Episode 13

After a lot of contemplation she messaged him knowing that there were minimal chances that he would reply her as he was busy. But she took her chances.

"Have you had food?" She typed and hit the send button while she sat with his mom on sofa and tried to ease her worry. While his father was just looking at his wife. She could make out that somewhere even he was little worried but he had covered it very well.

Her phone pinged and she looked at the screen to see a new message and there he was he had replied her.

"Having." Was all he had typed. She felt some different emotion upon seeing his message. They had never messaged each other.

"Your mom is worried here please do call her after having food." She texted him getting up and bringing a glass of water for his mother.

As she poured water she heard his father's phone ringing and then his mother ran to him and started talking to the person. She knew it was him. Smiling she bought the glass of water to her aunt as she saw how relaxed she had become. Both the parents were quite relaxed now.

Later on they had food and resigned to their respective bedrooms. Lying on the bed she switched on her night lamp as she did not have the habit of sleeping in dark. Then her phone pinged.

"Thanx." The message read from Rafay.

"What for?" She typed and pushed the send button.

"For taking care of Ammi." He replied.

"It's fine." She said smiling.

"Good night." She texted him.

"Night." Was all he replied.

Keeping his phone down he thought about his day. Nonetheless he was tired. Switching of the lights he lay on the bed exhaling a tired sigh. Closing his eyes he thought about the text Elnaz had sent him and a small smile curved on his lips. The day had been dramatic already but out of all he hadn't thought that she would text him as he had sensed that she was purely ignoring him. His guilt had surely taken toll on him on the other hand she didn't seemed to lessen it and ignored him.

He had to stay in San Jose for two more days and sort all the things out. He had already fired the senior engineer. Now the HR department had to find immediately a new senior engineer to fill in the vacancy.

He was managing the situation in a expertise way. It was a stressful situation and more so the media had also got the coverage of the accident. Now he had not only to deal with the inattentive attitude of his employee but also to the questions being raised on him and his company. He had to maintain the dignity and reputation as many lives and households depended on his company. His oppositions where trying to get a hold of him. It was as if all the difficulties had come in one go.

Next day...

"Respected gentlemen we understand your concern but we will not fail you in any sense." Janet reasoned looking at the promoters who sat in-front of her in the meeting room.

"Everyone says that during their time of lows. But what guarantees do we have? We have invested a lot in your company's new venture and it seems to us that your company is not being able to handle the former business well enough then how can it handle the new one?" One of the promoters asked her immediately making her anxious.

"Sir our company has never faced such issue today-

"Yes it has never. But today it has. What does it show that the CEO Mr. Rafay is not compatible enough for the position." Another promoter quipped.

Elnaz who stood on the door of the meeting room grew impatient and therefore bathed in upon hearing such words of distrust.

"Gentlemen you are right such situation never occurred before in our company's history but you should also know once every company faces some lows and ours is still maintaining its position in the market. Despite the loss we suffered Mr. Rafay Rehan Mallick has maintained the situation well enough. Today morning there was a conference held at San Jose haven't you watched the news? The company and the CEO is still committed to values, objectives and commitments. Rather you should support us at such dire times rather than raising questions. The CEO of the company will surely haul the company and will reach the goals set by the organisation on time. I think you should raise questions when the are defaults in the interests promised to you."

"Lastly you are the promoters of the new venture and you know very well that the venture is growing and performing well in market beyond expectations then too you stand here throwing stones at us. If anything you should stand with us and trust us rather than pointing our mistakes. Because it's not only our venture but you also form a part of it."

"Hope you have a good day." She wished them and left the meeting room. Janet stood there contemplating whether the way Elnaz spoke would benefit the company or would they loose the promoters. Nonetheless Rafay would be agitated if they loose the promoters.

Turning to the promoters she saw that all of their mouths were tight shut. They were looking at each other contemplating whether what they should choose. Without saying anything all of them stood up and one of them said

"Tell Mr. Mallick we would like to have a meeting with him once he returns." She just nodded her head while all of them left.

Whatever it was she knew that Elnaz has dug her own grave.