I didn't expect Nana to call my father in-law, I really didn't.
The whole situation seemed like if I was a petty little girl in class who went to her teacher's desk to complain about a classmate teasing her, then the teacher called this wrongdoer to punish him for her! I seemed like the pettiest person on planet earth!
I eyed Nana while feeling very displeased then said:
_" why did you ask them to come Nana! Wellah (I swear to god) war will break out in the house today thanks to you!.. It's my mistake for telling you in the first place!"
She gave me a cold stare then lectured me saying:
_" who are you to teach me how to act? As long as I live this family shall stay my responsibility.. I'm the eldest and you should all obey me! I'm in the age where I should be praying to god and waiting for my hour to come but you still insist to send me to my grave with a burdened heart! Not one among you all is obedient .. Etc"
She spoke until I cursed the moment I decided to object on what she did.
Since there was nothing more left to say, I decided to leave Nana's room and go look for my husband to report to him the stupid thing his wife did immediately after listening to all his warnings.
I first went to our room, i didn't find him there ..
So I asked one of the servants who happened to be walking in the long corridor outside my room if she knew where Eliyas was.
Her answer was:
_"Master Eliyas is in the Garden with mr.Houdil."
I didn't knew who this Mr.Houdil was, but it didn't seem convenient to ask the busy servant more questions, especially that when I stopped her earlier she was walking rather fast on her way.. And when she was answering me, she was panting.
So I thanked her, then I headed towards the garden to personally know who this mighty guest was, especially that the doubtful Eliyas still trusted and invited him inside the villa despite the problematic situation we were living.
When I finally walked inside the garden, I spotted Eliyas and another man standing at the far eastern corner of the large space, I stepped carefully towards them to have a closer look at this guest.
As I did that, I find out that this mr Houdil was ultimately the assistant who is always by Eliyas's side, namely the one who was missing this morning when we went to jail, who i noticed for a long time but never had the chance to ask about his identity.
I finaly linked him with a name, he was a mr Houdil.
And this Mr Houdil like the usual was holding a lot of files between his hands and was discussing some matter with Eliyas while flipping the papers. When i walked closer to the couple, Eliyas was the first one to notice me, he immediately asked:
_"Is Nana doing fine?"
Mr Houdil calmly closed the top file and decided to watch the scenery in the garden which, of course, included everything but me. Since it was clear that my coming interrupted an important matter and brought inconvenience to a serious employee, I felt a bit shy when I said:
_"Eliyas, can I speak with you for a bit."
The poor mr.Houdil instantly dismissed himself before I even got Eliyas's reply.
_"What's the matter?" My husband asked calmly.
So i took a deep breath, then i informed him:
_"When i was explaining the situation for Nana, she got mad and called your father, she asked him to bring your mother and sister then come immediately to the villa."
If you think that Eliyas had even the tiniest change of expression after hearing this then i'd like to tell you that "No", he acted as if I just informed him that we're expecting the weather to be sunny today!
He simply nodded, then said:
_"ok, you go bring Nana and you wait in the grand hall, I'll join you when i finish."
As i was walking inside the villa again, Mr Houdil went back to his initial position then they resumed their business discussion as if i never went there in the first place.
It was inevitably for me to notice the huge difference between Nana's emotional control and Eliyas's, they both stand on opposite extremes! Unfortunately, the victim who has to be exposed to both stirring fire and hard ice at the same time is the poor me!
My in-laws didn't take much time to arrive, within an hour they were already standing in the hall with very cold faces, all three of them.
No one among us was courteous enough to do any greetings, since obviously no one was happy to see the other. However, my mother in-law was the first person to open the talk, she immediately expressed her total displeasure complaining:
_" how dare you order your guards to inspect us Eliyas! Is this how you treat your parents and sister!? You inspect them like criminals!"
She eyed me coldly then sneered:
_" instead of wasting your time disrespecting your family why don't you teach your wife some manners! How come she leaves us standing in the hall without inviting us to sit down!"
I didn't even reply to that, i had no intention of doing so nor i had the chance to begin with, since Nana -god bless her- immediately yelled:
_" you dare speak about manners you filthy woman! It was my mistake for accepting you as my son's wife in the first place! You snake turned buelguassem against his own blood and flesh and you're still not satisfied!..etc"
So yes, Nana blamed everything on her daughter in-law eventually and acted as if her adopted son did nothing at all, exactly like how my mother in-law always succeeds in putting any kind of blame on me as well. Both the two quarreled endlessly, the rest of us of course just stood tall like statues and didn't have the chance to say anything for a very long time.
It so happened that during their verbal dispute Nana suddenly lost her sanity along with her temper and she insanely held some pottery vase that was only put in the grand hall for the purpose of decoration, she threw it at my mother in-law with all her might!
Since we all acted very slow ( because we didn't expect this to happen) and Nana -god bless her- had a very poor eyesight, the vase that supposedly targeted my mother in-law landed on Ines's head instead.
The pottery vase was thankfully made of hard material, so it didn't break on Ines's head, even when it fell on the ground it still only cracked.
But a hit on the head is still a hit on the head.
My mother in-law shrieked in terror looking at her daughter while all our hearts stopped.
Ines immediately put her hands on the spot with her face grimacing of pain.
We all ran towards her panicking, my mother in-law was by far the most emotional among us all, she circled her daughter with trembling hands and asked:
_" are you ok?? Ines! Answer me!"
While my mother in-law and Nana were still yelling nonstop and pointing fingers at one another regarding the accident, intermittently interrupted by Eliyas's worried inquiries to his sister, My sharp ears still caught another sound amid this total chaos..
Not a loud one..
Just the sound of lots of papers dropping on the ground.
I instinctively turned to look at the source of this sound, surprisingly, I spotted mr.Houdil standing not so far from us with a frozen expression. The files he was holding earlier were now all over the ground near his feet, while he stared at us with a pale face, precisely at Ines.
_" i'm ok" Ines finally whispered taking my full attention again so i turned to look at her.
Eliyas frantically took her hands off of her head and inspected that spot, then he immediately held his Sister between his arms and lifted her like if she had the weight of a leaf.
He roared while starting to walk towards the villa's interior door:
_"Get the car ready!"
Mr.Houdil instantly ran outside ahead of Eliyas, probably to execute his orders, while both Nana and my mother in-law followed Eliyas panicking.
Only I and my heartless father in-law were left in that place, only us both.
I bet he too noticed the important files falling on the ground and was expecting and waiting for everyone to leave so as he gets the chance to go take those papers and have a good look at the info written inside before swiftly putting them back in their initial spot.
It wasn't so hard to read that filthy man at all, especially after hearing all about him from Eliyas, it was the easiest task ever for me to know his clear intentions.
While we both remained standing in front of one another just having a staring battle, i scoffed and said to my self:
"This filthy old bastard will have his way only over my dead body."
I took a deep breath, then i said:
_" father, you must be really worried about Ines, Eliyas must have taken her to the hospital, i'll ask the guards to arrange a car for you to follow them."
He smiled like a gentleman, then said like a devil:
_" Indeed i am worried, i'll be thankful if you do so, aren't you coming as well? We should go together, Eliyas will be worried when he notices that you didn't follow him."
Such a sneaky man.
In the past, I didn't have a specifically good relationship with him, we just had courtesy and respect, but now that I can see with my own eyes how he wasn't affected at all, not even the tinniest bit, with his own daughter's accident, I realized I was really standing in face of a heartless. Such person, would he even hesitate before harming me, a mere stranger?
You see, when i was listening to him, it was akin having a dialogue with a criminal who is holding a knife and threatening to stab me with it, I was so terrified..
But what was most important for me, was to protect those files that can cause irreparable damage to my husband.
I tried to put a smile as well, and I said:
_" Eliyas asked me earlier not to leave the villa no matter what was the situation, I better do that."
While keeping my eyes on him I loudly called the servants to come because I truly was scared of being left alone, some female servant thankfully wasn't as gossipy as the others and didn't follow Eliyas outside the villa to curiously see what was happening, she apparently kept doing her work in the kitchen because she came from that direction when i called.
I made sure to remember her face because she will be getting a generous reward from my husband later.
Although i was genuinely happy because she came -she was the only person who came- I still feigned displeasure and I yelled:
_" where are my personal guards? They are supposed to be around me all the time! aren't they paid to only do that!? You call them here immediately!"
The servant looked quite surprised with my rude behavior, since i never acted this way.
I was genuinely scared, that man standing in front of me, how could i be sure that he wouldn't just push me to the side and go take the papers he was drooling for?
Only respect and courtesy were preventing him from doing so, and he doesn't have any of them clearly!
The servant ran to the door afterwards, few seconds later the whole hall was full of armed man.
I randomly selected one among them and i ordered him to prepare a car for my father in-law and follow him out.
That filthy old man though, he still smiled for me sinisterly before leaving and he said:
_" we'll meet again pretty soon then, stay safe and take care of your self."
I nodded, i just nodded.
Because at that moment, the phobic me who witnessed someone getting hurt, who was scarred and who felt her life was threatened, started to have a panic attack.
As few of the guards were guiding him outside, i strode towards the files that were carelessly left on the ground and i collected them frantically.
_" Master lady.. Are you ok?" One of the guards asked.
I nodded, then i held those papers and ran towards Nana's room, since unlike my room, hers was the nearest and at the same floor.
The moment i walked inside her room holding the papers i locked the door with my trembling hands then i fell on the ground weakly trying to calm my quickening breaths.
This state of mine is uncontrollable, it's something even i can't explain.
The only thing i can say is that the idea of being hurt is the worst kind of torture to me.
While trying to calm my self, i held on those papers like if they were my son i feared to lose.