Chapter 17: Chapter 17
Rakia looked down at the white envelope she had ignored last night. Grabbing the object, she opened it and read the contents carefully. Her heart seemed to jump out of her chest as well as her eyeballs when she found out the contents of the envelope was a lawsuit letter from Benjamin related to his act of burning her wedding dress at that time. The man filed a lawsuit against her seeking damages for the destruction of private property amounting to more than 1 billion rupiah. Rakia sat limply on her dressing table stool as she dropped both hands to her sides in a sluggish manner. She was immediately confused by the lawsuit. She thought about not telling anyone about it until she found a solution. She put the letter back in its envelope and put it away in the dresser drawer, then quickly went downstairs to have breakfast and leave for work.
Her mind was divided between work and the lawsuit. The letter also said to give Rakia a one-week deadline to fulfill the demands.
“Where did that much money come from?” asked Rakia with a small mumble as she prepared to start her coverage. Throughout the day as she worked, she was mostly silent as her mind was racing. One week was a short time to earn that much money.
“Even if I tell mom and dad and Pedro, they won’t have that much money.” Rakia monologued again when she was in the break room.
“Ah, damn! He already broke my heart and now he wants to break my life even more,” Rakia growled as she clenched one of her hands. She finished her tea then left the break room.
“Kia, are you okay?” asked Nelson, a cameraman. Rakia, who was caught daydreaming, was surprised and nodded.
“Yes, I’m fine.” Rakia just answered and went to the news broadcasting booth. This afternoon, she would be presenting the noon news. While her teammates chose to go home, Rakia chose to stay for a while longer to help other teams that needed help. She wanted to keep herself busy to have some time to think. It was a strange habit of hers that when she was in trouble, she would go the extra mile to distract her frantic mind.
It was almost midnight when he arrived home. Fortunately, everyone was already asleep so he didn’t need to make small talk with anyone. She just wanted to go to her room to sleep. But when he got to his room, he lay down and got lost in the lawsuit again.
“What should I do? Who can help me?” Rakia asked and hoped someone would answer her. She closed her eyes by placing one of her hands on her forehead with the palm facing up. Until a name came to her mind.
“Dashtan?!” she said hesitantly. She thought of the man and remembered the man’s wish. Rakia chuckled as she rolled her eyes and got up from her lying position.
“No, that’s ridiculous. But, what should I do?” Rakia sighed, she was getting stressed thinking about this problem. She tried to sleep after doing her regular bedtime ritual, before that she had thought of Dashtan and the supposition that she asked the man for help and reached an agreement by ending up marrying him.
Two days passed without Rakia finding a solution to the lawsuit problem. Her demeanor became suspiciously quiet.
“Sweetie, are you okay?” Adeline began to get suspicious of Rakia’s behavior which was more quiet than usual. The woman nodded with her gaze only staring at her food then said, “Yes, I’m fine.” She finished her breakfast quickly then went to the kitchen to bring her dirty dishes to the sink.
“Mom, I’m leaving first,” Rakia excused herself from a short distance away from the dining table. She smiled at Adeline and Pedro who were eating breakfast with a smile trying to be okay then walked away.
“Kia, Mr. Liam wants to see you.” Told one of Rakia’s friends while she was busy discussing the topic of the news she would bring later. She frowned for a moment and then excused herself to go and meet the owner of her current workplace.
Rakia met the man in the lobby leading to the man’s room.
“You called me?” she asked. The man who was the same age as Dashtan smiled. The man who had always been nicknamed Blake Shelton’s look-alike shortened his distance from Rakia. If Blake Shelton was stocky and a bit plump, Liam Aiden was different, athletic with a firm jaw. Many women are queuing up to be proposed to by him who is still single.
“Come on, have lunch with me,” Liam invited without preamble. It was indeed lunch time but Rakia was not in the mood to eat, yet refusing the man’s invitation was equally rude and she currently had no good excuse.
“Alright, Mister-“
“No, don’t call me that, just Liam or Aiden,” Liam quickly corrected. Rakia smiled awkwardly.
“I’ll finish something first, three minutes.” Rakia also turned to leave with a smile. Liam looked at the woman with a meaningful gaze. Ever since Dashtan brought the woman’s application file to him and met during the interview, he felt that Rakia was an easy woman to talk to. He liked a woman who could connect with him in many conversations.
They had lunch at a cafe not far from the Daily Singapore building. They ordered the same meal, a deep dish steak.
“You should eat something like this, being a reporter takes a lot of energy,” Liam said when their order came. Rakia smiled as they savored the tender meat.
“How do you know Dashtan?” Liam wanted to know.
“My father and Dashtan are quite close, when my father came here he invited him to my mother’s house to have lunch together,” explained Rakia who was not entirely willing to tell the truth. To her, Liam was a stranger. The man nodded while chewing slowly on his meat.
“Why did you choose this country? Why Jakarta?” Liam looked at Rakia attentively.
“I’m alone in Jakarta, and my mom happens to be here.” Again, she would not tell her the real reason for going to this country. It was enough that only Dashtan as a foreigner knew about what happened to her.
“Are you sure you’re not running from something?”
Somehow Rakia hated the intuition of someone like Liam. Rakia smiled and then shook her head.
“I’m pretty tired of running from everything.” It was an answer she wanted to realize soon, but she didn’t know when. As they were quietly eating, someone suddenly stood on one side of the table and said, “You guys are on a date, huh?”
Suddenly the two people looked up to the source of the voice. Rakia was surprised and so was Liam who found Dashtan staring at them in turn with a slightly sharpened gaze.