Chapter Four

During the marriage

Abdul-Dayyan and Munawarrah

Abdul-Dayyan stared at her while she slept, her long lashes resting gracefully atop her soft looking cheeks. She was really beautiful and he was so much in love with her, last night had been beautiful, a smile graced his face as he thought of it. That was the first time she had allowed him touch her, he hoped things will be better between them, he understood he had manipulated her into getting married to him but he didn't care. He loved her.

She stirred before opening her eyes, they looked clueless as she stared about before realization dawned on her and she felt like plucking out her soul, she was seething as she wore her nightgown. Where was that son of a bastard? She was going to kill him, break every bone in his body.

Abdul-Dayyan walked out of the bathroom with just black sweatpants, a hand was plunged into it's pocket and a lazy smile was on his face as he leaned on the doorframe watching her.

"Well I see sleeping beauty has finally decided to grace us with her consciousness."

"You!" She pointed a finger at him, she grabbed an art work from the wall and hauled it at him, he narrowly dodged it and it fell on the floor shattering into several pieces.

"So apparently you have a knack for throwing things at people, including yourself" God! He loved getting under her skin.

"Really?" She all but screamed and walked over to where she stood, she was tall but he still hovered over her and stared down at her with an eyebrow raised.

She gave him a punch on the stomach that had him grunting and clutching his abdomen.

"Damn woman?"

"Since I'm known to have a knack for throwing myself at people" She used her elbow to hit his crouched back, he groaned and straightened up and before she could haul more blows at him, he held her both hands tightly with his.

"Let go you bastard" She struggled to free her hand.

"Let go I sai...mmmh" His lips were against hers in a lustful kiss, she protested at first but soon she quit protesting and enjoyed the taste of his lips on hers, his hands involuntarily left hers and she placed them around on his neck pulling him closer to him.

He moaned and that was when her senses came back to her and she kneed him, he groaned and swore and cursed as he crouched in pain.

"I expect you at work soon Abdul-Dayyan" With that she walked out and went into her room, she fell on the lush couch and memories of last night came flooding through her mind.

She covered herself in embarrassment as she remembered how she had practically begged him to make love to her, and also she had been the one who initiated their euphoric and passionate night by kissing him first.

"God! I hate him so much" She lamented.

Do you? I can vividly recall you screaming his name last night you know.

The tiny voice in her head said and she screamed out, "Shut up! Shut the hell up."

Just as a knock rang out on her door, "who the hell is that?"

"Khairatu ma'am" She heard a reply from the other side.

"Come in" The girl came in looking dressed up and ready for work.

"What do you want?"

"It's past 9am ma'am. You make sure you're always at the office latest by 7 so I was worried."

"Past 9am? Shit! Fuck him, wait for me downstairs I'll be ready" She waved a dismissive hand at Khairatu before proceeding into her bathroom for a quick shower and she also hoped to wash away every trace of that man's touch away from her mind.

She was late for her shareholders meeting, that was a first.

"May we begin" She said not at all apologizing for keeping over twenty people waiting, after all it had just been forty minutes. After the meeting had ended she went to her office to make series of calls, she was on the phone when an a strangely familiar woman barged into her office with Khairatu hot on her heels.

"Ma'am please you can't, I'm going to lose my job" Khairatu pleaded with the woman who was sending daggers Munawarrah's way. Muna ended the call and let her eyes addressed the woman, she was no doubt very beautiful much more beautiful than the pictures.

"Amal Mohammad, I've been awaiting your presence. Why then have you hesitated all this while to bestow it upon me?" She asked in a slick, amused tone.

"You shameless tramp" The woman voiced out.

Munawarrah sighed, "I've been addressed worst, slut, manipulative, cheap whore, husband snatcher... May I go on?"

"You really are shameless" Amal said staring viciously at Muna.

"I would've offered you something to drink but, seeing as you didn't have the simple courtesy to act classy, why then should I treat you like someone with class?"

"Says the woman who has warmed the bed of too many men to be able to count so as to land her in this position."

"Ouch! Low blow. You hurt me a lot with your words my dearest co-wife."

"You've succeeded in getting my husband under your claws but I promise you, he will come off it and this marriage will end sooner than it started."

"That's enough! Get out of this building right now or I'd let security throw you out."

"There will be no need for that" The heard an authoritative voice from outside, the three women in the room turned to see it's owner and it was no other than Abdul-Dayyan. He strode in looking handsome in his lab coat.

His eyes softened as he glanced at Amal, "You shouldn't have come" He said softly, she hugged him and they stayed like that. Abdul-Dayyan spared a glance Munawarrah's way and he saw something flashed in her eyes but it was gone before he could depict it's meaning.

"I miss you, I and Nura" Amal said as soon as they untangled from their embrace, she held his hand.

"Please leave all this and come back home to your real family."

He could only stare at her wordlessly, a lone tear escaped her eyes and he brushed it off with his thumb.

Something pricked at Munawarrah's chest at their display of affection, knowing she had spent the night with thesame man who stood gazing at his wife as if she was the only woman in the world.

"Uhmm... Hello, excuse me" She waved her hand in an exaggerating manner, "I'd like you guys to get your horny selves out of my office or I'd have security throw you both out."

Without a word, they both left her office, she sighed and looked up to find Khairatu looking at her.

"And what the hell are you looking at? Scratch, scramble. Get the fuck out!" The girl practically ran out of the office, Munawarrah plunged herself into work and successfully avoided thinking about some certain man.

She was in her library reading a book on plasmodium, it had hurt her a lot that her first experiment had gone utterly wrong. Plasmodyl was her first trial at producing a malaria drug, even any drug and the outcome had ended up disastrous.

During the broadcast, her tears might have been fake but her sadness wasn't, for someone who never stepped a foot into the grounds of a university she had high hopes for the drug she produced but it had ended up killing people.

She was deep into the book she was reading that she barely heard the door to the library open and when she did, she raised her head to catch the sight of her husband, she turned away. It had been days since that episode with his wife and they had successfully stayed out of each other's way.

"I didn't know you were in here" She heard him say but she ignored him and stared through the glass door at her fake beach. Even though fake, it's beauty was mesmerizing.

"Your house is very beautiful" He said but she still ignored him, he sat down on a chair opposite her.

"Munawarrah..."

"Do you want me to leave here for you?" She asked sharply not even looking at him.

"I want us to stop living as strangers."

"We are strangers" She snapped.

"True! But we won't get close to each other if we keep avoiding each other."

"In case you've forgotten Mr Mohammad, this is a marriage based on a contract so let's just focus on fulfilling each other's end of it."

He walked over to her, "I know what was between us that night, the passion between us or was that us fulfilling our end of the contract?"

She didn't reply him as she stared straight ahead, her jaw twitching expressing her anger.

"I know you feel it too, when I kiss you, the feeling deep inside you" He bent down and boldly held her hand, he began to kiss it and nibbled at her wrist.

"I know you're feeling it right now and..." She pulled her hand away from his and stood up.

"Don't start getting hallucinating thoughts in your head, Mr Mohammad. Whatever happened that night happened at the heat of the moment, and it'll never happen again so just get on with your life and forget about the past."

She walked out of the library shutting the door loudly behind her and the loud sound from it contrasted with that of Abdul-Dayyan's shattering heart.