Chapter 82: Chapter 82
Dashtan’s words were able to increase the panic and fear Dalilah felt. The woman stared at Dashtan with both eyes perfectly rounded.
“W-what do you mean? That person must be lying. I don’t know who that person is.” Dalilah threw up her defense to which Dashtan responded with a sardonic smile. He lowered his raised hand holding the cell phone to his side and said, “I’m giving you a choice. Confess now, then I’ll just divorce you and not take the matter to the law, but if you still want to persist with your lies you’ll lose everything and end up in jail.”
Dalilah stared at Dashtan with a look full of fear. Her brain was busy thinking of defenses she should say to make him believe her.
“Ash, I couldn’t possibly do something like that. I am pregnant, so the doctor said and this is your child we will live happily.” Dalilah was still trying to come up with a defense that already sounded disgusting to Dashtan’s ears. The man turned around and waved his hand behind him for Dalilah to stop saying things that were disgusting to his ears. He sat back in his desk chair and went through the documents Razak had sent him.
“You’d better go and think carefully about the opportunity I’m giving you. But if you still choose to cover things up, it won’t be long before I give you our divorce papers.”
Once again, Dashtan’s words pierced her like a dagger. Dalilah immediately ran to Dashtan and knelt beside the man’s chair. She made a face pleading for mercy.
“Ash, please, don’t divorce me. What about our deal? You want to lose everything? That Parliament seat that everyone is eyeing? What about the land for your new factory, you don’t want it? You’re about to reach the top and you won’t get any of that if you let me go, I’m the one who made them all support you. Ash... Please don’t-“
“You think everything is because of you?” Dashtan cut Dalilah off like a speeding train. The fear on the woman’s face had never left her since Dashtan played the tape evidence. Dashtan chuckled and then said, “You begged my stepfathernfor me to marry you by threatening him to expose the case of a work accident at his petrochemical plant that killed a number of workers to the media. And you, intend to blackmail him by inciting the victims to demand an unreasonable amount of compensation. But actually, it’s you who wants the money, it’s just that you’re using the victims as a shield and to cover up your foul intentions.” Dashtan bowed and reached out to the victims. “ Dashtan bent down and grabbed Dalilah’s jaw and gripped it, his gaze frightening until the woman’s guts shrank like a fly.
“You think I don’t know all your crimes? Once all the evidence is gathered you will lose it all. Now, get out of my sight!” Dashtan jerked Dalilah’s jaw and pushed her away from him. The woman was knocked away from him and sat on the floor. Dashtan turned off the laptop and quickly got up from his chair. Dalilah stared at Dashtan with growing panic and fear. She got up and chased after the man and still tried to beg for forgiveness.
“Ash... Ash... Please, I love you, don’t divorce me, I’ll admit everything but don’t divorce me... Please... I’m alone....”
Dalilah fell to her knees and hugged one of Dashtan’s legs and continued to plead, babbling and finally crying. Dashtan sighed harshly and looked at Dalilah who hugged his leg tightly. He pushed the woman off his feet and went to his room leaving Dalilah sobbing. Her hands were clenched so tightly that her arm muscles were tense.
“This is all because of you, Rakia. If I can’t have Dashtan, then neither can you.” She uttered those words with a vengeful promise. Her reddened, tear-filled eyes glared ahead as if Rakia was in front of her and would finish the woman off until there was nothing left of her to resurrect.
Dashtan was getting dressed to go back to the hospital. It was Sunday but still he had some work to do and he would do some of it at the hospital. But the ringing of his cell phone distracted him, he reached for the object he had placed on the bed and answered the call.
“Hello, Ash, come quickly Rakia... She’s critical.” His mother’s voice that seemed to be crying made him leave his room in a hurry. He took only his cell phone and car keys and drove as fast as he could. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly as if he was going to break it as fear and anxiety squeezed him from the inside as if to crush him. Dashtan ran like a man out of his mind to the room where Rakia was currently being treated. When he arrived, the doctor, three nurses, his mother and Mrs. Adeline were staring worriedly at the team of doctors who had been using the defibrillator to deliver a shock to Rakia’s heart who had suffered a sudden cardiac arrest a few minutes ago that stopped her heartbeat.
Dashtan looked at his wife’s body alternately with the monitor that connected the device that detected the woman’s heart rate. There were no ripples, just a straight line.
“Raise the voltage, 200 Joules.” Rakia’s doctor gave the order to the nurse who was helping him get the device working. Dashtan couldn’t stop praying that Rakia’s heart would start beating again soon. After two attempts with long pauses to no avail, Dashtan began to shake and almost faltered. His mother and Mrs. Adeline were crying. The team of doctors made another attempt, but this time manually by pumping Rakia’s heart by hand.
“Rakia... Don’t leave me, Habibti... I need you. God... I just want her, don’t take her, I need her. “ Dashtan said that sadly on his mind. However, the prayer only worsened his condition. The doctor stopped pumping the heart manually and went back to using the defibrillator with the same voltage as last time. Dashtan’s bones seemed to soften as Rakia showed no signs of opening her eyes again. The heart rate monitor still showed a straight line. The third attempt was made and the team of doctors waited for a few minutes.
Five seconds....
Ten seconds....
Dashtan and the others waited with a level of anxiety that was starting to reach the threshold. Silence reigned as they waited and finally the heart rate monitor showed the ripple of Rakia’s heartbeat.
There was a sigh of relief from everyone in the room. The two mothers in the room hugged each other and cried. Dashtan closed his eyes while giving thanks in his heart then he left the room and immediately sat on the bench outside the room. Dropping his body there and cupping his face with both hands, he cried for a while.
The past second was the most painful and frightening moment for him. More painful than the pain of Dalilah’s betrayal. He had just experienced losing someone he loved deeply for a few minutes. Loss in the truest sense of the word and it would have hurt even more if Rakia’s heart had stopped beating. The mother gently touched the shoulders of her son who was in a state of shock. She sat right beside him and looked at the now fragile adult with sadness.
“Everything will be fine, Rakia is back.” The mother’s words made Dashtan shift and hug the woman immediately. He needed a shoulder to lean on and she had always been the one to share it with.
“It’s okay, Son, Rakia will be okay soon.” The mother’s words did little to ease the psychic shock he had been experiencing for the past few moments. Once he had regained his composure, Dashtan wiped the tears from his face and got up from his mother’s embrace. Mrs. Adeline had just come out of the room where Rakia was being treated.
“She will be fine, soon,” said the woman who was trying to reassure herself and the two people currently with her. Dashtan and Samira nodded.
“I’ll go to Reynaldi’s room, do you guys still want to stay?” Adeline looked at the two people in turn. Samira sighed, she excused herself to go to her boutique and would return later after lunch, while Dashtan chose to stay around the room where Rakia was being treated. They parted ways at that point and left Dashtan still sitting in a stunned state. He wasn’t able to say a word at the moment due to the shock he was in. His body was still shaking slightly after the shock he had experienced. Never in his life had he felt such a terrible experience when he was about to lose someone. He didn’t want to feel this way again in his life, just once.
When he regained his composure, he moved and entered the room where Rakia was. Taking a chair with high legs without a backrest and placing it on the side where Rakia was lying with her eyes closed at the moment. Her lips looked a little pale and it made Dashtan stare sadly at them. He took Rakia’s hand and kissed her cold fingers for a while, then he gently rubbed the woman’s hand to make it feel warm. He didn’t want to imagine her as a corpse with a cold and stiff body.
“You have to come back, Habibti, you owe me forgiveness and I owe you happiness,” he said with an intonation that implied sadness.