Loving The Liar

Chapter 34

Aadhya's POV

"Aadhya, come with me." Ruhi called me out from the other side of the corridor. I was waiting on the receptions black leather couch until she got a place for me to start my work.

Veer had asked me to wait in his office. But whenever he was working and I chimed in, he yelled at me. So it was better for me to stay here.

Ruhi led me to the distant part of the floor where no soul was wandering. Even the reception area was better, people kept coming and going. She stopped in front of a wooden door and gestured me to take the lead.

I twisted the knob, pushing open the door. What was I expecting was an office similar to Veer's. But this was completely different.

The baby pink walls were the first to greet me. The room was entirely filled with the photos of Mehrotra family. Dream catchers were hanging in the pattern of a chandelier in the center. Only the glass wall in the office was coinciding with Veer's. Yet the multicolored peacock painted on the glass filled the room with different warm colors. The deep brown desk was entirely empty except a lampshade in the center.

Turning to Ruhi, I asked her if I was in the right office. She smiled.

"This was Veer's mother's office. He kept it as it is for years." That's when my eyes darted on the name plate 'Janhvi Mehrotra' on the door.

I was overwhelmed. Veer gave me his mother's office, the one that was so close to his heart. Ruhi asked me to enter in. I felt privileged to work in this office, in my future mother-in-law's office, whom Veer loved with all his heart.

"If you want, you can change anything." Ruhi proposed.

"No need. I want it just as it is." I replied instantly.

Ruhi reminded me that a lot if work was pending and move fast. I hurriedly entered in and placed my bag on the desk. She advised me to start selecting designs for the first fabric,, cotton. Taking her advise, I glanced at the watch on my wrist before taking if off. 11:00am. Ruhi left me on my own.

I opened my bag and pulled out the folder and my phone. Suddenly, my medication packet in my bag caught my attention. There was a note on it saying 'you skip these and I'll kill you'. Ishika! It brought smile on my lips.

Then, pushing off all the other thoughts, I focused on the work in my hand. Choosing designs for cotton fabric.

I spread the designs which could be chosen for cotton on the table around the lampshade. Getting up from my seat and placing my hands on the table, I studied each and every design. There were more than twenty and I needed only ten best.

Whenever you design for a fabric, you have to understand its speciality. Cotton is well known for the comfort it provides and its durability. This means it comes down to daily use.

Picking up the two designs of salwaar kameez, both entirely different in design and colour, I dropped them back on my chair.

After ten ten mins of discussion with myself, I picked up a design of white cotton shirt paired with white cotton pants. Once this pair is stitched, I have to do some work on it.

Three down, seven to go.

*_*

It took me two and a half hours to select ten designs, making few changes in colour choice and even designs with the help of stationary found in the tables drawer. I made a list of selected designs and related information to keep it for myself.

I pushed my chair a bit back and put my head back, closing my eyes. My fingers moved over my temple, sensing the rising headache. Suddenly, I got a flash of Jay, me and Ishika outside the restaurant near her research center.

"You have to die and I will kill you just as we killed her father." Jay spat, pointing at Ishika.

I burst open my eyes and say straight. This was a part of the fight I forgot. Jay knew something related to papa's death. But how will I contact him?

Getting up, I kicked the chair back and started pacing around, mumbling that I have to ask Jay few questions. He too lied about few things when he fought with me that day.

What's with everyone lying to me?

Ask help from Erica.

Good idea.

I instantly leapt on the table to get hold of my phone and dialled Erica's number. As soon as she answered, without pleasantries, I requested her to get me Jay's contact number. She promised me to give it till tomorrow morning.

Relieved that I could get some answers tomorrow, my headache automatically subsidized.

I filed the designs and decided to give it to the cotton sector. Collecting all the other design, I put them back in my bag and was about to leave when Ruhi rushed in without knocking.

"Lunch time." She squealed holding up her lunch bag. That's when my stomach growled too but I didn't move from my place.

"Veer isn't here. He left for a meeting and asked me to inform you. Come on, I brought lunch for you too."  She settled on the cream colour couch and gestured me to join her. Ditching the file in my hand, I walked towards the food waiting for me.

Food always comes first.

"Veer told me yesterday that he's bringing his Lady as the fashion designer. So I just thought that I should also get to know the Amiga (friend) who swept the one and only Veer Singh Mehrotra off his feet and made him smiling like an idiot without reason." I flushed listening her words.

"You speak Spanish?" I asked, guessing by the word Amiga.

"I've learnt few language's basics for business." She said.

She opened her tiffin and I found chole puri in them.

"You don't look like the one who enjoys such stuff." I commented.

"Don't judge me on my looks. I eat like a pig because I love food especially desi oily food." Her words made me laugh.

"I see, we're are getting along." I stated before prying the chole puri in front of me.

True to her words, Ruhi ate like a pig, licking her fingers at the end. It made me believe on a line strongly.

'Jo jaisa dikhta hai waisa hota bilkul nahi hai'

After lunch, she left and I went to my bag, pulling out my medicines. An idea to click a photo with it and send to Ishika, popped in my mind. But it was too kiddish according to our age.

That's when I remembered that I wanted to ask Ishika something. Ishika picked up my called in just two rings.

"How's the day going, babes? Missing me already?" She shot here question without even saying hi or hello.

"Good till now, no I didn't miss you at all." I chuckled hearing her snort. "I wanted to ask you few things, like I've forgotten what your mother told me few days back or how Veer found me. There are few others things too."

My question made her remain silent for few seconds.

"Its the side effects of your medication." She said. My eyes widened at her revelation.

"Side effects? When will this end? If it keeps going this way, I'll mess up important things." I said worriedly. God knows if I forgetting, I'll make blunders more than I normally do.

"Don't worry. They'll subsidize soon as your body gets used to it." She said, nonchalantly.

Absent mindedly, I hanged up and strode out of the office with the file in my hand. Punching the elevator button, I kept tapping my feet in impatience.

The elevator opened and I stepped in, without noticing the person inside was coming out. My body collided with a familiar strong chest and I lost my balance stumbling inside the elevator.

Quickly Veer wrapped his arms around my waist, not letting me fall. Our eyes met and always, I lost myself in those bluish green orbs. The closing elevator door brought me back to real world.

The soft and concerned look on his face turned in an accusative one. Guess he realized that I tripped and if not him catching me, might have hit my head on the elevator's edge.

"Ankhen kis bazaar mein bechke aayi ho? (In which market did you sold off your eyes)" He spat in a tone which irked me. I huffed in anger because I was about to thank you and stood away from him.

"Kyun, aapko kya bechna hai, kidney? Liver? Ya Brain?" I asked sarcastically with my one hand on my hips and other clutching the file. The elevator wasn't moving down, that's when I realized he pressed the stop button.

"Mujhe na tumhare useless brain ka rate nikalna hai. (I want to know the rate for your useless brain). Kyun karti ho aisa, why? What if you'd have hit your head somewhere?"

His angered was again converted to worry.

Understand his concern, instead of bickering like kids.

Okay mam.

"But I didn't fall. You saved me." I argued back, removing the hand from my lips and placing on his cheeks.

"I'm right here and I'm fine." I tried to tell him that I'm okay. I placed my fingers on the corners of his lips and tried to stretch the upwards, to make him smile. He turned his face away.

"What if I wouldn't have been here?" I was awed by his concern but then his question reminded me something.

"If you weren't here, then I wouldn't have tripped in the first place." I retorted. He opened his mouth to say something but then closed, confusedly. I mentally punched my hand in air for shutting him up.

I pressed the button and elevator started moving again. He asked me where was I going and I handed him the file, so that he could give any advice and if necessary could rectify anything.

He went through the file silently and I was watching him.

"I'm impressed by your choices." He spoke, at last. I was unaware of our position, his arm around my shoulder and mine on his waist, leaning against his shoulder until the elevator door opened. A worker in front of us was and giving us a look like he caught us between a make out session.

Veer closed the file and noticed his employee's gaze on us, clearing his throat. The worker averted his eyes, looking everywhere but us, just as a teenage kid does when he's watching a movie and an adult scene pops up on the screen. Then he walked away.

Veer smirked and handed my to me. As stepped out of the elevator, I turned back with and uncontrollable grin stuck on my face. We were just a feet apart, so I leaned close to his ear.

"I always choose the best." I said, huskily and came back to the normal position, winking at him. He crackled up, showing his teeth and scratched the back of his neck, which he usually does when he's blushing.

We stood smiling at each other as the elevator door closed. Turning around, I smacked the side of my head tightly, for acting like a love sick puppy. Yet, I couldn't stop the grin on my face.

Focus on your work, will you?

Yes boss.

I walked up to a worker in white uniform, asking him where can I find the sector's head. He asked me to follow him. Looking around, I saw the big automatically functioning machines, threads and cloth pieces covering the entire area. There were few handloom machine in the corner on the large floor.

I suddenly got a good idea which I decided to open up in front of the tailor. The man I was following stopped and pointed at a man, may be in his late forties and left without glancing back.

I walked up to the man. He was deeply engrossed in checking the quality of cloth in his hand. I called him out but the loud sound of the machines overpowered my voice, so I tapped on his shoulder.

He turned around giving me a blank look and folded his hands in front of his chest. If he was trying to intimidate me, I swear that it wasn't working at all.

"What do you want?" He asked, with a bored expression. If it was any other situation or place, I would've giving him a befitting reply for talking to me like I was asking him to give away all his property.

"Sir, I'm the new fashion designer and I've to designs ready. So can we discuss about it, now?" I asked him as politely as I can and showed him the file.

His expressions changed from boredom to completely attentive.

"Sorry mam! I didn't recognize you. I just thought..." Cutting off him in between I added. "that I was a collection agent asking you to pay your EMI."

His face dropped and he asked me to follow him to the tailoring room at one corner the floor. There a lady and a man were discussing something and snapped their attention towards us as we entered.

The sector's head introduced me. Unlike him, they weren't acting differently with me because I was their boss's fiancée.

"So let's start the discussion." I said opening the file.

For the whole time of explanation, we all cleared out all of our doubts. From their expressions, I was sure that they were charmed by my designs.

"Mam! Nice designs. Don't worry, we'll complete our work on time and give it to you for the other hand work." Mary, a young widow tailor in her mid twenties promised. I gave her a small smile.

"One more thing, I want the royal blue saree in handloom cotton." As expected, their expressions changed.

"Handloom cotton? You know na, it won't give any rich look as you expect." Mary voiced out here concern.

"Just prepare the saree and blouse without any prints on them, instead trace out the designs with zari work." I said, as I imagined the handloom saree with zari on it. Zari work is well known for its rich look.

But zari work on handloom cotton cloth wasn't easy. It was a challenge

"Its challenging one, right?" Mary said smilingly, as if she heard my inner voice. "Challenge excepted." She declared and I patted on her shoulder for her spirits.

*_*_*

Till the end of the day, I finished completing choosing designs for Denim and Crepe fabrics. They were the most easiest because only selected dress were made up of them. I already had few innovative designs of saree of crepe and denim, as always was known for the jeans and jackets, so I went along the same way but just had a single design that was out of context type.

Communicating with those two sector people was more easy and even they suggested few good changes with I gladly did.

I walked out if the office, leaving it just as it was before I entered and waited for Veer in the reception area. Ruhi had left earlier not before saying 'meet you tomorrow'.

I was so tired that I would've loved to sleep on the leather couch I was sitting, but Veer walked in at the same moment, ruining my plans.

On our short trip to Mehrotra mansion, I kept talking about my first well spent day at work. When we reached, I immediately jumped out of the car, hurried to my room, showered and fell on the bed closing my eyes and slept.

Dream

Aadhya was moving fast, walking towards the darker part of the alley., where mostly, no one came without bit fear in their heart even in daylight. The sun was already set.

She was used to this dark atmosphere, but wasn't planning on coming back ever again. She knew it was her last chance, do or die.

On reaching the old abandoned godown, she once prayed for her bhagwaan ji's support and stepped in. Her boss, Thomas called her in the afternoon and guessing his tone and words, she knew that he was aware if her previous day's scandal. She killed his daughter.

Even, another blunder she made was that she asked Erica to remove her photos and put back her sister Delilah's in all her IDs. So there was a high possibility that he now knows that she isn't Delilah Andrews or DA as they call.

Even, Jay might have found out that she had used him against the gang to make her plan successful.

She heard the sound bullets, indicating that her boss was practicing. Wiping the sweat beads formed on her forehead, she walked to the shooting area.

Be careful, there's already a bullet if your name in his gun.

You're not helping.

No one was around, she noticed. It was easy to take an old man down with some struggle but not the whole gang. It gave her hope.

She spotted her boss and called him out loudly. He stopped at once and went to the other side, to keep his the glasses, headphones but not his gun.

Mentally preparing herself, she followed him to his cabin. He asked her to take a seat and stood close to her, trying to intimidate her.

"Why is your target not down yet?" He asked in a deep rough voice that could send shivers down anyone's spine if they weren't used to it.

"He'll be, tonight." She answered, hating was she said.

"Where were you yesterday night?" There comes the real question.

"Home, till afternoon and then with the Mehrotra." She lied looking at him

"Liar." He spat angrily, banging his hands on the table making her jump. But now, she had made up her mode, do or die.

"You killed my daughter." He said, fire spitting from his eyes, but she wasn't scared if it anymore. Without warning, his hands made their way to her nech, choking her. Her fingers curled around his hands, trying to pull them off her neck, as she gasped for air. Her vision blurred.

"You fooled us for two years, you bitch. I'll kill you." The venom in his voice was evident.

Without sulking over her futile attempt to removing his hands, she hit on his sternum, hard and heard some cracking sound. He immediately removed his hands from her neck and she got up from the chair and coughed, moving away from him.

Through her peripheral vision, she saw him crashing to the floor. Maybe she broke his ribs. But he quickly crept towards her and pulled her by her legs,  giving her no time to escape. She fell on her one shoulder, making it hurt like hell.

He got and towered her, looking around for his gun which was lying near her legs. Before he could get it, she kicked it which went under the table.

Without wasting time, she pulled out her gun and shot him close to his heart before he could register. She saw his body falling over her and turning around, making it hit on the floor.

Instantly, she got up holding her hurting shoulder and ran upstairs where the safe was leaving him between the pool of blood. She had to go two floors up so she forced her legs to take her. There was only one small secret room in the end of the floor.

The way to the secret room was through the mirror. Luckily, he thought that she was trustworthy and showed her around. She hurried to the mirror and pushed it from one side with all the force.

The door was tough to open, but not impossible. As she entered in, her eyes darted on the infrared rays spread in zigzag pattern in front of her. She knew that to reach to her aim, she had to pass through them letting the alarms go off. Good for here, no one was here to hear them. So she uncaringly walked to the safe as the alarms ringed.

She pulled out the key from her pocket and inserted it in the keyhole, twisting it. She heard a click sound, confirming her success. But that's when the LED screen below the handle glowed, asking for the fingerprint.

She mentally slapped herself for forgetting it. He had hold her that his thumbprint was necessary to open the safe. Irritated on her foolishness, she called Erica.

"Erica, I've lost it." She said, kicking the wall in anger. When Erica questioned what happened, she told her everything.

"Don't waste your time, go down, but off his thumb, that's the only way." Still on call, Aadhya got up and ran two floors down, as the sound of alarm filled in the surrounding again and left the door open.

When she reached the place she left Thomas, to her utter shock, his body was missing.

"Erica, he's missing." Aadhya said, her eyes stuck on the blood on the floor.

"Leave the place. Now." Erica ordered, sensing the danger.

"No. I'm going back to break the safe and get the file." She said, firmly and left the place with a picture of the boss lying that room in her mind.

What if he was alive then?

He can't be for a long time.

When she made her way back to the first floor, with Erica still pleading her not to, she shushes Erica hearing the footsteps around.

Her four associates were discussing something, back facing her. The dead body of her boss was there, on a chair with head hung down. Dead.

He spoke to them, she concluded. Which meant they knew that she had back stabbed them. More problems in her path. It was good that staircase was too away from their sight, so escaped to the next floor.

She entered through the mirror door and shut it. Now was the real do or die situation. Because, in front of her were the infrared rays. She took a deep breath and ran across the room, making the alarms blare.

This would surely alert those four hunters down.

She pointed her gun at the handle and shot. Stunning her, the safe's door flared open. She pulled the fine out and immediately ran back to the door and placed her ear on it.

She then knelt in front of the door and checked if someone was there out by the small gap between the door and wall. Two men were there, searching or for something, or better someone.

"We have to find her, its boss's last order." One of them shouted.

They were armed, she noticed. Luckily they went towards the staircase. When she was sure they left, she opened to door, putting some pressure on it and slowly walked to the only open window on the floor.

Without wasting time, she lifted herself to the window's railing, clutched the file in her hand tight and jumped. She knew how to land smoothly, she was used to it but didn't knew how to do it without making noise.

"There she's." One of the four shouted from the window she jumped. Panting, she held the file to her chest and ran out of the back gate across the road and his behind one the largest trees in the surrounding. The darkness was in her support.

Her breathing was too uneven and she was starting to get scared, when she realized that she might die. For the first time in her life, she admitted to god that she wanted to live, with her sister, with those kids, especially with Veer.

She leaned into the tree's trunk, hitting her head back continuously, cursing her bad luck.

The four of them came out and she pulled herself closer, trying to get into the tree if possible. They'd scattered in all directions, but hers.

The urge to call Veer one last time and hear his voice overpowered her will to be unnoticed by the gang searching for her.

She took out her phone with her shaky hands and dialled his number. He picked in two rings.

"Aadhya." His lovely voice broke her down as she dropped on the floor with tears on her cheeks.

"Veer." She gasped.

"Veer." His name left my lips as a screech and in few seconds, he appeared on my door with only towel wrapped around his waist.

I was breathing heavily, shaken by the dream and not at all in the right mind to gawk him. Tears were streaming down my cheeks.

Realizing that I was indeed shaking because of some bad dream, he immediately settled on my bed and wrapped his arms around me. He rubbed my back lightly as I snuggled more into his warm chest.

The feeling that would die without being with him for sometime had made be terribly weak.

"Hey, it was just a bad dream." He whispered in my ears. No it wasn't a bad dream but the reality I forgot. I nodded in no.

"Go back to sleep." He said and I again nodded in no, scared to face my dreams anymore. Sighing, he tried to part away but I clutched his shoulders.

"Don't leave." I cried. He said hell be back in a minute. True to his words he came back in a minute wearing a t-shirt and tracks. He laid on my bed and asked me to join him. But I was still not ready. But he pulled me besides him and put his arms around my shoulder, not letting me get up.

"Don't worry. I'm here and I'll always be here."


*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

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Aruvi❤