Akrem never asked anything from me, to be precise, I don't even remember him talking to me first at all, it was I who initiated most of our previous conversations.
So when he strangely said:
_"Mrs Filladi.. can I ask a favor from you?"
I felt both confused and obliged to agree to hear his request, whatever it was.
To be honest, more than anything else, I was actually "very" curious to know what he was about to say! By very curious, I particularly mean I was showing all the symptoms of a " psyched journalist" in front of that man: my eyes were bulging, I was blinking so much the one might think I lost control over my eyelids, i stopped breathing, and I typically tilted my head to the side a bit to listen more attentively, thankfully Akrem was so immersed in his own struggle to notice how strange I was acting.
I mean just put your selves in my shoes, this man is the definition of acting independent and not asking for a favor from anyone, he even once knocked Ines's ex unconscious and almost beat him to death although he could simply say to the army of bodyguards who were close by:
_" My men, our miss Filladi is being harassed, so i'll kindly let you do your job of protecting her since I'm paid for doing the paperwork and not to use my martial skills."
So yes, he's so independent and "self relying" that he simply decided to risk going to jail and hell by almost killing someone.
Now imagine this same man asking my highness for a favor, if I didn't feel curious then I'm not normal!
Akrem tactfully checked if there was anyone else walking in the corridor where we were standing, he even looked at Eliyas's bureau's door to make sure it was safely closed so it meant he didn't want Eliyas to know the matter he wanted to ask for as well, which naturally made my curiosity reach levels of insanity! when he was sure we were absolutely safe and before I hilariously shouted: "just talk already!!" he finally spoke with a confident expression:
_" It's about Miss Marwa Kaidi, I believe you still remember her Mrs Filladi since you kindly saved her at the resort yesterday, If I'm honest I should say if matters progress the way I want them to and she agrees, I'm thinking of having a more serious relationship with her, these are my true intentions Mrs Filladi which I now think need to be clearly explained, and what I want to ask from you is .. to kindly.. not let her be misguided."
Well, to say I was dumbfounded after he finished speaking is an understatement, more accurately, I was so surprised that I lost faith in my judgement.
What the hell!
A serious relationship with Marwa!
Wasn't he only yesterday being head over heels for Ines? He was hell of dumbstruck in love in Marwa's presence to be presice! Didn't he follow Ines out of the resort under Marwa's watchful eyes??
Like.. Seriously! What happened to his great love overnight?
You see, there are moments in life when even someone like me, a very neutral person, gets angry on behalf of other people and wishes to knock sense in a brainless head!
I angrily said:
_"who should I not misguide? Marwa or Ines? The way I see matters, they are both very misguided!"
If he meant Marwa, then I hell diverted her attention 180° from him already!
_"Miss Filladi has nothing to do with my private life." he calmly interrupted me.. He looked at me more carefully then repeated:
_"My intentions, and Miss Kaidi's matter, she has nothing to do with them, as for the woman I wish not to be hurt nor mislead while I'm still fixing matters first, I certainly mean Miss Kaidi."
_" Marwa is a good girl." I commented with a displeased face.
I meant to say that she is a good girl so she deserves better than a man seeing her as a replacement! but I was surprised when he said:
_" I know, such a person is rare to chance upon, and I don't want to regret missing my rare chance, I'll do my best at least."
_" You love another woman! I sure won't encourage your intentions towards Marwa " I daringly commented although I had no right to frankly confront him with that.
After saying this, we both remained silently observing one another, or at least that was what I did, as for Akrem, he probably was just out of words.
How selfish can people be? he coincidentally meets a good woman so he wants to have her despite having no feelings for her not spending anytime to know her! He's not buying a merchandize.. Marrying someone is having someone else's hopes and trust for a lifetime! If he's not wholeheartedly involved from the get go then he should probably not mess with an innocent person's life!
Realizing I was not to receive any other words from him, I was about to refuse his request and leave, but before I did that he finally spoke again.
He calmly said:
_" If I should be clearer, Even if miss Filladi personally comes for me now I will reject her, and we both know she will not even do that, So standing on this side alone.. I give up. And I have the right to seek happiness when I find it, Good day Mrs Filladi."
He slowly walked towards Eliyas's bureau once he finished speaking, then after knocking on the door he walked inside leaving me standing alone at the corridor.
That is rudeness if you ask my opinion, I mean you shouldn't simply walk away from a person from who you asked a favor, If I were your typical bad villain in a drama I would say in an evil monologue :
"You dare disrespect me! I will make you pay for it! I know all your secrets! I will ruin you!"
But then I'm not that illogical, I can understand that loving the indecisive and eccentric Ines must have been very painful for him and he must be doing his best to move on yet I simply remind him of her, I mean the very night she so passionately kissed him and made his heart probably flutter she went ahead and chose to marry another crushing his hopes with no interval in between! She humiliated him too after he defended her, and to be honest I'm not sure whether she has real feelings for him or she just doesn't want to lose a man who is in love with her, so I can't blame him for being prideful and wanting to move on.
Still, I undoubtedly believe Marwa deserves better, but I'm in no place to intervene.
In fact, my head was so occupied with this matter that I was awkwardly silent in the car on our way to the farm, Eliyas even being busy reading documents on his laptop sitting beside me, he didn't miss such a rare event: " me not talking."
_" Noursine?" He suddenly called my name while his eyes were still stuck on the screen of his laptop.
I turned to look at him, which he naturally didn't notice because his eyes were not on me.
So he called again while still freaking working on the laptop:
_"Noursine?"
At this point, I ran out of patience and said:
_"If you call my name, then you should at least look at me! Why do you bother someone if you're not planning to give your attention to him!"
_"Are you mad at me?" He carefully asked while turning off his laptop and slowly closing it.
_"Oh, did you do something to make me feel mad?" I asked with a displeased face.
This was a simple question, still my very smart husband suddenly lost much of his IQ, therefore answering this question was taking him a great amount of time, losing my patience I replied on his behalf:
_"You did a lot of things to make me feel mad but I'm not mad at you, you know why? because I'm a generous person! isn't this what all men prefer? A kind generous woman who doesn't get easily mad at them and who is easy to handle, that way even if they have no feelings for her she will be easily satisfied with just anything and make them pleased on top of it, all men are selfish!"
After I finished speaking, seeing how surprised and annoyed my husband was, I figured out I was diverting my anger and concern on the very wrong subject and emptied my heart's content on him, since I couldn't take back what I said, I simply decided to let him vent all his heart's content on me as well, If he wanted to treat me as a subordinate of his and blame me for all the problems at work I was ready to accept that, even If he wanted to blame me for every problem in the universe, I was generously ready to accept that as well, so I patiently waited for him to scald me, still he strangely and coldly said:
_" You're not easy to handle at all, in fact, you're one of the most challenging people I've ever encountered, So I certainly didn't marry you because you were easy to get along with, and I do have feelings for you, lots of them, still you were not satisfied with them for a very long time, doesn't that make you more selfish?"
_"Eliyas!" I called his name once he finished speaking, so he glared at me with his eyes saying: "if you dare object on what I just said then I will dare throw you out of the car as well", since I absolutely didn't want to anger this heartless man anymore, I radically flipped my attitude, I smiled widely then shamelessly said:
_" who is not satisfied with you? I'm very satisfied! I love you so much! I can not wish for a better husband, you're simply the best man I ever met!"
Of course he was dumbfounded with such sudden confession, since typically, I would not give up to him so easily. In fact, he probably regretted the moment he called my name in the first place, since once I finished speaking he quickly opened his laptop again and decided to ignore my highness.
Still I could tell he was actually very moved with that silly sneaky confession of mine, because every few seconds he would turn to look outside the window in the opposite direction from where I was sitting, then he would secretly smile for no reason, this husband of mine is indeed very easily satisfied.
When we finally arrived at the farm, despite him having an expressionless face like the usual I knew he was still very hyped because he made sure to hold my hand although he usually avoids to do that in public, and he even locked our fingers.
The situation around us wasn't as bubbly as his mood at all, since the moment we arrived at the farm, we were attacked by a flood of journalists who were all blocked by our bodyguards, it was indeed very suspicious having them all gathered there although the farm was supposed to be very private.
The farm it self was unexpectedly very large in size, the main building was a huge Arabic styled sort of villa painted in sandy brown emitting ancient vibes, as for the garden, it seemed very well taken care of, that place was indeed refreshing and very beautiful to look at, except that it was full of people.
As we were making our way through the garden, I spotted my mother in-law permitting few journalists to have a quick interview with her, seeing the name of their stations I realized she didn't pick them just randomly, on the contrary, they all were the most publicly famous in the country, I know that because I once dreamed to work for any among them, I felt the need to ask Eliyas:
_" Did mother ask for the press to come?"
He nodded, then continued:
_" Probably to distort your good image because all the public eye is on you now and a very good image of you wouldn't benefit her much, and she can use your health condition since only yesterday you supposedly were in a critical condition after getting hit by a car when saving someone, yet today you're so healthy and even leisurely visiting a farm, maybe she will take this chance to promote for Ines's wedding, that woman never misses a chance once she has one."
_" You knew all about this already yet you still insisted to bring me here to make me look like a liar to people?" I furiously asked him while stopping midway and turning to look at him.
He sighed, then explained:
_" I just wanted you to come here and relax after what happened yesterday, as for your image, the public affairs department at Filladi will take care of it so you shouldn't think about that, mother can't get so overboard as well since she will have to bear the consequences of her actions."
When he was speaking, I wasn't paying much attention to him honestly, I was almost fully focused on my mother in-law talking to the press and secretly cursing her for acting like a snake, that woman, I would seriously be surprised if she acted on goodwill towards me once in this lifetime.
Why should I rely on the poor public's affairs team to fix my reputation though? I mean what would they tell people? I'm perfectly healthy because I'm a superwoman?? Or that I was admitted to the hospital only for sightseeing and changing the climate??
Being the righteous person that I am, I decided to take care of my own matters, If the public thinks I'm sick then I should look more sickly! so once Eliyas finished talking I quickly whispered:
_" just get along with me."
Then immediately I, the expert in phobia attacks and in the art of journalism, leaned on his arm and feigned fatigue.
As we made few steps ahead while I pretended to be a weak flower easily blown by a tiny breeze, I pillowed his arm and commented:
_" you should give more support to your wife, I can barely walk!"
He laughed amusingly then wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pushed me to lean on his chest instead, and we continued walking in that position.
When we finally reached the interior gate of the main building, there was more people expecting us, although this time round the bodyguards didn't try to keep them away.
Among them, an elderly couple made their way towards Eliyas and I, then welcomed us introducing them selves as the owners of that farm, Mr and Mrs Midocali.
Mrs Midocali looked much more enthusiastic to have us compared to her husband, seeming like a chatty person, she soon added once she finished introducing her self to me:
_" my son Zakarya is at Z country at the moment! He feels so regretful to miss this chance of meeting Eliyas's wife! It is fair to say that among all our family members Zakarya was the happiest for Eliyas's marriage, that is understandable of course, since they both are on friendly terms!"
My face must have showed an unpleasant expression, Because Mr Midocali soon said to his wife:
_"Razika, let Mrs Filladi go inside and have little rest, she must be tired, only yesterday she had an accident."
His demand only made her talk more in fact and ask more questions, then my mother in-law tagged along as well and it started to seem like we'll spend an eternity just standing at the gate.As they were talking I scanned the people who were present, they all were from my mother in-law's entourage so I would probably be introduced to all of them, I kept randomly examining them that Is until my eyes finally fell on the youthful woman standing alone on the side and looking exactly in my direction.
Once my eyes landed on her she smiled brightly as if she was standing in darkness and I finally shed light in her surrounding.
It was Marwa Kaidi.
As If her own presence wasn't enough to make my heart feel very uneasy, Nadir who was initially standing by my father in-law's side when we arrived at the gate suddenly ignored all formalities and he made his way right towards Marwa and started a conversation with her.
Just perfect!