She hung up the phone without another word.

Well, wasn’t that both irritating and intriguing, Ajay thought. He looked over at his brothers, and before he could tell them what the call was about, Zail burst out, enraged.

“Why didn’t you tell her off?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because she’s the reason why we lost Sahar!” He pounded a fist against his chest. “She came forward with this bullshit, faulty information, and we lost the best thing we had.”

Hem dropped from the pull-up bar. “Zail, she wasn’t the one who lied to us. Sahar did. Sahar knew what was going on and didn’t tell us she had a relative working at WTA.”

“Because it wasn’t true,” Zail snapped. “All we had was some vague evidence. Nothing concrete. I went to Sahar myself, confronted her, and she told me that it was a set up. I believe her. We should’ve all believed her. And now you’re getting in bed with the sapa, with the snake? No, I’m not going to stand here and let that happen. I won’t do it.”

Ajay knew that Zail had taken Sahar’s loss hard, but this was next level. He took a sip of his chai and sat on a counter stool.

“If I force my way into the CEO position without the support of our shareholders and board members, and we can’t deliver on the relocation software, then we’re going to lose money. Raj wants a meeting because she has a business proposition that could potentially mitigate our risk. I want to see what she has to say.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Hem said. “There is no harm in hearing her out. From what Mina says, she’s a smart businesswoman who created a successful enterprise out of nothing.”

“Fuck this. I’m not going to stand here and listen to you all talk about working with this woman.” Zail stormed out of the house without a backward look.

“He has feelings for Sahar,” Ajay said to Hem.

“Yeah, and he blames Raj for losing her,” Hem replied. “Do you think she’ll be at the Gupta wedding? We’ve never seen her at the desi society events before, but Uncle Frankie has invited every South Asian entrepreneur in the tristate area. She must be on the list.”

Ajay paused and thought about the way Raj had operated so far. “I think she’ll show depending on how our meeting goes. She wants something from us. She’ll make an appearance at the wedding just because she knows that we’ll be there.”

Hem grinned. “You’re going to play a game of cat and mouse, little brother.”

“Yup. I just don’t know who’s the cat and who’s the mouse. I don’t know if I care, either. Let’s get to the main house.”

Chapter Five
Rajneet

UNKNOWN NUMBER: It’s your bhai. We need to talk.