Finding Islam

21: Meet

- KING'S POV -

"Come in." I heard my dad's stern voice through the thick mahogany double doors of his office. I took a deep breath, shutting my eyes and swallowing before pushing the doors open and walking in.

"King?" He asked, raising a brow as he looked at me over the top of his computer screen.

"Do you have time to talk?" I asked him, clearing my throat to rid of the nervousness clearly sleeping into my tone. It wasn't fear. It was just that I was nervous and apprehensive about his reaction.

After speaking to Ayman yesterday when he told me the name of the cafe and time we'll be meeting at, I had decided to tell my dad I was a Muslim. This whole marriage process was becoming very much real and if I was going to marry a girl who wore niqab, then I had to tell my dad about my new identity beforehand.

No matter how much I disliked him, I didn't want the man to have a heart attack, or to be a cause of his death.

"Sit." He spoke, gesturing to the leather single seater in front of his desk. I turned around, shutting the two doors behind me and taking a moment looking away from him to compose myself.

"What is it?" He asked as I sat down on the seat, leaning back all the way until my spine was pressing into the cushion behind me. I put my arms on the arm rests and looked at him. His face expression was hard, as usual. He didn't have any emotion in his eyes besides curiosity. He raised his brows and I had realised that I was just sitting silently for some time.

"I know you don't like it when people beat around the bush." I told him, not wanting to annoy him from the get go. "You're a smart man, that's a given. I'm sure you've noticed by now that I'm not the same man I was at the start of the year." I said.

"You've become a Muslim." He stated, my eyes widened as I looked at him in complete shock, my heart pounding against my chest as I gaped my mouth.

"H-how did you..know?" I sputtered.

"You really think I didn't get someone to follow you all those times after you started changing? I realised you stopped getting drunk, waking up hungover, not eating food Linda prepared, stopped bringing girls home. You think I didn't notice all these things?" He asked me.

"You got someone to follow me?!" I yelled, narrowing my eyebrows at him in accusation.

"It was only John." He scoffed, mentioning the name of one of our drivers. I shut my eyes and counted to ten, containing my anger and rubbing my fingers over my forehead. "Wait," I said quickly, realizing that he didn't blow up in anger or lose control. "So you don't care that I'm a Muslim?" I asked him, furrowing my eyebrows.

"It's a phase. You'll get over it. You can't last without alcohol, drugs or girls." He laughed, waving a dismissive hand as he looked back at his Mac screen after putting his glasses on and continued typing away as if he was expecting me to leave.

This frustrated me even more. Seeing his reaction, as if he didn't take me seriously, like he was treating me like a child as if I didn't know what I was doing and soon I would go back to my old ways...it was worse. It was much, much worse than if he would have gotten angry and started yelling, hell, he should have even flipped his desk over.

But he gave me the most condescending reaction, completely dismissing me.

"It isn't a phase." I spoke, gaining his attention once again, he looked at me over the rim of his glasses, a small smile on his face. 

"Okay, King. I have work now." He said simply, once again gesturing to the door before facing the screen.

"It's not a phase!" I said, raising my voice now as I stood up and narrowed my eyes, wanting him to take me seriously.