Chapter three

Risha froze at her place, the voice and those words stimulating something deep inside her being. She turned and a slight involuntary gasped escaped her slightly parted lips, hardly audible to anyone but herself. It was the person her father had been speaking to. He was a young tall figure, with sharp serene eyes, lean figure, frank looking face and beautifully pointed male nose, not too build but not bad looking either, he had those exceptionally handsome face features calm piercing eyes, small thin lips and thick brows, that made ladies stare, just as she was doing now.

She tried failingly to stop her heart from analysing the enigmatic wonder before her. He was smiling charmingly at her a few steps away; he had come to stand close to the secretary.

Risha quickly looked away, blinked quickly as she tried to regain her rattled composure. She realized he was still speaking. “If Hanifah was rude to you, then I am apologizing on her behalf” he said smiling at her.

In shock, Risha looked towards her father, who smiled and nodded to the idiot of a man in approval. She couldn’t explain why but anger gripped her with its full force, scaring even her, she felt like her head was going to explode due to the intensity.

 “You bastard” she spoke from clenched jaws “who do you think you are?”

“Risha." Alhaji Shehu said softly, as if to caution her.

The annoying man just smiled again, although he was clearly surprised by her outburst.

“Who do you think you are to speak to me and tell me about what to do and how I should speak huh?” she said clenching her fists as she spoke. She could say no more, due to her intense anger.

He said nothing, just kept smiling at her in amusement.

Alhaji Shehu smiled as he observed his daughter, secretly he was glad that Farhan had spoken up, it wasn’t every day that someone could rattle Risha like this. People hardly stood up to her. Plus, he really did not wish to fire Hanifah.

The smile on the man’s face only inflated her anger, at the moment, she lost total control of herself, she insulted cursed, threatened all at once.

“Risha! that is enough." Alhaji Shehu spoke loudly now, a stern expression on his face, “don’t say a single more word, you are embarrassing yourself.”

She flashed her father an angry look, “fire them both dad.” she said with as much control as she could muster.

“No” Alhaji Shehu answered “this has to stop Risha” 

“Fire them dad” she spoke again weakly, she almost pleaded “if not the girl, then fire him” she said pointing at the man. Her own stupidity surprised her, yet she couldn’t stop herself.

“Risha” Alhaji Shehu said firmly, “I can’t do that, they are both too important, Farhan is our finest legal adviser and attorney, Hanifah is the best secretary that has worked in this office. Besides what crime did they commit? Farhan has already apologized on her behalf, isn’t that enough?” 

Risha couldn’t believe her ears, “was it her daddy was speaking to like this?” She looked at the bastard named Farhan who had caused all this; no one had to tell her she had lost when she saw the same smile of confidence on his face. Even the stupid secretary was confident enough to look at her now. She could feel the tears at the tip of her eyelids; she trembled like a feather in the wind, as her anger passed human capacity to endure. But then surprising everybody, she smiled, it was a devilish smile, although she still shook intensely, she let the smile linger. At that moment, her whole heart became black with hate for this Farhat or whatever the hell his name was. She felt such hate that she could murder him there on the spot.

“Ok, if that’s how you want it to be” she said directing her words to her father, turning angrily to leave, but before walking out, she turned to look once more at the new object of her obsession, the evil in her eyes at that moment would scare even the devil.

For his part, Farhan was no longer smiling; his amusement had been replaced by curiosity. He held her gaze, surprise evident in his, “was she really that angry? Or was she just acting?” he almost felt like laughing because he could not see nothing that warranted such a reaction. Her beautiful eyes flashed with fire, her nose twitched and her lips trembled, to him it was all a funny sight. He smiled at her one more time.

Risha’s eyes almost exploded, but she smiled also, it was a very unnatural smile, the evil wicked type, a promise of a lot to come, a threat and an assurance. She paused a bit to watch him smile at the receptionist in assurance before turning to walk away.

Alhaji Shehu had been observing his daughter all the while, the smile still lingered on his lips, it wasn’t that he was happy that she was angry, that was her default setting, only on normal cases her anger was sort of cold, as if an active volcano silently waiting to erupt, just because it wasn’t erupting at every moment didn’t take away the fact that it was still a dead serious thing. What he could see now was that volcano erupting. “With God on our side, it would take a long time before this volcano erupted again, seeing that it has spent all its energies” he thought, smiling even more at the thought. He turned to her.

“Risha” he called, just as her back disappeared behind the wall, he thought she had not heard him, until he saw her stick her head over the side, an inquisitive look accompanied with contempt evident on her face, she did not speak, just raised her brows questioningly.

“Do not forget what I said earlier about that cheque, spend it most prudently, ok?” he smiled at her affectionately, in an effort to diffuse some of her anger.

Surprisingly, Risha just smiled and nodded before disappearing behind the wall, in contrary to what he had expected.

“Well, this is certainly a new era,” he thought smiling to himself.

 And he was absolutely right.