Kanika's POV
-Next day in office-
I yawned as I entered the office. I slept late last night in all that worry for my work because of that bastard, like how can someone be so shameless to steal someone's artwork as their own?
"Kanika." I jumped at the sudden call of my name. I turned to find out that the source of the voice was none other than Aarav.
"Contact that author from yesterday again and ask him to come meet us in the afternoon as soon as possible and look through the few files I have kept for you on your desk in the cabin," he left as he handed me the manuscript.
'Looks like we are getting busy today.' I once again looked at the manuscript as my heart sank at every sentence that matched my own I sighed and went to the cabin and kept the manuscript aside sat on my chair and as I was about to get to work I saw a little sticky note on my desktop screen it read: (I have kept grilled sandwiches on my desk have some and get to work because we will be busy and won't have time for lunch.) I smiled at the note and peeked at his desk a triangular brown box kept there with hot mocha waiting for me to eat them I stood and sat at his place and started eating considering the fact that I came empty stomach from home the sandwich felt heavenly and the hot mocha was from the place I loved to frequent in between breaks for coffee or light snacks near office.
Just when I had finished the last bite, my eyes fell on the documents that were kept there on his desk. 'These must be the documents he was talking about.' I wiped my hands and went through the documents. It was a rough draft of the contract that is given to authors when contracting their work with the publishing house. I checked the name of the author, and the book, and it was no one but the same person who plagiarized my work— Rahul. My heart started thumping fast, and my eyes went wide. I wanted to cry and scream.
'This must be why he wanted me to contact the author and ask him to come as soon as possible.' I just sat there staring blankly at the documents.
"Kanika," Aarav's voice brought me back from my river of thoughts.
"Huh? Yes?" I jumped from his chair, making way to mine, but in sudden movements, I ended up hitting another file, which fell down from the table, and papers scattered on the floor. I hurried to collect them, and Aarav too kneels down to help me collect them.
"What happened, Kanika? You suddenly seem anxious." His eyes held concern.
"Umm, nothing, I just zoned out for a bit." I gave him an awkward smile, arranged the file back, and moved to my desk. 'How can I explain to him that I am anxious because today my work will be known by someone else's name?'
"Are you sure there is nothing else?" He tried to press more on the topic, but I just nodded.
"Alright, if you say so," he sighed in defeat. "Well, have you made the call to the author?" he inquired.
"I will right now." I picked up my phone, dialed his number, and waited for him to pick up as the bell rang.
"Also call the plagiarism checking team and creative team." I was starting to feel even worse.
'Will my work end up in someone else's hand just like that, while I just stand here and watch and actually help it happen?' Self-doubt and different possibilities clouded my head, but I just nodded, did whatever was asked of me, and made appointments.
Almost an hour later, Rahul finally made his entrance. I guided him to the conference room and joined Aarav and other members of the creative team. The plagiarism checking team was already handed a copy of the manuscript to make sure that it's not a copy of some other work. This made me a lot more relieved knowing there were still some chances that my work could be saved.
"So let's start straight from the point, but first, hello, I am Aarav, the editor-in-chief and the one who will personally be guiding you and helping you through all the procedures from finalizing the manuscript to its creative visuals and cover, plus publishing." Aarav stood up and extended his hand for a handshake.
"And I am the author of the work you are going to contract today, Rahul." He shook hands with Aarav, feeling proud of himself, while I just sat there in disgust.
'How can he be so proud of stealing someone's hard work? It is just arrogance.'
"So here is a rough draft of the contract. Please read through it properly and let us know if you need any changes." Aarav signaled me to pass the contract to Rahul, even though I was hesitant to do so, I passed them on with a forced polite smile.
'Tere jese papiyo keliye alag se punishments hai narak mai bas ruk tu.'
('There is a different kind of punishment for sinners like you, just you wait.')
"Why do I get only 60% of the total income that is generated from my work?" Rahul abruptly stood up from his chair, not expecting the divide in income.
'Such a fool, is that all he is worried about did he not read the other clauses of him losing his full ownership on his so called 'Own work' at least half the copyrights are transferred to the publishing house so they are the one to take major decisions over what happens with your work either it is converted into series or any kind of adaptation or not or how and where it is marketed and etc. how is he not worked up on that and also on how they will ask you to change your contents to make it appealing for their audience.'
"Well, you see the publishing house helps with editing, proofreading, creative works marketing, promoting, so it's normal we at least get 40% of it as our contribution fee," Aarav explains calmly, but Rahul doesn't seem like he understands anything.
'What an idiot, coming to get his work published without basic knowledge.' I scoff to myself in my head.
"Well, this is just a draft we will finalize after your manuscript has gone through a few checks." Aarav smiles warmly at Rahul
"Checks? Checks for what?" he furrows his eyebrows in confusion.
"Checks for plagiarism that is checking if it is copied from some other works or author," Aarav explained further.
I couldn't contain the smirk that formed as the colours started to drain away from his face, his eyes filled with fear, and his hands trembling. He knew what he had done, and he knew what was to happen with him. He was aware of the consequences when he decided to do what he did, and yet proceeded with it with no shame or conscience.
'You reap what you sow, darling.'
"Are you suggesting that I copied the work?" he said nervously, trying to laugh off the fear as he took a step back. 'YES!' I exclaimed to myself immediately, even though I wanted to jump and shout that yes, he copied, basically stole my work, but I had a decorum to maintain, so I contained myself.
"We are not suggesting that you copied it or something, it's just one of the procedures a manuscript has to go through before publishing, so it doesn't cause trouble for the publishing house or the author in future" Aarav's calm voice turned cold and serious he narrowed his eyes at Rahul and continued, "but you body language states something else." Aarav takes a step forward towards Rahul, making him fall back into his seat.
"You are sure it's not copied?" Rahul trembled in fear as the danger warning surfaced Aarav's eyes and before Rahul could say anything to answer the door clicked and entered the plagiarism team with multiple papers and reports and passed it to Aarav to check Aarav looked and analysed the reports and kept the files aside on the table in front of me he just sighed as he rubbed his forehead with his index finger and thumb and sat in his chair took a sip of the water kept in front of him and demanded me to call the lawyers I nodded and started dialing immediately.
"W…Why do we need lawyers?" Rahul's voice shook in fear. I peeked in the files a little and knew exactly why it happened. I almost jumped from my seat in happiness. His panic started to increase with each passing second. The room was silent, the tension was thick in the air.
"Let me ask you again, Mr. Rahul." Aarav's voice was firm and strict.
"Does this work belong to you?" He already knew the truth, but that was a warning and a last chance for Rahul to confess his crime, but he wasn't intelligent enough to realise that he was already in deep trouble and should try to get out of it, and not get more stuck up.
"Yes," he shamelessly answered, but his body language gave him away. He was tapping his legs continuously and fidgeting with the pen in his hands, his shoulders bent down, sweat beads started to form on his forehead, but he tried his best to look confident.
"But the files say something else." Aarav was calm, yet his voice held danger. It was visible he was tired of the lie and the play.
"What… do you… mean?" Rahul's movements stopped. He sat up straight. Aarav tosses the file towards him to get the answers on his own.
"Wh… what is this? It's impossible how… did you… even…" He was in disbelief as he turned the pages of the report; his eyes widened in shock and fear.
'I think he thought no one would care so much about a webnovel of an unknown author who has just a few hundred followers, but thanks to our publishing house's strictness and meticulous work, many authors and their works are protected from getting stolen away.'
"We will need to take serious actions against you so that it doesn't happen again. We will contact you again for the court meeting." Aarav was firm. He stood up from his place and started leaving. I followed behind him. The creative team had already left as they had other appointments, but the sudden sound of a chair rolling away aggressively made us stop in our tracks. We turned back to see that Rahul had abruptly stood up, making the chair roll like that. He came towards us in hurried steps and held Aarav's hand.
"I didn't lie, sir; it's my creation. I am Kitsune. I published it online, believe me." He was still stuck on that lie.
'He should know his lie has been caught and just give up now and confess and beg for mercy because no way in hell is Aarav letting it go so easily without making him face harsh consequences of stealing someone's art when he had already given him a chance or two to accept his fault.'
Aarav had deep respect for art and their respective creators and owners. He values the efforts and emotions they put together to create even the simplest of art, and there were two things he loathed the most in this industry: plagiarism and lies, and this guy somehow ended up doing both and was still so shameless as not to accept it yet.
"Proof?" Aarav inquired in a low tone. Rahul looked at him in confusion, unable to make out what he meant.
"Do you have any proof that it's you and that you are the original creator of this work?" Aarav's eyes were cold. He was no longer calm, just trying to hold himself back so he wouldn't end up punching that guy in his face. His voice was deep and rumbling; his patience was running out.
"I… I… umm… pro…proof that is… umm…" of course he doesn't have proof, just as we were about to turn, he takes his phone and shows us a pdf that has texts and everything, it was saved as 'Drafts'.
"See, I wrote them all. I am the original creator of this work…this person must have taken my work; they are the plagiarist." Aarav and I exchanged looks, both disgusted with his behaviour. Aarav sighed and yanked his hand away from Rahul's grip and dusted his coat sleeves in disgust where he had held his hand.
"Mr. Rahul, I think you are forgetting your previous statement where you stated that YOU are Kitsune," Aarav growled as he stepped forward towards Rahul, and he stepped back, "and well texts can be copied and pasted from anywhere to anywhere." He stepped even closer, almost closing the distance between them. He had a muscular body, not too buff, but yes, somewhat the muscles were visible when he wore fitted shirts, and he was around 6'2 feet tall with broad shoulders, which made it easier to intimidate Rahul, who was just 5'10 in height and had a very average body, making him fall back on ground he couldn't counter back his claims.
"Let's meet on the day of the court meeting," Aarav reminded him again of what was waiting as his consequences, and we exited the room, leaving him there with his regrets, while I did a yippie in my head.
'What you got to say now, huh? See, karma got your ass, have fun now.'
We were now in the office, and I had this urge to celebrate my victory more like his defeat.
'This is what you get when you want easy fame without putting effort and insulting someone else's effort by stealing it.'
I looked at Aarav, who was busy on his desktop. He was on call with lawyers and was preparing the necessary documents and proof to show plagiarism, the compensation that will be formed, and other things. Soon, he hung up the call, and I went to his desk and stood near him.
"Aarav," I called him out in a cheeky tone. He turned all his attention to me from his screen and hummed for me to continue.
"I was thinking, why don't we go out for dinner together today? I feel like celebrating the dinner is on me." The feeling of the stress washing away was unreal. I was so happy that my work isn't going into someone else's hands and is safe.
"We will, but not yet. Let's contact the real author of this work." His tone held urgency, but they fell on me like a bomb.