29 Annual Meet - I

Dhruv dropped Riya in the resort and drove to his own office. He just took a leap of faith while asking her to get in his car but thank god she actually let him take her. It was a nice journey, indeed, he smiled to himself.

While driving, he had his mobile connected through Bluetooth and was deeply listening to a podcast on market outlook for the day. The market had been in turmoil today as a big fashion conglomerate SHEA was going public (It is a process when companies offer their shares for public to buy). Dhruv brushed it off as it wasn't something which was going to affect Warphed in any way.

***Ring***Ring***

His phone rang and as he had it connected to Bluetooth already, he just started talking.

"Sir?", his secretary's nervous voice echoed through the car. Her voice rarely did that, making Dhruv sense some bad news coming along the way.

"What happened?"

"Sir? Mr. Sharma wants to connect to your personal line. He says it's something important!", she told him in the same tone urgently.

"Can't it wait until I come to office?"

"No, Sir! He… he said it's about your wife and he'd want to discuss it right now."

This brought all his attention as rarely news about Riya came to him and every time it never did any good to his own company. He thought maybe she had gone soft on him because of whatever fake/real relationship they had now, but apparently that wasn't the case.

"Okay…. Patch him in then…"

"Sure!"

The call transferred to conference before a grumpy voice joined in to say "Hello!"

"Hi, Mr. Sharma…. This is Dhruv….. Good Morning!", although Dhruv was super anxious to know what had happened, he still didn't want to skip the opening chit chat being the perfect gentleman he was.

"Dhruv… Hello! Glad you called…. I hope I'm not disturbing you?", he said in a less grumpy tone than before.

"No no, Mr. Sharma! How are you? How's everything going on?", he continued in the usual charming way he always did. This is one the reasons why everyone loved him.

"All fine Dhruv! Recently, there's been lots of noise about SHEA. I think you're already aware of the deal?", he asked.

"Yes, Mr. Sharma… Although, We're not interested in it whatsoever… I mean, we did buy out Warphed but that's going to be the only fashion deal from us for now!", Dhruv claimed.

"I see… I thought you guys were trying to diverse.", he ended awkwardly.

"No, no", he chuckled softly, "So… What was the reason you wanted to talk to me Mr. Sharma?", he asked concerned.

Inside he couldn't stop fretting about this whole thing as it concerned Riya. Maybe now that she was his wife, he can pursue her to not stomp on his company all the time? He wondered.

"Yes… Dhruv, do you remember I'm still one of the minority shareholders at Riya's Choice?"

"Yes! Yes! I remember very well… I mean, you did it as a favor to me anyways. How could I forget?", he said politely.

"Well, good! You told me to let you know if anything was suspicious. Now, I know that you are married to the CEO of Riya's Choice, so there is nothing going on which is against Marble Enterprises."

'Okay! That's reassuring', Dhruv thought.

"But there's something shady going on Dhruv… And.... Your wife might be in trouble soon", he ended rather open ended than Dhruv wanted. What was going on? If something he should be careful about, he needed more information.

"What do you mean?"

"I received an email from Riya's Choice that they were having a board meeting and I dialed in through video conference for the same. I couldn't help but notice the CEO or president were rather not present in the meeting, only shareholders were there. I didn't catch the entire discussion but apparently, they're not happy with Riya's performance lately and were discussing whether to hire somebody else as CEO."

"I thought I should let you know in order to be prepared. I don't think your wife must be aware of this or maybe she is… I'm not sure, Dhruv…. What do you think?", he paused letting the huge information sink in. He partially wanted Dhruv to say that he was already alert about this issue.

After a long silence, Dhruv wrapped his head around the news.

"This is…. Pretty internal to their company, I feel. And I don't think Riya knows..…. I'll see what I can do, Mr. Sharma…. Thank you very much for sharing this with me.", Dhruv considered what to do.

"Anytime Dhruv…. So…Take care! Let me know if anything else is needed…Thanks", he cut the call after that.

The line went blank as his secretary silently dropped off without any comments, as usual.

Typically, he would've rang up Riya immediately to let her know what just happened, but this was big news. Maybe a world-shattering news for her. But why would the shareholders want to fire her? She was best at what she did. He hoped that she was already aware and would've taken care of it, but chances were slim. She was in very good mood today morning. But she rarely showed her emotions which made it even more difficult for him to guess.

He decided to come back and pick her up in the evening after her event, so he could tell this to her face. Also, in the meantime he would dig more to find out if he could help.