As Amir stormed into his office, he couldn’t help but groan out in frustration and kick one of the chairs just to show how truly angry he was. He’s plan had been simple and faultless, or so he had thought. Now, the baby was still alive, jus as well as the mother. I have to hand it to her, that girl is made of steel.
Hakim waltz into the room shortly afterwards, with Navid on his tail. “I thought you said that the poison would do it’s job. Looks like it only worked as a sedative,” Hakim droned sarcastically, moving over to the bookshelf, and pulling out one.
Amir bared his teeth and gave him a sharp look. “Now isn’t the time to be provoking me, Hakim. I’m not as forgiving and patient as I usually am,” he seethed mercilessly before throwing himself in his leather swivel chair. “I expected the child to be dead. I guess that was too much to ask. Navid, you told me that this guy was supposedly an expect,” he said to his other son, who was standing in the middle of the room, looking bored as usual.
He shrugged. “Well, I’m not exactly well versed in homicide now, am I? Besides, it’s probably a good thing that she survived because judging by Omar’s demeanor, I can bet he knows you had something to do with it. Why can’t you just let him marry her and live his life?” He asked.
“Because I don’t need to my family to be tied to the likes of Emilio Dos Ramos. That bastard thinks he’s got so much power, and he likes to play God way too much for my liking. And that daughter of his, I don’t like her one bit. She reminds me too much of your mother,” Amir muttered in disgust and Hakim gave him a pointed look.
“Careful, dad. That’s my mother you’re talking about,” he warned menacingly but Amir waved him off with a flick of his hand.
A moment of silence ensued, Amir clasping his hands together and pondering over his next move. It was very clear that Andrea wouldn’t be staying in London long, and that she would never return. His influence over in Miami was limited, which meant that he needed to find some allies over there. This was now much deeper than not wanting an unwanted grandchild, no, this was about permanently sinking the reputation of a man who had set himself up on a lofty pedestal for far too long. And Amir was pretty sure that there would be a couple of people more than willing to help him do so.
“Navid?”
“Yes father?”
“I need you to go to Miami in the upcoming week or so,” Amir announced, and Navid shifted from foot to foot in discomfort. As somebody used to operating on British soil, he wasn’t a fan of going overseas, much less going over to the States.
“What for?”
Amir smirked at both his sons. “I need you to visit one Humberto Dos Santos.”
***
Although her trip to London had ended abruptly and on a very bad note, Andrea had enjoyed much of it, up until she ended up on the ER. She hadn’t known how much she cared about her baby but almost losing it made her feel very uneasy. She had opted to keep the gender a secret until the birth, and for the sake of mystery but whatever the gender, Andrea loved her baby, and nothing could change that now.
Ever since she’d been discharged from the hospital, her family had been keeping a close eye on her that it could have been considered smothering. Of course, she was touched that they were worried about her, particularly her father who had been giving her the cold shoulder for a while, seemed to show that rare soft side of his towards her. They were back in Miami, had landed a few hours ago and she was currently tucked underneath the covers of bed. Her parents had agreed that she needed a bit more rest and she would resume her lessons on Monday. It was both a blessing and a curse, since she’d be in bed all day but with not much to distract her.
Another thing that had her a bit sad was that she hadn’t seen much of Omar since the incident. Not even when she’d woken up had he appeared for more than five minutes. He just asked her how she was, visibly shaken up by what had happened and more withdrawn than before. It hurt her deeply to see him act so distant when they had only begun to tolerate each other more, and she was unwittingly letting him back into her heart again.
Her phone began to ring, bringing her out of her reverie and she reached over to her bedside table where it was. Her pulse quickened when she saw Omar’s name flashing across the screen. “Hi, gorgeous,” his familiar velvety voice tickled her ear and her heart soared.
“Hi,” she replied meekly. “Are you still in London?”
“I’m actually about to board a plane back to Miami. There were a few things I needed to deal with before leaving. Are you alright?” he asked her, sounding very concerned.
Andrea smiled and leaned further into the covers. “Yes, I am. Just hear in my bed, doing nothing. Very bored too.”
“Is that so? Wish I could have been there to keep you company, love. But it’s good that you’re resting. You need it after…what happened,” he trailed off and gulped audibly. The sudden change in his tone, it sounded scared and somewhat guilty.
“Nothing happened, so that’s great,” she quipped in a joking manner, but even she knew that if it hadn’t been for Omar intervening quick enough, she and the baby would have been a goner. “You saved me.”
He sighed. “If I hadn’t taken you to London in the first place, none of this would have happened. I just feel like it’s somehow my fault and that I-,” he paused. “I could have lost both of you,” he said, voice strained with grief.
Andrea’s grip tightened around the phone. “But you didn’t. I’m still here, we both are,” she tried to comfort him. The other end remained silent, but she could hear the background noise, signifying that he was still there. “Omar?”
“I need to go. My plane is about to take off. I’ll see you tomorrow, Andy. Take care,” with that, he ended the call.
She didn’t want to dwell much on it, but it was clear to her that there was something up with him. He didn’t sound like himself and from what she’d gathered, he didn’t think that her being poisoned was an accident. Even she herself didn’t think that her almost death was a mere mistake. It was a plot by someone with the clear-cut intention of either eliminating her, her baby or both of them. But who would want to do that?
There were some pretty shady characters in Omar’s family but neither of them struck her as people capable of murder. Now that she thought about it, his brothers had acted very coldly toward her and the fact that the oldest one had brought over one of Omar’s exes to the dinner was more than odd. Hakim hated Omar, that was obvious, but what did that have to do with her? It was probably some deep-rooted sibling rivalry, nothing more.
Navid was quiet but calculating no less. He operated like a shadow, present but never really present at the same time. When they’d been introduced, he didn’t even talk to her much, much less make eye contact. It was as though that he didn’t even care about her at all. He was way too mysterious and cryptic to ever understand what was running through his mind but poisoning someone…that was something that he could possibly do.
Nasim and Marisha, she’d connected with far more easily. She’d spent majority of that day shopping with Nasim and out of all of them, she had been the only one who made her feel at home. Marisha was way too self-absorbed to care about anyone who wasn’t her, and she hadn’t been around Andrea long enough to want to kill her. Which only left one prime suspect.
Amir Pedrad. The only man she’d ever met whom she didn’t quite understand and made the hair on her neck stand on end. Even when she’d first met him, she knew that he totally loathed the idea of an arranged marriage between her and Omar. He’d played it off as the cool and understanding dad, having been overridden by her father’s domineering personality. And the way he had welcomed her so pleasantly when they first arrived at the Pedrad mansion, there was something wrong with that. It was like he was auditioning for the role of the dotting father-in-law in some poorly written sitcom.
One thing was for sure; Amir was a very proud man who didn’t like the idea of being told what to do. And since Emilio had challenged his authority and dwarfed his power in the process, he had a vendetta against her entire family now. This was a man who was thirsty for vengeance and would stop at nothing until he got what he wanted.
A shiver went down Andrea’s spine as she remembered the glacial personality behind his feigned kindness. He hated her, and he certainly hated the baby she was carrying. To him, this was like a permanent stain on the pristine record her had fought so hard to build and maintain.
Now, it was only a matter of time before he struck again. And she knew he would be doing a lot of unearthing and scheming this time around.
___________________________________
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