Chapter 42
42
Monday 26 September
Dear Diary, something amazing happened today—a veritable partnership-saving miracle.
I was scrolling through
TLTS
’s Instagram when I got a message on LinkedIn from a stranger called Mohd Usman Ariff. Thinking it was someone from a recruitment agency or perhaps an admirer, I opened it.
It was my former classmate from law school, who’d gone by Uzi for most of uni (it was a different time back then, a simpler, less polarized time). I remembered Usman fondly because he graduated fifth in the year above me. And we might or might not have made out in some fresher’s party. Whatever.
Saw your name in some of my files, brought back some good memories, just thought I’d say hi.
I smiled and replied:
Been a long time. Where’re you slumming it now?
He replied:
Chapel Town.
Shit.
Listen, I just took over from the previous general counsel who left after the death of Charleston Sr., read up on the VizWare transaction (among others) as the boss is keen to examine all the loose ends from this year to see if he can salvage anything out of it, and the VizWare transaction is one he’s particularly curious about. From what I can read and my recent chats with Langford-Bauer, Genevieve and Suresh—
Oh no
, I thought.
—it seems like Chapel Town, under Charleston Sr., made a mistake in pulling out and icing the deal, which is an opinion Charleston Jr. and I appear to share. But we don’t know the ins and outs of this deal entirely as there’s been a mass defection since Charleston Sr. passed. So we’d like to speak to the lead coordinating counsel, i.e., you, to have a fuller picture, in person if you agree. Charleston Jr. insists on doing business in person. If he likes what he hears, the whole thing can move forward relatively quickly. It might not go anywhere on VizWare’s side, but we’re confident it will. The good thing is, last we heard, VizWare has not been courting anyone else, so there’s hope yet. And vis-à-vis our friends at Sungguh, if they are keen to come on board again, I’m going to suggest to them that we prefer if you are put as lead coordinating counsel for the transaction instead of Genevieve, who’s a li’l . . . erratic.
Wow
, I typed, stunned.
That’s great. Of course I can fly over, if you sign an engagement letter.
Of course. Your time is valuable.
Thank you. You’re the best.
No, *you* are.
I accept your deference, serf. But what I don’t understand is—you wanted to reinstate me *after* speaking with all three of them?
Yes *wry face emoji* Genevieve and Langford-Bauer were royal pains in the butt, and bitched about you so thoroughly I felt ashamed on your behalf. As for Suresh—
I steeled myself. And tried to ignore the Kegel my heart just did at his name.
—Suresh told me, off the record, that you were the brains behind the whole operation. And that was why when they asked to take you off the file at Sungguh, he told them he would prefer to be taken off it as well.
Ah. That’s. . . nice of him.
Anyway, that international tax colleague of yours, Langford-Bauer? He’s going to have to come as well, as Charleston Jr. also wants a briefing on the appropriate structure for his investment in VizWare. He doesn’t trust the old guard’s recommendations.
A little shaken, I thanked Usman and said I would wait for his update.
So Suresh had never tried to usurp my place. He’d never even tried to backstab me. I had been the one projecting all those nasty impulses on him.
He couldn’t help who his future wife is related to, and I should’ve given him the benefit of doubt when he asserted that he wasn’t milking his ties with his future in-laws.
All of a sudden I felt like a giant Langford-Bauer myself. I wished Suresh was around so I could apologize to him for getting
the situation completely wrong. Suresh was a decent guy—I’d met so few of those in my career that I’d missed the signs.
After I wrote a stiffly worded email to Mong (I was giving him the cold shoulder still, although I think he’s mystified by the reason for it) to update him on this development, I dropped Suresh a text on his private number and apologized for thinking he’d backstabbed me, and that it had been a bit complicated between us after Luxembourg, for which I was sorry.
The response was swift:
This is Anousha. You stay away from Suresh if you know what’s good for you.