Songs for this chapter are:
I love you boy - Suzy (While you were sleeping OST)
Whistling - Various Artists (Goblin OST)
Gone for good - Simi
First love - (Goblin OST)
After the lapse of a long period of time, comprising of unbearable anxiety, ludicrous and sinister tension dominating the atmosphere amongst me, someone who was supposed to be my past, and someone who was supposed to be my future. Whenever we were together, Dan was always trying to suppress his smug grin yet throwing surreptitious glances my way occasionally and death glares at Mustafa every other minute.
Mustafa on the other hand would hold my hand and rub on it softly, smiling warmly and compassionately at me, avoiding Dan's death glares from a metre away. Knowing the silent battle that was always going on between them and knowing that it was all because of me drove me crazier by the minute but since today, being the day of judgment, the urge to stop them from making everything ten times awkward than it already was, is replaced by the tension building up within me as the familiar footsteps of the doctor came into hearing.
The DNA results were out!
I'm unaware of who gets on their feet first but in less than a second, we had swarmed around the doctor once we got a view of him. Wide eyed and perplexed, he adjusted the crescent shaped spectacle on his face.
Distressed and sickened, I dared to speak to the doctor first.
"Who is Farida's biological father?"
I was hoping vainly that my baby would belong to Mustafa so I can get to stay with him and now, all of the wealth I had been aiming to acquire suddenly didn't matter. All that mattered at the moment was the nightmare of having my three children belong to two, different men - unprecedented polyandry.
Hmm. But when you were sleeping with him without protection, you did not think about that right? The stupid wench in my head retorts.
The doctor gave us all a bland look. Never has an expressionless face bothered me that much. My heart hammeted so loudly against my chest that I was surprised I wasn't getting weird looks from people in the hospital for being so darn lousy.
"Well, according to the test results, the baby belongs to this man. The DNA between the man and the child matches completely."
I followed the direction of the doctor's stare, my heart thumped the loudest now, hoping that he was looking at my Iranian husband but not only does the thumping of my heart say otherwise, my eyes does too.
There is a triumphant smile on his battered face.
"This man?" I asked again and Mustafa joined in to ask the exact same question out of surprise only that we were surprised for different reasons.
"Yes, Mr. Dan, I presume?" The doctor asks, raisins a brow, his attention still fixed on the bastard.
"Yes, Doc. You are right, " He said brightly.
The doctor handed the envelope containing the test results to Dan and dared to leave us – me to my plight, stating that he had urgent stuff to attend to but immediately after he's gone, Mustafa snatched the envelope from Dan's grip, pulling the paper out of the brown envelope, then his eyes darted from one end to the other as they rushed through the contents in the paper, tears laced in his eyes. Then, he raised those forlorn eyes and fixed them on me.
"Cassandra, what is going on? Farida is my child, isn't she? Why is the test result saying otherwise?" His teary, shaky voice came to my hearing.
My heart dropped and I felt shameless, salty liquid streaming down my eyes.
"Farida is not your child, Mustafa. The test result says it clearly. Cassie does not love you, she only loves your money and it's pretty unbelievable that you literally never saw the truth right under your nose."
"Cassandra, say something. I beg you in Allah's name, " Mustafa spoke softly to me, ignoring Dan completely. "Dan and the test results must be spewing rubbish and I really need you to prove this bastard wrong. Tell me that you did not agree to marry me all these years just for my money. Tell me that you have not been meeting with this psychopath that didn't even think twice before cheating on you. Tell me you have not been cheating on me with him behind closed doors. Debunk these allegations, I beg of you."
His voice was so raspy that it started to become vague in fact. He grabbed a hold of my shoulders, and shook me vigorously but I could not dare to look him in the eye. More crocodile tears cascaded my cheeks as I stared at my feet. Dan did all of the talking in my stead.
"Of course she has. Why do you think all of the bank notes used for the supply of ruby jewelry went missing two years ago? Or why do you think the cargo from Yemen supplied excess quartz of raw sapphire to your jewelry company last year? She's been stealing the bank notes and unrefined sapphire, selling it for hundreds of millions to the Arabians and to the parliament members of Somalia behind your back, to invest in the bags and shoes business she established with her brother. She used you as a bank!"
I could no longer feel Mustafa's hands on my shoulders but before I try to wonder why they are no longer on my shoulders, I heard a crunch and a snap sound like some parts of the human body had been broken, but it's when I began to hear shocked gasps and murmurs from the people in the hospital that I decided it was high time I stopped looking at my feet and when I did just that, I saw Mustafa making an attempt to hit Dan with his fists, in a suitable area he could find and Dan was doing his best to dodge the blows, protecting his bleeding nostrils.
Mustafa was some words in Arabic that I had gotten to learn over time to be really vile. He must be really mad. Why wouldn't he be?
"Ant abn aleahira. Adhab iilaa aljahim!"
He had just told the son of a bitch to go to hell.
Racing towards them, I managed to stop Mustafa from lunging another fistful at Dan. Mustafa's furious glares that were once directed at Dan burned into me but I could see that he was trying hard to calm down for my sake.
As more tears spilled down my eyes, I opened my mouth to speak just as Dan walked towards the washing basin close by to rinse the oozing blood off his nostrils.
"It is true, Mustafa. I have been cheating on you for a really long time. Dating back to the time when we used to date each other. When I realized that I could not use you to get over Dan, I decided that dating you would be beneficiary for me in other aspects so I agreed to marry you for your money."
"All this while, I never cheated on you, Cass. Zoe wanted to belong to me. She was willing to assume your position in my life but I never gave her that chance simply because I was convinced about my love for you. It wasn't worth it. I stayed faithful to you until the very end only for me to learn that you never left him since all these years. What did I ever do to you, Cass? What happened to the beautiful friendship we once used to have? I'm confused. I-I thought you loved and trusted me? I thought you said you felt safe around me when we went to the martial arts academy in Tokyo. W-Where did all of those declarations go?"
I swallowed thickly, as more tears spilled down my cheeks, I remembered that day vividly.
"I-I was the one who asked Zoe to make her move at you s-since it was obvious she had feelings for you. Ever since I knew you had feelings for me, I too advantage of it especially when I saw that my relationship with Dan wasn't going well. Even when you made it clear that you would always respect my decision. I lured you. I used you, Mustafa."
"A-ahmed a-and Youssef. W-what about them? Did you bear those children for the sake of inheritance too?, " His voice became more vague by the minute, subtle tears underlying in his voice.
I nodded.
I knew he would have concluded that those children did not belong to him, just like farida but we had gotten a few tests done in the past that confirmed his paternity on those kids.
"B-but why? I don't get it, " A tear slipped down his cheek, he seemed to run out of words to say by each passing second. Then he looked at me, his face, crestfallen. "Did I not love you properly? Did I ever disrespect you or the decisions you made? You made such a foolery and ridicule of me. Zoe must have thought me to be the biggest fool to ever exist. You did-didn't have to do make such a ridicule of me."
"I-I lost it, Mustafa. I really did. Dan made a mess of me and I could not strive to be a better person regardless. Instead, I did terrible things to you. I wanted to kill two birds with a stone – giving you Zoe and still staying married to you while I was sleeping with Dan. I put you to a harsh test. I admit to everything."
"And that, would not change a thing. Constructing a few sentences together can not repair the years of my life that you effortlessly wasted, when I could have just found my significant other and have kids that I would truly love. You held me back an-and made me suffer the things I wasn't ordained to suffer, You made me peform so many vain sacrifices for your sake when you knee who the culprit was for so long. You wasted me, Cass. All because of the fact that I loved you so much?"
"I swear, I actually did not know who the—"
"Your explanations have no potency whatsoever now."
Dan was walking towards us now and in no time, he stood next to me, and dared to wrap his arm around my shoulder. He sniffed and grunted, still feeling the pain from his bleeding nostrils and then he gave Mustafa a look.
The same look he gave me on the day he said it to my face that he cheated on me.
"Well, I guess she has done all of the confessions during my short absence. Now, may I take my darling loved away with me?"
"Yes, you may. I mean, she made such a ridicule of me for so many years all because of the undying love she has always had for you. I just happened to come in the way by making the mistake of loving her and I was crushed to bits. So take her and farida with you and have a lovely life, " As another tear trickled down his cheek, he smiled.
A smile that radiated nothing but agony.
"Mustafa, are you going to...to...divorce me?" I dared to ask, yanking Dan's arms away from my shoulder with all of my might.
"We are divorced already as far as I'm concerned. I'm about to make it legal by visiting your sister to get the procedures started with immediate effect."
"P-please I can't stay with Dan. Don't leave me to stay with him. He was the one who asked his dad, the loan shark to abduct me for his own benefits when I was nine. Please for the same of the friendship we once used to have. For the sake of the blood I gave you when you were dying. Please save—"
"Enough of the mushy talk. You are no longer a captive to pain but a captive to my love. Huh?!" Dan spoke, nearly growling, placing that arm on my shoulder again, giving it a mild squeeze.
I noticed the expression of pain and anger on Mustafa's face morph into one of pity and reconsideration when I said those things but Dan's voice coming in between the effects of my words on Mustafa is nullified and the anger is back on his face, icier than ice.
"How dare you use that to persuade me? You freaking psychotic wanton? I would have chosen to die on that day if I knew I was going to live to suffer this greatly. I would have begged the doctors to drain all of the blood in my body so I can die a painful but rewarding death rather than receiving a blood transplant from you. Dan is right. He's the only guy who seems to give you all you truly want. After all, you knew him before you knew me so why not have a wonderful time with your captor?"
With that, he walked out of the hospital. Leaving me to the beginning and the end of my loss...
***
Psalms 55:12-14 - "For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in the throng."