There's an old saying in my hometown that goes: "Ida tlem e-shab, rah tseb ennu" which literally means: "if clouds gather, rain will fall."
These of course aren't the smartest words that were passed from one generation to the following, nor the most original, nor even creative to begin with. It's just another way of saying: "if reasons accumulate, a problem must happen."
I found this saying quite suitable for the situation at the villa during Ines's and Akrem's indefinite stay.
The be precise, rain fell and thunder roared in the calm place the evening of the 6th day of their stay, right after we came back from Ines's recovery party.
You see, those guests the guards sent back from the gates indeed went to show their displeasure at my mother in-law's villa and expressed their wishes of attending the party she was supposedly going to hold to celebrate Ines's "survival".
Since she had no other option, that old lady who always cared for her reputation decided to go along with Eliyas's words and she indeed organized an expensive dinner for all the visitors who were rejected, and sneakily promised that she will introduce her most mysterious daughter in-law, namely my highness, during this event.
This news of course spread in the whole country like fire in dry wood, it endlessly pleased the press and all the ambitious nouveaux riches who were never invited to any of the filladi parties before, this was their lucky chance because for the first time ever the invitation to the party was practically open: all they had to do was to drive to our villa, shamelessly get them selves kicked out at the gate, then go complain to my mother in law to ad their names on the list of guests!
In matter of only few hours, our villa received dozens of visitors, that is including some news companies and even random people who no one knew.
The poor guards at the gates who had a very easy job for years suddenly found them selves turning into border police having to deal with an endless row of vehicles.
I naturally didn't know about any of this until Ines suddenly and surprisingly decided to act like a decent sister in-law and she came to my room to inform me.
When I opened the door for her and let her inside, I thought she came looking for Eliyas so I immediately said:
_"Eliyas is not here, he went to the company this morning."
_"I know." She coldly said, then added:
_"I'm here to speak with you."
At this point, I thought she probably wanted to talk about Azziz, because this was the only topic she and I could probably talk about.
Having this thought in head, I invited her to sit on the sofa then sat along as well leaving a huge gap between us both in case matters escalated and turned to a physical fight.
It is inevitable to stare at people sometimes and think: "what a beautiful person, god bless her." This was exactly what happened with me when I sat beside Ines, I couldn't but admire her exquisitely beautiful face.
She resembles Eliyas so much, her eyes are like big sharp magnets, so dark that the person fears to be sucked inside if he keeps looking at them so much, but we still can't help being attracted, and risking.
Her nose isn't thin, nor thick. It's high, straight and edgy, if I didn't know her since birth I would probably assume she went under the knife, you see, the filladis have these kind of faces which perfectly present their true characters: even their features compete against one another in order to show more! Ines's nose, eyes, lips, chin and even bones.. They all stand out, they are all beautiful on their own.
But unlike Eliyas, she had freckles on her face.
While I was admiring her beauty, my face apparently didn't have anything which should be admired, Ines soon coldly said:
_" let's not waste each other's time, I'm here to tell you that mother is organising a party this Wednesday, she promised you will be the guest of honor for the event, I know Eliyas won't even inform you about this and he will take care of the matters on his own like he always did, I disagree with this, I think it's high time he stops risking everything for your sake, you should take part in making decisions as well and feel responsible for the consequences."
When I heard these words, not only I was surprised, but angry too with the way she was addressing me so I said to her:
_" there's no need for you to remind me in every encounter that I'm only on the receiving end in this marriage, I never asked your brother for anything, not money nor position, and i definitely don't want him to exclude me from decisions we should take together, thank you for informing me, I'll see what I will do about this__"
_"Be honest with me Noursine, did you come back for revenge? You know Eliyas won't believe whatever I say about you, so just tell me the truth, do you want to take revenge from my brother?" Ines pleaded to my surprise.
I was confused, how in earth did i look like someone who is so idle to plot for revenge?? Not only i'm the definition of " better live in an isolated island if that will allow me to avoid all problems", in what way did I look powerful enough to stand against Eliyas Filladi? Even when I was on the freaking apex of fury and hatred, I still only thought about leaving and getting my divorce peacefully!
This was not only the silliest accusation Ines Filladi ever spouted, it was also so unrealistic that I couldn't refrain my self from laughing, then said:
_"there are limits even for imagination Ines, do I look like a crazy person? Why would I even dare think about taking revenge from you filladis? In case you haven't noticed, I simply walked out of your lives in the past when you brought a woman to mess with my husband, I never even confronted you about it."
_" wasn't leaving him that way the most cruel decision you ever made?" She genuinely asked.
She observed my expressions for moments, then added with disappointment:
_"You really have no idea, do you? Anyways, you better not act smart in the future and attempt to betray my brother, I warn you."
She left the room immediately after she said these words, while looking at her back I realized the only reason Ines ever hated me for was: her only brother being so attached to me, and me constantly hurting him.
I gave Ines's words a lot of thinking, and somehow I came to realize that this party was indeed the most suitable event for me to properly introduce my self to the society, it's pointless to hide my identity any longer, while spending my days in the villa I came to realize that the freedom I wanted to keep was already gone and restricted, it was better to just properly introduce my self to the whole country, I'm this great man's wife and I shouldn't be hidden anymore.
Plus, if I don't show up in the party, people would assume i'm not in good terms with my mother in-law since I let her lose face in front of her guests, we indeed have the worst kind of relationship, but all the young single and wealthy women out there in the country shouldn't know about this as well!
For years no woman dared to approach my husband because there was a widely known fact the mighty "better not mess with" Lydia Khoudjali was after him, now that the field is clear why wouldn't any girl have her hopes high if she sees a chance?!
I was going to attend this party even if a 1000 snipers would threaten my security! It was impossible dealing with one Lydia, so I was not willingly putting my self in a situation where I have to deal with 50 alike!
I'm not going to mention the details of successfully convincing Eliyas to take me to the party, because they are so long, included much fights and events which shouldn't be described with precision, anyways he ended up saying: "Yes" at the eve of the party, then he stormed out of the room afterwards with flames of rage flying out of his face, but a yes is a yes!
A clothing and makeup team were brought to the villa the following morning, namely the day of the party, I didn't choose anything nor made any comment, I fully trusted them because I had not a single idea in this field.
The team chose a dress I wouldn't even dare look at in my wildest dreams, it was just a piece of art.
A Bordeaux colored long gown with golden traditional embroidery, it stood perfectly on the edge between being modern and traditional, although I couldn't see any visible gems on it but something on the dark reddish fabric just made it shine in the eyes.
When I put it on, I finally admitted that my body wasn't so bad in fact, I just wore the wrong clothes my whole life, it is either this or the dress just smartly embraced the shape of my body.
I looked amazing!
The team of course took care of both Nana and Ines as well, they were both going to attend the party. When I pecked on their dresses I felt that mine looked much simpler in comparison, I mean Nana's Quftan ( traditional dress ) shined like a freaking sun, and yes there were a thousand gems on it!
As for Ines, don't even let me start describing her dress, Eliyas probably spent half his fortune buying it.
I was so convinced with my dress until I saw theirs! So I decided to go ask the team what went wrong when they were choosing mine.
_" we didn't choose your dress." The man who seemed in charge said to my surprise.
He looked at me with a worried expression then informed me:
_"Mr Filladi suggested this particular dress for you, he said you can change it if you wish to."
Since this was the case, I decided not to be a petty person and agreed to wear it, I mean Eliyas was paying for it and not me after all, the dress itself is gorgeous it's just that I felt the taste was different.
I finally admitted that Eliyas indeed had an eye for fashion when my makeup and hair were done and my look was completed, I really looked like someone's first love, like a woman who can be an exception in the eyes of the richest man in the country.
When Eliyas walked inside the room after he came back from the company, he found me standing in front of the mirror and staring at my reflexion.
It was exactly the same scene he encountered on our humble wedding day, when he walked inside our room back then, he found me standing in front of the mirror in my wedding dress.
You see, usually in Algeria, the official marriage registration and even the religious wedding are all completed before the real wedding day, so when I was finally wearing my white dress, I was already Eliyas's wife according to the law and religion, except he still hasn't touched me yet.
I wasn't feeling so happy that day, I hated how the filladis treated my colleagues who I invited with disrespect, they were all journalists, so they were threatened with lawsuits and problems they can't even imagine if they ever disclosed our marriage on media.
After the wedding, none among them ever spoke to me again because only god knows what they were threatened with.
As for the filladis own guests, the few selected trustworthy elite, not only they received much better treatment, they even had the guts to look at me disdainfully and throw unnecessary comments like I looked "plain".
According to the traditions, I had to wear a lot of dresses from different regions of the country, no matter how beautiful they all were, I was still called "plain".
When I finally put on the white dress, which is traditionally the last dress I should put on, I asked all the dressing team to leave the room and leave me alone, not having any desire to go meet those arrogant people, I just kept staring at my reflexion for a long time barely holding my tears.
"What did I get my self involved in?"
This idea kept circling inside my head.
Not only my marriage was going to be secret, my few guests were mistreated, my wedding wasn't like anything I planned for. On top of all this.. I was looked down upon.
I felt so emotional at that moment, so alone, and regretted my decision to the extremes.
It was at this moment that Eliyas knocked on the door and he walked inside the room.
He stood right behind me, and kept looking at my reflexion for a long time without saying a word.
Then when I least expected it, he suddenly crossed the distance that separated us, becoming almost stuck on my back.
At this moment, I was frozen, especially when he pushed my veil to my right shoulder and I felt his breaths on my bare back, I just kept observing his actions with my eyes almost popping out of my head and my breaths getting quicker.
He calmly circled my waist with his palms next, he bent his head and kissed my back.
I was never approached my a man in this way, I felt like if that small kiss electrocuted my whole being!
Then with a quick movement he made me turn to face him, for the first time in my life, I was that close to him.
His gaze was intense, so different from all the times we looked at each other, since there were a lot of borders that separated in the past, when they were finally lifted, Eliyas refused to restrain his eyes from really looking at me.
I didn't love this man, nor I had any feeling towards him, in my eyes he was just a stranger.
While his eyes were full of love, mine were full of coldness and fear.
He carefully cupped my cheeks between his palms, then he bent to kiss me.
I immediately jolted even before our lips touched, then stepped away from him in a cold way.
You see, I was feeling very sad and dejected, then the very inexperienced in "the art of reading the heart of a woman" husband of mine decided to make his first move at the very wrong time making me feel disgusted and scared.
I understand the feelings he had at the moment were much different from mine, if only he tried to read the atmosphere, if only he said any thing to calm my nerves first instead of directly passing to action, he wouldn't have been treated like a rapist.
I somehow managed to master my courage, then coldly said:
_"let's go down and finish with this party already, I'm tired."
He nodded soundlessly, then he extended his hand to me indicating that I should hold it.
What I logically did considering the situation I was living, was to just walk pass him pretending I didn't see his hand at all.
We went down, finished all the formalities, then went back to our room with cold faces and slept like a brother and sister that night because both our prides were hurt.
However, when Eliyas looked at me when I was wearing the bordeaux dress, things were much different from the past.
_"how do I look?" I asked mischievously.
We were not on good terms at that moment, since I didn't obtain his consent in a nice way, in fact he was so mad at me that he didn't even answer this question.
Still, I persistently asked again:
_"am I not beautiful?"
He walked the little distance that separated us, then he suddenly put a necklace around neck.
I looked at it through the mirror, it looked very expensive.
There was a huge golden gem shining right in the middle, then all around my neck, smaller white ones extended like tree leaves shining on my skin.
I wondered why the stylist only selected shoes and a bag for me, but I had no jewelry on, it was because my husband wanted to do this step for me.
I felt so emotional while looking at him, I did not want to ruin my makeup with my tears so I tried to distract my self by randomly asking:
_"are these all diamonds?"
_"yes" he whispered.
_" this looks so expansive." I commented while carefully touching the necklace.
He eyed my reflexion quite coldly then said:
_" If you truly valued the safety of the most important thing for me, you wouldn't have chosen to risk going to this party! You know I'm still opposing to your decision until this very moment Noursine, If you want me to introduce you then fine, I will hold a party for you here, you don't need to go to there's"
_"Nothing will happen to me, I promise, plus we will only be there for few minutes then leave, and you will be by my side all the time."
He was not convinced with these words at all, he only continued to stare at the mirror with no comment.
I finally turned to face him, looking at him with all the love I held for him then I genuinely asked:
_" Do I still look plain?"
I don't know if he heard those funny remarks about me, but I assume he did, since his expression changed drastically the moment he heard said the word "plain".
_" You are beautiful, You're always the most beautiful."
Few minutes later, the makeup team was urgently called to Mrs filladi's room again to redo her makeup, for some unknown reason, her face was washed and wiped clean.
When the very confused, very worried makeup artist asked:
_"Mrs filladi, you didn't like my previous work, should I change it?"
Mrs filladi just remained silent and blushed for no clear reason.
Mrs Eliyas Filladi who rarely speaks, strangely answered on behalf of his blushing wife saying:
_" No, kindly apply the same makeup you did earlier."
The makeup artist felt very confused with this situation, if the make up was suitable then why did Mrs filladi wipe it clean in the first place? However, the professional dealt with much worse people, she didn't want to show her displeasure since she was going to be paid more anyways.
When she accidentally looked at Mr Eliyas again, she finally realized her previous work wasn't wiped by only water and makeup remover, although she felt very uncomfortable, she still decided to act like a generous person and she whispered in the wife's ear:
_" Mrs filladi, Mr Eliyas forgot to wipe the lipstick on his neck."
Ladies and gentleman, this was very embarrassing for me to both experience and narrate.