Chapter 42: Chapter 42

Dashtan turned to Rakia as the woman mentioned the name of the woman currently on his doorstep, his face betraying confusion.

“Do you know her?” Dashtan asked curiously.

“We met at the greenhouse when her mother took her there.” Dalilah answered Dashtan’s question. The man turned back to his guest.

“What brings you here?” Dashtan spoke with no friendly intonation at all. Dalilah was instantly nervous at the man’s unfriendly tone with her. She would have had to summon up so much courage and guts to come see him alone, if not for something urgent that only he could help her with.

“I... Want to talk to you, it’s urgent, please...,” Dalilah pleaded. Rakia who felt ignored turned away and went back into the house. Her mind immediately thought of all the assumptions about Dashtan and Dalilah. Everything only led to one conclusion. Rakia chose to return to the kitchen and eat pizza alone. For her, she did her best not to interfere too much with the man’s personal life, as long as Dashtan didn’t allow her to go deeper. After eating three slices of pizza and trying not to care about her husband having the woman’s ex-fiancée over, Rakia gave up on being indifferent as she at least wanted to listen to what they were talking about. She got off the high chair and left the kitchen after drinking a glass of water and cleaning her hands with a tissue.

Taking a position near the wall that separated the living room and the center room.

“You’re the only one who can help me, Dash... I don’t have anyone else.” It was Dalilah who spoke, Rakia wouldn’t move from her spot before she got the full conclusion.

“I can only help you pay it off, and in return the company is the collateral.” Now Dashtan spoke.

“No, Dash, I can’t give up the company. Me, I’ll be the collateral, make me your mistress or second wife, or whatever, I’ll serve you instead.”

Rakia was surprised to hear Dalilah’s bold words. She gaped and reflexively closed her slightly open mouth.

“Dalilah... I can’t do that. “Dashtan said.

“Why? Aren’t you still expecting me,right? Come on... You can do it, we can do it....” Dalilah urged.

“What about Rakia? She’s in my life now, she’s my wife, do you think she’ll easily accept that? If you insist I won’t help you.” Dashtan’s threat sounded very real. Rakia looked down as she swallowed dry saliva. Although this marriage wasn’t real to Dashtan, it didn’t work that way for Rakia. Letting Dashtan make his own decisions.

“Well if you don’t want to help, I’ll expose what you did that time.”

Rakia frowned at Dalilah’s words.

“What else is this?” she asked in her mind. She daydreamed for a while until she was almost caught by Dashtan eavesdropping if she hadn’t come out of her reverie when she heard the man close the front door of the house with a slight bang. Rakia ran into the kitchen and pretended as if she had been there all along.

“Hi, is Lila went?” she asked when Dashtan approached her in the kitchen. His face looked disheveled.

“Yes, she’s went off,” he replied in a tone that was flat but implied a burden. Rakia refrained from asking.

“You don’t want to know?”

Rakia did not expect Dashtan to ask her that.

“If you want to tell me,” Rakia replied, she was only partially listening but she wanted to know the truth.

“She asked for help to pay off the debt of her company that was about to go bankrupt, I couldn’t help her without collateral and she offered herself as collateral,” explained Dashtan who looked at Rakia from behind his eyelashes.

“Then, what do you want her to do?” asked Rakia who was currently getting up to get some drinking water.

“I don’t know, she said she wants to be my mistress or wife.”

Hearing that, Rakia laughed. She drank from a medium-sized glass and drained all the water then turned to Dashtan.

“And you want me to allow it, is that it? Let me tell you, Ash. I’m already burdened with this marriage, don’t add another burden just because you still have feelings for your ex. If you want to do it, please divorce me first and marry her, our agreement is automatically canceled and you...,” Rakia approached Dashtan with graceful steps full of threats. Dashtan stared at Rakia in that mode between stunned, shocked and gutted. The woman looked both frightening and mesmerizing in this threatening state.

Rakia stopped right in front of the chair Dashtan was sitting on and continued her sentence, “You can go ahead and clarify with your entire family about our divorce. Because I won’t care.” Rakia tilted her head to one side a few degrees then lightly patted one of Dashtan’s shoulders.

“Think carefully about your decision, obviously... I don’t want anyone to interfere with my place as Dashtan’s mistress, legitimate or illegitimate, mistress or not,” Rakia said then walked away leaving Dashtan stunned. He had no idea that Rakia had another side to her that he should be wary of. Dashtan sighed heavily, the only way was that he had to threaten Dalilah not to spread something that he no longer wanted to reveal to anyone.

Meanwhile, Rakia sat on the edge of her bed with anger still pulsing in her veins. She could never let anyone interfere with her place as Dashtan’s mistress. Whether this marriage was real or not, she could not let Dashtan have his way. She let out a long breath then turned to her aching leg. She tried to move it and it didn’t seem as bad as a few days ago. Rakia took off the elbow stick that had been her walking aid for the past two days, then she tried to walk using her foot. It still felt a bit stiff, but it didn’t hurt anymore. She walked slowly in her room just to exercise her leg so that it would not be stiff.

She was thinking about going to work tomorrow, she couldn’t just stay at home doing nothing. Startled by a knock on her door, she went to open it. Dashtan looked at Rakia with a frown.

“Are you okay?” asked Dashtan, Rakia nodded.

“I was planning to go to work tomorrow, after all my leg is a bit better, what’s wrong?” Rakia looked at Dashtan curiously. Dashtan pushed Rakia gently towards the room and then he too entered and closed the door. Rakia frowned at the man’s actions. Dashtan entered and immediately went to the bed, climbed onto it and took a half-lying position and sat down by leaning against the headboard.

“Come here, I have something to tell you,” Dashtan said as he patted the empty side for Rakia to occupy. Rakia tilted her head slightly to one side and smiled. She was amused by the man’s invitation to pillow talk. Rakia moved to her bed and joined Dashtan.

“What do you want to talk about?” asked Rakia as she sat facing the man.

“That’s not the way, come here, get closer,” Dashtan said as he pulled Rakia so that the woman lay on his side, over one shoulder. As Rakia did so, the woman smiled shyly with a blush on her face. Dashtan hugged the woman like his favorite bolster pillow.

“I think I should tell you this, too.” Dashtan began. They were silent for a moment before Dashtan finally spoke again while Rakia served as a good listener.

“I once told Dalilah to abort our baby.”

Dashtan’s words were like a whip that hit Rakia right in the back.