A week had passed by, but Kulthum couldn't stop feeling anxious. She just couldn't help but think that he may pull a string at her or, rather, a stunt. All she wanted was for him to disappear from her life and that of her kids. Was that too much to ask for? She deserves a peaceful, quiet life for once, at least. Today, as she sat in her living room trying to focus her attention on the movie playing, she almost pulled her head off.
It wasn't working! He still controls her even after all these years. Tears welled up in her eyes. Why was she even crying? Wasn't she strong enough? Was she just going to allow him to keep predicting and controlling her life for her even in his absence? No, she wouldn't do that. She won't allow him to do that. She wiped the few drops of tears off her cheek and went up to her room.
"Your highness? Where are you going?" Anisah asked, Kulthum was dressed as if she were going somewhere. But, today was kind of like her day off? So where was she going?
"Hospital;" she declared, "I can't let him dictate my life even when he is absent. I have let him do that for so long, but not anymore. I can't let my fear ruin my household. Moreover, he can't really do anything to me"
"He can't to you, but he can to your kids" Anisah sighed, "look your highness, I won't allow you to put yourself in danger or that of your kids, seeing you out there now will just give him an opportunity to strike and believe me, he will strike more than you can imagine. In ways you can never imagine. Don't forget, he is the crown prince. Prince Abdullah that everyone fears"
"So what do you want me to do now? Do you just expect me to go back and hide under my bed like a scared little girl? I can't let him win this time, I've been running for six years. Away from him, away from everything that has to do with him. I'm tired. This all has to stop. I can't keep doing this. My children are my first priority, and I know that he will go after them if I do nothing about it. So if he wants to play, I will give him a game" she said and walked out. Anisah sighed again, she understands where Kulthum was coming from, but all this 'being strong' thing was all a facade. Kulthum was not in her right senses.
As soon as she went to the hospital, she headed straight for the OR, and unfortunately, for Kulthum, there wasn't any surgery scheduled for that day. Or at least for her.
"Excuse me, ma'am? What are you doing here?" The OR attendant asked. She was not supposed to come in today.
"Umm.. I had some pending surgeries and decided to do them today. Why?" She answered and asked in the process.
"I was told that all your surgeries are now taken care of by Doctor Jane for the rest of the week and maybe even after" she was shocked to hear that. Why? All of a sudden, all her patients are being taken care of by her colleague. Why?
"Why? Do you have any idea?" She asked, looking at him confused.
"I'm sorry, Doctor, but I can't help you" he said and left. She was dumbfounded. She wasn't expecting that kind of answer from him. She made her way to her office, and lo and behold, she saw General Mustapha seating in her office awaiting her presence.
"Your highness" he bowed deeply, "its been a while"
~~~~~~~
"What happened to him? Is he alright?" Kulthum asked, distraught. Usually, it was Jenna that pulled off her stunts, but hearing Hudayfah being in the hospital made her lose her mind temporarily.
"Calm down your highness, his royal highness is with him now but he kept on asking of you, if you would follow me now…" he was about to complete his sentence when she banged the door leaving him inside. He shrugged and followed her
"This way, your highness"
"Is he in this hospital?" she asked
"Yes your highness, he is" he said and continued walking up to Hudayfah's room.
"Hudayfah! Oh my God! Are you okay?" She asked as soon as she made it inside the room. However, there was no sign of Hudayfah. Instead, she was met with the last person she wanted to come in contact with.
Abdullah.
"Where is my son?" She asked, glaring at him
"You can leave" he said to General Mustapha.
"I couldn't have gotten another way to talk to you" he approached her gently, as if a predator coming at its prey.
"Where is my son?" She thundered
"He is safe. He is with Anisah together with Jenna. They are all safe" she heaved a sigh and was about to leave when she heard him say
"I have been searching for you for a very long time now, why did you leave?" He asked
"I am not obliged to answer you your royal highness, please if you will excuse me my children need me"
"Kulthum, listen to me" he started, "you have every right to be mad at me, but at least let me be a part of my children's life please"
"Stop! Just stop right there!" She held out her right palm to him. "Don't you dare for a second think that they are yours, because they aren't and they will never be do you understand?" She voiced out with ragged breathing.
"Kulthum;" he sighed.
"Don't! They are not yours, they have their father so you better stay away from me and my family okay?"
"I know…."
"You do? But you still want them for yourself, right? You want to separate them from their father just the way you separated us? You can do that to me, but you stay away from my kids and my husband" she warned and left.
"Husband?!" The words rang in his head for a few more seconds before he pulled out his phone.
"Come here now" and he ended the call
"You called for me your royal highness?" General Mustapha asked as soon as he came in.
"I want all the details concerning Kulthum's life from the past six years. Everything she has done, everywhere she has visited, hell, even the last coffee shop she's been to. Everything till date. Do you understand me"
"Clearly your royal highness" General said and left.
"She can't be married. She wouldn't do that to herself." The thought of her being married to another man made him sick to the smallest hair follicle in his body. He couldn't stand it. Different scenarios played in his head, but only one stood out, and he almost threw up at that single thought. A few hours later, General Mustapha came back bearing news in a flat file.
"Here are everything you want to know about Princess Kulthum, your royal highness, but I suggest you take a rest first before you go through it" General Mustapha advised
"Hand it over General" Abdullah almost leapt at him for hesitating. He gave him the file, and like a mad man, he opened it, almost tearing the cover away. He read through it very carefully, leaving no alphabet out. When he was done, he heaved a very heavy sigh, still looking at the file like he had just received the death penalty.
"We should head out your royal highness" General said calmly. Abdullah nodded but didn't leave from his position.
"We should head back to the office" Abdullah said and walked out. General Mustapha silently followed him behind and didn't say a word until they arrived at the company.
"What do you plan on doing your royal highness?"
"Give me her home address"
"Right away" General Mustapha said, pulling out his phone.
"Take care of things here. I will be awhile" he said, and General climbed down. As he made his way to Kulthum's house, he wasn't really paying attention to the road and almost hit someone. He pressed the break abruptly, swiftly steering the wheels to the side, and after a few more swirls, he bumped into a tree very hard and flew out of the car through the front glass He was severally injured. A pedestrian who noticed the whole scene was quick enough to recollect himself and called an ambulance who arrived at the scene almost immediately. He was rushed to the hospital immediately because he had lost a lot of blood.
"Where is the Doctor?" Someone yelled out, and immediately, Kulthum came out panting.
"Take him to the OR now" she ordered. She tried getting a better look at the person's face, but she had no time for that, so she quickly changed her outfit into scrubs and headed to the theatre. As soon as she made contact with the patients, she gasped in shock.
"Are you alright, Doctor?"
"Yeah, let's proceed" As careful as she was, she couldn't help but be a little bit shaken at the process of removing the rod stuck between his ribs.
"Doctor your hands are shaking. Are you sure you can continue?" Her assistant asked again for the second time.
"I am alright, thank you" After the operation was over, he was shifted into the ICU to be observed for the meantime.
"Your highness? How is he?" General Mustapha asked, almost bumping into Kulthum.
"He is going to be alright, General. I am specifically observing him myself. You don't have to worry" she assured him. "I am hoping he wakes up within 24 hours. If he doesn't, he will slip into a coma" she said the last part almost too silently.
"How are you holding up your highness?" He asked instead. She gave him a flat look and said
"I am a doctor, General. I have seen far worse than this, and I am still okay. So you don't have to worry about me, I am fine"
"I know you have seen worse, but none of them were your husband, your highness"
"Look;" she started, "I am a married woman now, I have no relationship whatsoever with him, so he is just like any of my other patients now"
"If he is, why are you specifically looking after him yourself?" he asked, gazing at her.
"I am the one that operated on him, so I have to look after him" she defended. That was a very good question. Why was she specifically looking after him when she can have any of her junior doctors look after him? What was wrong with her?
"Look, your highness, I know the truth about everything, what happend back at the Palace was not your fault and I get why you said you are married, but look at him now, what do you see?" He asked, "he was on his way to you, to tell you whatever was on his mind, but here he is together with you but fighting for his life"
"General, I have a family now, I can't be having feelings for him anymore. Moreover, I am over him, been over him since the day I left the Palace"
"Your highness," General sighed. "I know everything about you, starting from the day you moved here till date. I know what you have been doing, who you've met with, and where you've visited. I have all your information with me so it's all left for you to make the right decision. But, I won't pressure you, I will allow you to make your mind up first you can call me selfish or whatever you wish but I can't stand the sight of his royal highness losing his mind over the woman he loves.
"General, I am sorry, but I can't come back to him. I belong to someone else now"
"He told me to collect your information, and I did, but I gave him a fake one because I know you might have your reasons for doing what you are doing, which is none of my business. But please, don't make me use the original information, your Highness, I am begging you. Before I became his personal guard, I was his best friend. So this is me speaking to you as his friend, choose wisely Princess" he said and left. She gulped and headed back to her office wearing on a very long face. As tired as she was, she removed her scrubs and entered the washroom to have her bath when she finally came out. She was feeling a little less stressed out and ordered for her usual dessert. Shawarma and a chilled apple juice.
She went to check up on her patient when she was done eating and saw General Mustapha sitting on the couch with a dangling head. He was sleeping.
"It's just me" she said when she saw him aiming for his sword. He went back to his position, looking at her strangely. She checked his vitals and heart rate, and everything was alright, then she left. However, before she could move an inch, he grabbed her hand, making her gasp.
"Angel? Is that you?" His gruff voice whispered tiredly.
"Yes I am the one" she responded, immediately seating by his side. She caressed his cheek as tears breamed in the lid of her eyes. She kissed his hand, holding onto it tightly as if her life depended on it. Why was she even crying? She wasn't even supposed to come close to him, yet here she was, crying her eyes out for him. When she saw him fighting for his life in the OR, she wanted to let go of all her anger and hatred for him and tell him she still loves him with all her heart. He should just be with her, stay by her side till death, do them part.
"What were you thinking, Abdullah? What is wrong with you?" The tears finally cascaded down her cheek like ocean waves.
"I'm sorry baby, I had to talk to you"
"This isn't the only way. Why are you always selfish? You only think about yourself and even this time also, you thought only of yourself. Did you care to think of what would happen to me if something were to go wrong? Did you wait for a second to weigh your options?"
"Baby…." He wanted to sit up, but she stopped him.
"You are too weak for any movement now. You need to rest. We will talk later"
"Baby…" he took in a deep breath, "I want to be with you. Please don't leave me again"
"I am here, I am not going anywhere" she pulled out an injection from her lab coat pocket and inserted it inside the IV line.
"What are you…" and he dosed off. She wiped her tears away and changed his blood bag, then headed out to get something for him to eat because she knew when he woke up, he would be very famished. On her way outside, she almost strangled herself for showing him how weak she still was when it came to him. Why the hell did she cry in front of him? What was wrong with her, for goodness sake? She noticed that as she was leaving the room, there was no sign of General Mustapha. Where could he have gone to? She wondered.
"Your highness" he almost startled her.
"General, where did you go to?" She asked, trying her best to avoid eye contact.
"I went to receive a call" he lied. She wanted to confront him about it, but rather, it was in her best interest to let him be. She wasn't ready to talk about what just happened in the ICU. She nodded and was about to leave when he asked her, "where are you going, your highness?"
"I want to collect a meal for him" she said
"I have that already dealt with, if you don't mind, will you go back to him please?"
"I can assign other doctors to look after him, General. It doesn't have to be me. Moreover, I have other patients to look after him, please excuse me" and she left.
"Your Highness.." he started hesitantly
"For the record General, stop calling me that, I am no longer entitled to that name, and secondly, he will do just fine without me. There are many qualified doctors here who can take care of him it doesn't have to be me"
"As you wish" he said.
As she went back to her cabin, she sat on her couch reliving the last few hours in her mind and imagined a different scenario whereby she didn't cry in front him and what the outcome might be. She chose the latter.
A knock came on her door, and she adjusted her seating position before ushering the person in.
"Doctor? Professor Wilson has summoned you to his office" her assistant said.
"Okay" she said and picked her lab coat on her way out.
"Doctor, you called for me?" She asked as soon as she was given permission to come in
"Yeah, why don't you have a seat, Doctor Kulthum? We have a lot to discuss"