Chapter 6: Adulkareem's anger
It soon reached her father's ears that his eldest daughter was walking hand in hand with a man in public. Rumours spread too quickly, don't they?
Arshi woke up to the sound of Abdulkareem's angry voice echoing in all the corners of their mansion. He rarely shouted even when he scolded her. She was just surprised why he was shouting very early in the morning.
"Salaam, my lady"
"Salaam, Layla" she replied as she sat up in her bed and looked at Layla, a chambermaid who was in charge of her on that day. "What is not happening?" she asked the maid who was busy opening her bedroom's window curtains. "Why is father making such a ruckus this early?"
"If I may answer your question, my lady, the old master is upset because an envoy informed him of your whereabouts and all that you did yesterday at the marketplace." The maid had finished opening the curtains and was standing at a respectful distance from her bed. "Rumors about my lady being a loose woman have spread all over town and master did not take that news well."
"I see…I'll dress up at once and go and see him. Thank you for your honest response, Layla." She took a long deep sigh and slid off the bed.
She freshened up and her chambermaid helped her pick the clothes she would wear, matching her porcelain skin tone. The white long-sleeved linen dress she wore fitted her perfectly that defined her small waist and broad hips. She decided to wear her hair up in a simple and beautiful style that complimented everything about her creamy glittering silk head scarf. She stared at her doll face in her large bedroom mirror while fixing herself before heading to see her adoptive father and took a short glance at Layla not giving her a clue of her mood.
******
"Salaam, father." She got in her father's office and shut the door behind her. Her father gave her an angry glance and did not even bother to greet her back.
She remained standing and surveyed her father's mood.
"Are you angry with me?"
His silence was worse than his anger. It lasted for about a minute. When it became so uncomfortable, she glared at Abdulkareem. "Father, are you angry with me again?" she asked.
After a short while, he rose from his chair and headed where Arshi was standing. "You ungrateful girl! Tell me! Is it true?" he retorted.
"Is what true, father?" she asked acting confused.
"Since you are pretending not to know a thing, let me refresh your memory, Arshi." He replied looking at her with murderous eyes. "Who was the man you were with yesterday?"
Arshi turned her face away from him, her expression closing up. She tried to speak, but her throat closed up with fear.
"Well? Are you going to answer me or not?"
Arshi flinched.
"Shall I be a truthful father?" she asked worriedly, "That…That man…was Gentleman Hathi and I really love him." She turned to face him and added, "We love each other and he proposed marriage to me so I agreed."
She was in love with Hatim and that was the only thing giving her the strength to talk back to her father. She glossed over her replies, knowing very well how the truth would upset Abdulkareem further.
"How long has your affair been being going on?" Abdulkareem asked. "How long were you going to keep on disgracing me?"
As soon as she opened her mouth to reply to Abdulkareem, a slap stung her cheek, and she gasped. He lifted his hand to slap her again. A retaliating one would have been less painful but Arshi squeezed her eyes shut and just stood there accepting her adoptive father's hits. He had never raised his hands on her before; it was his first time doing so. He was both angry and hurt at the same time.
He became surprised as to why she was still unfazed and raised his hand to slap her again but a strong hand grabbed his hand.
"What the hell do you think you are doing? Hatim reacted angrily to Abdulkareem's behaviour towards Arshi. He watched how his woman's fair face had swollen and his grip grew tighter.
"Tsk! Look at me Arshi and answer me honestly." his forehead furrowed. "Does this man always raise his hands on you like this?"
She looked away avoiding his gaze, too surprised and embarrassed to tell him anything. Abdulkareem had never hit her before, so what was she to tell him.
"I said, look at me!"
She turned her head and stared at him. She then shook her head and replied, "No, my father is a kind parent."
"Is this your definition of kind, Lady Arshi?" The look he gave her was not a kind one. "I shall ask once again…does he always raise his hands on you?"
"N... no. He has never even once…so please let go of hi…"
"Shut your mouth!" he cut her off. "Do you take me for a fool?"
She immediately clamped her mouth shut.
"Do you want me to take your life?" he muttered under his breath in an ominous tone and pulled Abdulkareem's robe by the collar."
"Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?"
"I was going to introduce myself but you are not worthy anymore and the matter concerning how I got in, let's say, I snuck in…satisfied?" Hatim stared at him in contemptuous disgust.
"How dare you! Guards! Guards!"
"I'm warning you to shut your mouth, old man," Hatim growled.
"Who do you think you are, telling me to shut up in my own home?"
"Gentleman Hathi, that's enough!" Arshi tried pleading with him. "Please let go of my father."
"Brother, I heard you yelling. Is everything alright?" Mohammed said walking in the room surveying what was taking place in there.
Abdulkareem was too shocked to speak after seeing him in his presence. In his house. He looked at him as if he had seen a ghost and didn't know how he should react.
Mohammed took an exhausted sigh with his eyes narrowed.
"What is going on in here?" turning to look at Hatim.
"Grand Viz…"
"Will you please excuse us, Lady Arshi?" Mohammed asked Arshi politely cutting off Abdulkareem. "We just need to have a word with your father. It won't take too long." He added turning to look at Hatim who was refusing to let go of Abdulkareem's hand.
Arshi's teeth sank deeply into her lower lips before she could force an instinctive response. "You know I cannot leave my father in here with you two, Hathi." She responded firmly.
"Do you not trust me thinking I will hurt him or is there any other reason, Arshi?" he quirked a brow.
She turned to look at him. "You are asking an obvious question, Gentleman Hathi. It is not you that I do not trust, but the other person beside you. His gaze alone could kill my father." She said pointing at her father. "See?"
Mohammed flinched. "Oh my, it wasn't my intention to make your father feel uncomfortable. Please forgive me." Mohammed apologized staring down at her. "We just need to have a conversation with him, that is all. We promise not to take too much of his time."
She bowed and considerately asked Abdulkareem for permission.
"You may leave," Abdulkareem replied still in shock.
"In that case," she said, "I shall excuse myself."
Arshi gently thrust the door open and strode swiftly through it. Mohammed waited until the door behind him had closed before turning to Abdulkareem who was struggling to pull away from Hatim's grip and telling him fiercely, "I never expected you to treat your own child like that, Abdulkareem."
"Grand Vizier…My lord… What brings you to my humble home?" Hatim aggressively let go of his wrist. "And who is this rude young man?"
"How can a person be so foolish not to recognize his own superior?" Mohammed said glowering at Abdulkareem. "You should be bowing down to him and never meet his gaze, yet you allowed him to dirty his hands by touching you. What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Superior?... My liege?" Abdulkareem exclaimed in a low scared voice. "How? How?" He instinctively bowed down upon hearing that shaking in fear for his life.
Could anything be more disastrous for him and his family, Abdulkareem thought. He had just offended the Sultan. How was he going to get out of that mess? He also wondered how both the Sultan along his Grand Vizier knew where he lived and how they knew his daughter Arshi.
"My Sultan, how should I punish him for disrespecting you?"
"There will be no punishment for him, Mohammed."
"My Sultan is indeed wise and merciful," Mohammed gave him a brief bow with a smile on his face.
"When was I never wise?" he turned to Abdulkareem who was still bowing down to him, "Your life, Abdulkareem, I will spare it…only because you are my woman's father."
Abdulkareem remembered Arshi calling him Hathi and that rang a bell in his mind. Sultan Hatim and Hathi was the same person. He felt like he had been betrayed by his own daughter. Not really knowing that Arshi had no idea that Hathi was the Sultan, the one whom she was going to the palace to be his concubine.
"You may rise now. I came to discuss something else with you but you ended up ruining my mood."
"Please forgive me, My Sultan." Abdulkareem apologized to Hatim.
"I am here to pick up my woman today or do you have any objection?"
"No…No…" he immediately denied.
He had no right to choose. After receiving the decree, he knew that he no longer had the right to Arshi anymore.
"One more thing, before we leave, let me remind you…Nobody, including you…nobody is allowed to treat her like the way you just did." Hatim moved to whisper to Abdulkareem's ear that made him shudder. "Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, My Sultan…please forgive this lowly servant of yours."
"Mohammed, escort my Sultana back to our carriage." He said walking out of the door with a frown on his handsome tanned face.
"Are we heading back to the royal palace, My Liege?" he asked escorting Hatim out.
"No... there is a place we need to go to before going back."
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