"Let's see after the magazine is released..." After speaking, Pratiksha stood up calmly. However, Payal spoke up to hold her back.
"Pratiksha, I know you are not willing to accept being stepped on by me; I will definitely convince you."
Hearing Payal speak like she was swearing on an oath, Pratiksha sneered as she turned around to leave. Before she started striding away, without turning back to look at the trio, she said, "This trip has been wasted on listening to your commotion..."
"Since you are feeling so impatient, you can leave first...You have no business being here anymore," Vikrant said as he lifted his brow.
"My pleasure."
Vikrant and Payal assumed Pratiksha had taken a huge blow and was trying to avoid seeing them getting engaged. They were glad she was leaving. After the release of that week's Secret Magazine, Pratiksha would no longer pose a threat to them and Vikrant would have her in the palm of his hands. Payal felt she no longer needed to care about Pratiksha as she had so many other competitors. There was no point wasting all her energy on one outdated model.
Vikrant and the others watched as Pratiksha left. At this time, Siya Rastogi calmly suggested, "We can't let her leave unnoticed. Vikrant, release an article:
[Pratiksha returns home after failing miserably: flees from her lost American battle]."
"Didi , don't worry, I know what to do," Vikrant embraced Payal as he nodded.
The entire situation was ridiculous. In order to give up on an artist, a management agency actually trampled them to this extent.
Behind her back, they were plotting away. Meanwhile, Pratiksha held her head high; she was not afraid at all.
Outside the hotel, Mina's assistant was waiting to escort Pratiksha. After arriving at Secret's headquarters, Mina pulled out a document and started explaining,
"The photographer and I have passed on the highlights from your shoot to a few famous brands. After seeing your photos, they have expressed their interest towards you. Amongst them was a famous French makeup brand.
They want to make you their spokesperson for the Asia region. The premise is, they want you and their product to make a debut in Secret Magazine and open them up to the Asian market..."
"Pratiksha, we have all witnessed how your management agency treats you, but we don't want to let you go to waste. We will not spread news about this for now, but after the Oriental Trend issue is released, we will make a public announcement."
Pratiksha looked at the information in her hands. Noticing it was the French brand, ISN, her eyes slowly lit up. It was a French domestic brand that was founded over 100 years ago. And...it had never opened up to the Asian market.
This was such a pleasant surprise!
"Mina, do you have that much faith in me?"
"You and I know it in our hearts. Pratiksha, do you know what impresses me most about you?"
Mina smiled slightly, her voice contained traces of admiration, "Your casual and calm nature and the fact that you're not arrogant or impatient. You were born to be a model and will someday become a supermodel. I believe in my judgment."
Hearing their conversation, Sudiksha immediately started clapping. She was so happy she wanted to scream. Payal would have never imagined, while she was still thinking of despicable methods to destroy Pratiksha's reputation and force her to take on cheap endorsements, Pratiksha had already become the Asian spokesperson for a French brand.
Who knows how upset Payal would be once she finds out?
"The day after tomorrow, I will arrange for you to have a secret meeting with ISN to go over the details of your collaboration. We will discuss further then."
"Thank you, Mina." Pratiksha stood up to shake her hand.
"No need to thank me. I'm not just helping you, we are helping each other,"
Mina hugged Pratiksha warmly. She was lucky she wasn't blinded by Siya Rastogi's lies, or she would have missed out on working with such an outstanding model. She was also lucky, she didn't let a moment of pride destroy this opportunity to revive Secret...
Pratiksha smiled as she placed the documents in her bag secretly.
Nancy looked at Pratiksha from behind and let out a smile of admiration. She knew Pratiksha had been through a lot, but because of her hard work, she was finally getting what she deserved.
"Let's open a Champagne to celebrate once we get home...this time, Vikrant and the others are going to explode from anger," Sudiksha revealed with a child-like smile.
"Pratiksha, does this mean we won't be returning to India first?" Nancy asked.
"Siya Rastogi is going to be disappointed; she's probably already prepared a news article to make a fuss about me returning home. On the other hand...would you believe it if I told you Payal will be happy? This means she can humiliate me in front of my face."
Pratiksha could completely see through them. Nancy smiled as she agreed; looks like that's how things were gonna be...
"In that case, I will give them a call in a moment to tell them we are not returning yet. We will wait for the arrival of the Oriental Trend together..."
"Nancy, can you find out more information about ISN for me and run some background checks? I want to make sure everything is flawless," Pratiksha instructed carefully.
"Your choices are never wrong."
Regardless of everything else, Pratiksha felt working with Nancy was getting better each day. As a result, her trust towards her was getting stronger. Whereas Sudiksha, although she was capable of a lot of things, Pratiksha felt she was better off as an assistant because of her attitude.
In the car, Pratiksha was feeling a little uncomfortable, so she naturally changed her position. Upon seeing this, Sudiksha raised an eyebrow, "Is your waist sore?"
"Uh huh," Pratiksha nodded.
"And are your legs tired?"
After hearing this question, Pratiksha lifted her head innocently and looked at Sudiksha. It turned out Sudiksha was teasing her.
"Mrs. Khurana , why are you blushing?"
Pratiksha was thinking about the intimate scene from the previous night: Moksh's sexy body, his gentle strength, his deep and charming voice and his magical hands...
In the short span of an afternoon, she already missed him...
"Since we have the next 2 days off, go keep your husband company."
"Yep," Pratiksha already intended to do that.
Meanwhile, after receiving Nancy's call, Vikrant's face was covered in anger. He had already prepared the article and contacted the media, but Pratiksha had simply decided she didn't want to leave anymore...
"Vikrant, this is also good. Let's all wait for the results from the magazine together. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she fails miserably,"
Payal hugged Vikrant as she spoke. "After all, she's already suffering anyway. We will have plenty more opportunities to step on her in the future."
"I wanted to get back at her for you!"
"I know your intentions and that's enough...after all, we are to be engaged," Payal responded shyly.
After being comforted, Vikrant calmed down. Since Pratiksha wanted to disgrace herself, then she had no one to blame.
However, while they were enjoying themselves, Pratiksha secretly met up with ISN. Both parties were satisfied and the contract was quickly finalized. There was no way Rastogi's higher-ups would disagree with this contract...
The ultimate attack...was not too far ahead...