chapter : 07
wrong choices

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k a b i r
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She lived next door?

The sheepish grin on her face had me gaping at her. My jaw had almost touched the car seat, my eyes were blinking as if trying to wash away the dream and knock me back into reality.

This was while we were still in the car. Now, I wait for the elevator to take me to my floor so that I can finally think without a looming presence with me. She rides the same elevator and gets off on the same floor.

Unlocking the door to her home, she goes inside, and I am left there still gawking.

Locking the door behind me, I head towards the sofa set settled in the centre of my living room. Closing my eyes I try comprehending the happenings of today. Try making sense of it.

Noor has been working with me for four years now, and never had it ever occurred to me that she isn't what she poses to be. Not the simple messy girl but instead a girl of noble bloodline, a girl with her share of burdens, a past so daunting that it ended up shaping her into the woman she now is.

The Noor I have known has been the true version of herself, not the oppressed one she was forced to be. It makes it so difficult for me to believe anything now.

The truth I knew wasn't real in the least, it's not that I am blaming or labelling her as fake but what should I make out of this situation?

She fooled me and everyone around her. Tricked us into believing all the lies she kept feeding us. She built her clone life so efficiently that now the truth shatters our trust.

Noor has been my employee, we have shared thousands of banters but we were never friends. I doubt if we could even call ourselves acquaintances. I am not angry at her for concealing her truth, honestly, it doesn't even matter to me.

But what shocks me is that I was spending days with a person, under the same roof, who was a coy. She could have been a killer for God's sake.

It is a fault in my office's system, something I will have to rectify soon. I cannot let something like this happen again, once fooled but never again.

I would need to be cautious while recruiting employees. As for Noor, as much as I trusted her, she will have to go. An example has to be set.

I opened my eyes, which had shut on their own accord. Stumbling for my phone, I draft a new mail. As I type the words, the scene starts playing at the back of my mind.

How scared did she look? How embarrassed she was, her family's reaction, and her being nonchalantly herself even after her lies were exposed. It doesn't matter if her lies didn't mean any harm to me or my company but it taught me a lesson. I failed as a leader and failed to secure my company from people who could enter with fake profiles with ulterior motives.

I felt dauntingly heavy with every word I typed but it had to be done. As good as Noor was as my assistant, she had to go before her tenure ended. We were counting the days until she left, which was only a year now, but her tenure has to end early now.

She has to leave. I have to wipe away the mistake off the slate before my grandfather decides I am unfit. He has never questioned my ability but he makes sure to highlight how he wouldn't let me tarnish his company.

Even after dedicating my life to work, he hasn't entrusted the company in my hands completely. For me to become the largest shareholder, I need my father's share which was transferred to my grandfather the day my dad died.

Before I could hit the print button on the draft I had made, my phone blazes loud enough to shake the common wall between Noor's and my flat.

"Hello. Good evening, Pa." I hide the sigh that leaves
my mouth.

"Kabir." He takes a pause which tells me that the conversation we are about to have isn't going to be an easy one. He is ready to throw a new challenge at me, a new problem.

"I am proud of you, son." His words shock me, I almost gulp air through the food passage, choking on it.

"Sorry?"

"Your girlfriend. Noor. I am proud of your choice. Honestly? I didn't believe that you were dating her when I saw you both at first. I thought you brought a fake date to fool me."

He couldn't have been more correct.

"But, now I realise why you did it."

I hold back a scoff, waiting for him to tell me too, because currently even I am at a loss of ideas.

"You employed her despite knowing her identity, you courted her, you made sure that you secured this deal and you started working for it way in advance. Make sure to keep her happy, the day you both get married I will transfer all the shares to your name, and peacefully retire." His voice sounds so foreign right now, a statement because I have been in his care since my childhood.

I knew my grandfather was a ruthless businessman, a stern man with his ethics and regulations but never had I thought that he wouldn't care about anyone else's feelings in his quest to achieve all his goals.

When he pestered me for an arranged marriage, I believed it was as he wanted me to settle down. Live alongside work, but I couldn't have been more
wrong. He wanted me to marry, to quench his thirst for success. He never treated marriage as a sacred thread but always looked at it like a deal.

There's an itch in me to tell him the truth, to let go of my hunger for the shares, to free myself from the bondage.

"Remember if you don't marry her, I would have to distribute the shares amongst the other shareholders. And, just to refrain you from being a rebel, don't forget those shares are your parents'. G'day." The phone clicks off and I bring it down.

Every time I think that I need to stop him in his path of greed, he builds a new speedbreaker, derailing me from my path. The reason I have been too involved in work was not because I wanted my Pa to be proud, I wanted to fulfil my parents' dream.

They wanted our firm to extend its horizon, to not just be powerful but also to help others. To not just not do well financially but also prosper socially. I had been very young when they passed, but I had always known their goal. It was their motto, it was in the air they breathed and the dream they watched with their eyes open.

For me to fulfil their wish, I have to become the sole owner of the company. I have to do as my grandfather tells me. I have to keep this charade on, between my company and myself, I'll have to let myself lose.

It's strange that even after all this, I can't bring myself to hate my grandfather. We have our opinions clashing but I cannot distance myself from him. He was there with me when I had no one, he nurtured me and helped me fly, and for that, I'll always be grateful.

I open my Mail App and scan the termination letter I had typed addressed to Noor, I delete the draft.

You'll have to help me, Noor. You are my path to freedom. My key to fulfilling my parents' dying wish.

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thank you!

fun fact: Bad breath is actually called Halitosis.

so, some important things:
first, we are setting an update schedule. that helps me stay on track 🙋🏻‍♀️

new chapters will be posted on Sundays and Thursdays.

then,

i had posted this on my message wall yesterday but i wanted the message to reach out to all so here we go.  Noor and Kabir are the hottest couple I have ever written, you all might be on chapter six as of now but i have written a considerable amount of chapters offline. Hence, the statement.

Also, with this book, i would also enter into writing spice or smut scenes. obviously they won't make the entire persona of the book, and would be there as and when needed. if you are uncomfortable, you can avoid and skip that part, it won't make a difference in your reading experience. :)

it's gonna be new to me, lol, but let's put all the knowledge i have gained from books and create something for my own.

that's it for today! sorry for such a long author's note. :)

do vote and comment. it helps me write more :)

royally yours,
meethi.