Chapter 58: Chapter 58

A month passed by without any significant problems for Dashtan and Rakia. Although Mr. Reynaldi showed no signs of waking up from his coma, Rakia tried to stay strong and visited her father regularly just to hope that he would open his eyes and return to his old self. That afternoon after Rakia got off work and was at the hospital where her father was being treated, her cell phone rang.

“Yes, hello. Brand?!” Rakia looked unsure.

“Yes, it’s me. Hey, can you come back to the office at six? We need to discuss something.” Her boss sounded unusual. Rakia realized something was up and she wanted to know, so she agreed to the man’s request to come to the office at six. After hanging up the call, Rakia looked at the wall clock in the room. It was about half an hour later. She stood by her father’s side and looked at him with all the hope in the world that he would come back soon and open his eyes.

“Dad, I’ll come back later,” Rakia said and left the room. On reaching home, she rushed to her room to shower and change, but Dashtan stopped her as she passed by the living room. The man had just come out of his workspace.

“Oh, Hi, are you home?” asked Rakia. The man had just returned from Dubai for some business that Rakia didn’t know about, more precisely that Dashtan didn’t want to tell Rakia about. However, Rakia felt that the man had something to hide. Dashtan smiled soberly and approached Rakia.

“I’m sorry for not checking in on you while I was gone,” Dashtan said saying his mistake. Rakia nodded with the emotion she was trying to control. The man had barely been home for two weeks and she hadn’t gotten any news. Initially, Rakia was plagued by prejudice but, she got used to it and realized that her time with Dashtan was coming to an end.

“I know you’re busy, it’s not-“

“We need to talk,” Dashtan cut in quickly. Rakia sighed, the timing wasn’t right.

“Later, I have to get back to the office.” Rakia told him then walked away leaving Dashtan to stare blankly at where Rakia had been seconds ago in front of him. He sighed and went to his room to shower and change. When Rakia left the house, Dashtan was still in his room. She was driving at a slightly above average speed to get to the office.

She made her way to her boss’s office as soon as she got there. She knocked on the door of Brand’s room then heard the man let her in.

“Come and sit down.” Brand invited him to sit in a chair in front of the man’s desk.

“I hope you’re not surprised by this, one of my fellow journalists managed to get the information from the media in Dubai.” Brand said as he placed a tablet in front of Rakia that displayed a news story on one of the online news portals. She grabbed the tablet and the first thing she saw was a picture of Dashtan with Dalilah in a close and intimate pose. Then, Rakia read the news.

The collaboration between the two big companies from Dubai was finally officially announced. The marriage of the two CEOs would also strengthen the political support of Al Ghani’s son to occupy the seat of Parliament to replace his father.

Rakia was initially silent as she read the news until it was finished. But slowly, an emotion gathered and waited to be unleashed.

“Did you know this?” asked Brand, looking at Rakia, who looked surprised. Meanwhile, Rakia remembered Dashtan’s words before she returned to the office that she wanted to talk.

“Is this what he wanted to talk about?” Her mind asked a question that she thought she already knew the answer to.

“Rakia?!” called Brand, snapping the woman out of her reverie for a moment.

“I didn’t expect it to be leaked to the media.” Rakia made a statement as if she knew about it. She looked at Brand then said again, “So, what do we want to discuss? Is it about this?” She pushed aside her anger for Dashtan so that she could focus on the current work.

“Your husband is a hot topic right now, and I was planning to invite him on an economic talk show as well as explore the current political situation. I thought if you were the one-“

“No, not me,” refused Rakia immediately who easily understood Brand’s intentions. The man leaned over and placed both arms on the table with his hands intertwined.

“Rakia... It’s precisely if you accompany him at the event that he can be more open with you.”

Rakia did not completely agree, if she were to sit with Dashtan at the event she would potentially get into a fight with the man.

“No, sir, you are wrong. If it’s me it could potentially drag in our personal issues and I don’t want that to happen.”

Brand considered that and nodded.

“Then fine, I’ll find someone else to host the show with our CEO as the guest star.” The man decided and Rakia was relieved by that.

“But, you can help to organize some questions for him.” Brand added and Rakia nodded stiffly.

“You can go, tomorrow I’ll call you back for the questions.”

Rakia got up from her seat and quickly left the room. As she stood in front of the closed door, she sighed. Her gaze changed and filled with anger. She hurriedly left the office and went home. When she arrived home, she stopped near the kitchen and heard the sound of water coming from that direction. Rakia immediately turned towards the kitchen and found Dashtan there standing in front of the coffee maker. The man turned and found Rakia standing by the granite stone. He stared at the woman who took a step towards him. And before he knew it a hard slap landed on one of his cheeks. The sound of the slap echoed in the kitchen.

Rakia looked at Dashtan who was still looking away from the slap. She glared at the man.

“This slap is not enough in return for what you have done to me.” Rakia said after finding the right words to say. Dashtan turned toward Rakia in slow motion. He was quite surprised to find such a clear look of anger in the woman’s eyes.

“I know.”

“You know?” Rakia’s tone began to rise.

“You think I’ll forgive you?” Rakia chuckled, then said again, “Men like you are never on my list to forgive.” After stating that, she quickly walked away but Dashtan grabbed her wrist.

“Give me a chance to explain,” the man pleaded. Rakia let out a sharp breath through her clenched teeth. She turned to look at Dashtan with the same gaze as a moment ago.

“Too late for your explanation, you should have been able to explain before making that stupid decision.” Rakia brushed off Dashtan’s hand that grasped her wrist and yanked the man’s hand away before she quickly walked away. There was the sound of the door shutting loudly, and it made Dashtan let out a long, heavy sigh. Without realizing it, he had lost Rakia the moment he decided to lie to the woman.