BY ZEE ASLAM
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Days passed by, weeks passed by and it’s getting to a month. Khaleel had moved into his own apartment.
As discussed and agreed, everyone goes about his daily activities without meddling in the other’s personal life.
All Farida does is drop Sufyan at school, arrange the house, prepare food and stay home all day. She hasn’t officially signed in with any company.
This morning like every other morning, Farida woke up and prepared breakfast. She wrote on a piece of paper and kept it on the fridge, that was their own way of communicating.
After dropping off Sufyan at school, she proceeded to visit her manager, he had earlier invited her over.
Just as she stepped her foot out of the car, (her father in-law had gifted her a car few days after their wedding) reporters from all forms of media approached her.
She was surprised but had to hide that emotions behind her smile. Everyone of them had questions to ask her, ranging from why she was blacklisted and why she has decided to have a comeback.
Today was the perfect opportunity for them to throw every questions at her. The reporters fought to be the first to question her but she ignored them and walked into the company.
“What was that, why was I not informed about this whole thing”? She asked her manager in curiosity.
“Calm down, this is a great opportunity you need to grab with your two hands, opportunity they say come but once”. He replied smiling.
“What are you trying to insinuate”? She asked again.
“I mean the reporters out there will help boost your comeback, this video will go viral and making it easy to be recognized again publicly. You were once among the top ten models before being blacklisted, don’t you think other fashion industries would develop interest in signing you up” He explained in details.
Farida was convinced, she was supposed to sign in with emerald jewelry company in few days, but her manager’s idea isn’t bad after all.
“Arrange for the interview, am ready”. She said and sipped from a glass of water then swing her chair as he walked out.
At 2pm, in the company’s main hall, Farida slowly walked onto the stage and turned to face the crowd.
“Your name used to be first five on the search engine and suddenly it went down, why was that so”?
“Why would a company blacklist a super model like you”?
“Why have you decided to make a comeback, are you by any chance envious of your colleagues”?
The reporters kept throwing questions at her.
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She cleared her throat and started, ‘First of all, I want to thank you all for this opportunity to clear your doubts’.
“Talking about being blacklisted, it was my choice to retreat and exit the fashion industry due to personal reasons before I was blacklisted. I wasn’t forced by anyone”.
“Retreating was my choice and so is coming back. I have never been envious of my colleagues, we all have our lives to live in the industry. It doesn’t matter who is ahead, all that matters is discharging your duties well and passionately to achieve your goal.
Thank you for your time”. She ended and was about to go down the stage when a reporter threw another question.
“The song on every lip is that you just had your second marriage recently, how true is that”?
“Why did you leave your first marriage, does your reason have anything to do with your new husband”?
Farida stopped halfway, she wasn’t expecting this question.
However, it is a live broadcast so she has to be careful of her choice of words before spitting them out.
She remained silent for some minutes like she wasn’t going to provide an answer before she finally spoke.
“No marriage is perfect and so was mine. Leaving my first marriage has nothing to do with my new husband. I was divorced many months before my recent marriage”.
“But it is said that, your new husband was your boss at work, what do you have to say about that”? The reporter asked again.
Her manager was fed up and wanted putting a stop to the interview but she declined by speaking.
“He was my boss at work and now my husband, destiny brought us together and it was beyond our control”. She said outrightly.
She noticed a familiar figure leaving the crowd but she couldn’t figure out who it was.
In reality, Khalid was standing there all along, he was the one whispering the questions into the reporters ear.
“How unfortunate”, he was stabbing his friend in the back.
Coming out of a meeting, Khaleel overheard his staff discussing about the outdated model who had decided to have a comeback, he also heard what happened at the interview.
Indeed Farida was smarter than he had imagined. Every reply she gave had a hidden meaning.
Khaleel got a call from Rayhanah, their father has just been rushed to the hospital. He quickly sent a message to Farida before leaving the company.
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He got to the hospital just when his dad was wheeled into the theatre after he was put under I.V infusion for about an hour.
Hajiya was sitting on a chair absentmindedly. Khaleel placed his hand on her shoulder and said sounding optimistic “he will pull through”.
They were all scared but masked their feelings superbly.
Few minutes later, Farida also arrived at the hospital.
The operation lasted more than 5hours at which Hajiya was already fidgeting on the seat.
“The operation has lasted long, i’m no longer comfortable” she said looking apprehensive.
“Don’t worry, daddy will pull through In Sha Allah” Khaleel said again to calm her down.
The operation ended 2hours later and the doctor came out wearing a long face wiping off sweats from his forehead.
Alas Alhaji didn’t make it!…….
