He had been mauled over again and again, with the slap of defeat at each and every stage where he tried to trample him. Every single point where he felt like he would be able to go ahead, he chased him harder to overtake.

Raymond had brandished him again and again with the proclamation of his authority over everything that he desired to own. He was already sore from all the defeat that had landed straight on his face, but after seeing that ring on her finger, his throat just ran dry. He felt like he had inserted his hand inside his chest and was squeezing his heart. The pain was excruciating and unforgiving.

His eyebrows were raised and his gaze shifted from Akira's hand towards Raymond.

"Did you propose to her?"

Raymond looked at him and then moved his hand to hold Akira in his arms and then entangling his fingers in her hand he slightly lifted her hand wearing that ring and gently kissed on it.

"Yes, I did and guess what, she yes".

Raymond said all ecstatic, rubbing that news on Vikram's face like his ultimate slap of insult.

Vikram looked at them all lost. He wanted to say something but he wasn't able to conjure up the words. The deafening silence was hitting his ears like spears and ripped his eardrum. A scathing, nerve-wrenching pain soared inside him. He felt like he was losing the ground underneath him. He was unable to absorb or deflect what he heard with his own ears.

But he didn't want to stutter.

He didn't want to appear weak or defeated.

He was Vikram Shah for God's sake, the man who always had everything molded the way he liked.

So it took him some time, but he recomposed himself and plastered a fake smile on his face and said,

"Congratulations to you both. But I wasn't expecting it to happen this soon".

Then turning towards Akira he said,

"You didn't inform me? You could have told me about it. Since when do we have started keeping things away from each other".

Akira smiled, but her smile was half sarcastic.

"As you said, there is no time for us to breathe. We got engaged and immediately went back to work. I had no time to waste you see. Today happened because we utilized every single moment that we had in improving our work rather than doing other things".

"Other things?", Vikram asked raising his eyebrow as it felt like she was accusing someone.

"Oh yes, like spying on other companies like Compton did on us".

"What.. What are you saying?", Raymond asked her knowingly.

"You guys won't believe. In the first round I tried to check the footage of Compton and look at their characters", Akira said and showed them the snapshots that she had taken from her iPad.

"These are all our discarded designs. I don't know how someone got their hands on them. I showed you these designs Vikram. Do you remember? Don't you think there is an uncanny similarity between the characters that they have used and ours?"

Akira said and looked at Vikram, her eyes trying to pierce deep till his soul.

"These are completely identical. Looks like we have a mole in our system which we need to track down", Raymond said looking at Akira first and then looking at Vikram he said,

"You don't have to burden yourself with all this. I will personally track this down after the GCG finale event is over. As per the cyber law of our state, the consequences will be severe since this is a complete breach of sensitive information of our company as per the Principles of Information Management policy", saying that Raymond handed the iPad back to Akira.

Vikram stood there all stumped.

He didn't know that his plans will not only fail but also come and bite him back.

Beads of sweat started forming on his head and the palace of his confidence suddenly turned into shambles.

"What happened Vikram? You look terrible since morning. I think you better go back home and take complete rest. I don't want you to worsen your condition any further. We don't want our ace investor falling sick when we will be soon celebrating our victory after the finale".

"Akira stop it. Foot on the ground always. We haven't won it yet", Raymond said and looking at Vikram he continued,

"Don't listen to her words. You better know how she is. An expert at spewing nonsense all the time".

"But whatever it is, I am really thankful to you Vikram for introducing me to Raymond and believing in his work. He isn't good with words so I will speak on his behalf", saying that Akira smiled and looked at Raymond lovingly.

"Let's have dinner at my place on Wednesday night after everything is over. It doesn't matter if we win or lose. We need to celebrate as a family."

Then looking at Vikram specifically she asked,

"Don't we?"