His Equivalent

Singh Mansion - 7:45 AM

Saksham stood by the massive bay window of his room, a strong espresso in hand, his jaw clenched tighter than usual. The early Delhi sky outside was dull and pale, clouds crawling low like warnings.

His phone buzzed. A new file had landed in the secure drive.

Gagan's first batch.

He tapped once and watched it unfold - PDF exports, screenshots of internal approvals, spreadsheets of diverted funds with suspicious vendor IDs. The rot went deeper than expected.

He didn't wait.

"Raghav, cancel the site visit. Tell the team to work remote. I want the conference room prepped by 9:30. Meher's coming."

A pause.

"And bring the black coffee. The strong one. Today's going to be hell."

-

Malhotra Mansion - 8:15 AM

Meher stood in front of her wardrobe, staring at a sea of pantsuits and shawls, and yet her mind was elsewhere. Gagan's files had arrived at 7:02 AM. She'd read them all before sunrise.

She exhaled and reached for a charcoal grey suit. Sharp, unrelenting. Today, she wasn't dressing for diplomacy. She was dressing for war.

Downstairs, Aarav sat at the breakfast table, sipping juice, eyes glued to her laptop screen.

"You're really going to Singh's house?" he asked without looking up.

"Yes," she replied.

"And you're working on this... alliance thing. Alone?"

"Bhai, this isn't a school group project. It's a hostile takedown. And Saksham's the only one who wants Ayaan ruined as badly as I do."

Aarav looked up now, eyebrow raised. "You trust him that much?"

"No," Meher said calmly, slipping on her watch. "I just trust his hate."

-

Singh Mansion - 9:35 AM

The door to Saksham's private meeting room swung open and Meher stepped in, heels sharp against marble.

Saksham looked up from the digital board. "You're late."

Meher offered a tight smile. "You're always early. Makes me feel fashionable."

He said nothing, just gestured to the files already laid out across the table.

She sat opposite him, eyes scanning the screen. "This is worse than we thought."

He nodded. "Gagan gave us gold. Payments routed through shell accounts. Approvals signed off on Sundays. And see this-" he tapped the screen "-construction contracts issued to companies that don't exist."

Meher's brows furrowed. "This one-'CoreX Build Infra'-this was listed on the Sector 8 proposal as the drainage contractor."

"I checked. Doesn't have a physical office. No GST registration. It's a ghost company."

Meher blew out a breath. "So he's faking infrastructure on public land and drawing real money. If we expose this..."

Saksham interrupted. "We can't. Not yet."

Her head snapped toward him. "What?"

He leaned forward. "We need more. This is just enough to create noise. If we release it now, Ayaan will flip the narrative. Play the victim. Say he's being targeted by rival developers. His media connections will twist everything."

"So what do you suggest?" she asked, arms crossed.

"We bait him," Saksham said quietly. "We let him think he's still winning."

Meher's eyes narrowed. "You want to play the long game."

He looked at her. "Don't you?"

She nodded slowly. "I do. But if we're baiting him, we need to be prepared for a counterattack."

There was a pause.

Then Saksham added, "You and I-we've made enemies before. But never one like this."

Meher looked at him, eyes unreadable. "Then maybe it's time we became more dangerous than ever."

"we already are"said Saksham.

-

10:45 AM - Outside the Mansion, in Saksham's garden

Their strategy session done, Meher followed Saksham out to the garden as he took a call from Raghav. She walked behind him, arms folded, heels sinking slightly into the grass.

"You don't usually invite people home for meetings," she said casually.

He ended the call and turned. "I don't usually need allies."

She arched a brow. "And I'm an ally now?"

His eyes didn't leave hers. "You're something. What that is... still being evaluated."

She almost smiled. Almost. "Careful, Singh. I bite."

Saksham smirked. "You think I don't?"

-

Meanwhile - Khurana Tech HQ - Surveillance Room

The tech assistant returned, face pale. "Sir... we found the file Gagan accessed. He downloaded everything related to Sector 8 and CoreX Build Infra."

Ayaan's expression turned glacial. "Who did he send it to?"

"We don't know yet. But the system flags a phone number linked to a Malhotra Ventures subdomain email."

Ayaan's jaw twitched.

"Then let's remind Mr. Sharma what betrayal costs."

-

To be continued...

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