When Stars are Hidden

Chapter 31

"T-they killed d-dad. . ."
Dean said whiles trying to stop the tears.

His dad?
John?

Naima knew John, Dean's dad. He was like the kindest soul on Earth.
The man was so down to Earth.
The last time she had seen him though was at their Graduation ceremony in high school.
He even gave she and Belinda two bouquets of flowers each.
And just because, Dean had mentioned their names at home more than once.

How could someone look into those warm eyes and kill him?
Naima's eyes welled up. The tears would come any moment from now.

Tawfiq couldn't speak. He couldn't even reprimand Dean for calling him sir. He had told him multiple times that he didn't like him to be formal with him.
But anytime Dean was scared that something like this would happen, he would automatically start calling him Sir.

They killed John!?
Tawfiq was lost in his thoughts. They were going to pay. Oh, he was going to kill them.

What more did they want?
They made a damn deal to prevent things like that from happening. So much was put into that deal and they just broke it?

Harriet had to give her fricking daughter to them.
Even though they treated her like a queen there, it wasn't easy for a mother to give away her daughter just like that.
They already had Layla-Harriet's daughter-why did they have to go and kill John? He had nothing to do with this. He wasn't even involved with anything.
Or did they want someone else? Was it Dean they wanted? They knew Dean was out of bounds. They knew the whole fucking family was out of bounds to them.
They were not supposed to even touch a strand of her on them. So why this?

Was it even them to begin with?

Tawfiq heard a sniff behind him and he realized Naima was still there.
Shit!
How could he forget she was here?

Dean was standing without Tawfiq's help now but leaning on the wall.
The tears had stopped but he wasn't speaking anymore. Just staring at the ground.
He wasn't ready to talk.
He couldn't.
Not after what he had watched.

Tawfiq turned towards Naima.
She didn't have to be there for this.
His head begun to pound lightly.

"Naima, thank you for the soup. Um. . .Can you please go home now? I wish I could take you but I need to take care of something and I don't want you to get involved in our family mess." Tawfiq chuckled flatly.

Naima didn't miss how Tawfiq referred to Dean's family as his.

" I promise to explain everything to you. Just not now. Okay? please?" Tawfiq pleaded, hoping that calling her Naima would make her understand how serious he was

"Why!?" Naima unintentionally screamed.

"Sorry. But Dean just literally said John is dead. No, killed! You can't expect me to just walk out of here like nothing happened! Like I didn't just hear what I did!"
Naima was raising her voice but who wouldn't?

Tears were still slowly rolling down her face but she was tired of being seen as weak.
Even too weak to handle the truth.

They can't expect her to just leave like she heard nothing.

"I don't expect you to act like you didn't hear anything, Naima. Dean's practically in shock and I don't know what to do. That's why I wanted you to go back to campus. I don't want you to deal with this." Tawfiq said, rather calmly. He did not want to taint her with what he knew.

She was too innocent.

Why did he have to talk so calmly like she was the rash child here?
She still wasn't leaving till someone explained what was happening. It wouldn't be Dean, he was looking at nothing. Naima understood his pain. It wasn't easy losing a parent. Especially one as amazing as John.
If Dean couldn't explain Tawfiq would have to explain then.