The Unnecessary Alliance

THE RECONCILIATION

As soon as the door of the elevator opens, my eyes fall on a man, who looks just like an older version of me, my father. "Aadi what the hell are you doing?" He says with clenched jaws.

"I only have five minutes dad, let's talk later." I try walking past him, but he pulls me back from my elbow.

"You are not going to call off that deal. Apologize and tell them it was a mistake," he says.

I see the fire burning in his eyes. "My phone has been blowing up with calls from her family. You will not do any such thing," he adds.

I take a few steps back, and stand right in front of him. I bring my left hand forward and slowly remove his hand from my elbow.

I have seen this man struggle when I was a kid. He was barely ever there for me, emotionally or physically. I might not have blamed him as a kid, because I thought my mother was the one who called off the relationship, who decided to move away. But my dad chose to suffer and complain, than to take action.

"You let mom go years ago, and have spent all these years in agony. Don't ask your son to make the same mistake as you. Let me have a fate different from yours." His eyes soften and I watch his emotionless face fill with emotions. He doesn't say anything but his eyes convey everything. He still regrets letting my mom go, not finding a way to work it out. And I know that he still loves her like he did when they were together. He never moved on. He held onto her memories and made it harder for me to process everything. He even forced his beliefs on me as a kid, but not anymore.

I walk past him, while he stands still, rooted to the ground. The closer I get to the conference room, the louder the chatter gets. I pause a few inches away from the door. Avinash and Shefali stare at me in confusion, but I need to calm myself and prepare for the series of questions they will present me with.

One thing is for sure, everyone in that room is hungry for information and will do literally everything possible to get some scandalous and controversial thing out of me, and I need to mentally prepare myself to not give any such details to them.

Taking in a deep breath, I push open the slightly ajar door and enter the room. The room is filled with journalists from all over the city. As soon as their eyes fall on us their questions begin. Avinash takes over handling them, while Shefali guides me to the centre of the room, where a table is set.

"Attention Everyone! We are so grateful that all of you could come here on such a short notice. As you have already been informed by Miss Shefali Kaushal that we are calling off the deal with Mehtas, the details for which will be discussed in private by both the parties. Keep your questions civil. Mr. Arya will only take enough questions to address all the rumours," Avinash announces.

The room goes silent and everyone takes their respective seats. Avinash strides towards the table and takes a seat right next to me.

"Thank you for coming. I would like to make a statement telling you all what this conference is actually about. The Arya Group of Industries has decided to call off the deal with the Mehtas. There will be no merger on any of the products that our company makes. We will continue to be each other's allies, but we will no longer be collaborating on any project. The deals which we were collaborating on will be given completely to the Mehtas, the Aryas will back off from those projects. Rest all the details of the deal shall remain private for our own sake. You guys can now ask questions." I announce.

None of them misses a beat and raises their hands at the same time. I point towards an elderly reporter from a reputed newspaper, sitting on the left, hoping to get over with the wise questions first.

"Why sign the deal in the first place and cost yourself millions of rupees by giving up on your oldest clients?" She asks.

As I said, wise questions first.