Page 38 of Behind Frenemy Lines

Kriya

The walk back to our office was quiet. I waited till Charles and I were safe in the room to say:

“Thanks for coming to look for me.”

“It felt like you were gone a long time,” said Charles.

I glanced at the time on my computer screen. The exchange with Arthur had taken all of thirty minutes.

In that half an hour, I’d taken a wrecking ball to my relationship with my boss and my career. Everything I had spent my entire adult life building up was gone.

You’re well and truly buggered now, Kriya, I thought.

But I didn’t feel it. I felt free.

“Your timing was impeccable,” I said. “I was trying to decide whether I should step on Arthur’s foot, or kick him in the balls.”

Charles wasn’t in a mood to see the funny side. “Are you OK?”

I touched my arm gingerly. It felt tender where Arthur had grabbed it. “Just a bruise. Nothing serious.”

Charles’s face darkened. He jumped to his feet, moving to the window, then came back to his desk, looking over at me.

“This is intolerable. I know you haven’t wanted to escalate, but something has to be done about him.

” He was bouncing on the soles of his feet, as though he was on the verge of bolting.

I wasn’t sure it was HR he was going to bolt to. I wouldn’t have taken bets on Arthur’s chances if Charles met him in the corridor in this temper.

“I’ve resigned,” I said. “I told Arthur just now.”

That stopped Charles in his tracks. He sat down with a thump. “What?”

I told him about what had happened, from the moment I saw Emily in Arthur’s office. I didn’t go into why I’d been heading to Arthur’s office in the first place. Charles could probably guess, but he didn’t ask, which was a greater kindness than I deserved.

“So you don’t need to do anything,” I concluded.

“I’m going to email HR to give notice in writing.

And I’m going to ask for a meeting, so I can tell them about Arthur.

I’ll need to talk to Emily, confirm if she’s OK with me mentioning what happened with her.

If she doesn’t want to get involved, I’ll stick to my story.

Hopefully that’s bad enough for them to take it seriously. ”

“I should think so,” said Charles.

He looked so fierce it made me smile, but only for a moment. I didn’t regret anything I’d said to Arthur, but it was coming home to me how wrong I had been about him. How little he resembled the person I’d thought him, and how much I was losing, in finally accepting that.

Mostly, I felt incredibly stupid. First Tom, now Arthur. I was used to thinking of myself as reasonably intelligent. How had I wasted so many years of my life on these terrible men?

“You’re right,” I said. “The situation isn’t sustainable.

So long as I thought I was the only one having issues with Arthur, it was harder to make that call.

But clearly it’s a wider problem.” I leaned back in my chair, sighing.

“I thought I knew Arthur so well. I can’t believe it took me so long to see him for who he is. ”

Charles did not chime in with my self-recriminations— which showed extraordinary restraint on his part, all things considered. “Have you told anyone else about resigning?”

“Just Arthur. I didn’t know I was going to give notice until I said it.”

“If you haven’t given notice in writing yet, it doesn’t have to be final,” said Charles.

“Arthur’s not the only partner at the firm.

I’m sure Farah would have your back, if you told her about everything that’s happened.

She’s in a Board meeting for the rest of the day, but you might be able to catch her in the evening, or tomorrow. ”

“That’s a good idea.” Partners divided into two categories: the surprisingly human ones, and all the others.

Farah was one of the former, a rare breed.

“I’ll see if I can catch up with her before I speak to HR about Arthur.

It would be helpful to have Farah on side, and it might encourage Emily to raise a complaint about him too.

But as for giving notice,” I said, “that’s been a long time coming. I’m not going to resile now.”

The practicalities of the situation were beginning to obtrude. I had a lot of feelings about how stupid I had been and for how long—but I’d have to deal with those another time. I needed to crack on.

In theory I had a week left at the firm, starting now. The fact I was on probation worked both ways: the firm only had to let me know a week in advance of firing me, but I didn’t owe them any more than a week’s warning of my departure.

But I didn’t know if I was going to be allowed to work out my notice period. If I were Arthur, I’d want to get in with my version of events first—discredit me, before I could discredit him.

It was a good thing I’d never had the chance to confide in him about my dilemma regarding the instruction from Shaw Boey.

It would have been the perfect excuse for him: He could have said that I was contemplating gross misconduct and needed to be escorted off the premises, out of reach of client confidential information, as soon as possible.

The only person who did know I’d been contemplating gross misconduct was staring at me now from across the room, looking tragic, as though someone had run over his cat.

“Are you going to be all right?” said Charles.

“I’ll be fine.” I’d been saving up for a deposit on my own place, back when I’d thought I was going to buy with Tom, so technically I had enough money to cover my costs and keep Amma and Appa housed for a while. It wasn’t like I was in a rush to buy a home now.

I’d never wanted to be in a position where I had to dip into my savings.

When I was a kid, Amma and Appa had lived hand to mouth, despite Appa’s government servant’s salary.

Every unexpected expense had been a crisis, a potential disaster.

Now, in their old age, they didn’t have a nest egg: they had me.

But I didn’t regret my decision to resign. I’d figure things out.

“At least it means I won’t have to work on the Jamaludin matter.” I grinned at Charles, weary. “Silver linings. It’s your problem now.”

“I’ve been thinking about the concerns you raised,” said Charles.

“I’m going to speak to Farah. There may be enough in what you’ve told me, and the Guardian piece itself, to convince the firm this isn’t a matter they want to take on.

” He paused. “I wouldn’t do anything on impulse.

It may be resolved if we wait and trust in the process. ”

After a moment, I nodded. It was safer for Charles—for both of us—if I didn’t tell him what I was planning.

Let him think that, since I was leaving the firm, I was washing my hands of the affair.

It was technically no longer any of my business whether Swithin Watkins chose to represent the corrupt Prime Minister of my country or not.

In a week’s time, I’d have nothing to do with Swithin Watkins.

“I need to send this email to HR,” I said. “Is it all right if I name you as a witness?”

“Please do.”

I emailed HR, giving formal notice of my resignation, cc’ing Arthur and Farah. Then I rang the HR contact for the Litigation department and asked for a meeting: “I have serious concerns to report about sexual misconduct by a partner.”

By the time I rang off, I had a calendar invite in my inbox for a meeting with the head of HR in a couple of hours’ time. Whatever Arthur’s next move was, I’d have a chance to tell my story.

There wasn’t much else to deal with in my inbox—if you ignored the emails from Blackmount Capital addresses, and I had no intention of doing anything else. I found myself thinking that it was not a bad time to quit. I had hardly anything to hand over—a small pro bono case, and Rosalind’s protocol.

The thought of Rosalind gave me a pang. I should tell her.

I’d pinged Rosalind an email asking when she’d have time for a call, when Charles cleared his throat.

“I forgot to mention,” he said. “I rang the building management company about my flat. They’re going to start work on the repairs tomorrow.

It took some arguing, but they’ve agreed to cover a hotel till the repairs are done.

I’m going to book somewhere, starting this evening, but could I come by your flat to pick up my things? ”

“Of course,” I said. “That’s great!”

I only meant it was good the building management company was taking responsibility, but maybe I’d sounded too enthusiastic at the idea of him getting out of my flat. His face fell.

I was about to reassure him, when it struck me that if Charles wasn’t going to be in my flat that evening, I’d be able to ring Zuri and ask her to put me in touch with Helen Daley’s source.

I could message her even if Charles was around, of course, but it was a lot to explain over text message. Also, if I was going to be breaching client confidentiality—which I hadn’t quite made up my mind to do yet—I for sure was not going to leave a written record of it.

My phone buzzed before I could say anything to Charles. It was Rosalind.

Saw your email. Can you talk now?

“I’ve got to make a call,” I said.

Charles said, “I’ve got a Teams meeting in five minutes, but I can go find a meeting room.”

“No, you stay. I’m going to go for a walk. Get some fresh air,” I said. After an unprepossessing start, the day had turned beautiful, sunshine streaming through the window behind Charles.

Silhouetted against the light, Charles looked like a sexy guardian angel of drama-plagued lawyers. Defender of legal professional privilege, surprise cosplayer, skilled noodle chef, and the sweetest guy I knew.

“We should go for dinner later,” I said. “If you think you’ll be able to log off before eight.”

Charles brightened. “That would be great.”

Outside, the skies above the City were a pure cloudless blue.

I crossed the road, heading for the church at the end of the street.

There was a tiny churchyard that filled up with City workers at lunchtime on sunny days, but if you went round the back of the church, where the tombstones were, it was much quieter.

There were a couple of benches there, at least one of which was usually unoccupied.

I tried Rosalind on her work number first, for propriety’s sake, but the call went to voicemail. I rang her personal number.

Rosalind picked up straight away. “Kriya! Are you in the office? Is there anyone around you?”

Her voice was full of suppressed excitement.

“No,” I said. “I’m outdoors, but I’m good to speak. Rosalind—”

“I’ll let you tell me what you wanted to talk about,” said Rosalind. “But first, I wanted to let you know. I’m moving to Hong Kong to take up a role as the Regional Head of Compliance and Regulatory Affairs for ASPAC. It was announced internally today.”

This was a promotion—one she’d worked hard and schemed ruthlessly for.

“Rosalind, that’s fantastic! Congratulations. It’s so well deserved.”

“Thank you.” Rosalind sounded delighted. Besides the professional recognition the promotion represented, she’d been talking about moving closer to her family in Indonesia for years. “Now, what did you want to discuss?”

“My news isn’t quite so happy,” I said. “I’ve resigned. I’m due to leave Swithin Watkins next week. I’m sorry it’s such short notice.”

I was prepared for Rosalind to interrogate me about the reasons for my departure. I was planning to be discreet, but not so dignified as to deny it if she guessed it had something to do with Arthur.

But you could always rely on Rosalind to be surprising.

She said, “Oh, have you got a job somewhere else?”

“Er, no, but—”

“But then this is perfect timing. It must be fate,” said Rosalind.

“Listen, Kriya, I know I’m forever asking you to do crazy things, but you know there’s always a method to my madness.

I have an offer to make you. I want you to listen and think about it seriously. Will you promise me you’ll do that?”

There was no one on the benches behind the church that day. I sat down on the one that didn’t have a broad streak of fresh bird shit on it.

“OK,” I said. “Tell me more.”