"A-A girl in company... she-she went to complain about a man harassing her." Arjun's head jerked from the bowed position to alert and straight posture. His eyes narrowed and leaned with his elbows resting on his desk. "I-I, er, I was around when it happened, so... so I went along with her."

Madhuri struggled to catch her breath. Her throat had turned dry as an unfortunate drought-stricken land, and it agonized her to articulate every syllable. Crimson hue had painted itself across her puffy facial features and she sniffled to hold back the snot trickling down her nostrils.

"Vijay is working with us for the past two years. No one in the office had any complaints about him. What I believe has happened is Miss Muskaan allured the poor man and ditched him when she did not like where it headed," exclaimed the manager, glaring down at the ladies across his desk.

Muskaan stared at the man in horror before her nostrils flared and her palms balled into fists. "Excuse me?"

The manager, Lokesh, scoffed and a wry chuckle escaped his lips, pulled to a side. "And Mrs. Shukla - oh, sorry - Ms. Mishra jumped in and suggested that she file a complaint to get rid of him. Like how she filed for divorce when she got bored with her husband and tagged him with infidelity and his mother with abuse to cover up her shrewdness to squeeze some money out of those poor folks."

Madhuri's lower lip quivered, and she felt the room spin around her. The frenzy hum of the blood gushing through her ears which splayed a red hue across her neck and face had left her giddy.

"How could you say that? You do not know what she was put through!" protested Muskaan, jumping to her feet and to the defense of her only friend in the recent times.

"Oh, I know her kind well," said Lokesh with a click of his tongue. "Manipulation wrapped under the guise of naivete. And now, she is poisoning the minds of others around her to destroy the harmony of the environment she is in."

"He... The manager said I-I was influencing. That I was... I was a bad influence. H-he wondered if the case was even real or if, uh, if it was just a way to extort money," she said, burying her head between her hands and her wails continued to pour out of her heaving chest.

Was that what the clients of the prosecutors faced when he was busy defending their culprits? Aspersions tainting their credibility? Taunts blemishing their intentions? Howls of helplessness and woes of unrelenting scrutiny as mere strangers dissected them to find any hint of malicious intent in the ocean of suffering.

Arjun's back sank against the plush chair, his tie suddenly feeling constricting around his neck. He released the knot, trying to ease the tension. He glanced upward, focusing on the ornate ceiling, and then closed his eyes, taking a deep, steadying breath. An agitated sigh escaped his lips.

The reins of his control seemed to slip through his trembling fingers, but he could not afford to topple into uncertainty and self-doubt. Not when his client sat on the verge of a breakdown. Not when she stood on the edge of hope.

Arjun straightened himself and trained his eyes on the shaking and shrunken form of the battered woman. "Madhuri, you know the truth. I know the truth," he said, pouring a glass of water for the distressed woman.

Madhuri's hands moved away from her tear-stained cheeks and swollen eyes. Her parted lips trembled, as did her hand when she attempted to accept the glass forwarded by her advocate. She supported her right hand with her left, keen on preventing the container from slipping through her fingers.

"I will ensure that the court's judgment makes them think twice before casting doubt on your integrity," Arjun continued, his tone resolute. "But that's all it can do, Madhuri. Make them think twice, not necessarily change their perspective. They are more likely to stick to the version that is convenient for them, rather than empathize with your side of the story."

Her tear-filled and bloodshot eyes peered at him without a blink. "It is not about you, Madhuri. It is about them. The reality makes them uncomfortable. It challenges the notions that they are familiar and ingrained with. And hence, instead of expanding their worldview, they choose outliers and paint them as the villain. It is on them, Madhuri, not you."

"But what about justice?" she asked in a voice that quivered enough to make his own facade of calmness tremble. "She can't keep receiving those inappropriate pictures or... or keep listening to that idiot's comments! Maybe... maybe if I didn't go with her, he-he would have listened to her..."

She trailed off, staring at the desk but with the desk out of her focus. But his focus had not slipped, and the keen advocate picked up the detail that could clinch the justice and bestow the repentance she craved, of a sin she never committed.

"Pictures? That's evidence that you can take to the HR. Was this appointment with your manager scheduled after a formal request?" he asked. Anything with a paper trail, everything etched into the paper, was worth a fight.

Madhuri's lips parted, and she gulped the clog of tears at her throat. "Y-yes. Muskaan, the girl, she-she had requested for a meeting over the phone."

"A call?" he asked, less optimistic than he was moments ago. "No, WhatsApp. He had even rescheduled it, and everything happened over WhatsApp."

Arjun hummed and nodded his head. "The pictures received by your friend are more than enough to get the douchebag sacked, Madhuri. As for your manager, you need him to convey his reluctance to act in text. Maybe your friend can message him to ask him to go over the evidence again. Just... push the buttons and he doesn't sound smart enough to avoid incriminating himself."

"And then?" she asked, peering at the man without the slightest clue about his plan. "You could present the evidence to HR and say you can sue them for inaction. Manager or this man are not significant enough for them to invite a lawsuit, and one of my mother's former associates is an excellent corporate lawyer, who likes to take pro-bono cases."

The gleam of relief in her eyes alleviated the crushing agony of remorse, even if it were for a moment. How many victims of shattered trust in the judicial system had his ambitious thirst taken? How many clients had sat across from their attorneys and asked if justice could ever prevail, because of him and insatiable hunger to triumph against every odd?

He wasn't sure of the answers, but he was certain was that sleep and tranquility were going to be light-years away from his eyes for a long time.

___________________________________________

This chapter was my absolute favorite while writing. It has, unfortunately, become commonplace to allege the complainants have lodged fake complaints to extort favors, especially in a domestic context.

Should people who lodge fake cases as a part of conspiracy be punished? Yes. Without a doubt. But in a land where the law says 'innocent until proven guilty' to the accused, it is ironic and unfortunate that the complainant is put through a trial by the onlookers wherein they are 'guilty until proven innocent' or guilty till the accused gets a guilty verdict.