“Then why?” Fresh anger churned through her. “Why him?”
He reached out, picked up the manila envelope he’d removed earlier, and held it out to her. “You’ll understand after you read this.”
Shauna stared at it, confusion tugging at her. Slowly, she took the envelope from his hand. She opened the flap and slid out a neatly folded document. The top sheet was a handwritten letter, and the rest was… a will. Dhiraj Mishra’s will.
She inhaled sharply, her heart beginning to pound in her ears. With growing unease, she read through the lines, each sentence pulling her deeper, each word making it harder to breathe.
“I’d like you to read it aloud, please, so I’m sure that you haven’t missed out on anything,” he said.
“I, Dhiraj Mishra, of sound mind and body, am writing this letter and attaching this will to it.”
Shauna looked at her grandfather. “This seems too personal for me to read.”
“But you will read it nonetheless,” he replied. “This will answer all your questions.”
Sighing, she continued, reading aloud.
“After my death, I would like that the following things be acted upon:
1.I pass on the legal guardianship of my two grandchildren, Keya Karia and Akash Karia, to my close friend and business associate, Janak Sehgal. I entrust Janak to look after my grandchildren, as I’m sure that he will care for them like his own.
2.My entire media business, which is worth a few millions as of now, I sign over completely, again to Mr. Janak Sehgal, who will act as its custodian until my granddaughter Keya Karia is twenty-five years of age. After that, the business will go to her to do with as she pleases. I trust Keya to look after her brother’s interests, regardless of what she decides to do with the business.
3.My current monetary holdings are worth two million dollars at the time of writing this letter. I entrust Janak with the power to invest this money as he sees fit, with the stipulation that each of my grandchildren benefits equally from his wise investments. I also entrust Janak to use this money to care for all the needs of my grandchildren and to provide them with a certain amount every month. Of the investments made from this money, I request Janak to hand over an equal share of the invested money to each of my grandchildren when they turn twenty-five.
4.I leave my house in Mumbai and all the possessions in it equally to both my grandchildren, Keya and Akash, to be given to them immediately upon my death.
5.The contents of this letter and the adjoining will shall be known only to my friend Janak and shall be shown to mygrandchildren only on their twenty-fifth birthdays, and not one day prior.
6.That Janak Sehgal will now be the legal guardian of my two grandchildren shall also not be mentioned to anyone but my grandchildren upon my death. I want no one in the Sehgal family to know of this, lest there be a situation in which my grandchildren are treated unfairly in any way or face any danger or threat to their lives simply by being under the legal guardianship of Janak Sehgal, owner of Sehgal Group of Companies.
I am sure that Janak Sehgal will always act in the best interests of my grandchildren and will raise them to be proud and strong individuals whom I would have been proud of.
Finally, I apologize to my grandchildren for not being there for them through the toughest time of their lives and for not being strong enough to live longer to support them through the next phase of their lives.
Signed, Dhiraj Mishra”
She looked at her grandfather, her heart thundering as everything began to make sense, just as he’d told her it would.
“He died a month after writing this letter and will. Both Akash and Keya inherited millions when they turned twenty-five. Not to mention Sehgal Media, which is worth billions.”
Shauna shut her eyes, shaking her head. God, she had been so wrong about everything. Akash wasn’t living off his sister’s money. He was rich in his own right. He was a fucking billionaire.
“As you know, Keya loves working at Sehgal Systems. Always has.”
He let out a long sigh, the sound heavy with memory. “When Keya turned twenty-five, she signed the entire business over to Akash, and then, after she married Kabier, she signed over the house to Akash too. She requested me to keep running thebusiness until Akash was old enough… mature enough… to take it on himself.” His gaze drifted to the letter still in Shauna’s grip. “Although the company sits under the Sehgal banner, it actually belongs to Akash. It has for a long time. Akash asked me to keep quiet about this until he was ready to take over. And…”
“…now he is ready,” Shauna surmised.
He nodded. “He has worked hard for years.”
“And you’ve been training him personally. Ensuring he was ready to take over.”
There was a quiet pause before he lowered his chin.
“So now you know why I always deflected whenever you asked me about the future of Sehgal Media,” he told her. “Now you understand why the media business is Akash’s destiny and not yours.”
She blinked through the sting in her eyes once, twice, trying to steady herself, but the weight of what she’d heard kept bearing down on her.
