Page 15 of Lawfully Yours

Raj Verma sighed, running a hand down his face.

“I need you both to focus. If you can’t handle working together, I need to knownow.”

She swallowed hard, forcing herself to nod.

“I’ll handle it,” she said, more to herself than to him.

But deep down?

She knew that was a lie.

Because as much as she wanted to handle Kushal Nair, the truth was… he was the only battle she had never been able to win.

Chapter 3

Verma & Associates Office

The meeting with Anant Mukherjee had continued without a hitch once he returned from his call, though the atmosphere inside the conference room had shifted. Kushal and Arundhati had not exchanged a single glance after their explosive argument, neither willing to acknowledge the lingering firestorm over the real reason Kushal had agreed to marry her in the first place.

That argument had cracked something open. Something raw, something bitter, something far too personal. But as always, they were professionals first. So, they had sat there, discussing legal tactics for the case, trying to be normal.

Once Anant left, Kushal had made a few quick calls, instructing his sources in the media to subtly leak a rumour, a whisper of financial fraud tied to Sadhna Mukherjee, something Anant had kept under wraps to protect his wife’s reputation during their marriage.

It was a classic Kushal Nair move, shifting the media’s focus, altering the narrative, turning Anant into the loyal husband who had covered for his wife’s dishonesty.

All of it unfolded right before Arundhati, who was at her desk, preparing the legal documents for their actual court battle. Neither of them spoke. Neither of them looked at the other.

The silence wasn’t peaceful. And it only worsened as the morning dragged on.

By the time late afternoon arrived, both were still fuming, still recalling every venom-laced word from earlier.

And somehow, as fate would have it, they found themselves in the pantry of their office floor at the exact same time.

Arundhati stopped at the door the second she spotted Kushal.

He stood by the coffee machine, sleeves still rolled up from earlier, stirring his coffee with an infuriating sense of leisure.

Of course, he wasn’t in a hurry. Why would he be?

Arundhati gritted her teeth.

She could have just walked in and made her coffee next to him. But right now? She didn’t even want to breathe the same air as him.

So, she waited, hoping he would hurry the hell up and leave.

He didn’t. Instead, he took his own sweet time. And not because he needed to, but because he knew she was waiting.

Her patience wore thin.

She watched, seething, as he took a slow sip, swirled the liquid around in his mouth like some damn coffee connoisseur, and then finally stepped aside.

Not out of courtesy. Not because he was done. But because he had taken his time just to piss her off.

She inhaled deeply, forcing herself to keep her calm, and stepped forward, placing her cup beneath the coffee machine.

She pressed the button for Espresso, needing something strong that would shake off this unbearable frustration in her chest.

The machine beeped.