Page 59 of Trapped By the Maharaja

Stay calm.

She hoped someone realized the elevator wasn’t working.

After a long moment, the panel blinked again. “G.”

The elevator shuddered, moving at last in a slow, uneven way. Finally, the doors opened to the ground floor.

Sanjana stepped out quickly, her breath catching in relief.

Two maintenance workers stood a few steps away by an open utility panel. One of them looked up, concerned. “Are you alright, doctor?”

She nodded.

The man’s brows drew together. “We don’t know what happened. This elevator passed inspection two days ago.”

“Please recheck it properly,” she said. “This could have happened with a patient’s parent inside.” A lot of patients’ parents took the elevator while carrying the lab results or a sick child.

She couldn’t imagine the added stress of a malfunctioning elevator.

They nodded. “Yes, Doctor. We’ll recheck it.”

Sanjana gave a brief nod and walked past them.

By the time she reached the oncology wing, she had pushed the incident aside.

CHAPTER 28

Ram sat behind the home office desk, looking at the large screen, half a dozen executives leaned forward in their squares, the tension in their postures betraying the unease they tried to hide.

The CFO cleared his throat. “Your Highness, the patterns confirm it. Global Fortune’s bids were not luck or coincidence. They’re deliberately targeting our contracts. For months, we believed the narrow margins were market corrections. But they’ve been shadowing every move we make.”

Another director spoke. “It wasn’t until you suggested releasing falsified numbers that we exposed them. We’ve confirmed they tracked the leak and undercut those false bids. That mistake cost them three contracts worth over four hundred million dollars. Our actual bids went untouched and we secured everything.”

Ram leaned back, steepling his fingers, his expression unreadable. “And you thought it was a coincidence before?”

The executives shifted uneasily. One finally admitted, “We did, sir. The bids were close, but we believed it was market competition.”

At first, Ram had also believed his company's losing bids for infrastructure projects might be due to heavy competition. But when Bharat’s steel exports began facing a similar issue, he knew it was a targeted attack.

Ram looked at the screen. “This is not random. Someone is watching us. Someone with access to our numbers. They knew our bid margins. Someone has infiltrated our confidential information.”

One of the younger executives shifted uncomfortably. “Do you believe the leak is internal?”

Ram’s jaw clenched. “There is no other explanation. No outsider should know our bids before they’re placed. Fortune is winning by margins too narrow to be chance. Someone inside is feeding them.”

Silence settled heavily.

Ram’s gaze swept over them. “Until I have a name, we’ll continue the false leaks. Increase them. Bury Fortune in misinformation. I want them losing money.”

The CFO nodded. “Understood, Your Highness. We’ll expand the decoy strategy immediately.”

“Good.” Ram’s tone left no room for hesitation. “And tighten the circle. No one outside this room touches the numbers.”

A quiet, collective nod answered him. The call ended with murmurs of “yes, sir” and “as you command,” the screen flickering dark until the room was still again.

For a long moment, Ram sat unmoving, his gaze fixed on the maps that tracked his business empire across continents. His instincts had been right. The shadow circling his empire wasn’t a coincidence. It was deliberate, coordinated and personal.

If there were a traitor inside, Ram would find out. And when he did, Global Fortune won’t be the only one to pay.