During the following couple of days, the villa turned into a museum, literally.
My mother in-law informed the whole elite society in the country about Ines's "near death" experience, consequently, many decided to suddenly turn into very dutiful creatures, and they came to the villa to visit the survivor.
At the beginning, many among them were sent back without setting one foot inside the villa, the guards at the exterior gate refused to let them in following Eliyas's strict orders.
But after refusing 11 extremely wealthy visitors in the just 3 days, I came to realize that it was useless, disrespectful and dangerous to refuse such mighty people! Eliyas already had a ton of enemies so he didn't have to create new ones by doing such silly action.
Having this strong motivation in head, I found my self suggesting to him despite my heart's wish:
_" Eliyas, I don't think it's proper to keep disrespectfully sending these people back from the gate , you're only creating problems that you really don't need, Since it's obviously your mother's plot then why don't you just either send Ines back home or ask your mother to come here as well and take care of her guests."
_" Ines has to stay here." Eliyas replied coldly while keeping his focus on his laptop instead of looking at me.
This answer was not conclusive at all, I mean yes Ines will stay, but will he keep kicking people out ruthlessly?
I took a deep breath then I logically asked:
_" So, how are you going to deal with the visitors?"
_"I've already dealt with them, they were all told that they will be invited to a recovery party that mother will organize in her villa"
What!
What a sneaky man!
_" and why didn't you tell me about it?" I asked with displeasure.
He sighed and said:
_" I didn't know you were told about the visitors to begin with, I personally ordered not to bother you with this unnecessary matter, was Nana the one who told you about this?"
_" Yes" I mumbled.
He finally raised his eyes to look at me, he smiled widely then suggested:
_" Next time, if there is anything that is bothering you, just come straightforward discuss it with me, don't burden your head with thinking, just relax, you're in vacation now."
Although I didn't find these words romantic at all, I still shamelessly held his face between my palms then pecked his lips and said:
_" OK, I will."
There was another matter in fact that I probably needed to discuss with him, but I preferred not to bring it out until my suspicions are confirmed.
This matter is: Mr Houdil Akrem and his weird behavior around Ines.
Like the first day when Ines arrived from the hospital, Eliyas sat on a chair beside her bed for long awkward minutes without saying a word, And because Ines and I are not on friendly terms, no one spoke among us all, so we just ended up spending long silent minutes just staring at one another.
I felt quite unwelcome in fact, so I decided to just save my face and leave the siblings alone in the room.
I walked straight towards the open door, then went out quietly, I happened to meet Akrem who was about to walk in, so yes, we almost bumped into one another in a very embarrassing way, to god's mercy Akrem had sharper reflexes and he jolted at the right moment avoiding me.
I wanted to wipe the embarrassment of that moment so i thought i must say anything! To my bad luck though, i was so startled that instead of asking: " are you here to see Eliyas?" I spoke the idea I had in mind and asked:
_" Are you worried about Ines?"
What happened next surprised me even more than Akrem's sudden appearance, he weirdly yelled:
_"Yes!"
I assume the situation was embarrassing for him too, this explains why he yelled with a blushing face.
But why : Yes?
He soon realized his own slip of tongue, so he corrected his reply saying:
_" I mean I'm here to see Miss Filladi."
I just nodded in understanding and dismissed my self not wanting to comment.
I mean, why would he come see Ines in the first place, there's no relation between them both, not even the tiniest bit.
The correct answer was: He came to see Eliyas for work. Because he had files in his hands.
The second weird behavior was in the second day of Ines's staying in the villa.
I was so idle that morning and I wanted to do something useful, one strange idea led to the other then I somehow ended up deciding to cook the lunch.
This decision of mine pleased my husband to the extent he delayed all his morning meetings to the afternoon just to accompany my highness and cook with me in the kitchen.
I don't see why he loves the food I make at all, my culinary skills are so average and the dish I decided to cook didn't need any help at all: just chopping vegetables carelessly then boiling them all together to make a soup, making meat balls because meat balls are easy to make, then throwing them with the vegetables when they are almost cooked, then smash all the vegetables together to hide my poor cutting skills.
The rest of the menu I planned to let if for the chef to take care of.
There was really no need for Eliyas's help, still he insisted to come with a cheerful face.
Although he cleared his schedule, he still had important matters to do that morning, therefore he requested:
_" I will go work in my bureau now, when you want to start cooking tell me."
And so I did, I watched few news channels on TV while he worked, then when it was time to go to the kitchen I went to find him in his bureau.
The door was already open, so I knocked gently and walked in.
Eliyas was not alone, Akrem was sitting there too.
Unlike my hardworking husband who was burying his face between the papers, Akrem was so free that he was putting everything aside and pensively observing the scenery outside the floor to ceiling window.
They both didn't notice my entry, so I steadily walked towards Eliyas to curiously peck at what he was doing, and yes, this is a woman's habit I guess, although I know my husband is just reading boring papers I have to make sure he's really just reading boring papers.
_" Is it time to go?" Eliyas whispered while lifting his eyes from the screen to look at me when I reached him.
I nodded.
He then turned to Akrem and started suggesting some work related matters to do in his short absence, while he was doing this I curiously looked at the scenery that was making Akrem so pensive.
The window had a view on the Villa garden, there was only two important things to note, the first one was the very big large tree few meters away, the second was the beautiful girl with very short hair sitting on a bench right under that big tree, Ines.
So Akrem Houdil was undoubtedly looking at Ines.
As for the last event, the most suspicious one, it happened only few hours after the second one, precisely at lunch table right after I finished cooking.
I served the soup I made to the people who were sitting on the table, namely my husband, Nana, Ines and Akrem.
Nana, being Nana, immediately started criticizing my cooking, and pointing all the mistakes I made to the point where I felt I put waste water in her plate instead of edible food.
She was speaking endlessly when Ines suddenly interrupted her addressing me saying:
_" it isn't bad."
I barely felt a drop of joy inside my heart when she surprisingly added:
_" you used to cook quite a lot for Azziz, he had an album which had pictures of all the dishes you ever made for him, I know this because I confronted him when I found the album and he said these dishes were made by his ex, I didn't know you were the mysterious girl though, he kept a lot of souvenirs from your days together, you must have really loved one another__"
_"Ines!" Eliyas shouted while loudly banging on the table startling us all.
Because yes, such reaction is very unexpected from the rational him.
She looked at him quite intensely then yelled:
_" Don't tell me you're not bothered with how much he loves your wife Eliyas! He was ready to risk it all for her! He even went to such lengths against Filladi just for her! How do you know that her heart won't be moved again by him! She only married you for your money and she can easily get money through divorce, stop acting naive!"
_" You better respect my wife." Eliyas coldly ordered her.
She scoffed then daringly said:
_" Or what? Will you throw me in jail as well? Will you send me to the exile like you did with Lydia? What else are you still ready to do for someone who doesn't care about you at all!"
Her words were very poisonous, I didn't interrupt her because I felt it was useless trying to convince her with something she would never believe, I know it took me extremely long before I finally loved my husband but the feelings I have for him shall never waver nor change again.
While she was speaking, I just wished Eliyas's heart won't be affected with what she was saying.
I didn't want to stay for longer and listen to such unnecessarily hurtful accusations, so I left the dining room and walked to the garden to have some fresh air.
It was extremely hot weather outside, the moment i left the conditioned villa to enter the garden it was akin walking inside an oven! There was no fresh air at all!
But i needed to change the climate anyways.
To my surprise, someone else shared my same line of thinking and escaped to the garden before I did, Akrem.
I didn't notice him leaving the lunch table earlier at all, he was standing in the shadow under some tree and he was smoking heavily.
I never knew he had the habit of smoking.
It was not proper to go stand beside him because we both were not very acquainted to begin with, I preferred to stand away where his smoke won't reach me and so I did.
Who am I kidding though? I still observed him carefully and quietly even standing away!
He really smoke heavily, the short stamps were being thrown on the poor grass like martyrs one after the other, he even finished some in only one inhale!
I found his way of smoking very unhealthy, I mean it is already unhealthy to smoke, but doing it in this insanely way will damage his lungs in much shorter time.
Being the righteous person that I am, I decided that he smoke enough for the day, I walked straight towards him, then I said when I stood right behind his back:
_"You can't smoke around Eliyas, Mr.Houdil, he has an allergy."
He was startled to hear my voice, apparently he didn't notice my presence before that moment.
He quickly threw the cigarette he was smoking, then while stepping on it with his foot he turned to look at me properly and said:
_"I'm aware of this Mrs.Filladi, this is why I'm smoking in the garden."
I nodded in understanding, then I didn't comment more.
We just stood their quietly for long moments, before I cut the silence asking:
_"Were you bothered with what happened?"
_"No, I don't think I'm in a place where I can be bothered."
I smiled while observing his serious face, then I said:
_" We both were not born with silver spoons in the mouth Mr Houdil, I red an article about you yesterday, you came from an average background and you paved your own way to success, although we're not filladis, but why do you think we are not qualified to feel angry when we should?"
_" and why do you think I should be angry with what happened Mrs.Filladi?" He asked daringly with a more serious face.
I looked at him quietly for few moments, then I replied:
_" My father used to smoke too, so I know this bit at least: he smoke much more when he was emotional, If it's not anger then what else should it be?"
_"Despair." he corrected me, then continued:
_" Perhaps your late father was just desperate."
He turned to look behind me, and said with a courteous smile:
_"Mr, Filladi."
I followed his gaze only to find an extremely confused looking husband heading towards us, Akrem immediately walked away leaving me alone with my husband.
_"Was Akrem smoking?" Eliyas asked while carefully examining Akrem's back.
I nodded in affirmation, since he was not looking at me, he naturally didn't see me nodding.
He cleared his throat by coughing lightly, then suggested:
_" We should stand somewhere else."
Remembering Eliyas's sensibility towards smokes, I started walking to another area immediately.
While I was doing this, Eliyas who was following my steps suddenly said:
_" I apologize for Ines's words."
I stopped walking midway and turned to look at him, we were right under the burning sun but this was my least concern, I just spoke my heart:
_" I don't care about Ines's opinion of me, nor it matters to me to correct it, but it's not the case for you, I need you to be honest with me Eliyas, do you really trust my feelings for you? Do you not question my motives for staying with you?"
_"No." He bluntly replied.
I walked the step that separated us, then while looking more intensely inside his dark eyes I asked with displeasure:
_"No??!"
He gulped while looking inside my eyes, then whispered:
_" I meant, No, I never questioned your motives Noursine, I trust you."
I stepped away from him withgreat effort not wanting to be tempted to the point of kissing him like if I had no tomorrow, then I said:
_"then why did you get so emotional? Ines said worse words before, you were not this affected though."
He sighed, looked at me for a long time then finally said:
_" I saw that Album too when we searched his apartment, i saw so many others, it wasn't the most pleasant thing i experienced in the world."
He searched his apartment??
OK, I don't want to know about this.
_" Noursine" He gently and unnecessarily called my name.
Then he added:
_" I love you much more than that man ever did, you know this, right?"
I didn't expect to hear such words, so I awkwardly smiled and whispered:
_" I love you too."
I spent the next hours smiling alone like a fool and feeling so happy.
My head was obviously so distracted and euphoric that I forgot to think about a very important matter.
When I finally remembered my little chat with Akrem Houdil, it downed to me that the words he said were indeed weird and had hidden meanings.
By saying "Despair", he was obviously referring to himself, was Ines making him desperate?
It's already hard dealing with my tongue tied husband, it's even harder dealing with another version of him!