Eliyas spoke for a long time, this treat is of course very unlikely to be attributed to him, but yes, my husband spoke until i wondered whether he practiced this chat we were having endless times in his head.
Because it seemed like that to me.
He explained to me what happened in his family, while listening i realised that indeed.. money is the dirt of life.
He said that back when he was 23 years old, which means when i was in my first year in college, his interest in business was growing enormously bigger, same as his interest in me.
He was still in college at the time, working on his master's degree, however, instead of travelling the world and spending the glorious days of his youth doing something fun, this fun-hating husband of mine greatest passion was the world of businesses even at that young age, consequently, he was impatient and he wanted to learn from the man he looked up to as soon as possible: he wanted to follow the steps of the best teacher in the country, his father.
He naturally started to go more often to Filladi co which was under his father's management at the time, he watched buelguassem filladi carefully and he learned from him tricks the books don't teach, with the passing of days Eliyas who was initially just a distant witness soon began to give many beneficial and remarkable contributions to the company with the purpose of helping his father in his mind, He simultaneously decided to establish a small company of his with the little experience he started to gain, within little time and with his talent and acquaintances , the small company was astonishingly prospering and enlarging.
_" that company was my first dream Noursine, the first thing i ever put so much effort in building, i thought in matter of few years i will have my own small independent company to support you and i." Eliyas said pensively.
He sighed, and smiled as if he was an old man recalling the best days of his life.
Then he looked at me reminiscently and added:
_" back then, your coming to D city made me the happiest, i couldn't conceal the love i had for you from anyone, i came to visit you whenever i got the chance today, i never courted a woman before, i thought you understood the purpose of my visits same as everyone else and that my intentions were clear to you, i foolishly assumed you had the same feelings towards me since you never refused me and you always seemed very happy, i was already putting plans for us, i was so clueless.. When i thought everything was within my reach.. I had nothing in reality."
I felt so guilty hearing this, because i remembered how i crushed his heart back then without even realizing my deed.
How was i so oblivious? Why was i oblivious?
The clear and beautiful feelings the young him had for the thoughtless me, how did i simply walk on them without consideration?
If i knew at the time, i would have rejected him either ways because i already had someone, but i would have at least done this in a respectful way, i wouldn't have given him the deception of hope.
I wasn't the only person who crushed his heart unfortunately, it wasn't only me who created this heartless monster.
I was surprised to hear Eliyas describing a very different version of himself, the youthful him who was warmer, more naive and more trusting, the youthful him who cherished Filladi co and his father to the point where he literally poured all his heart and might in work, the business partners at Filladi co were not as naive as the 23 years old Eliyas, they soon noticed how aspiring and smart he was and were willing to collaborate with him. Shamefully, the man who watched him even more carefully than anyone else.. Was his own father, he considered his son and his new company as a threat that needed to be cleaned in order to protect filladi co.
Which is quite low of him if you ask my opinion, when Eliyas tried his best to help his father, the father tried his best too but in doing the exact opposite thing.. He wanted to destroy the biggest threat he ever had.. His own son!
The water was running underneath Eliyas's feet without him realizing it, Buelguassem Filladi started assigning him with fishy deals under the pretext of training him, which Eliyas blinfoldedly accepted and kept constantly getting the best out of them thinking that the world of business is simply a dirty place where he should just be careful, he didn't suspect his father no matter how muddy was the situation and how high the risk was. Until Buelguassem asked him to take care of a certain deal which apparently looked clean but was in fact the worst among them all.
It was during this time when Lydia suddenly asked to meet with Eliyas privately, when they met she brought many files for him to see: copies of the fishy contracts his father made him sign, the frauds and all the bla bla business i didn't get but i vaguely understood that it was against the law and which Buelguassem made him involved in.
As for the last deal, namely the one that seemed clean which i will conveniently call "R deal", it was literally Eliyas's ticket to jail and damaged reputation! he thankfully still haven't signed it yet when Lydia met with him.
She further warned him that buelgassem Filladi was planning all along to blackmail him with all these fishy contracts he already signed at the right moment, he also had the purpose of acquiring Eliyas's rising company: soon he accomplished this, he was planning to use R deal to send his son to jail and ruin his reputation indefinitely.
It was thanks to Lydia's warning that Eliyas was saved from R deal, but his father still used the contracts Eliyas already signed to threaten him, So yes, the fooled son still lost his company, forced and hopeless, he handed it to his father.
The company i naturally never heard about until this very moment.
_"But, wouldn't it have been hurtful to the reputation of filladi co if you went to jail?" I asked curiously.
He shook his head, then explained:
_"Father was planning to report me personally to the authorities, you're a journalist, you know how the media works, he would have looked like the epitome of justice and righteousness because he reported his own blood and flesh to the authorities once he found that he was a fraud, no one will suspect him, his reputation will be even better if he sends me to jail with his own hands. As for me, i would have been sent to prison for a couple of months which aren't so much of a deal to him, when i'm out though it would have been quite impossible for me to set my feet in this field again with such reputation. "
I felt nauseated just hearing how cruel and filthy my father in-law was, i always knew their relationship was strained, but i blamed it on Eliyas thinking that he's just an ungrateful son, it never occurred to me that there are parents who are even worst and more selfish than my mother who abandoned me for a new husband!
"Is this the life of the richest people in this country?" I thought while hearing the disgust and loathe in Eliyas's tone.
You see, my husband isn't so different from his father as well, he worships money too in his own way.
For years he worked hard, like really hard, but what he accumulated was only hatred and greed with the tons of money he made, he can't even enjoy the wealth he's making because he's spending all his time making more wealth!
And now he's in a position where he has so many enemies that if he takes just one step back everyone will eat him alive, he imperatively has to stay on top.
There was no use of me saying:"you're in the real jail of the world of bussiness dear husband thanks to our lovely Lydia khoudjali!" So i commented instead:
_"you were working for Filladi co when we married though, why did you keep working for him?"
_" i was still one of the major share holders in the company and had the support of many minor share holders as well, when i was younger father moved those shares to me in order to protect them, it was his mistake and my advantage, i made it impossible for him to take them back then i used them to inter the company and slowly take it from between his hands."
_"what about your mother and Ines? Did they know about this?'
_"Ines was never part of any of this, she has just been very spoiled and thoughtless, i assume Azziz's incidence taught her what our parents failed to. As for mother, i'm not so sure.. I doubt she'd find it pleasant to send her son to jail because it will still be hurting to her reputation, one thing i'm sure about, is that she definitely helped father with your matter."
Eliyas suddenly paused after these words.. And he looked at me wordlessly for a weirdly long time.
I found that quite awkward, i was wondering if i wasn't a good listener so my husband just decided he was bored and wanted to stop chatting with me, or maybe he wanted me to ask questions or something, while i was blinking and waiting he finally cleared his voice and said:
_"As for the matter of Lydia khoudjali, when she told me about my father's plans for me she said her motive was me being close to their family so she didn't want me to go to jail, which is a lie, since she didn't refuse the generous reward i gave her, with the passing of years she gave me more info about my own family for which she had her share of money out of, she didn't even know she was damaging her father in the process, quite expected of her, she was close to our family as you know and i didn't want to ruin that because, well, she was my spy on them, i was too forgiving to her actions in order to keep her close, and i hurt you because of my greed."
_"You did." I said confidently.
In the matter of Lydia, there's no doubt about it, Eliyas was mistaken.
I took a deep breath, then i seriously warned him:
_"i don't want any of her anymore, any of this as well, i don't know much about how you conduct your work even though i'm part of the company, so i can only say this to you, be careful and don't overestimate your power, i'm worried about you."
He looked at me with a calm smile on his face, then he stood up and walked towards me.
My mind immediately turned the "naughty-thinking" mode on, so yes, needless to share the contents of my head at that moment, you know them.
My husband didn't do any of that though, he just caressed my head as if i was a 5 years old girl and he said calmly:
_" you don't have to worry about anything, just rest a couple of days in the villa and everything will be soon settled."
After he finished saying these words he held his phone, then walked out of the room while calling someone.
If he thought that this little act of his made me reassured then he really don't know a first thing about women.
I sighed helplessly while watching the closed door.
Then i finally remembered the ignored old woman who was probably more anxious than us all, Nana.
Eliyas needed almost an hour to explain all the dirty business his father made him involved in, which was all just a waste obviously since i know not a first thing about all that he said.
But i needed even more than that just to explain the basics to Nana! Not that she was particularly lacking brain cells but because she didn't let me speak at all to begin with!!
She cursed buelguassem filladi so much that i feared the ground might split under his feet and suck him inside!
I understand how heartbreaking it is for her to realize that the son she generously loved and took care of is an ungrateful beast, but it would have been even more heartbreaking to let her be deceived and misled even longer.
I didn't tell her much details though, just the little i thought she needed to know, like how i will stay in the villa for the coming days because i'm concerned about my safety from non other but her own son.
After i finished speaking her response was quite unexpected, she suddenly held her phone and she called someone.
When the other side picked up the phone she said to my total surprise:
_"Buelguassem, you bring your family and you come to the villa immediately!"
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Author's note:
Thank you all so much for 1k votes! I'm truly grateful to you and appreciate all the support i got from youðð
If you have any questions that you want Eliyas or Noursine to answer in the next episodes please leave them in the comments i'll be more than happy to include them in the story.
Thank you again so much â¤