next day....

at 6 am.....

Akash was, as usual, sitting on his chair happily having his breakfast glancing at a very nervous Manik peeking glances at Nandini who was completely immersed in her files....manik opened his mouth to say something but quickly closed it and continued eating.....

after finishing his breakfast akash quickly left to his room as he knew Nandini wouldn't open her mouth in his presence......whatever she planned for manik will be kept hidden.....she wouldnt want him to put his nose in her business or call it.... torture.......so the only thing he could do was unhappily go to his room.......

after entering his room he closed the door and sneakily took a small earpiece from his pocket..........after connecting it to his ear he could now hear the two distinct voices that he so badly wanted to hear.......

hehe....what....just because he left from there doesn't mean he is not a curious man....he naturally wanted to know what punishment his princess will give to that brat....and hence he righteously gave them their space only to eavesdrop from the next room........

dining room....

after her mamu left nandini kept the files aside and looked at manik......seeing her gaze manik gulped the last bite of his sandwich and gave her a nervous smile.....

" tch....you still eat like a pig......" nandini sneered....

manik let out an awkward cough at her unfiltered words....his first-ever comment from her after five years.....was being called a pig....god knows what's in store for him in the future.......

" anyways since you are here lets get down to business shall we....." nandini spoke as her eyes glistened with a hint of danger........

manik nodded.....but before nandini could continue zach's voice came from a distance....manik frowned and turned around to see a handsome young man probably in his late twenties coming towards them more specifically nandini......

zach quietly came and stood by nandini's side after taking a glance at manik.....hmm.....this was boss's important person...

nandini still looked at manik who was having a hard time trying to stop himself from frowning....still the same jealous monster I see.....nandini thought before she commanded Zach to speak.......

" The work you have ordered is done mam....." he spoke in his usual polite tone...

manik on hearing the word ' mam ' for nandini from him sighed in relief....he thanked aiyappa in his mind....

" hmm...good....you can leave now....." she curtly ordered.....

listening to the word good Zach had disbelief written all over his face....getting a compliment from his boss was once in a blue moon kind of thing....which happens only when someone has done a 99% risky plan with zero damage to the squad...but here not only did he get to hear it but it also happened for such a trivial matter......

 when he returns to the squad he would surely boast about this to all his mates.......he shot s gleeful look to manik...this man surely is very important to boss.....he made a mental to treat him with respect in future.......

" thank you mam...." Zach bowed to nandini and turned to leave after giving a nod to manik...

while manik looked at him with confusion....earlier when he ( Zach )  looked at him with that smile he somehow felt goosebumps....and then he saw him bowing to nandini which let him utterly confused......is this some kind of assistant thingy of Australian people or what......because back in India he never saw such thing happen...giving a 90 degree bow to your boss it kinda felt strange.....

now that he thought about it din't those people bow the same way to N.M.....except they bowed to N.M in fear while this assistant bowed to nandini in respect......manik stopped his thought process.......what was he doing how did his thoughts again end up with N.M....he should stop thinking of her.....N.M has nothing to do with him while Nandini is who he loves.....he needs to stop thinking of N.M.......

seeing Manik lost in his thoughts nandini grinned as an idea hit her.....she looked at Zach who already covered the distance to the living room and yelled " Zach...."

manik flinched due to the abrupt shout and looked at Nandini and then to Zach.....while Zach turned around without flinching as if it was not the first time something like this happened............

" yes mam...." he spoke

" i was thinking since you have done a good job....and you have always been such a good employ......why don't i give you a vacation...." Nandini spoke without any emotion.....

Zach trembled in fear......he knew it.....he so knew it....all that praise.....how could he actually think that his boss would praise him...he must have messed up somewhere and now he is being replaced......" i am sorry mam...please forgive me if i made a mistake.....please don't fire me...."

manik looked aghast listening to Zach....is there something wrong with his brain.....how did he convert the words you are given a vacation to I am being fired......he thought

 Nandini spoke in her usual frosty tone  " i am not replacing you....i am purely giving you a vacation....all your  work would be transferred to kain....a week is all you will get.....after a week i need you reporting at the designated time or you can then bid your job a farewell......."

zach looked at her with disbelief but it was then replaced by pure happiness....he was definitely on cloud9....he was suspicious at first as his boss would never give leave so when he heard of the word vacation he obviously thought of the worst which... in his case.... was losing his position...but now he couldn't help feeling happy.....his boss is surely changing....and the reason was very obvious......

manik felt a gaze on himself......he felt uncomfortable as zach was looking at him with a -you -are my - savior kind of gaze........

" before you leave i want you to explain all your tasks to manik as he will replace you and be my assistant from now......." she stressed on the word assistant which made it clear for Zach that all his underworld related work was being transferred to kain while the regular assistant task was being given to manik........

he nodded in yes and looked at manik who looked surprised....nandini saw manik's reaction and sneered " what.....you wanna back out......."

manik masked his expression and frantically nodded in no.......nandini smirked " good....and FYI even if you wanted to you can't, after all, ' you ' signed the contract remember......."

" After getting all the instruction meet me at my office at sharp 9.....and just so you know I hate latecomers....." Nandini walked out uttering her final words.........

Manik sat there digesting all the information both from Nandini and now from Zach.....with each passing second his face was looking more troubled...

akash's room.......

Akash looked at the earpiece in disbelief.....a while ago he was still maintaining his smug smile listening to Nandini calling Manik a pig but the next second after he heard Zach telling Nandini about some work being completed the connection was lost....he didn't need a genius mind to figure who destroyed the speaker he attached at the bottom of the table......

just like before his dear princess was one step ahead of him....she knew of him placing the speaker and instead of taking out the speaker after he left she clearly made him listen the half of their conversation and then snapped the connection just when the juicy news was going to be given........

if he had actually not heard the first half he would only have been curious but now that he head half and was denied the other half he felt miserable like a foodie being starved after glancing at the world's delicacies......

manik's room.....

it took nearly two hours for zach to fill manik with all the necessary information required to know for a week....after giving him the information and a car key for travel he left the place making plans for him newfound vacation......

manik looked at the time.... 8: 00....he still had an hour to reach the workplace....after hearing Nandini's warning he wanted to go there ahead of time so he went upstairs for a quick bath....

after getting ready he looked at the time 8: 15.....great....he estimated that it would take half an hour to reach the company that means he will still be 15 min early than her given time....perfect.......

he strolled to the garage and saw the brand new Bentley all ready for him....he happily drove off.....

regal heights...

nandini was on the topmost floor sipping on her black coffee looking outside from the glass wall.......

Manik  Manik.....you are still so ignorant.....did you think i would make this whole forgiveness thing easy for you....you should have known..... as Nandini I may have given you a chance but as N.M I will make sure to show you hell because of the same......

8: 30....

manik was impatiently tapping at his steering wheel feeling irritated by the traffic.......he was feeling frustrated as he had especially chosen a less traffic route to the company even if it was a little longer than original but how the hell did he manage to land himself in this huge traffic...

he was already halfway there so he couldn't go back now.....all he can do was to wait for the traffic to clear....

8: 35 .....

shit...shit...shit.....manik's face started to lose the original happiness and sweat started to cover his forehead...25 min before her time is up.....the traffic was half cleared but he knew that by the time all the cars before him would pass ....it would be too late....he closed his eyes as Nandini's words echoed in his ears......

late....he sure can't afford it.....the next second he got out of the car and started running....25 min......if he ran fast enough he had a slim chance of making it in time.....

______________________________________________________________________________

how was the update.....?

what do you guys think.....will he make it.....?

few words on nandini......?

how do you feel about zach.........?

1650 words.....

my update frequency will be low as i have my college......but i will make them longer than before..........

with love

Devil's symphony.....