Page 3 of Born in Ruin

“And he’s a doctor who is currently playing at being a chef. Potayto – potahto! I want to grow tomatoes, acres of them.”

“Just tomatoes?” Amay asked, drying his hand on a towel and taking away the chopped chicken from Ishaan before it turned into chicken mince. “What’s with the obsession with tomatoes?”

“Fine. I’ll grow it all. Cucumbers and lettuce and –“

“Feel like eating a salad, do you?” Amay asked mildly.

“It’s not bloody funny. I’m serious!”

“Ishaan!” The urgency in Dhrithi’s voice had both men looking at her. “Have you seen the news?”

Ishaan put the knife he still held down. “What’s on the news, Goody?”

In response, she held her phone out, wordlessly.

Is stolen IP Techrat’s secret ingredient?

WHAT. THE. FUCK?

Ishaan took the phone from her, scrolling through the article, his ire raising with each malicious sentence he read.

“Is it just this one article?” he asked. “And it’s online only?”

“For now,” Dhrithi murmured. “But it’s a matter of time before-“

Ishaan already had his phone out and was dialing a number. “Virat,” he said, the minute the line clicked through. “I need a favour.”

He stepped out on to the balcony as he continued his conversation with Virat. By the time he was done, he knew everything he needed to know about the article and its origin. He knew exactly who’d planted the story and why. Mayukhi Chatterjee, the bane of his existence as a child and an annoying irritant now. What she hoped to achieve with this news article, he didn’t know, but she wouldn’t achieve anything. He would make damn sure of it.

Within the hour, the news article would disappear from the online world but not from Ishaan’s memory. Money worked magic, a fact he never took for granted. No matter how much money Ishaan had, he would never forget the value of each rupee, not when he’d earned it one hungry second at a time.

A sneer twisted his lips as he stared out at the crowded Mumbai scene, seeing nothing of it.

Tomatoes, he thought. Grow so much food that you’re never hungry again. His younger self had never forgotten that lesson. He could see it in his mind’s eyes. Acres of verdant green with every vegetable under the sun growing in neat little rows. He knew jack shit about farming, organic or otherwise, but there wasn’t anything Ishaan couldn’t learn if he set his mind to it.

But first, he had something else to take care of.

“Goody?” he called out, still staring at the building across the street.

“You bellowed?” Dhrithi asked drily, appearing by the balcony doors.

“You know Mayukhi Chatterjee, don’t you?”

“Define know,” Dhrithi replied, her nose crinkling. “We’re not exactly friends.”

“Good.” Ishaan slipped his sunglasses on and turned to face her. “She’s still tight with the Dusty Devils?”

The Dusty Devils were the bunch of entitled, rich kids who’d ruled their residential high school. Ishaan, as the nerdy scholarship student, and his friends had been their biggest targets. Dhrithi had even married one of them leading to years of abuse that had landed her in a critical condition in Amay’shospital. Varun, her ex-husband had died in the accident that had almost killed her too and she’d finally escaped their clutches. Except, there was more to that story, and Ishaan and his friends hadn’t turned the page on that final chapter yet.

Dhrithi frowned now and replied. “She’s not in their inner circle but they’re cordial, I suppose. Where are you going with this?”

Ishaan smiled, a savage glee expanding in his chest.

“Ishaan?” Dhrithi sounded worried now. “What are you planning to do to Mayukhi Chatterjee?”

Ishaan laughed. Always the goody two shoes, Dhrithi was just so damn sweet. Unlike the woman currently occupying his thoughts. She was trying to fuck with his company, was she? No one fucked with Ishaan, his company or the people he loved. It was a short list but an important one.

“Ish!” Dhrithi stepped up to where he stood. “What are you going to do to Mayukhi?”

---