Vengeance(111)

Rukshana was let go, but she still wasn’t angry. She was handed a letter that included a nice payoff and a glowing reference, and all her coworkers said that they were sorry to see her leave. But she was nonetheless let go. She was in tears as she cleared her desk and didn’t see an angry Jeff appear from his office.

“Is this true, what I’ve heard?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“This is outrageous. I’m going up to Personnel, they’re not getting away this.” He started walking toward the elevator.

She grabbed his arm and dragged him back. “Please, don’t. It’s all right, honestly.”

“I don’t care.”

He stormed off, and she didn’t see him again before she left. Farah was equally angry when Rukshana told her what had happened. “You should sue the bastards.”

“For what?”

“Like Marlon Brando said in The Wild One, ‘Whaddya got?’ There’s race, religion, gender — sue them for all three. Make them pay. Drag their arses through the courts, embarrass them in public, chuck dirt at them, and make them wish they’d never heard your name.”

“It’s not worth it.”

Farah was genuinely baffled. “What’s the matter with you, Rocky? Why aren’t you angry? I’d be fizzing if people treated me like that.”

“I’m just not angry.”

And it was true — she wasn’t. She was upset, scared, shocked, and confused. London could be a tough city at the best of times, and when you had no job and bills to pay, it was a very frightening place indeed. But she still wasn’t angry.

That evening she got a call from Kelly, her best friend at the bank. “Rukshana, I can’t believe they’ve done this to you. You’ve got to get them back.”

Not another person telling her to sue . . .

“You can’t take an employer to court for letting you go. That’s not how it works.”

“I’m not talking about the bank. I’m talking about Jeff and that bitch Sarah.”

Confused, Rukshana answered, “It’s got nothing to do with Jeff and even less to do with Sarah.”

There was a long silence before Kelly said, “Oh, of course, maybe you don’t know . . .”

“What don’t I know?”

“About Jeff and Sarah. About them having a bit of slap-and-tickle.”

Rukshana was horrified. “They’re not having an affair. He’s married with kids; he’s got a photo of them on his desk, he’s always going on about his family.”

“Oh, Rukshana, puh-leeze — you can’t be that naive. They’re carrying on, everyone at the bank knows that.”

“I didn’t know that.”

Kelly hesitated. “Well, people didn’t like to tell you gossip, what with you being a Muslim and everything — they thought you wouldn’t like it.”

Rukshana was disgusted. She loved gossip. Kelly went on to tell Rukshana what everyone knew. “It’s been going on for months. They think it’s a big secret, but of course everyone knows. That’s why he fixed it for her to get the job, to keep her sweet. Then he advised Personnel to get rid of you, so in case you sued them about missing the promotion, they could say you were just bitter because you’d been fired. That’s what everyone’s saying happened.”

“That’s what everyone’s saying?”

“That’s what everyone’s saying. He was on your interview panel, wasn’t he? He goes up to Personnel every five minutes, doesn’t he? Every lunchtime at noon, Jeff and Sarah meet up. He goes out and waits a couple of streets away, and then five minutes later she follows and they get a cab to some Holiday Inn, where they do their dirty business. Then at two o’clock on the dot, he comes back, and five minutes later, she arrives on her own so no one will guess that they’re at it. I mean, can you imagine? It’d take a lot more than a promotion to persuade me to shag that fat ugly bastard. Talk about lie back and think of England. Rukshana? You’ve gone very quiet. Are you still there?”

Rukshana was still there. She was just very, very angry.



RUKSHANA DIDN’T DO anything the following day because she was still too angry; she wanted a clear head when she decided what to do next. Twenty-four hours later she was still too angry but had decided to ring a couple of lawyers anyway to see if she had a case against the bank. They were a bit skeptical but thought she might be able to do something on discrimination grounds. They were less sure about Kelly’s preferred option, that Rukshana sue Jeff for being a lying, cheating, disloyal, fat ugly bastard who’d taken her job away. Rukshana was glad the lawyers didn’t advise that. She didn’t want to sue anyone; that wasn’t what she was after.