Chapter 25: B
One of them spoke, "You always refer to us as boys, Yarima Na im, but we re in our final year in the university. Or is it that you can t remember our names?"
He chuckled and shook his head, "How can I not? You re Ajmad, Adil and Areef, the not so real triplets of the palace, am I right?" He pointed at them in respect to their names and they all smiled as they nodded their heads. They came to a stop when they reached the junction that will lead them to their chamber and with a turn, Na im could be able to see his as well.
They all shook hands with him, bade him a good night before they walked away and Na im turned to his direction with a soft look on his face. He liked the boys, they seemed so real and not as cunning as Sadeeq was. "Captain Bolori," he heard his name called with the voice he disliked so much. Well, speaking of the devil.
Na im turned and grimaced before he nodded, "Yes, Bolori the younger, anything for me?" He had learnt to be sarcastic to Sadeeq for his peace of mind and when a smirk laid itself out on Sadeeq s face, Na im wondered what he was up to.
"Nothing, I just heard an interesting news and thought to share it with you."
"What is that? Is one of your girlfriends pregnant again? Are you in search of another hospital to carry out an abortion secretly?" He chuckled when Sadeeq s expression changed as they walked further, "I was only joking, Yarima. Why do you seem so touché?"
"I was only wondering how exciting that would be!" He chuckled uncomfortably before he quickly masked up his emotions. "I was actually interested in a house, you know? Doing the prince s duty since the older one doesn t seem to be interested in producing the first royal grand child. But then the agents told me something interesting and I began to wonder if after all you were planning to surprise us with another engagement that hopefully this time doesn t get broken?"
Na im felt all the blood drained out of his body and he silently prayed to Allah not to do anything that would give something away to this cunning man. He turned to him slightly and stopped walking when he noticed that they had already came to Sadeeq s chamber. His own was the last one, almost the last chamber in the palace that belonged to the royalties and he spoke, "Can t I just own a property without getting married? I plan to have my future wife in there, because you see, the palace is full of perverts I have as my blood to be certain she s safe when I'm not around." He grinned at him, "Even though it s good to know that whenever I'm away on a duty, the pervert is always together with me. Just that again, she's sadly left with those monsters that answer the name of the wives of the king. Either way, she s not safe." He lifted his lips in a pouty way and was aware of how Sadeeq was seething with rage because they all know by wives of the king, he was referring to just one of them and that was certainly Ya Gumsu.
"If you were in my shoes, wouldn't you buy a mansion to secure her safety? I guess you will, Captain Bolori." He gave him a mock salute before he turned to leave. Yet, the moment he turned his back to Sadeeq, Na im felt as beads of sweats covered his forehead and despite the street lights that covered the entire palace that it was hard to see a pitch of darkness, Na im could hardly see.
It was game over, Sadeeq had finally found the house and when he was about to pull his phone to dial Hafiz s number, a text came from Sadeeq. He turned and found out that Sadeeq wasn t there anymore, probably in his chamber or he had went off to report what had happened to his dear mother.
'I think I should find some time to visit the mansion and see if she s really going to be safe there as well, Captain.
Okay, touché! He dialed Hafiz s number without hesitation, and when he picked the call, Na im didn't even wait for him to speak before he began. "How do you suggest we re going to arrange everything, Lieutenant? How can she be brought into this palace without anyone noticing?"
There was a gasp from the other end and because he knew what the question would be, Na im offered to answer it before he asked. "Sadeeq has found out about the house, I'll tell you everything in details when we meet but for now, how do you suggest she comes here without being noticed? And it should be done quickly, because he claims to go to check the house and see, which only confirms that he suspects I'm hiding her there."
He heard the curse Hafiz muttered under his breath and he softly chuckled before he went directly to the kitchen when he had came into his chamber and took a bottle of water. He gulped it down and sat on the chair while he stared at his feet.
"I don t want us to make any mistake this time for him to know she s in the palace, Na im. Is there any gate apart from the main one that will get you into the palace? We can use it if there is but if not, then it would be a lot of work."
He began to shake his head before his eyes lighten up. "There s this gate that s just behind my chamber but I doubt if it has ever been used. There are no guards there as well. It will do!"
"Excellent!" Hafiz exclaimed.
"Do you think we should get her moved into the palace tonight then? He might make his move late at night today or early morning tomorrow, we all know how fast Sadeeq is."
Even though Hafiz didn t want to agree with him, he did. "Yes, I'll come to get you then. What about the guards and the maid?"
"I asked the guards to sign up for two months leave, so they ll still be on leave now. We can have them back at my chamber when they re back from the leave as written in the palace. And for the maid, she was my chamber s maid, so no problem. We will just bring the maid along."
"Get ready then, I'll be there in twenty minutes." Na im was already in his room when Hafiz said that and he placed the phone down after he had ended the call and slumped on his bed with a loud thud. Everything was happening so fast and all in the ways he had never planned it to be.
....
She was eating the dinner Bilkisu had practically forced her to as she thought about the possibility of all that happened being a dream. Was he really there? Did he came, caught her crying in the kitchen and all those things that happened later? Was he the one that took her on his laps and consoled her for wanting to go back home? She could remember being hugged for the first time by someone other than Intisar, and she thought it was him, and she fell asleep in his arms. Maryam knew everything felt so real, yet when she woke up, she didn t feel his presence anywhere in the house and that had surprisingly made her sad.
She was deep in her thoughts when she didn t see them coming, just heard a voice; his voice, as he ordered Bilkisu around. She slowly looked up and saw him staring right into her bones. She was eating her dinner on the carpet as she rested her entire upper body on the sofa beside her when he walked towards her. She had caught a glimpse of his friend that went out after he had seen where he was going to, after he had muttered words about waiting for them in the car.
Na im stood by her but she didn t look up at him, she kept on eating her food as slowly as no one had ever eaten something as delicious as Bilkisu s food, ever. He wanted her to look up at him so he would be able to explain things to her but she didn t, she acted as though he wasn t there that Na im was forced to sit down beside her on the carpet and she shifted a bit. He cleared his throat and Maryam was forced to look beside her and her eyes fell into his.
"Eat your food, we re leaving after you re done." Na im had said and the way his voice sounded had never done that before. His voice sounded weighed down with grief today, as if he was emotionally exhausted and what he was about to do was something that was rather forced on him, not because he wanted to do it.
She momentarily looked at him and saw the grief she had always seen surrounding his eyes, yet today, it was a different grief. And there was anger even though it wasn t for her because if it were, he would have already started venting on her. She nodded her head at him and turned to look away before it felt as though her lips were forced to squeeze the words out, "You look sad," she had muttered. This was the first time she had spoken to him about him, and Na im stared at her before he nodded his head as though he was agreeing to her words.
He felt so weighed with sadness and anger that he wished it was possible for him to go and punch Sadeeq as hard as he could until he vented everything out. He had never come across someone that hated him with so much passion to be so energetic when it came to destroying everything he had built and worked for. Sadeeq was and if care wasn t taken, he would have Maryam exposed to the world and Na im wasn t ready to protect her from all there was to know after she was being known by his family.
He slowly lean his head on her shoulder, not even knowing how it happened, he just knew that he needed someone to lean onto and she happened to be close to him. Maryam was stiff at first, but when she felt that that was the only physical touch he had done, she eased and began to eat her food as ordered by him.
It wasn t much, but it had calmed him down a bit and Na im closed his eyes to welcome the comfort he had gotten from just her shoulder, it was the best. They stayed like that, with him being deep in his thoughts, wondering what to do now that he had finally taken her to Shehuri, something he had vowed not to do but because the circumstances had forced him, he had to do that. He didn t know the kind of life she would live there, if she would be safe from the people he wanted to hide her to most from when he had brought her to their midst. Would she ever be seen by someone even if it were a mistake? He wondered.
"I m done, Your Highness." He thought the voice belonged to Maryam when he heard it, and began to wonder when she had started calling him with that. When had she ever even called him apart from that day? She had never even referred to him while she spoke. Never even actually spoken to him, just answered his questions whenever he had any.