When Eliyas first told me he decided to end his sister's engagement with Nadir I thought he'll immediately start taking action, like he usually does, because this is who Eliyas is, somewhat of a devil who doesn't waste time.
To my confusion though, for long days, nothing of significance occurred with that matter. My husband only cared for his work and acted indifferently indifferent towards his sister's situation, Nadir started becoming closer to the family in between and was often invited for dinner at the villa, As for Ines, being Ines, she still made no clear decision, and her overgrowing frustration and anger were naturally directed all towards her fiancé, as a result, the couple fought so big and so often that even my dearest Nana lost interest in eavesdropping on what they say, as I watched Nadir often leave the villa like a storm and looking very unsightly I started to think that my husband wasn't wasting his time and effort to separate them for a reason, I mean why would a couple even marry if they were this toxic from the beginning?
As for Akrem, whose distance from Ines was growing larger than his affection towards her, he became exceedingly cold and inconsiderate that once when Ines tried to block his way to speak with him when he was heading towards Eliyas's bureau, he simply turned around and walked in the opposite direction from her and didn't even greet her by courtesy, I so happened to be standing there when this incident occurred because I was on my way too to check on my husband who skipped lunch and see whether he was alive or dead, so not only I had to witness this very uncomfortable situation, I was forced to be involved in it as well since Nadir suddenly stopped walking right in front of me on his way and while handing me a fold of papers he said:
_" I apologize for troubling you Mrs Filladi, but can you please deliver this file to Mr Filladi, I have a rather urgent matter to attend to so I should head back to the company building immediately."
You see, if I knew in my heart that Ines was truly and undoubtedly sincere towards this man, or at least had something of importance to talk about, even a neutral none meddlesome woman like me would have stood in his way and rudely said:
_" Why should I deliver papers on your behalf? I'm your boss's wife and not your personal assistant! You say you have an urgent matter, then shouldn't you act the more responsible and make sure to personally hand the papers to Eliyas not to make the urgent problem become two?"
Because only this way he will have to turn back again and hear what Ines wanted to say.
Nevertheless, this wasn't the case, so deciding not to act as a nuisance to a serious man I only caught the papers and continued my way towards Eliyas without saying a word:
_" Are you acting against me now Noursine?" Ines said with a tone of mockery as I was walking pass her.. So I coldly gazed at her and replied:
_" I don't see in which way I'm being an enemy to you when I'm literally doing nothing, If you want my advice though, from the objective way I see things, this self victimizing yet insulting attitude of yours towards others will only push people away, even me, not that I was ever close to you to begin with."
_" Then it's my mistake for thinking you could be a friend, how silly of me."
She left right after saying this, leaving me looking at her back with an unclear state of emotions in my heart.
Apparently I met my husband while having this unclarity expressed on my face, he was sitting behind his desk looking at the laptop screen when I walked inside and dragged a chair to sit beside him, once I sat down he finally looked away from his screen to shot me a quick gaze, and that was when his eyes met this sour expression I showed.
He didn't stop working though, I mean why would a workaholic who skipped a meal just to read a bunch of papers suddenly sacrifice his precious working time just because his wife was looking weird? He safely continued working as if I wasn't there.
I decided to ignore this rude attitude of his, and simply put the papers on the empty spot on the surface of his desk while saying:
_" Mr Houdil asked me to hand these to you, he had to leave urgently."
He nodded then extended his hand to take them, but he couldn't, because I rested my palm on top of them and blocked his action.
When he raised his eyes to look at me I said:
_" You should eat first, work isn't going anywhere."
Although I meant for these words to sound cute and lovely coming from an adoring wife, but the weird face I showed made them sound more like a threat.
This easily intimidated husband immediately called a servant and asked for his meal to be brought to his office, then once the food was served, he started to clean the dishes under my tight supervision.
As I was watching him eat I said:
_" This isn't the only time you skipped a meal this week, I understand there are periods when the work load is bigger but you shouldn't neglect your health in between."
_" Are you worried about me?" He asked with a barely heard voice as he put his spoon aside.
As if the answer wasn't clear to the blind..
Sometimes I fail to understand why would Eliyas Filladi ask such childish questions, for example when I suddenly hug his back when I'm feeling bored and I sneakily plant a kiss on his cheek he asks:
_" Do you love me?"
Or when I happen to be downstairs when he comes back from work so I go meet him at the hall just out of habit and to have someone to chat with while I go up the stairs, still this man totally misreads my intentions, and he sometimes asks me once we reach our room:
_" you came to meet me ..Did you miss me?"
You don't expect someone who carries the weight of a whole company and hardly ever speaks to have this silly questions to ask once he opens his tight mouth, it's such a misfortune that he spoke less in the past, If he did that, I wouldn't have wrongly assumed he had twisted and playful thoughts whenever he was with me, because in reality, his brain is so out of original thoughts that he keeps repeating the same easy to answer questions.
_" Of course I'm worried." I calmly answered.
I snatched his fork then stolen a piece of meat from his plate which I had my eyes on since he started eating, after I swallowed it I continued:
_" If you die from exhaustion then isn't it I who is going to be a widow at a young age? I mean thanks to all your effort I will be a rich widow at least and can easily bribe a new man to marry me not to be alone, but If I will marry again, then where will I find a man as good to me as you are?"
Once I finished speaking, being the stingy neat freak that he is, he pushed his whole plate towards me to continue eating it because I just used his fork to eat a freaking piece of meat, then he turned on his laptop to continue working on it again, as he was writing the password he said:
_" then I will make sure not to die first, I don't want to be teased as a soul after my death while watching my wife using my fortune to dote upon another husband."
_"I'm not as selfish as you are though." I commented as I filled his spoon which I thankfully didn't use with the soup that I didn't plan to eat anyways, while approaching the spoon to his mouth I continued:
_" If I die first then I permit you to marry a new woman, life is too hard for you to endure it alone, plus I can't leave you with a son to rely on to begin with, but you can't marry lydia khoudjali of course, you are forbidden from doing that!"
I was waiting for him to open his mouth to eat while I was speaking, I mean I was literally holding the spoon full of soup right in front of his eyes, so even a 2 years old child knows the food won't just magically go inside without his corporation, however, my husband just kept looking inside my eyes looking like he forgot how the one moves his jaw.
Then he finally said with a weird tone:
_" Noursine, even as a joke, can you not talk about a day I live without you around."
This sure touched my heart, I'm not the kind of women who are easily moved by words but they fell so heavy on me that I became dumb after hearing him, so I asked such a silly question like:
_" Is it scary to think about that day?"
Only by looking at him I knew the answer, even without looking at him I already know the answer, exactly like he knows by heart that every time he asks me: "do you love me?" I will say "Yes" without hesitation.
But when he answered:
_" Yes, it's the scariest.."
I still felt reassured like if I never knew.
I guess the human heart is very much dumb after all.
I pinched his nose to cut his breathing so he will have to open his mouth and eat, then I said:
_" You silly, I'll definitely live longer just to finish off all your wealth not to leave a dinar behind to the rest of your family, so don't feel scared for nothing, it's very unsuitable for Eliyas Filladi to feel scared."
I stayed at his office for a long time afterwards not doing a thing, just playing on my phone or occasionally throwing a question to remind this unromantic workaholic husband of mine that I was still there.
But when I finally asked:
_" by the way, did you somehow come to accept Nadir as a brother in-law? I mean you didn't do anything with his matter, this is very unusual of you."
He suddenly tensed for an unknown reason, then he carefully said after a while:
_" so, supposing I actually did something, you won't get displeased will you? Just like you said, you find it unusual for me to set a goal then abandoning it, I assume you're more acquainted now with my character, more accepting of it.."
_" don't turn around my question, just answer it clearly, believe me, nothing will surprise me." I interrupted him smiling confidently.
_" well.." He started to speak, then he examined my face attentively before he said:
_" their engagement is already over, they are only still waiting for the right chance to announce the news to mother, after all, she hastily introduced mr Ghemmari as her future son in-law to her acquaintances even before anything formal was established, it will be very hard for her to survive such a blow to her reputation__"
_" their engagement is over?? how is that possible! I mean lately Nadir visits even more often than he used to! He said nothing regarding the accident at the farm as well, he didn't even ask me about it, if their engagement is indeed over though I don't see how that can be a fact, then it has to be your doing, isn't it?"
_" the engagement is certainly over, as for the rest it is not my business, whether it was my direct involvement which put a definite end to the ruin that was already happening or not isn't of a great importance either, it was a mistake from the beginning to involve that man, It's a bigger mistake to involve any man in my sister's mess at this point."
_" Why did you have to be so cruel to her Eliyas? You could have left her alone to deal with her life, why did you have to force this marriage because you liked the groom then cancel it when you didn't like him anymore? you did exactly what your father did to us, even worse." I interrupted him..
Well, I know Eliyas always only cared about his own profit and disregarded others, the devil is a devil after all, but why did he have to toy with his sister's life this way?
He gave my words a long time of thinking, then he finally asked back:
_" Noursine, Do you think I want what is less than the best for my sister?"
Honestly, I didn't expect such a strong counter attack, if I say: "yes, I think you don't care about your sister at all" then that would be a lie, and it would be a suicidal move as well, I mean why would a coward person like me tease Eliyas Filladi, how do I know for sure he wouldn't say:
" Oh, so Noursine Saadat, you think I'm being unfair to my sister, I agree with that, I should be a better brother, we should leave the villa it's very crowded for my sister to live with us, we'll go back to your apartment, and you can't have servants there too, my sister should keep them all it's selfish to hire even one to work for us, so you will have to do all the house chores and even cook, you will have to wash the million suits I have and Iron them though I won't wear them again, and you will have to go back to work to provide for us, because I'm planning to give my sister all my money so I will have to depend on you to survive."
Since I had a lot of things hanging on a thread I smartly shook my head and said:
_" of course you meant no harm, you care so much about your sister."
He sighed, then added:
_" What I did is what I assumed was the best, but it wasn't.. I have no other explanation nor any motive, this was simply the best I could do and it failed, of all people.. You should be confident about that at least."
I nodded my head in understanding, and decided not to add a word.
I left his bureau right afterwards, only one thought was burning inside my head:
" When Ines blocked Akrem's way earlier, was she trying to tell him her engagement was over?"
If that was the case.. Then I was unfair to Ines as well.