Ines Filladi always knew that she should never marry a man that she liked more than he liked her, because her brother's failing marriage gave her the trauma of her life.
There isn't a single person in the Filladi's close circle of acquaintances who failed to notice how infatuated Eliyas is about his wife, whenever Noursine was in his surrounding, his eyes would always carefully watch her every little movement, if he was spotted spacing out while looking at something in the far distance, it was unnecessary to curiously follow his gaze and see what he was looking at, since most certainly, a little sun kissed woman with a long dark hair would be standing at that faraway spot.
Since everyone could tell, and even those who poorly knew Eliyas, how come Noursine still had no idea and acted indifferent towards him?? Ines found only one explanation for this: that Noursine truly had not a single emotion nor care for Eliyas, therefore, he was only wasting his life on an undeserving woman.
She remembers clearly the first year of her brother's marriage because it affected her judgement for the longest of time, if examples should be given as to why the one shouldn't marry when he's in a state of unrequited love, then it should be this incident..
On a certain day, Eliyas who rarely ever gave Ines any time or consideration, suddenly asked her to join him at his bureau because he wanted to talk with her, initially she thought the matter had to do with her, so she felt both excited and nervous as she made her way towards his bureau, when arriving there though she felt very disappointed to know eventually that he only wanted her for a matter related to Noursine, mainly, he wanted her help to select a gift for his wife, however, she still felt warmth inside her heart seeing that her brother finally asked her help with something in this lifetime.
_" what do you think she likes?" Ines asked her somewhat nervous brother.
He gave her question a lot of thinking before he just replied:
_" I don't know.."
At this point, she realized that if she was to wait for him to make any suggestion, then half a life would pass without him saying a word, therefore she conveniently suggested:
_" how about you give her a piece of jewelry? I don't think she has any except for the ones you gave her for her dowry, if she feels you're ready to spend more money on her .. Maybe she will be happier with you."
_" she's not that type of person, she doesn't like to spend much." Eliyas quickly corrected his sister.. Then giving her suggestion little thinking he added:
_" maybe I should indeed buy her a bracelet, that time at your birthday party she had no jewelry on her.. But she had a bracelet though, maybe she likes them."
It took Ines a considerable length of time to finally recall that Noursine was indeed a guest to one of her birthday parties, this happened long years before after all, to see that her brother even remembers what his wife wore back then she was very impressed, still, she didn't dare comment on this, and only gave him names of certain known jewelry shops, she later accompanied him to a number of them to help him choose a suitable gift for his wife.
To her surprise, Eliyas came very prepared, he even had a picture of the bracelet Noursine wore a couple of years earlier and wanted to find something a little similar to it, after a long search they finally agreed on a simple white gold bracelet with little diamonds on it, as a reward for her help, Ines was gifted an ornament of her choice.
Since this satisfied sister was responsible for selecting the gift and she's a person who loves surprises by nature, She felt curious to know Noursine's reaction, so for the following days, she kept a close eye on her sister in-law and watched her behavior around Eliyas, her expectation was that Noursine would be happier and warmer, much to her disappointment and anger, not only the distance between the couple seemed to grow bigger, Noursine suddenly started spending more time outside the villa and she often skipped the family meals.
Wanting to know what exactly went wrong, Ines soon barged inside her brother's bureau at the villa and she asked without any introductions:
_" She didn't like the bracelet did she? I told you to buy something that looked more expensive! Seeing how simple the design is she must have assumed the price is so little, people like her don't have an eye for jewelries, to them the bigger the better!"
Ines is this kind of people, she has always been, she frankly expresses her self without a single care, if she's being offensive, then that is simply what she is thinking and can't be altered.
Eliyas whose work was suddenly interrupted and whose wife was unfairly accused initially didn't want to mind giving any explanation at all, but sensing his sister's genuine care about him underneath the layer of her harsh words he had to say:
_" When I gave it to her, she refused to take it because she felt it was so expensive, she said she hated jewelries and preferred more unique and heartfelt gifts, this is her way of saying she didn't marry me for the money, so don't misunderstand her."
_" how is your gift not heartfelt?? Didn't we spend hours looking for it? Didn't you make effort looking for a jewelry she had in the past! Plus a gift is a gift, how could she refuse to take it? This is very disrespectful to you! "
Eliyas didn't waste words replying to this, just like the usual rude him, he didn't bother talking more.
Although Ines had a lot more to say, and she deeply wished she could simply open her brother's head and put some sense inside of it, she still didn't object anymore, and decided not to intervene again.
However, this decision of hers soon came to an end when at a certain afternoon few days later Eliyas walked inside the villa with big strides and an unsightly angered expression, and Noursine closely followed him with a guilty attitude, being the sister who silently watched her brother's deteriorating spirits for the past days she had to block Noursine's way and ask her:
_" did you both have a fight?"
It was a simple "yes" or "no" question, yet Noursine still facelessly lied saying:
_" No, I discovered a traiter in his company while leading a press investigation, and I told him, he's very displeased about it."
After saying such nonsense, she quickly climbed the stairs and followed Eliyas to their room.
Who was she kidding though?? once they were upstairs, the sounds of them loudly yelling at one another were clearly heard in the calm villa, they fought for a very long time until Eliyas walked downstairs again looking very dark and very much unlike him self, he went inside his bureau slamming the door violently shut.
While standing at the hall alongside her mother and a couple of curious servants, Ines and her mother only looked at one another not knowing what they should do, while they were at it, they suddenly heard the sound of some metallic object loudly smashing on the wooden door of Eliyas's bureau, the sound was coming from the inside.
Assuming that he threw something at the door in a fit of anger, Ines couldn't wait any more, and despite her mother's objections she still insisted on going to the bureau to check on Eliyas who clearly was acting very out of his character.
When she calmly entered the room, Eliyas was standing at the window looking at the garden outside giving her his back, or at least this is what an outsider would think, since she knew her brother better, she knew that this is his habit when wanting to calm himself.
As she carefully stepped further inside, she spotted a silver bracelet thrown on the clean floor, assuming that this was the metallic object that earlier smashed on the door, she curiously kneeled down to pick it up and have a look at it.
She barely held it and came to notice that it looked very much like the bracelet from the picture, namely the bracelet Noursine wore years ago at the birthday party, when suddenly Eliyas ordered her with the coldest tone:
_" Throw it away.."
Eliyas absolutely felt disgusted and angered by the sight of this copy fake bracelet, After all.. He just found out that the original bracelet he made this copy from, namely what Noursine had on at Ines's party, was a gift from Azziz, her ex boyfriend.
He had no idea about this though, not the day of the party when he first saw Noursine wearing it nor the day he so naively visited many jewelry stores with his sister just on the hopes of finding something similar.
not only he bought a new bracelet for his wife, but seeing that she wasn't satisfied with it he went along and asked a certain known artisan to make a copy of the original piece just to make her happy, thankfully he still didn't give her this copy yet when he discovered the truth, to think he copied her ex's gift.. he feels so stupid..
To make matters worse, he sensed that she was growing more distant from him for the last couple of weeks, talking became harder, and being physically intimate with her almost impossible.
Thinking that maybe she was having tough time at work he sent people to look after this matter, but the results he received from them were like a knife that stabbed his heart and pride: she was seeing her ex boyfriend again!
More than just feeling stupid and fooled, this pained him.. a lot.
Although she didn't cheat on him and only met her ex for work purposes, still, the fact she hid this matter from him, even more bitter than that, the fact she started getting distant and more unhappy ever since she met her ex again, hurt Eliyas far beyond his limits of tolerance.
Initially he was planning to let this matter slide, but when his informant told him earlier this day that Noursine was meeting Azziz again at a certain restaurant he lost every drop of rationality he still had, and he decided to go there.
Not only he confronted them both, and even had a big fight with Noursine over this matter when they came back to their room, but stepping on his pride, he pathetically forced him self on her while reminding her:
_" You're mine.. do you understand that? Do you respect that?"
To remember he was so desperate that he forced himself on a woman, he feels disgusted and ashamed.
Now after what happened at their room, he could only escape to his bureau to digest what he did, however, only moments passed when someone opened the door and came inside to find him.
For a slight moment his heart skipped a beat thinking this person was Noursine and that she came to find him in order to make things right between them.
To his disappointed hopes, it was his sister who came to check on him, In fact, Ines was the last person he wanted to see at that moment, because she reminded him of his foolishness.
While seeing her holding the copy bracelet in her hand he could only miserably order:
_" Throw it away.."
Though Ines had no idea what was going on, she still calmly obeyed.
Feeling concerned she soon asked:
_" Are you ok?"
_" I'm fine, I just need little time on my own."
Being the stubborn her, she soon added:
_" Did you have a fight with Noursine? You can talk to me about it, maybe I can be of help to you."
She expected him to kick her out again, or like the usual he would simply remain silent and ignore her.
To her surprise, he suddenly started walking towards his desk, as he calmly sat down on the chair he buried his face between his palms then asked her with a pained tone:
_" Ines, can you please go check on Noursine, I frightened her earlier, I'm worried I might have instigated her phobia."
Hearing this.. her heart broke for her brother, how could he love this undeserving woman so much that even when she made him so angry he still cared for her so pathetically much!
Ines had a boyfriend at the time, whose name isn't important, anyways this boyfriend kept calling her while she was at her brother's bureau.
Though she wanted to scold her brother for being this pathetic because of a nameless woman she still chose not to because her phone kept buzzing inside her pocket and totally distracted her thoughts.
Eliyas didn't want her there anyways, so she soon left the bureau, walked few steps away, then finally answered her then boyfriend's call:
_" Where have you been? I'm calling you for an hour now!!" he immediately shouted.
Though his first call was only five minutes earlier she decided not to be petty, and only said:
_" I'm sorry.. I was busy."
She barely finished speaking when the man on the other side of the phone rudely shouted again:
_" I don't care what you're busy doing! When I call you.. You answer immediately! anyways I'm at Gh resort with my friends, they want to meet you, you come right away I'm waiting.."
This boyfriend of hers whose name isn't even important, was introduced to her by her own mother, he's the son of a certain minister, initially, he treated Ines pretty decently so she actually liked him enough to accept being his girlfriend, but ever since, she came to realize he only considered her as a walking credit card, he invited her to his expensive outings and made her pay for them, he only cared for her money.
Remembering what happened with her brother only minutes ago, she decided not to be the victim of another arranged marriage, especially not one where she liked the other party more.
So after little time of silence, she suddenly said:
_" I want to break up with you."
_"Are you out of your mind!!" The man shouted for the third time.
Not wanting to waste her time and emotions she simply said:
_"We're done."
Then immediately cut the call and blocked his contact.
Ever since that moment, not to be like Eliyas, this became her strategy to avoid feeling pain and heart break: being cruel.