Page 67 of Born in Ruin

THIRTY-SIX

Mayukhi

Mayukhi stared at the set of completed outfits, displayed for her. All around her, the staff held their breath, several of them looking like they were on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She didn’t blame them. Mayukhi had been on a rampage over the last week. Most people drowned their sorrows in alcohol. She preferred to drown them in work. Not that she had sorrows. She’d already forgotten about him, moved on, got closure, the whole deal. Ishaan who? See? She was fine. A-fucking fine.

“It looks good.”

The simple statement had her team exhaling, relief sweeping through the room.

Shawn rolled his eyes at her. “It’s better than good. It’s fantastic. Great job everyone!” He started to applaud, smiling at the fearful, overworked people in the room and Mayukhi felt guilt sweep through her.

“Shawn’s right.” She pitched her voice over the applause. “This is amazing work. You guys have put your heart and soul into this and I truly appreciate it. I appreciate each and every one of you.”

The mood in the room lightened immediately as her team accepted the praise gratefully. She watched them all file out of the room. All except Shawn who raised a brow at her, saying sardonically, “Welcome back, boss. It’s good to see you emerge from the depths of fury and gloom.”

She wasn’t sure she’d emerged yet but she would. Nothing less than that was acceptable to her. She wouldn’t let anyone, even him, drag her down into-

A knock sounded on her door and she looked up. The sight of her father standing there put a hard stop to her mental rambling.

“Baba?”

Shawn snuck out with a polite smile for her father, shutting the door behind him. Mayukhi’s father sat down in one of the chairs at the far end of the table in the conference room.

“What’s going on?” She couldn’t remember the last time her father, or either of her parents for that matter, had come to her office. So, this wasn’t a surprise. It was a shock.

Her father took a deep breath and then looked up at her, meeting her eyes for the first time. “It seems our problems have been solved.”

“Have they? And how did that happen?” A small thrumming in her rib cage told her that her heart was getting ready to take flight. They had only one big problem and as far as she knew,her father was nowhere close to getting the monkey called Ishaan off their back, or their business’s back.

“He’s returned it all, the shares to the company.” Her father yanked at the collar of his shirt as if it was choking him, sweat dripping down his temple. Mayukhi reached for the remote to the air conditioner, lowering the temperature further.

“He took market rate?” she asked, even as her heart sped up a little more.

“He didn’t take anything. He just signed it over.”

And that’s when her stupid heart took flight. “Did he? Just like that?”

Her father watched her carefully. “It would seem he had a change of heart. Or rather, something or somebody made him change.”

She laughed, a bitter sound. “It wasn’t me, Baba, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Well, whatever it was, this is a good thing. It’s a fresh start for all of us.”

It was. If Ishaan had returned his leverage, then Mayukhi no longer needed to hold up her end of the bargain. Their engagement, fake though it was, was over. She could feel the cracks snaking through her heart, lightning bolts of pain running through her.

I was just going to use her and dump her

A fresh start, she told herself, blinking back stupid tears. That’s what this was.

“Baba.” She cut him off before he could say anything more. “I need you to do me a favour.” She didn’t wait for him to respond before she looked down at her hand, the one with the whopping big diamond on it. She slipped the engagement ring off her finger and held it out to her father. “Can you see that this reaches him?”

Her father took the ring. “You don’t want to throw it in his face yourself?”

Mayukhi’s heart twisted in her chest. “No, Baba. I don’t ever want to see his face again.”

Her father walked around the table to give her a hug, a tight hug. “I’m so happy this is over.”

Mayukhi didn’t answer. She couldn’t. The words stayed clogged in her throat along with all the emotions she’d kept stifled over this week. She nodded, stepping out of her father’s hug. He took the hint, told her he’d see her at dinner and left.

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