Hi all!!
Here is the next part!!
Sorry for being late.. I'm a bit stuck up..

Vindhya's POV:

Without wasting any time I barged into Karthik's room.  He looked at me as if he's the traffic police who caught me when I had crossed the red signal. I don't have time to be patient and well mannered when dad is visiting the office.

I asked Karthik " You should be absent from this office for the next one hour."

He looked at me as if I'm an alien.

He spoke " What makes you think that I'll follow your words in my office?"

Gosh! Why is he making things difficult?

I saw Mr.Kumar entering the office.

I told Karthik that dad is visiting the office to know about my performance from my boss.

Now Karthik's equally terrified.

I asked him to call Mr. Kumar in.

He did so.

When Mr.Kumar entered inside Karthik's room, I spoke " For some time you'll have to act as if you're Karthik. I don't have time to explain why you're doing this. But please help me out."

He gave me a weird look and looked at Karthik. Karthik remained silent and Mr. Kumar had a puzzled look on his face now.

I saw Dad entering the office. That's it!!!!

I pulled Karthik our of his chair and made him to hide under his huge wooden table. I pushed Me. Kumar to Karthik's chair. He stumbled but managed to sit on it with a loud sound. He adjusted his shirt and tie properly, I heard a knock on the door.

Mr. Kumar seemed to be in a daze and couldn't answer to the knock. So I myself opened the door and spoke " Welcome Dad! Karthik Sir asked me to open the door for you. Isn't it so nice of him?"

Dad adjusted his eye glasses. He does that whenever he examines things more carefully. I'm now on the verge of being caught. Dad entered inside after I turned towards Mr.Kumar who's in Karthik's chair now.

I prayed silently to God hoping that I and Karthik will not be caught. I signed through my eyes to Mr.Kumar to help me. I don't know if he understood my sign or not.

Dad spoke on looking Mr.Kumar " That's so nice of you Mr..."

" Mr.Kumar" he spoke.

God!! I'm caught now...

" Mr. Karthik Kumar" he covered up.

"Okay Mr.Kumar" Dad extended his hand for Mr.Kumar and they had their  shake-hand.

" Please sit down Sir" Mr. Kumar spoke.

" Thank you. I'm Prabhakaran Iyer, father of Vindhya here. I'm here to know how she's been doing her work here. Whenever I asked her about her work, she gives me half answers so I had to know if she's doing it up to your company standards." Dad spoke coming  straight to the matter for which he came.

Hopefully the meeting gets over soon.
Not to forget Karthik is under the table.

Mr. Kumar seemed to notice my uneasiness. " She's perfect Sir. She does the work exactly as required by the company. I'm happy to have such dedicated girl working for us. You have a very good daughter."

Mr.Kumar must have thought that praising me will give satisfaction to dad, but dad never likes anyone praising because they may get those praises to head and may stop working hard. What should I do now? Dad's not going to end it here.

Dad answered " That's good Mr.Kumar, don't get me wrong, as this company is a start-up, you should not praise your employees so soon. They must be kept within strict targets to help the company reach great heights. I'm sorry but that's what this poor man understood in his little experience."

" I understood Sir. I will make sure to follow your advice. Thank you for coming and taking good interest in our company. It's my pleasure meeting you Sir. If you don't mind, I have a meeting with my staff in 5 more minutes." Mr.Kumar spoke.

Phew!! Finally he understood my sign telling him send my dad.

" Nice meeting you too young man. You continue with your work." Saying this Dad got up from his chair.

" Have a nice day Sir." Mr.Kumar wished Dad before he left the room.

Dad gave a nod and exited the room with me following him behind.

I led him out of the office and spoke " What's the need to come and trouble yourself Dad? I told you my boss is good na."

He said " Yeah, he's good. I wanted to know about my beta's ability too. Now go back to your meeting, you may be late." He pecked my cheek and entered his car and drove off.

I made sure he was out of the view and rushed into my office and knocked on Karthik's room.

" Come in." This time it was Karthik with a tired voice.

Oh he could actually see who's outside without the outsiders knowing who's inside.

I entered and hung my head down and covered my face with my hands. " I'm so sorry Sir." I genuinely spoke.

"It's okay Vindhya. Have a seat, you must be tired too." He replied.

Yeah, I'm tired emotionally, my blood pressure would have been doubled all this while when dad's inside this room with Karthik hiding under the table. Karthik's so good in understanding people.

" That's so nice of you Sir." I said

" You can call me Karthik for now." He said panting as if he had just completed a marathon.

I nodded my head without looking at him and said " I'm sorry for the mess."

Only then the washroom door inside Karthik's room opened and Mr. Kumar came out.

He spoke to me " So you know Sir before joining here?"

I nodded my head silently.

" Thanks for the help Mr.Kumar." I added.

" That's enough piece of information. Make sure that you'll not let anyone else know this, or else forget about your job . Now you may leave the room." Karthik dismissed him rudely.

I wonder if he's the same Karthik who's been nice to me just a minute before and is being deliberately rude to someone who helped him out of trouble.

I wonder if he's bipolar or something.

Mr.Kumar quietly nodded and left the room.

Karthik now turned to me with a hard look.

He's still hyperventilating. I wonder what got into him that he's like that.

" What? I have been trying to hide under the table in different postures so that your father doesn't get to see me hiding and not to forget I have dust allergy. Eventhough we clean our office everyday, there's still dust under the table. I tried my best to breathe calmly without being noted." He spoke.

I feel guilty. Had I been more careful about telling my family about my work, maybe my dad wouldn't have visited and Karthik wouldn't have to face this trouble.

" I'm very sorry Karthik. I didn't really mean to trouble you. I couldn't think of an idea when I saw Dad entering the office. I was worried that we may be caught. So I pushed you like that. " I apologised again.

" That's fine." He spoke in a business tone.

But his voice says otherwise.

What is he up to?

" But inorder to accept your apology and to compensate for the trouble you caused today, you'll be working as my secretary for the rest of the week. I don't care if you'll have to do overtime, or you'll have to sacrifice your beauty sleep or lunch for doing the work. Am i clear?" He spoke without any emotion in the same business tone.

That's it!!

I know something like this will come up!!

" Ok sir." I said as I'm partly responsible for this.

" Good, now you may go." He said.

I came out and sat in my chair, closed my eyes and called Deepak letting him know that I'm fine, Dad visited my office and my boss gave me extra work as he is not happy with my parent checking upon his company.

" Typical boss." Deepak said.

" I'm fine. Don't worry. Bye. Will call you later." I said and finally relaxed after the long drama which happened today.

Karthik's POV:

I'm shocked would be an understatement when Vindhya pushed me under the table.

But I'm happy that she has quick reflexes and responded in time before uncle came.

I had to hide under the table for some good 20 minutes. And Mr.Kumar acting like he's the boss isn't helping me. Of course he's helping us, but no one can call my hard work as theirs.

After Uncle left, I quickly sat on the chair and gulped a glass of water. Ritish looked surprised. I shot him a glare and he went inside the washroom.

I gave Vindhya extra time work, by this I'm following Uncle's piece of advice and I'm punishing Vindhya too.

Ritish knows that Vindhya knows me as Karthik not as Mr.Kapoor. I must do something to make his mouth shut.

Now I'm in my office wondering what made me hide my identity  in my own office.

Dammit!! Who hides as a thief in his own office???

I wanted to shout the reason aloud and tell everyone that I don't care about it anymore. 

But I can't!😠😠😠..

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That's it for now....

Can you guess why Karthik is hiding his identity?

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