Chapter 9: Chapter 9
Dashtan shook the hand of a man around the same age as his stepfather quite tightly. A polite smile graced his face as the man smiled while shaking hands.
“Thank you for coming this far, Master Reynaldi. Come on, please sit down,” Dashtan greeted and then they sat across from each other on a dark blue soft sofa.
“Does not matter. Your dad said if I had to meet you to start the dig, you’d be in charge there.” Master Reynaldi looked at Dashtan with his modest gaze. Dashtan smiled, the man had been so attached to her since they first met at the opening of the museum in Singapore. They have the same interest in science.
“I wonder what things are buried there?” Dashtan started his observation. He really wanted to know what was in there, his mind was already guessing as to its value.
“From what our team got, there were buried the remains of human civilization as old as the Mayans. Don’t imagine that civilization will be as wide as Atlantis and the Mayans. It’s only a small civilization, but it proves that a civilized tribe once lived on that plain,” explained Tuan Reynaldi. Dashtan gave a small nod. His mind assumed that the land would provide quite complicated things in the future.
“I almost started building one of my factories there.” Dashtan spoke his true intentions towards the land. The land has the potential to be used as industrial land because of its location far from settlements and large area.
“Unfortunately, you have to move that plan elsewhere, son. The land is too valuable to just be used as industrial land.”
To be honest, Dashtan half agreed with that statement but his ego as a businessman scowled. But this time he didn’t want to trouble his stepfather about this. Reynaldi’s cell phone ringing paused their conversation for a moment.
“Hi dear, how are you? ... Dad is in a meeting with someone over plans to dig up another historical site. So to Singapore?”
Mr. Reynaldi pays attention to his daughter who is calling him while Dashtan tries to eavesdrop.
“Then see you in Singapore, Love you,” he concluded and Dashtan with great curiosity immediately asked, “Your daughter, Sir?”
“Yes, she is going to Singapore tomorrow, I have promised to meet her there.” Tuan Reynaldi put his cell phone back in the pocket of the mocha-colored cotton trousers he was currently wearing.
“Your daughter must be someone as bright and attractive as you.” Dashtan starts his plan. Tuan Reynaldi smiled as he imagined his only daughter.
“She is very close to my heart. Sometimes I feel sorry for having divorced her mother and forcing her to accept our situation when she had hopes of a harmonious family. I think my sorry words are not enough to cover up her inner wounds.” Dashtan had sympathy for the man but on the other hand he also had more or less the same problem as Master Reynaldi’s daughter. His parents’ divorce since he was young caused emotional wounds that he still feels today, although over time he began to accept and did not want to question anything about the reasons his parents divorced.
“I hope your daughter finds happiness one day.” Dashtan sincerely said that.
“I hope so. How about another time you and my daughter meet? Just getting to know each other I’m sure you guys can talk a lot, considering my daughter used to be a journalist.” Master Reynaldi smiled meaningfully. Dashtan responded with a gesture trying not to look so happy and excited. Despite his real reaction he was very happy and excited.
“I happen to have a visit to Singapore next week.”
“Unexpected coincidence, I’ll call you later. Actually, I wanted to ask your help for my daughter.”
Dashtan is ready to listen. He made a serious gesture.
“Say, Sir. I’ll help if I can.”
“I know you know someone at a television station in Singapore, my daughter plans to apply to become a journalist at a television station in Singapore, recently where she works as a journalist laid off some of her employees and my daughter is one of them. He hopes to get a chance elsewhere.”
Dashtan smiled at the explanation. Whether this is destiny or just coincidence, he also plans to meet his old friend in Singapore who is the owner of one of the leading television stations there. The plan is to cover the excavation of the site on his stepfather’s land later.
“That can be arranged, Mr.Rey. I’ll make sure your daughter will become a part of Eagle Media,” Dashtan promised. He saw the happy hue on the man’s face.
“But don’t let him know about this. He is very idealistic about life matters, but as a father I just want him to have no trouble. Especially when he’s going through something bad.” There was a sigh from Tuan Reynaldi.
“What happened?” Dashtan wanted to know.
“She was supposed to get married tomorrow, but her fiancé ran away and married another woman without my daughter’s knowledge, she only found out when the WO informed her that her fiancé had canceled the reservation.” Again, Mr. Reynaldi exhaled heavily.
“That must have hit her hard especially since she lost her job. Oh my dear poor Rakia. But maybe there is something behind all the bad things that happened to her.”
There was something that made Dashtan feel compelled to sympathize with Mr Reynaldi’s daughter. Maybe it’s because their destiny in terms of love is the same. Both were dumped when they were sad. And the promise of marriage was in sight but vanished because one of them betrayed.
“I can understand that, Sir. It must be heavy and painful,” said Dashtan half pondering. Her eyes stared at the edge of the glass table in front of her, her mind conjuring up short snippets from his past about Dalilah dumping him.
“I hope she can go through everything tough.” Mr. Reynaldi sincerely prayed for his daughter. Dashtan accompanied the man a few minutes later to the door of his apartment. After that, he closed the door and returned to the couch he was sitting on earlier. Reaching into his pocket and taking out his cell phone, he opened the photo gallery and found the photo of Rakia he had taken on the woman’s instagram homepage. A pair of green eyes stared at him and he tried to gauge his reaction. Very enchanting but not yet able to make it serious to have it. He needs Rakia as a candidate to fill the role of wife in his life to the extent of the agreement he had prepared in advance.
Dashtan’s heavy sigh hinted that he was a bit frustrated at his current situation. The deadline that his stepfather gave him was getting less and less and he had yet to find a wife to marry him through a contract. Legitimate in the eyes of law and religion but there is an agreement that binds them both regarding rights and obligations. It sounds selfish, but it’s all Dashtan can do if he wants his stepfather’s inheritance to be handed over to him in the near future. To be honest, he didn’t want to marry anyone anytime soon until he was fully ready to come back to start a relationship, but he was being chased by a deadline on the inheritance.
“This sucks! Why does marriage have to be a condition?” muttered Dahstan more to himself. He clutched his phone and closed his eyes then chuckled. He looked back at Rakia’s photo on his cell phone and hoped that God would be on his side this time, for some reason he wanted Rakia to go through with the contract marriage with him and he didn’t want anything else.
His cell phone rang startled him for a moment. Her mother’s name was written on it.
“Hello, Mom, what’s wrong?” say Dashtan.
“Ash, can you accompany your papa for a heart check-up in two days? Mama couldn’t that day, there was an important meeting with Harper’s Bazaar magazine, Mom had postponed meeting with them twice.”
Dashtan sighed, resigned.
“Okay, I’ll go with him, doctor Morgan, won’t you?”
“No, your papa said doctor Morgan was busy so he moved temporarily to doctor Pedro,” said his mother.
“Doctor Pedro? The one in Singapore?” Dashtan asked to make sure.
“Yes, he is. Mama will be there in two days.”
Dashtan agreed obediently and resignedly then said goodbye and hung up the phone. He stared at the black screen of his phone. A smirk printed on his lips.
“At least, I have another reason to be where Rakia is,” he said gratefully to God.