Chapter 4 4: The Sardauna's

"Nana, will you please call the nurse for me? The fluid will soon finish and I can t have it drawing my blood." She said with a soft and sleepy voice while she stared at the IV attached to her body. It wasn t late at night, if she looked at the clock then it would probably be around 9 at night but she wanted to go home, be out of this hospital if she could. There was nothing she hated more than the hospital and that was why she made sure she evade from it at all cost. Nana whose head was ducked down staring at the burner they were brewing the tea from looked up, "Sure, Ya Fareeda, I ll be back right now." And without another word, she left. Fareeda stared at his back, how he was calmly doing his work as though he were a woman working comfortably in her kitchen. She rolled her eyes at him and decided this might be the right time to talk to him about it before Nana came back because there was no way she was going to stay in this hospital by tomorrow. "Can I talk to you?" She hadn t forgotten about the slaps he gave her but she wasn t going to talk about them either. But whoever knew her knew so well that she would likely find a way of revenging on him. He ignored her, even though her voice was the last thing Mujaheed wouldn t hear even when spoken in the loudest of places, and he wondered how that happened. Sometimes when she was fighting with one of her sisters and he was walking around the house, he heard her voice. He didn t know why as long as he was within a reasonable parameter, there was no way Fareeda will speak without him hearing and not that she was always loud. She was hardly ever loud. But there was something magical, something sultry and soothing about her voice that made it stand out. If one will only hear her voice, no one could say she could cause as much trouble as she did in the Kamal Sardauna s mansion. "Mujaheed, I m talking to you, as you can see there s no one left in the room." She spoke again through gritted teeth, hating the fact that she had called his name, adhered to the unspoken rule between them. He had never told her this before, that if she were to speak to him, she had to call his name lest he was going to ignore her for as much as she didn t. He turned his eyes to her and lifted a single brow, "What is it? Do you need anything?" She tried to scoff but controlled herself. Changing his mind will be something so difficult but she will try to do that, not add more fuel to the fire. Not looking into his eyes, Fareeda began to speak, "It s about what Alhaji said before he left, I know you just said yes to him to either annoy me or console him, right?" With so much hope brewing from her eyes as though the now sizzling pot of tea in front of him, she looked into his eyes. He softly shook his head and went back to his pot. She had already given up a reply from him when he spoke, "None, I did because that s the right thing to do to a father like him." 'Who are you to know what s the right thing to do to someone like him and not?! She wanted to bellow the words out but went against it. "But you know that that s never going to happen, right? I mean, just take a good look at you…" she let her words trialled off and wanted nothing but to smack the living daylight out of her lips. Why would she never control her anger for the sake of the almighty? What was she doing? Setting things right or damaging them even more?! She cleared her voice and spoke gently now, even though upon hearing her voice, both of them knew so well that tone was forced out of her, that wasn t what she wanted to say. "I didn t mean that. But on the clearer side, Mujaheed, you know that s not right, right?" "Tell that to your father." This man, first, she hated his arrogance, he was so full of himself that she wished killing someone wasn t haram in Islam, he would ve been the second person she would kill in her life. And second, she hated how he spoke with so much confidence, and his voice always carried an air of command and masculinity she often found unnerving, which was unlike her. "He won t listen to me, that s why I want you to talk to him." She said and when it took him nearly a minute without replying her, she stopped the pretence, "Can you drop all this I think I m someone habit of yours and listen to me let s talk?! I hate this with every might in me, I wonder who the hell you are to think you re so important to be ignoring me whenever I talk to you!" She palmed her face and softly muttered, 'Ya Allah! He fully turned to face her and the first thing he saw on her face was the way her eyes were rolling themselves at him in such a way that one wouldn t find it hard to notice her hatred for him, her annoyance and anger. That was why he always found it so hard to believe she couldn t see without her glasses because man, her eye looked so normal. And beautiful. "What do you want?" He asked, his voice sharp and straight and she softly hissed. "Tell him that you can t do that anymore, you ve thought about it and it s not right, that s all." "At what cost will I do that for you?" Will he please stop talking as though he used his flesh and blood to buy the words he was allowed to speak with? This was frustrating her even more. "Oh, you want money? I can give whatever you want to you. Just say the prize, I can even add a tip for you. Tell me, how much?" She said with a smirk playing itself on her face. Do you see Fareeda? It wasn t as hard as you thought it might be. She mused to herself and prayed they would be done with this conversation before Nana came back. Something changed in his eyes, it was anger, she could point a finger at that. But he swiftly suppressed it as he had always done and she wondered why he had never unleashed his anger, he always acted nonchalant to whatever it was he was feeling at the moment but surprisingly, she could always see his real emotions in his eyes. Letting it out or not, that was his choice, but what mattered to her now was that he was ready to say no to Alhaji. "Are you so narrow-minded that you think I can do something with your money? You re so wrong. If you want me to say no to Alhaji, you have to go and apologize to him first, of course, Nana will be the witness and also, mend your ways." She cut him off even before his lips closed with a voice so angry at him, "There s no way I m going to apologize to that man, what the hell are you thinking about?! Think of something else, but an apology will never happen!" He shrugged off his shoulders and went back to his pot, "Then get ready to get married to me in three months." Was this Allah s way of punishing her? How could a gateman have such confidence and arrogance? That was something Fareeda believed she would forever be ignorant of. "What do you mean? Look, if by chance you re already daydreaming about me being your wife, then I d like to advise you to stop, Mujaheed! There s no way I m going to get married to someone like you and expect me not to do anything about it, do you think that way?" "Get married to who?!" She heard as a voice echoed through the room and when she looked up, an infuriated Adam was staring at her. "Fareeda, are you getting married?" He repeated his question and all she did was shook her head, unable to answer him straight. Why did this always happen to her? Things tend to go sour whenever they should be moving smoothly for her. "Who are you?" Mujaheed asked with a straight face, not minding the look on Fareeda s face or the fact that he had seen Adam s face in front of the house times he didn t care to count to the point that he nearly cringed whenever he saw his face. Adam ignored him, he had always hated this gateman and wondered what he was doing in Fareeda s room, alone. He took a step forward to the bed but Mujaheed stopped him, "Where do you think you re going, Mister?" "Get out of my way," Adam said through gritted teeth and kept his eyes pinned on her, she was slightly shivering. She didn t know what she said to him, tell him what he heard is wrong or what? "No, but I ll rather you get out of the room instead." For the first time, Adam spared him a glance and hissed afterwards. He had always known that Mujaheed was a gateman that acted as though he were a king. "Ya Mujaheed, who s here?" Nana asked as she quickly went to the pot to take a peak. She had always wanted to see how Mujaheed brewed his tea but he had never allowed her because he always did that outside the house and it was morally not right for a girl to sit with him outside and watch as he brewed his tea. "Who are you? Will you please get out?" The nurse said as she picked up her phone to call whom Adam clearly know would be securities to take him out. She had seen the way Mujaheed was looking at him and knew that whoever he was, he wasn t welcomed there. Adam turned back and walked out of the room without a single word and Fareeda immediately went for her phone to call him, but it was dead. She turned to Nana as the nurse began her work, "Have you taken my charger for me, Nana?" Nana looked up and shook her head, "I forgot to tell you, Asma u was using the charger when I was coming so there s no way I will ask her to give it to me." Asma u was the second daughter of Alhaji after Fareeda and then Dahlia. Fareeda had never gotten along with any of her sisters and it was a miracle when Nana was brought, she liked her at their first meeting. "That girl, didn t I warn her to stop using my things? Who gave her the key to my room?" She asked with anger evident in her tone, already imagining how she would deal with her when she went back home. "I think she used the extra key that was with Ummah, I m not sure though."