“If you wanted me to slow down, all you had to do was ask,” he muttered, feeling bad for making her run in those ridiculous shoes. She refused to listen to him and dress down, insisting that how she looked was important to his image as well. Left up to him, he’d tell her to work in her pyjamas. She was the most efficient employee he had and that’s really all that mattered.
“I’m fine, sir,” Laila smiled, gesturing to him to get into the car. She handed him the iPad when she settled in as well. “You should check this article though. It’s new.”
As his car pulled into the ever-present Mumbai traffic, weaving through other vehicles to get to his new office space, Vihaan began to skim through the words on the screen.
The business world is rife with speculation that Suraj Oberoi, and son, Vihaan, are in a race that is as public as it is private. With the younger Oberoi’s meteoric rise in the media world,Stork Media House, SMH’s share prices have now seen a consistent increase for many months. Whispers of Suraj Oberoi’s retirement have been doing the rounds for just as long, so is it truly a coincidence that all the attention has shifted to SMH instead? Perhaps this is a well planned move to give the Oberoi heir a sturdier platform upon which to build the legacy he was born into. We wonder if we shall soon hear news of a merger between Reed & Co. and SMH. After all, when a King decides to abdicate, the Prince must step up to the throne.
Vihaan’s jaw tightened at the last line. This wasn’t new—the assumption that his achievements had been handed to him by his successful father. People had a gilded view of the life he lived.
In a way, it was true that he had an easier start to his career than most. But he had poured his energies into developing Stork into the massive business it was today. No one had helped him, and he’d certainly taken no favours from his father.
Vihaan had been born into a life of riches. When he was younger, he’d shown no understanding of the value of the opportunities this had afforded him. He’d always been quite sharp, but had had no motivation to achieve anything of value. School had been, at best, time spent with friends who were just as rich and spoiled.
That image followed him even today. Despite the work he’d put into establishing his own company and achieving success, he’d been unable to shake off the view that it had all been neatly gift-wrappedand presented to him by Suraj Oberoi. It didn’t help that his media presence was as heavy in the society columns as it was in the business section of any website or newspaper.
For years, he’d lived with a spotlight on him that he didn’t shy away from. Vihaan refused to retreat from the cameras and instead, faced them with a smile and wave, almost deliberately flaunting his life in their faces.
His professional life aside, his personal life was dissected and discussed daily. Whether it was love affairs, his penchant for being hard to pin in a relationship, or the fact that his good looks and deep pockets had women trying to entice him into the commitment he’d become proficient at avoiding, everything Vihaan did was fodder for gossip. Tabloids loved the unserious side of him and added to the idea that he was a playboy who’d simply found luck with being a successful businessman.
This didn’t bother him. He lived unapologetically and saw no reason to waste time or energy in disabusing people of the notions that they’d cultivated for their own entertainment.
It had allowed him to stay hidden when he’d needed to and plan his next steps without anyone being the wiser. After all, no one would expect a supposed womaniser and party fiend to come up with anything remotely original to propel their business into the limelight. That was exactly why no one would see his acquisitioncoming, allowing him an edge over any competitor who might try to imitate his growth strategies.
He looked out his window to the blur of passing cars, his mind still enmeshed in trying to picture the next few months of this new venture. Anticipation roiled in his belly. With Ethos, he’d finally show the world that he’d earned his way to the top without any influence from Oberoi Senior.
As it always did, the thought of Suraj brought with it a strange bitterness. Their relationship was no relationship at all. Vihaan tried to remain polite when they met, only because he knew how important it was to his mother to have both the men she loved get along. Even so, he had been unable to foster the kind of equation with his father that he knew most of his friends had with their dads.
It had been this way for many years. The strain between them had first struck when he’d been a teenager, going through the rebellious phase most teens did. In his case however, there were the added expectations of being the only heir to Suraj’s businesses. So, when Vihaan’s lack of effort towards academic success became an issue, there was a marked rise in the arguments between father and son.
His mother had tried to keep the peace as best she could, but tempers had run hot between both men and distance crept between their once close relationship.
His devil-may-care attitude had earned him his father’s contempt and permanent disappointment. In his early thirties now, Vihaan could understand why, as a parent, Suraj was concerned. He could have forgiven his father’s harsh words and open disdain— something that had made him feel like a worthless vagabond in his own house. He could have moved past it, had it not been for—
Vihaan shook his head, sitting up straight, blinking his eyes to bring back focus to the present. He felt a little startled at the uninvited recollection of. . . her.
He frowned to himself, handing the iPad back to Laila. He was usually pretty good at keeping those dead memories buried. Why then, had the ghost of that moment popped in to haunt him today? It had been quite a while since he’d thought of her, an exercise he actively avoided by finding himself a loud party to attend and a new woman to occupy his time with.
Images of dark, fathomless eyes filled his vision, and her husky laughter rang in the recesses of his mind.
Nope, not going to remember her. Not today, not ever.He rubbed the edges of his temples, trying to drive the images back into the cages where they belonged.
“What are our stats on ranking?” he asked, just as their car pulled into the lot of their new building.
“We have the top spot in regional print papers and have been ranked in the top five magazines launched in the last three years.”
“Top five?” he questioned, having expected better.
“We’ll get ahead of the curve for the next poll, sir,” Laila informed him, keeping pace with him as they walked into an air-conditioned lobby, making a beeline for the elevators that would take them up to Ethos’s offices. “The deal to provide our magazines to all major airports has just been accepted. Their offer is in your inbox.”
“I want to push the airlines to showcase our regional papers for domestic flights, and our magazines as well,” Vihaan added, wanting to cover every possible sale opportunity. He wanted every single person who’d assumed he was just a pretty face to eat their words.
“Alright,” he muttered, fixing his cuffs as they walked up to a meeting room, the low hum inside telling him that a meeting was underway. He waited for the signal for his entry, knowing that allowing the old CEO, Kiran Verma, the courtesy of announcing the change in ownership would go a long way in ensuring that the employees accepted him as their head in charge, with minimal adjustment issues.
“As you all know, Ethos has been struggling to keep up with our competition,” Vihaan heard Mr. Verma note to his audience. “In order to do what is best for the company, our managing team has accepted an offer to be acquired by a larger media house. I will be stepping down from my post, effective immediately, and handing over the reins to someone who is better able to take Ethos forward.”
The sound of increased whispers and shuffling wafted through the cracked door, masking whatever else Mr. Verma was saying, until his ears picked up the words he knew were a call for his entry.
“. . . so please welcome your new CEO, Mr. Vihaan Oberoi.”