She’d expected he would be unpleasant, but she hadn’t thought he’d lower to schoolroom bullying tactics and outright lying to make it seem like she was incompetent.
Worse yet, most of his orders came through her subordinate, Olivia, who was all too happy to pass on news about how unhappy Vihaan was with Vera’s work. Had she not been actively trying tomaintain a distance from him, she’d have barged into his office and lodged a pencil into every cavity in his body.
Except, she was facing him now, and he was most decidedly acting like an asshole. And all she could do was muster a frustrated protest at his new demand.
“This isn’t part of my job,” Vera argued.
“Your job is what I make of it. Your contract states that the majority of your hours will be spent with the scripts and TV production, but there is space for assistance in other operations based on the discretion of an official. I’m the topmost official in the company,” he added, pointing to himself, looking far too smug. “And I’m telling you to do this.”
Vera had a sudden vision of leaping across the desk and strangling him. “You’re determined to make this difficult, aren’t you?”
“If you want easy, you know where the exit is.”
“I’m not leaving!” she seethed. The number of times he’d antagonised her, only to offer relief in the event she resigned, had only solidified his image as a tyrant in her head.
“Then do your job.”
“I would be happy to, if I thought your request made sense.”
“Are you suggesting that you are unwilling to follow through on what your boss is asking of you, and are therefore in violation of your contract?” His ill-concealed challenge and relaxed countenance drove her blood pressure up by multiple points.
“You have a PA already,” she stubbornly tried, hoping that he would give up.
“And she’s doing the work I gave to her. Unlike you.”
“Why do we need physical files? I can simply tell you what came of the research I conducted.”
“And I am telling you that I need to see it before I believe you.”
“It’s all in the archives in the storage room,” she informed him, hoping that was enough.
“Then go search for it.”
“Fine. I’ll get the team on it and—”
“No!”
She startled at his firmness.
“I assigned this task to you,” he said. “If I wanted it done by someone else, I would have told them directly.Youwill go to the archive room, andyouwill bring me the files. No one else.”
“Doing this by myself will take hours,” she exclaimed. “Let me have help.”
“No.”
“You—” She bit her lip, reminding herself that cursing out her boss would be grounds for dismissal. “No one cares about having every reference file checked.”
Vihaan stared at her, distrust marring his features. Vera hadn’t a clue what she’d done for him to question her work like this. Then again, he had never needed a reason to be a dick. Just like when he’d broken up with her.
“Do you own this company or do I, Ms. Talwar?”
Through clenched teeth, she almost hissed, “You.”
“Then do you make the decisions or do I?”
“You do.”
“That’s right. I pay you to do the jobIask of you. I didnotask you for your unwanted opinion. All it does is reveal your lack of vision which makes me wonder: did you really pull together this proposal? Or did you take credit for someone else’s work?”