Way to startle someone!

"Going through someone's phone...tsk tsk...you don't have any manners, do you?" Rehaan tutted from behind, making me jump and almost lose the hold on the phones.

"First of all, this isn't the phone you are currently using," I deadpanned.

"And secondly?" He raised his eyebrows as he walked up so that now he was standing beside me.

"I could have gotten heartache because of your suddenness," I said with a huff, while patting my heart.

He snorted at my overreaction. "That's why a person should live diligently. You wouldn't have been so startled if you weren't doing something wrong."

I stared at him openmouthed, royally pissed at his blatant accusation.

"I wasn't doing anything wrong. And if you really didn't want me to use or touch this phone, then you should have put it back in your locker instead of putting it on your desk."

"Forgive me for not having the insight that someone would be snooping around my desk," he retorted, smiling sarcastically at me.

"You are not seriously angry about this, are you?" I asked just to be sure.

"Of course, I am. Can't you see my narrowed eyes, flaring nose and puffed up cheeks?" He asked sarcastically, while pointing towards his face with each point he said.

"I was being serious," I said, glaring at him.

"I was too." He shrugged nonchalantly, before actually putting on a serious face. "Were you planning to act on my plan after refusing me to do so? Didn't you and your Ananya Di agree that it was risky?"

"I...I wasn't trying to meet the culprit," I informed in a scared voice as I saw him getting angrier by each second.

To think he hid his anger beneath his jokes and sarcasm until now.

"Then what were you trying to do with both the phones out?"

"I was just...," I scratched the back of my neck, "I was checking the number on the app to see what name comes up."

He sighed, shaking his head at me. "Found anything worthwhile?" He asked sarcastically.

"Private number," I said with a low sigh, although I knew he wasn't really asking me.

He must have figured this out long ago.

"Don't laugh." I warned him. "Seriously don't."

"I didn't even say anything."

"You don't have to say it. It is clear on your face." I grumbled.

I hated feeling dumb.

Obviously, a top- notch powerful guy wouldn't have his number so easily available. If it was, then that number would have probably been stolen from someone else. In any case, this number wouldn't have been so easy to track.

"Chill. I searched for it as well. That's how I knew," he said, before placing the files he brought on the desk before me.

"Seriously?" I asked in a doubtful tone, not really believing him.

"Why not? I am going to try each and every method to reach him, no matter how foolish it might seem. Who knows, what may work out," he said, blinking his eyes at me reassuringly.

"Anyways, let's talk about the reason I actually came here for."

"Oh! So you weren't here to scare the hell out of me?" I taunted, smiling sarcastically at him.

My turn to roast him. Mwahahaha!

He chuckled, taking the taunt in goodwill.

"Yeah, yeah, you win."

"Really? That easily?" I raised my eyebrows.

"We have something more important to discuss right now," he said, pointing towards the files.

"Did you find something? Any leads?" I asked, curiosity and anxiety of what was going to come brimming inside me at the same time.

I picked up one of the file to go through it, as he answered.

"Something yes, but if it is a lead or not, I am not sure," he said with a sigh.

Obviously because he needed my memories to check with his facts.

"These are property papers," I said, after going through the files.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Any idea of what they-"

"Of all the places we have lived in the past seven years."

"These were all our homes?" He asked to make sure.

"Yours," I corrected, although I knew that he knew, "but yeah." I nodded.

He gave me a dead stare at my correction, but didn't say anything.

Saved. For now.

"Did you find something weird in them?" I asked, as I saw him rummaging through the files with a different kind of seriousness.

Lines had appeared on his forehead, as he reread them all.

"Our current flat's papers weren't kept with them."

"We don't have this house's papers?" I shrieked in alarm.

Did the culprits steal them?

"Stop hyperventilating. We have them," he said, looking annoyed at my quick assumptions. "It was just kept in a different place, while all these were placed together. Almost hidden, if I say so."

"How would you find them if they were hidden?" I asked him, coming back to the topic immediately, discarding my panic and his annoyance in one go.

"I said almost hidden." He shook his head at me, "how about asking important and relevant questions instead of how and where I found what I found?"

"Where you found certain things can also give us a clue," I counter-back, not liking that he was looking down on me.

Just because my line of thinking wasn't in sync with his thinking process, didn't mean I was wrong or foolish.

He breathed out through his mouth, making me think he was going to make another remark, but he apologized.

"You are right. I was wrong. I got too involved in the process of telling you what I had made out of the situation that I discarded your question which was different than what I was expecting."

"A simple sorry would have sufficed," I mumbled, before clasping my hands, "Anyways, what did you figure out?"

"Huh?"

"You said you wanted to tell me something...about the files?"

"Ah yes!" He said, hitting the back of his head lightly as he finally understood what I was talking about.

"Careful," I almost shouted, before muttering, "you might start bleeding again."

He narrowed his eyes at me, but didn't say anything about my taunt.

"Files," I reminded him again, because he was busy cursing me mentally.

Don't ask me how I knew, I just did.

"If you look at all the files, they all have different owners. Only our current flat is under my name."

"Makes sense," I said, nodding thoughtfully, before explaining, "We were minors when you got the first house. So you must have used a dummy owner."

"Must have? As in you aren't 100% sure?"

"You handled everything alone. Our education and your housing, I have no idea how you managed to get them while being a minor with no documents."

"What about your housing?"

"Huh?"

"You said our education but in housing you said 'your'," he said, looking guilty.

"Don't start with another theory of yours," I warned him, not because I was annoyed but I hated seeing him go on a guilt trip.

"You didn't help because I managed it on my own. I am sure you would have helped if I wasn't able to handle that situation." I assured him, and genuinely so.

I had full trust that he wouldn't have let me be on the streets. Although he behaved like a jerk to me at all times, he always subtly helped me without making a show of it.

People get stabbed on the backside, but Rehaan helped behind the back.

"If you say so," he said in a slow voice, not really convinced.

"Do you happen to know these dummy owners? They might know something about the situation," Rehaan asked, coming back to the topic.

"I just said that you handled everything alone."

He rolled his eyes. "I know that, but still. You didn't know who I got help from, but who knows if they turn out to be the people you have known or met before. At least go through the documents before flat out rejecting it."

"You were serious about trying each and everything," I muttered, before doing as he asked.

I went through all the files, racking my brain to see if I remembered someone from these names.

"Nope, I don't recall anyone," I said, closing down the last file with a thud.

I sat down on the chair, seriously tired after trying to remember these four-five people.

I wonder how much effort Rehaan must have been putting in all these days trying to remember anything.

I knew it was hard, but honestly I didn't know even half of the efforts he had been making while putting on a brave face. My respect for him had grown tenfold.

But that doesn't mean that I cannot get annoyed with him.

"How about the faces? You might not know them personally, but you might have seen them coming to our house in childhood. Try to remember them from these photos." He urged, while opening the files again.

"From these passport size photos?"

If only the looks could kill...

"Stop glaring at me and try. Who cares about the size of the photo, the faces are clear enough. Try."

"And don't just say you don't know them within a second," he said, as soon as I opened my mouth to say exactly that.

Only he was supposed to be predictable. I seriously didn't like when roles got reversed.

If this wasn't irritating enough, he also banned me from doing any other task. My whole day was to be spent racking my brain. Remembering these people was the priority now.

None of my tantrums or excuses worked on this jerk. I huffed and puffed, but at the end I had to do what my boss asked me to do.

He surely knew to pull out his boss card at his convenience.