Aabid wiped the lines of his lips and stood to depart. He had eaten at 'Nicole's,' in which he selected their beef tenderloin.
His phone buzzed and he answered in a slow way, "Hello?"
[Where are you right now?] the director asked in a stern voice.
"I just finished eating now. I'm heading home,"
[Are you far from the building? I need you to come back. There's important discussion,]
"I'm somewhere in Tomtom. Will it be possible for me to join the meeting through zoom?" Aabid sighed, knowing the man was not going to agree to that anyways.
[No. It is very important,]
"I'll be there in a bit, sir," he assured and ended the call.
"Mr. Demonte has cancelled his arrival to Turkiye," the director began. "This doesn't sound very good..."
"Let's figure this out," the deputy director mumbled, rubbing his long beard.
"How about we send an invitation to him for the shareholder's meeting coming up?" suggested Yeccef from the projector. Yeccef was speaking all the way from Beijing.
"That would not be possible... Read your files well-he's an investor." the director replied as he went through a document.
After some thought, Aabid proposed, "The majority of investors are aware of our plan to acquire Jochron INC as a whole. If we keep sending emails to Mr. Demonte, I fear it will be too blatant. Given our desperation, he may decide to join arms with other investors who are absolutely opposed to us. For now, I think we should focus more on our project with Loharani, who is not only an investor but also a stockholder,"
He added, laying a piece of paper that he had printed hours before, "Getting him on our side initially will be the best alternative."
Aabid's cousin Muhammad got hold of the paper and instantly handed it over to the director without even reading it. The paper contained the progress report of the previous task they achieved.
"Our yearly sales will skyrocket like this one in that paper you hold, sir-that is, if we are able to establish continuous first-rate marketing strategy," Aabid completed by sitting back on his chair and maintaining a good posture and a straight-face as if he wasn't the one who gave a clean lecture to everybody in the room.
"Erm. Yes-I believe that sounds okay. However, I will have to think about this..." the director announced, however knowing deep down that Aabid had aced it.
The deputy director smiled at Aabid, as if aware of the personal grudge the two had for each other.
The meeting lasted for 17 minutes and everyone took their leave. Aabid silently drove to the mansion deep in thoughts: concerning his work and personal life.
Flashback:
Last week:
Aabid exhaled waves of smoke from the fat cigar and silently watched as Zara approached him.
"Get in the car, I'll be there in a bit." He voiced to her and she nodded then simply got in.
Her heart rate increased, but she knew this was what she wanted. TO HAVE A GOOD TIME. Her watch read 9.14pm. She was curious to know where they were going.
Looking around the luxurious car, she noticed a can of root beer and picked it, only to understand that he didn't drink much-probably only a sip or two. She eventually saw another empty can in the rear seat.
Aabid by then had extinguished the cigar and was with her inside the car.
"You shouldn't drive while you're drunk," Zara told him, glaring.
"I'm not that drunk. Don't worry about it," he simply stated as he put on his seat belt and they zoomed off.
--
The thoughts of the previous week were still on Zara's mind. She had been hanging out with Aabid 4 times in a row.
There's no way he's not into me despite everything that happened between us. She thought to herself as she sipped coke from a can.
She glanced as she noticed Saliha leave the room and wondered where she was heading to.
Saliha on the other hand walked towards Loharani's study to simply have a conversation with him. She did not talk to him about her failed relationship with Aabid but even came to accept that Loharani must have known about the switch.
"Work hard, child. You will be rewarded by nature itself," he mumbled, his mind partly in the conversation as he was busy screening some files and stamping them.
"Abba goodnight. I'm sleepy."
"Goodnight, Peace be upon you. Just do right things wherever you go, whoever you meet, okay?" he advised, still looking at his folders.
Saliha felt a little disheartened because he appeared to be consoling her about her own inadequacies as well.
Why can't I ever do things right?
She fought back the tears and went ahead to her bed.
--
Two days later…
Muhammad approached Aabid who was silently sitting on the garden chair.
"How are things going with Saliha…?" he asked, whilst he observed the moon.
"Very good," Aabid promptly said, completely uninterested in the conversation.
Muhammad however was not asking the question out of curiosity. He intended to discuss about the issue on ground—which was the fact that Aabid was going out with Zara instead of Saliha.
"Yknow Saliha is uh… your main target not the other girl…"
"Have you been following me?"
"Obviously no… I got things to do, yknow,"
"Then who did you set up to follow me?" Aabid asked, completely annoyed.
"I had no-one follow you, bro. I met your friend Othman two days ago and he told me about you and the other girl attending a party together,"
"Nah. You asked him about me then he told you about me, wasn't it like that?"
"The most important part is that you're going out with the other girl and not the Saliha,"
Aabid stood up, adjusting his collar.
"I go out with who I want to go out, Hamman,"
Mohammed exhaled, then sat next to Aabid on the chair.
After a while of silence, Mohammed said, "You can't mess up, keep that in mind,"
"Mess up what?" Aabid mumbled, feeling completely down.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about,"
Aabid sighed and turned his head away. "Don't talk to me about work or anything, please."
"What's wrong?" Hamman asked after awhile to which Aabid refused to answer.
"Can you leave me alone?"
"Sure."
Muhammad thus left Aabid undisturbed.
Aabid proceeded to call Zara on the phone. He sought to meet up with her.
[I can't come at this hour, baby. I'll try to find a way out tomorrow in sha Allah] she explained.
After the call ended, Aabid smirked, amused at how things had quickly escalated. She was even calling him pet-names.
Unknown to Zara, this was all part of his ploy. It remained a plan he schemed as a warning to the Loharanis—as he badly wanted to cancel out the wedding plans. This was the only way possible.
His phone buzzed, bringing him out of his thoughts. It was the man who promised to contact him if he received information about his mother.
"Salaam," Aabid greeted, swiftly sitting up from his lazy position.
[Wasalaam, young man.]
"What news do you have?"
[Let's meet tomorrow in the afternoon. I have a little something that might help,]
"Tomorrow then."
Aabid was once cared for by a woman simply known as Ms. Ozkan. He'd spent a lot of time with her, especially after his mother went missing. However, the dame vanished shortly after Aabid departed the main residence for Germany. She had already left by the time he arrived.
Months ago, he stumbled across ms. Ozkan's name when searching through an old folder containing information about their domestic staff. He was able to identify her former residence and was met by a man who represented himself as her prior landlord. The man then offered to help in reaching Ms. Ozkan.