Page 44 of No Boss
The room tightened.
He watched her differently now. Not just irritation. Not just control.
Measured.
“You are an employee of this estate. Not its guardian. Not its owner. Not its decision-maker.”
Heat rose in her chest before she could stop it.
She had prepared for this. But hearing it laid out so cleanly, as if generations of loyalty reduced to an entry in a ledger, slipped past every layer she had built.
She stepped closer. “You’re right.”
His expression changed.
She took another step. The distance between them was no longer professional.
She did not care.
“I am an employee.” Her voice was steady, but something deeper had begun to surface. It had been building for months and chose this moment to show itself. “And an employee is not required to agree with every decision an employer makes. An employee is required to do her job.”
His jaw tightened further. The tension in his arms was visible, controlled, contained. His hands stayed in his pockets.
“Helping you sell this Haveli is not my job.”
She held his gaze.
“So. No, Boss.”
The words fell into place.
He went still.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
They held each other’s gaze, neither yielding, the moment stretching into something sharper.
“Your family’s position here,” he said finally, “depends on your cooperation.”
“Then remove us.”
Silence answered her.
“You’ve had four months. You could have sent termination papers from Dubai. You didn’t. Because you can’t. Not without losing the community’s trust, the staff’s loyalty, everything my family has built here.”
A beat passed.
“Go ahead. Remove us.”
He stood without reply.
Then he stepped forward, closing the last bit of distance.
She did not move back.
His gaze fixed on her, anger visible now.
The Anand men, she thought with sharp irritation, were… formidable in person.
