by Nisha Sharma
“Give me a second to check my calendar.” She pulled the phone away from her ear and pressed the mute button. “Did you hear?”
“I heard.”
“Where should I meet him?”
“You mean where should we meet him. Tell your father that we’ll go to Montclair if he’s worried about discretion. We’ll find a location and you can text him the address.”
Mina repeated Hem’s message into the phone, and confirmed that she was bringing a trusted friend along. Her father agreed he’d be at the meeting point in one hour. He refused to delay it any longer than that. Mina and Hem would barely have enough time to get ready and leave the city, but it sounded too urgent to argue any more.
“This is a problem,” she said. “Dad lived for that firm almost as much as Mom did.”
“Then we have to find out what happened.” Hem pulled her into his arms and Mina sighed against his chest.
“I still can’t help but think I’m letting Mom down,” she whispered. “I spent so much of my life focused on trying to avenge her memory, and now, in the eleventh hour, I feel like I’m not doing enough. Sanjeev is going to take down the firm she built and I’m watching it happen.”
Hem rubbed a strong hand over her back. “We don’t know what’s going on, hiriye. Let’s start by meeting your father. In the meantime, just know that there is no way your mother isn’t proud of who you are. Let that be enough until we figure out the rest.”
Mina nodded and tilted her head back for a kiss. It was over too quickly, but they didn’t have the time for more.
They had a meeting to go to.
Montclair was bursting with people enjoying an early fall Saturday morning. The air smelled clean and fresh, while the trees were starting to turn red and orange. Mina followed Hem into Java Cafe and to the back of the bustling restaurant. As Mina took her seat at a scarred wooden table, she was glad the noise was at a loud enough volume that they didn’t have to worry about being overheard.
“Are you sure I should go to Alpine with you again after this is over?” Mina asked once the waitress left with their orders. “I think it’s too soon after the last argument.”
“I’m sure,” Hem said. “I texted my mother that we’d be there when Dad got home. Both of us. Dad will have his private medical staff setting him up in one of the suites, so he may not be coherent, but Mom really wants to see you.”
She reached out and squeezed Hem’s hand. “It’s not just your brother trying to bleed me dry for information, right?”
Hem laughed. “It could be Ajay. Who knows? He’s definitely in CEO mode.”
“I bet you were gorgeous as a CEO,” she said and leaned forward to plant a kiss against his jaw. He wore a fitted white button-down shirt over a pair of dark wash jeans. When he tucked a curl over his ear, the diamond in his lobe sparkled.
“Darling, I am a CEO.”
She was about to lean in and kiss him again when she spotted a thin, older Indian man in baggy slacks and a beige shirt step through the door. He carried a briefcase with him and had dark smudges under his eyes.
Her father. The same man who fell in love with her mother while she was raising two boys. The same man who helped her build her successful firm and had a daughter with her.
The same man who turned his back on her to take away the business she’d worked so hard to build.
Mina stood as he approached the table. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Mina.”
Hem stood as well and held out a hand. “Hem Singh. Nice to meet you.”
“You’re Deepak’s son,” Mina’s father said, taking Hem’s hand in a quick shake. “So what Sanjeev was saying is true.”
Mina and Hem shared a look.
“What happened?” Mina said. “What did Sanjeev say?”
Her father pointed at Hem. “Do you trust him?”
“Yes, with my life.”
He let out a sigh. “First, my discretion about how I’m leaving the company is the one caveat in the severance package. I’d appreciate it that you never mention this conversation. Please, Mina.”
The way he said please had her pausing. Her father never asked her of anything in such a polite tone. His seriousness had her on edge.
“I’ll keep what you say in confidence.”
“They’re going to fire you.”
She’d known what was coming. In the back of her mind, she’d always known it would end, but she never imagined that her father would be a part of her uncle’s decision in this way.
And she thought she had more time.
She reached under the table and gripped Hem’s hand. His long finger’s tangled with hers and kept her grounded, even as the breath exploded from her lungs in a heaving gasp. She tried to muffle the sound, but her whole body felt the blow.
“Mina,” her father said quietly.
“No. Tell me what happened.”
“Okay . . . okay, if you want. Both of your uncles called me into the office late last night. Cheryl from Human Resources was also present. Sanjeev and Kumar received word that the merger between Kohli and Associates and J.J.S. Immigration Law was off and believed that you were the reason behind terminating the lucrative deal.”
“No, I believe I was the reason behind that,” Hem said.
His soft amusement helped Mina relax. When she was home, alone in her room, or in the shower, she’d unbox her emotions. Right now, she knew there was something more her father had to tell her.
“Sanjeev also mentioned that you’d jeopardized your position as head of the compensation board performing due diligence review at Bharat. That you would be removed from your position as of Monday and another one of his . . . connections would take over and present the findings to both the board and the major shareholders.”
“Like fucking hell.”
“There is more. Sanjeev then suggested that I make a choice. I either sever all personal relations with you and publicly denounce you as my daughter so I can stay with the firm . . . or as equity partner, I accept a severance package and sell my portion of the company to Sanjeev.”
“And you chose to . . . to maintain our relationship?”
A flash of hurt crossed his face before he hid it behind his chai latte. Mina felt a burning in the back of her throat and also drank from her mug to soothe the ache.
“I understand why you could be surprised by that.”
“Daddy, how could you do that to Mom?” Mina whispered. “I know I’ve asked you this before when I first found out after the accident, but I want you to be honest with me. Why did you do it?”
“Because your mother was an alcoholic,” Hem said quietly.
Mina felt her stomach drop, and she turned to the man she loved. “What did you say?”
Hem’s expression showed so much remorse. “Hiriye, I was going to tell you sooner. I know I should’ve said something, but . . . well, when we did a background check on you, we asked our team to first provide a preliminary report, which they did right away. Then we requested that they probe a little deeper into your history. Your mother was in rehab. More than once. For alcoholism. She showed up to court intoxicated and she was on the verge of losing her license.”
“It’s true,” Mina’s father said. For the first time in their lives together, he looked lost. Confused. His hands shook as he pressed his palms flat on the table. “I never knew how to tell you. As the years passed, it became easier for me to hide the details and keep the truth to myself. I wanted you to keep the image you’d preserved of your mother, so I made sure to say that she almost never drank before that night.”
“I don’t understand. If she was sick—”
“If she was sick, then you’d villainize her because you see the world like she used to. In black and white. She was a good mother to you, and she loved you with all your heart. She had flaws, Mina. Like we all do. And her flaw led to her death. She paid for it, and her memory shouldn’t be remembered for that shortcoming alone.”
Mina fisted her hands an
d tried to hold back her anger. If her mother had been sick, then she’d needed help. She’d needed support. Instead, she’d lost everything. To make matters worse, her reputation was ruined.
“How could you let her get that bad?” Mina hissed as she leaned across the table. “You stayed quiet and, what, she got worse? Then Sanjeev and Kumar took advantage of her, and you sided with them. Why, damn it? Why would you do something like that?”
“Because,” he said softly. “Because as much as I loved your mother, I resented her, too. We were happy for so long together, and then she started drinking, and it became a chronic condition so quickly. She took away years of happiness from both of us. I spent so much time trying to make sure she didn’t look or act drunk in front of you. That’s why I used the pretense that she worked such long hours. I then started taking on some of her casework, too. It took me a long time to realize that I was so worried about how she looked that I didn’t take care of how she felt. I’ll live with that mistake for the rest of my life, Mina.”
He swallowed hard, then took his glasses off to wipe the lenses with a small cloth he’d tucked in his breast pocket. He briefly glanced at Hem, and showed a flicker of embarrassment before he slid his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose.
“At one point in our marriage, we tried to get help. We went to therapy together. And then I started going alone. I never told you any of this, because you deserved a normal childhood. Neither your mother nor I had one. I was the son of a poor village farmer and I had to work even as a child. Your mother . . . Well, you know her story. An innocent childhood was the one thing I could give you.”
“Daddy,” Mina whispered, aware that tears were tracing down her cheeks. Hem’s arm wrapped around her shoulders and lent her the strength she needed.
“Two weeks before your mother’s accident, Sanjeev and Kumar convinced your mother to sign over a percentage of the firm. I wasn’t there and didn’t even know that it happened. Then, she appeared in front of a judge inebriated and ended up having to appear in front of the New Jersey ethics committee. Your uncles suggested that I tell her to sign over more shares to Sanjeev and myself in equal parts to protect our clients. I scared her, I admit, into believing that she’d lose everything after the ethics case, and she readily agreed to my plan.
“Sanjeev confronted us with the truth of what had happened the night of her accident. I was horrified, stunned even, that I had played a part in passing your mother’s firm into his hands. Meanwhile, your mother simply got up from the boardroom table that night and left. It was the last time I saw her. My only focus since has been work and you, Mina.”
Mina closed her eyes and pressed her face in the crook of Hem’s arm to hide her tears for a moment. She felt him rub her back, then press a kiss against the top of her head. His hold helped Mina regain her composure, and after another few moments, she sniffled once, twice, and then pulled back.
“Thank you,” she finally said to the grief-stricken man across the table. “Thank you for telling me the truth. It means more to me than you know.”
“I feel like there is still something missing,” Hem said. “Why did Mina’s uncles hate their sister so much? Why were they so hell-bent on taking over the company?”
Mina’s father sighed and cupped his bony hands around his mug. “That’s a very long story, puttar.”
“Is there a shorter version you could share?”
“Mina’s mother was a strong woman, and she had to raise two boys who were always comfortable bending or breaking the rules. She struggled with them, and often had to give them ultimatums they didn’t like. Sanjeev and Kumar developed their own kind of resentment, but it had a longer time to culminate. I will tell you this. Their personalities haven’t changed much. The fact that they aren’t hustling on the street is a testament to how much your mother did for them, too.”
“So my mother wasn’t just good to me,” Mina said softly. “God, I can’t believe I’m about to lose the firm. Now that both of us are out, Sanjeev has all the power over Kohli and Associates and I have none. He’ll never give back the legacy that Mom left behind.”
“Beta, you’re so smart, and you still haven’t figured it out yet?” her father asked.
“Figured out what?”
He reached out and grasped her hands. His fingers were cold, and they trembled when they first touched her, but the sensation was comforting. “Mina Kohli, daughter of mine, the firm was never your mother’s legacy. You are. You are the treasure she left behind.”
Mina squeezed his hands, unable to speak as the burning in her throat stopped all words from coming out. She wanted to thank him, to tell him how much that meant to her to know, but all she could do was nod.
“I have something for you,” he said. He pulled away from her and took out three worn leather notebooks tied together with red thread from his suitcase.
“What are those?” Hem asked.
“Journals. These include her entries from rehab and where she talks about how much she wants to be a better person. I had weeded these out and hoped that one day I could share this truth with you, too.”
Mina took them from his hands. They still smelled like incense and lavender. The soft edges of the leather binding and worn pages were beautiful reminders of the past. That was when she truly realized how much her father cared for her. He’d done so much to protect her. “This means the world to me.”
He let out a shuddering breath. “I thought I was helping when in fact I was making it worse.”
Mina had been worried that the barely there relationship with her father would suffer when she confronted Sanjeev, but now she knew she was developing a stronger relationship with him than ever before.
“Thank you, Daddy. This means so much to me.”
“You mean so much to me, Mina. I’m sorry I haven’t told you that enough.”
Mina cleared her throat and put on her brightest smile. She had journals and more information about her parents’ past than she could’ve imagined. Later, she would need time to process it, but for now, what they’d discussed was enough.
“Thank you for telling me about Sanjeev’s plan, too. I know that you loved working at Mom’s old firm. What are you going to do now? You can retire early if you want.”
“No, I’m not ready to stop working. I still have another decade in me at least. I’m thinking about practicing from the house. I can easily convert some of the room downstairs into office space.”
“That’s a good idea,” Hem said. “And frankly, you’ll probably have clients from Kohli coming to you after Sanjeev is held accountable for his actions.”
The older man’s eyes went sharp as he narrowed them on Hem. “What do you mean?”
“He means,” Mina said with a deep breath, “I filed an economic espionage and trade secrets violation complaint against Sanjeev yesterday.”
The waitress came by the table again. “Is there anything else I can get you?”
“Yes,” Mina’s father replied. His face was a mask of shock. “We need menus. We’re going to be here for a little while longer.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Mina spent the rest of the weekend preparing for Monday morning. She knew that she was about to go into her mother’s—no, her uncles’ law office one last time. She was wound up all day Sunday and was still tossing and turning at three in the morning when Hem decided to help her sleep by tiring her out. He pulled her out of bed, pressed against her shoulders until her breasts were flush against the cool glass wall overlooking the city lights, and fucked her from behind. For a blissful period of time, she was completely consumed by him as he gripped her hips with powerful control and slammed into her. The sound of their flesh slapping against each other mingled with her breathy moans and her gasps of pleasure. She came twice before he emptied inside of her, and dawn lightened the sky.
“I’m not done with you yet,” he said as he carried her to the bathroom.
She was still basking in the afterglow of pleasure w
hen he soaked with her in the bathtub and used her vibrator that she’d brought from her condo. He sat behind her, rough muscles and thick chest hair against the soft curves of her body. The water was deliciously warm as he gently touched the tip of the sex toy to her clit, bringing her to the edge of ecstasy over and over again, before she thrashed in the water and screamed with release again.
She practically limped to the shower to rinse off and felt deliciously sore in all the right places as she put on her burgundy power suit and matching sky-high heels. A cook left two plates of avocado toast at the breakfast bar before discreetly slipping out of the room.
“I don’t think this will take too long,” Mina said as she bit into her toast.
Hem was still fixing the diamond cuff links in his French cuff custom fit shirt. “Good. I don’t like it that you’re going in there at all.”
“It was going to happen sooner or later,” she said.
“Hiriye, what do you think was the final straw for your uncle?”
Mina shook her head. “I’m not sure. He may have gotten some intel from his mole. Or he figured that I was going to do something after I confronted him in the office, so he wanted to make the first move.”
Her phone buzzed and she picked it up to read the text.
CINDY-PARALEGAL: Hi, I got a strange message from your uncle.
MINA: What was it?
CINDY-PARALEGAL: I was told to file notices to all your clients that you’ll be transferring your cases immediately to other members of the law firm.
Mina closed her eyes and felt a pang of hurt in her heart. Hem’s hand on her back was warm and reassuring.
MINA: Cindy, were you supposed to tell me?
CINDY-PARALEGAL: No, I was told that I’d be fired if I warned you.
MINA: Thank you for warning me anyway. Go ahead and do what you’re told, but if you could add a line and let the client know they can reach me on my personal cell if they have any questions, I’d be forever grateful. If anyone questions it after the letters are sent out, just say that you always added that information in my previous letters.