"The invites for the wedding reception have been delivered." Amar told Vennela. "Come, let's go and invite your teammates." 

"Why? I mean, they'll be busy. They won't turn up." Vennela didn't tell them that she got married. It would be awkward for her to tell them who she got married to and why she had to do it.

"It's their choice whether they want to come or not. But we have to invite them. How would you feel if a teammate you have been working with for three years didn't invite you on her wedding reception?" asked Amar.

Vennela imagined how she would feel. She'd be furious. "You're right. Let's go" she told Amar.

"Why do you need security to go to office?" She asked as they sat in the car and observed two more cars following them.

"I don't need it. But my uncle insists. Don't worry. They won't follow us everywhere. I will restrict them once uncle Bharat goes back to London." Amar assured her.

They reached the office. For the first time in her life she felt nervous to enter her workplace. His assistants came forward to welcome them. "Thank you" said Vennela.

"You go and talk to your friends. I have a small meeting in the eleventh floor. I'll finish it in five minutes and join you." Amar told Vennela.

"They won't allow me inside. I don't have my access card." 

"Don't worry. I'll send my assistant with you. He will tell them who you are." He gestured one of his assistants to go with her.

"After you ma'am" said the assistant. When they reached the entrance of her floor he said something to the guard standing over there who stood up immediately and greeted her. Vennela was bemused.

She reached her project bay. She saw her friend Deepika sitting in her place and working on her laptop. She wanted to avoid attention. She decided to approach her quietly to give her all the invitation cards and request her to distribute them among the teammates. She tapped Deepika's shoulder. 

"Vennela! How are you girl?" Deepika spoke louder than she intended to, drawing attention. Within no time all the project mates gathered around her and bombarded her with questions. Deepika tried to stop them, but they ignored her. 

"Vennela the manager tells us you got married. Love marriage or arranged marriage?" asked a woman. 

"Why so suddenly? You didn't elope? Did you?" asked another one. 

"You got Chandrakant fired for not approving your leave application? Did the MD's team inquire us because of you?" asked a man who hasn't spoken to her in three months.

"Her husband must have got it done. She's not that famous" declared another man.

Vennela was furious. She knew they weren't concerned for her. They just wanted some entertainment. 

"Who is your husband? Is he so popular among the MD's team? Did he use his influence and get Chandrakant fired?" asked someone.

"Yes, her husband is the most popular one in the MD's team. Because he is the MD himself." Amar has just entered her project bay. Everyone gaped at him as he stood next to Vennela.

"Hello. I'm Amar Pratap Devaraju. Vennela Dhanunjaya's husband." He introduced himself. Everyone looked at Vennela disbelievingly. 

"Judging by the way you were firing questions at my wife, it is evident that you have believed in baseless rumours. I understand, the stories that have been woven are far more entertaining. But please don't leap to conclusions without knowing the real version. It's true that the wedding happened suddenly. But, we didn't elope. It happened in the presence of our families. It was all over the media. I agree, we didn't release the pictures yet, but the bride's name was written clearly in the articles. And one more thing. My wife didn't get Chandrakant fired. I did it because he was unfit to work in our organisation." Amar spoke politely.

Few of them apologized to Vennela. He took the invitation cards out of the bag and distributed them among the team requesting them to attend the event the following day. He waved at them and turned to Vennela "Let me take you to my floor. I hope you find it interesting."

Vennela followed him. For some reason she found her husband more handsome than ever. 

---***---

"I don't understand why I have to wear this Tuxedo. Why can't I wear a simple blazer?" Amar asked Anirudh. They reached the hotel at 3 pm and were killing time sitting in their suite. They still had four hours for the function to start.

"Because it's not your friend's birthday party. It's your wedding reception. You have to impress vadina." Anirudh answered without looking away from the phone. 

"Stop playing games in my mobile." Amar hit him with a pillow.

"It's not my fault if you have such interesting games in your mobile." Anirudh continued playing.

"This is exactly what's wrong with kids of this generation" said Amar as if he belonged to the older generation.

"You're jealous because I beat your highest score" said Anirudh. "Wait. Do you hear that?" They just heard some voices from the other side of the door.

"They sound like Rishi-Raj" said Amar.

"You distract her. I'll mix chilli powder in her foundation" said Raj.

"She always carries three foundation bottles in her bag. How do we know which bottle she uses today?" Rishi asked Raj.

"Pick the fairest one. She is obsessed with fair skin." Raj answered.

They opened the door. "Bava, what are you doing in our room?" asked Rishi.

"This is our suite. Yours is the adjacent one." Amar told them. 

"Come and join us. Let's have some boy talk." Anirudh invited them. They gladly agreed. 

"So, in whose foundation are you planning to mix chilli powder?" Amar asked the twins.

"Ragini" They said in unison.

"Why? What did she do? Mixing chilli powder in makeup items can damage her skin. Don't hurt her." said Anirudh.

"We don't hurt people just for fun. We have a reason. She chose a pale gown for herself to wear at Lasya akka's reception. Now that the bride is Vennela akka, she designed another bright coloured dress for herself. She said she wants to look better than the bride." Rishi ranted.

"When we asked her the reason, she said she was born to irritate Vennu akka. She further called akka an attention seeker who gets things done by the family by using her orphan status. So, we vowed to irk her today. If she annoys our princess we have to disturb her on principle" said Raj as if it was no big deal.

Amar was outraged. He couldn't believe someone could say such things about Vennela. He never saw her mention her orphan status to him or anyone else. And from what he heard about her, she has always been an independent girl who never accepted favours from the family. 

"Do you have enough chilli powder for all her makeup items? I'll help you." Anirudh told the boys.

"Stop it Rudy. Don't encourage kids in such things." Amar scolded Anirudh.

"Kids? We are not kids, bava. We'll be eighteen next year." Raj didn't like being called a kid.

"That doesn't change the fact that I'm ten years older than you guys." Amar quipped.

"But you're not half as brave as us." Rishi remarked.

"What makes you think that I'm not brave? I can beat up ten guys single-handedly. I can watch horror films at midnight without company." Amar considered himself to be the bravest man in the family.

"But you can't talk to your own wife without stuttering" said Rishi.

"Rudy tells us you don't even know her phone number. What are you so scared of?" asked Raj.

"Anna, they're right. I've observed this myself too. You speak to her as if she's your schoolteacher. Don't forget. You are the epitome of bravery in our family. Don't let us down. Go get her mobile number saved in your phone." Anirudh encouraged him.

"Bava, this is your first challenge. Know your wife's phone number before midnight" said Rishi. 

"If you succeed we'll add you in our WhatsApp group." said Raj.

"I won't help you. You have to do this yourself." Anirudh sided with the twins.

"Amar Pratap never backs off from a challenge. Her number will be saved in my phone before midnight. Get ready to lose kids." Amar told them. 

Rishi-Raj gave each other a knowing smile. It was the first step of their plan to bring Amar and Vennela closer. "We shall see." They told him.

Amar started thinking of plans to accomplish Mission KVPN (Know Vennela's Phone Number). Before anyone could speak the twins' mobiles vibrated. 

Shruthi sent them a message which said, 'Just made Ragini's new dress more beautiful' followed by a video. They played the video to see Ragini holding a burnt dress and Meenakshi scolding her for leaving the iron box on and going somewhere else. "Who irons a brand new dress?" Meenakshi scolded her. "Amma I swear, I switched it off before going. I don't know how this happened..."

The boys couldn't watch the entire video. Amar being the decent guy, was suppressing his laughter while the other three were literally rolling on the floor laughing. 

---***---

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