Chapter 49: Chapter 49

THE BIG QUESTION

Rashid drove furiously back to his family's house. Early this morning, he had woken up, rolled to his side as he watched Janelle sleep and all that was in his mind was how many years he had wasted without her. How his ego had brought him nothing but regret. He watched as she slept peacefully, before turning away from his prodding look unconsciously, stretching like a hungry cat before going back to sleep.

She slept like a baby....... "Baby?", His mind did a flashback to when they were in the hospital, the medical advice the doctor had offered to him before Janelle was discharged from the hospital, "the operation she had done before re-opened and we did our best in trying to stop the bleeding...." The words of the doctor kept replaying in his head. Talking about bleeding, his mind went back to when he had palmed Janelle's bare stomach the previous night and how she had winced slightly in pain, there was a scar.

It wasn't just any scar, he didn't study medicine neither did he have a little field of expertise in that, but what Rashid recalled was his mother. His mother had the same scar beneath her stomach when she gave birth to his younger brother, Madok.

"So how come she has the same scar, had she gotten pregnant before?" his subconscious asked, he ducked pass the car at his front swiftly, overtaking him and taking the next right turn.

That was important, but he had something else in his mind, it was less than a day before FAROUQ'S OIL COMPANY would be auctioned off and he had a greater plan for his uncle, Farouq, he needed to start laying all of it down. The D-DAY was less than a day to come.

ΩΩΩππΩΩΩ

A man kept pacing tro and fro of a dimly lit room, stopping by the see through window and peering through it, to the outside world, his face held that of uncertainty. He stopped, turned to look at Farouq who had a rather calm appearance on his face and pressed his lips tightly against each other.

"You see...." the man started.

"See what?!" Farouq said in a raised tone.

"You're all relaxed, you don't even care at all," the man continued.

"Relaxed?, Have you ever seen me in any condition other than being relaxed?." Farouq threw shades at him.

The man took out his face towel from his pocket and cleaned the sweat off his face.

"Yesterday, Rashid had a discussion with you if I'm not mistaken, right?." he questioned.

"Man!. I'm not here for the answer and question stuff. You're being so paranoid, which you shouldn't be, tomorrow the company would be sold out to the highest bidder and you want me to be in any situation other than relaxed?.... Ohhh no, I'm way more than relaxed, I really can't wait to see the expression on that god-damned face of a brother and his stupid son, Rashid, who thinks they're so smart. An auction that no family member, no distant nor immediate family would be welcomed in." Farouq smirked, his eyes twinkling at the corners.

"Is that why you should be happy?, I fear something bad coming, which would hit at us, it's like a ball bouncing back to the thrower." The other man in the room opined, his brow creased with worry.

"Man..." Farouq paused, before grabbing the wine from the stellar and pouring a large quantity into his glass cup. He brought it to his nose, perceived it and gave a sigh of contentment, "Just to my taste."

"Farouq!?." The man called, he was more than pissed at Farouq.

"Stop acting so ignorant, I have a right to ask for all my shares and investments I've put into this company." he bawled, smashing his fist hard on the table opposite Farouq, who still maintained a calm demeanor.

"Nothing have made you recount the discussion you had with Rashid. He sounded so sure of himself that if you were wise enough that sounded like a threat. You know him, he always get what he wants, I'm certain of that, but before the luck shines off, I need my money, everything I invested, I need them right away." The man demanded.

"You'll get it tomorrow, few hours from now....." Farouq maintained.

"Don't tell me that, I'll....

Glass shattering on the marble tiled floor brought the man back to his senses, his eyes opened wide in alarm, looking around his body to make sure he wasn't hurt anywhere.

"Don't yell at me, you vagabond!, You'd get your share tomorrow, Now?, Get out of this place and never set your foot in this place. I have taken enough of your babblings...." Farouq retorted.

"But.... I, er-erm." he stuttered.

"You better not "BUT" me for anything, get out, unless you want my boys to help you out in a way you'd never forget." Farouq bellowed.

While the man scurried away, Farouq laid back on his seat, taking a huge gulp of the wine down his throat, his lips widened in a broad smile. Finally, all his plans were shooting.

~~~~~~~~~~

Janelle looked beside her, he had gone, she felt the deep of the bed when he stood up, knew when he picked his clothed from the chair, knew when he stood before her watching her as she pretended to be fast asleep, moreso knew when his hands traced her lips slowly, creating an ache between her legs, fuelling the fire which hadn't dampened since his tongue teased her core.

Once her memories did a throw back to everything that happened between them the previous night, her cheeks flushed and she saw herself fiddling furiously with the comforter wrapped around her body.

When he bent down, eye level with her, her heart thumped faster in her chest, she feared he already figured out she wasn't sleeping, but the next thing that happened amazed her, a gentle and loving kiss on her forehead. She wanted to cry. She wasn't cold-hearted, she said to herself, she knew that, she wanted a family, wanted to tell him of their beautiful children they created together.

She grinned, he doesn't know about that, he didn't know she drugged him to sleep and slept with him. She grabbed the pillow beside the headrest of her bed and covered her face with it, screaming loudly into the pillow, like though someone could hear all her thoughts.

While getting smitten by him, her mind didn't remember the question he asked her the previous night, If there was anything she wanted to tell him, if there was anything she would love to discuss with him.

~~~~~~~~~``````~~~~~~~~

Once Rashid reached, he hadn't bother to park his car in the garage, he needed to get a question out of his head, a disturbing thought which had been eating at him while he was driving. It was more important than the most important thing he was currently battling with.

He rushed off to Aamina's room, he knocked on it and entered not giving the woman time to either welcome him in or out.

"You look troubled, what's the matter?" she questioned. It was on a rare occasion she saw him like this, she was also surprised that he came running to her room, he never did come to her room, asides the time Janelle left, which was five years ago, and some other times which she couldn't even recall, because his visit to her room wasn't an occasional.

"I'm good, it's just that.... I'm a bit confused, troubled." he babbled, going over some words and scratching his head continuously.

"Rashid?, you're never troubled, tell me, what's wrong?, Is it Janelle?, Your mother?" she questioned as she drew out a chair for him to seat on.

"Come on, have a seat." she urged.

"I can stand, sitting won't solve it." he replied.

She smiled, a hearty one.

"Of course yes, sitting would you make you calmed, then you take a minute to breathe in and out, seeing how hard and difficult your breathing is labored, I take that you've been doing some driving lessons." she jabbed at him.

He quickly took the seat offered to him, took a minute for himself, reminiscing over everything and trying to calm his labored breathe before he asked.

"Does every scar beneath the stomach of a woman means it's a caesarian scar?" he questioned. He was confused and he didn't want to link it to that, maybe she had fallen from a high place or maybe something sharp had cut her there. He didn't want his thoughts to be an affirmative, he wanted it to be a lie.

"I don't understand, where did you see that?" she retorted.

"Janelle, I saw it beneath her stomach." he replied, a strained expression marring his fine features.

Aamina's lips parted, closed, parted again, she shuddered before holding onto the table behind her for support.

She didn't think a time would come when he would begin suspecting, she thought everything would be cleared out before he found out himself.

Now all what was going through her mind was what he would do if he finds out she had a hand in all of this.