, I've worked with the guy. If we speak to him, maybe he'll favor us-."

"He won't," Khushi interrupted. Lavanya gave her an uneasy look. Khushi added, "I've already spoken to him. He'll not back us."

"What if we make it a 2 people vote? Remove Arnav completely from the equation," Aman spoke for the first time.

"What do you mean?" Astha asked.

Aman spoke enthusiastically. "Whenever there has been a tie between Khushi and Sheetal, the board of directors have always favored Khushi. So if we can make it a 2 people vote rather than 3, the decision goes to the board. We don't need to convince Arnav to vote for us, we just need to make him abstain from voting."