“No,” Ajay said. He adjusted the silver kara on his wrist so that it rested over the cuff of his shirt. His faith gave him added strength. “I’m not stepping aside, and if my father nominates me, if the family supports that nomination, then I will take it. But for this one time only, I’m going to explain to all of you my reasoning behind the acquisition and the positive result of today’s news breach. Members of the board, it has come to our attention that we’ve had another leak in our company. Another part of our R & D team has been compromised by WTA. We’ve been looking into this security breach.”

Whispers echoed on one side of the boardroom table. The Singhs and Mina remained silent. When the noise died down enough, he continued.

“Today, an article was published about Rajneet Kaur Hothi. Raj is the owner of RKH Collective, a company we are in the process of acquiring. Her services are a natural extension of what we already do, so it’s an excellent investment.”

More whispering.

“Because she is in the middle of a divorce, the acquisition has been blocked by WTA, which has ulterior motives, of course. The main one being that her future ex-husband is the representative for WTA on our shareholder calls.”

The whispers became a cacophony of noise that erupted from the board members. Again, the Singhs and Mina remained quiet, arms or hands folded in front of them.

Frankie jumped up and faced the other board members. “This is an abuse of power when we’re supposed to be focused on the new software! Deepak’s son is telling us there is a leak but he’s too busy with this woman who happens to be connected with our competitor!”

Ajay crossed his ankle over his knee and pointed to the recently vacated chair. “I am not done. You may want to hear the rest of it.”

“You can’t tell me what to do, puttar,” Frankie raged as he paced in front of the windows.

“I sure as hell can,” he said. “Now sit down.”

One of the other board members leaned over and whispered something to Frankie. Whatever he said must’ve worked because the old man finally slipped back into his seat.

Ajay scanned the faces at the table, savoring this moment. “An hour ago, police arrested our head of security, Sri.”

The conference room hushed until there was pin drop silence.

His father nodded.

“Sri was responsible for personally conducting a background check on Rajneet Kaur Hothi and RKH Collective in anticipation of the buyout. I was aware of her history before the article was published today, but because the acquisition was a good move for us, I proceeded.

“The information in the article is identical to Sri’s research and was also shared in tandem with Robert Douglass.”