Maryaam Madinah. (Third person)
Madinah realized today that she was well past the age of snoozing alarms, she had work.
Therefore, with a loud groan she rolled out of bed. It was only six thirty, but she wanted to be early for her first day.
She took a quick bath and took extra time getting ready in a loose teal dress and accessorized with a belt. She tied her hair into a bun and wrapped a matching scarf on her head.
She was too sleepy to care to perfume her clothes with turaren wuta so she drenched herself in her jasmine and coconut mist more than usual.
It was already eight by the time madinah tidied up her room and went downstairs for breakfast, that consisted of an omelette and fruits per Ayaans insistance. She would've been perfectly fine missing breakfast.
Just as she rounded up breakfast, her brother strolled into the dining room dressed in black sweats and a long sleeved black t-shirt.
"Good morning Ayaa." She chirped.
His reply was a grunt, madinah chuckled lightly and followed behind him to the car. She'd basically blackmailed him last night into taking her to work instead of the driver, he had vehemently refused despite her pleading, yet here he was.
Once they got to the office building, madinah leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek which he pettily wiped away immediately,
"Call me when you're done, Allah hafiz." She simply smiled in reply and walked out and in to the reception.
She was lead to the HR unit where she sat along with two other people who happened to be interns for a long while.
It was nearly 10am when someone came to address them. She was told to meet the head of HR and was directed to his office.
Madinah knocked tentatively and then slowly pushed the door open to reveal a moderately spacious office. To the right was a shelf that contained different files and a plush coffee couch next to it.
A mini fridge was perched on the right, next to the mahogany table in the middle. a man sat behind the desk, fair, a bit lanky with a weird smile that rubbed her off in the wrong way.
"Good morning." She greeted, standing infront of the table.
"Architect, You may have a seat."
"Miss Maryaam madinah?" Madinah nodded her head.
"Why not Mecca?" She realized a few seconds too late that he'd cracked a joke, so she passed him a fake smile.
"I am Oladiwola David. The head of the Human Resources department, you can call me david."
"Yes sir,"
"I must say, these new employees are getting prettier by the number. You are quite beautiful."
Discomfort immediately shrouded madinah, surely it was not professional for him to compliment her?
She said nothing and instead counted the minutes till she was dismissed. He handed her the detailed job descriptions and took the information he needed, and just when she thought she could finally leave, he offered to show her to her office.
Now what in the world was the Head of Human Resources required to escort a new employee to her office, couldn't he assign someone else to do it? The man rubbed her off in a very wrong way, but in typical madinah fashion, she nodded at him and followed behind him.
Her office was on the next floor, she asked to take the staircase because she would not for the life of her get into an elevator with the creepy man. Reluctantly, he agreed.
Madinah realized her office was on the floor below Daddy's office, she recognized it from the last time she was here and made a mental note to go greet him later in the day.
Different doors filled the hallway,
"The door to your right is your office. This floor is mainly for our senior architects and engineers, although you are just starting, your qualifications were very impressive and a good word was put in for you, so you're under that category."
In other words, daddy was giving her special treatment.
"This is the executive lounge, reserved mostly for the CEO and CFO. The head of departments as well, come take a look."
Madinah looked warily at him, she didn't fit into any of those categories. "It's okay, I will just go to my office."
"Nonsense! I was going there for coffee anyways, and I happen to not know how to operate the coffee machine here. Why don't you take a look?"
She badly wanted to decline and walk away, at that moment she wished with everything that she had Ayaan or even her friend Ammals confidence. Sadly, she did not, so she silently walked behind him into the room.
Reminding herself that this was a professional setting and she was only being paranoid, what was the worst that could happen?
That was her thought as she examined the espresso machine, only to realize it was already set and you only had to press the start button to get your coffee.
"There's already coffee in here." She told him, relief prominent in her voice as she turned around.
Madinah came face to face with the man who stood mere inches away from her, so close she could smell his breath.
"My bad." She felt sick at the feel of his hot breath on her face.
"What are you doing?" She squeaked out.
David placed a hand on her hip, "only getting acquainted with the staff."
She shivered, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Please stop.." her voice came out as a whisper and she cursed herself for not being able to pry him off her.
"Relax, what do you think the HR department is responsible for?
Hiring.. firing. The likes."
She realized he was trying to threaten her with her job. She should have listened to her instincts and walked into her office the minute they got here.
His hands trailed up as she uses force she didn't even realize she had to push him away, it was not enough.
Just when his hands started getting too close to her breast, they heard a voice,
"What the hell is going on here?"
Madinah recognized that voice, her veins turned to ice.
**********************************
Adeel prided himself on his level of control. Control over his surroundings, control over his actions, control over his emotions.
But at that moment, he felt his control slip. It took every single bone in his body not to lunge at the man who stood opposite him, his hands now off his fiancé.
He knew that if he so much as got his hands on him, he would murder him. After all, he has never been above killing, not after what happened.
"I said," he takes a step forward, "what the hell is going on in here." His voice remained eerily calm, leveled.
Control. Control. Control.
"Good morning sir! Ah, I did not know you would be coming in today." David goaded with an overly wide smile that did a poor job at hiding his nervousness.
"That does not answer my question." Adeels fists tightened as he folded his arms behind him to avoid reaching out.
"She is a new staff, I met her here and was merely telling her that she was not supposed to be here."
"And your hands were on her because?"
Sweat beads break out on David's forehead, he did not understand why Adeel cared so much when he hardly even showed up at the office. He was CFO in name only.
"She was the one who tried to seduce me to get herself out of trouble."
Madinah gasped, now full on crying. Her thoughts ran wild, what if adeel believed him? How in the world was she going to get herself out of this?
Adeel on the other hand had heard enough, "David," he looked at his name tag. "Leave. Leave this premises and never come back, never let me catch you here or I will not be responsible for my actions."
David only now just realized what he'd gotten himself into, he had done this same thing and even worse to countless employees before her. He had never gotten caught mainly because of the fear he instilled in them, getting a job here was extremely difficult and competitive, No one wanted to lose it. Some of the women even went along with him, used him for special treatments. Why was this one so lucky?
"Sir with all due respect, you cannot dismiss me without probable cause." He said that in a shaky voice, adeels mere presence frightened him to bits, frightened everyone really.
Adeel stepped forward and snatched his hand into his, "I should cut off these hands." He twisted it until he heard a crack.
Madinah once again gasped and it clashed with his gurgling scream.
"But all in due time. Apologize to her and leave, my lawyers will contact you."
David did as he was told and scrambled away while he still had his hand intact. He was older than Adeel, well into his thirties and had been working at the company for over five years. Thus, he was not a poor man. He'd accumulated quite a bit from working here since the pay was very generous. But there was no way on earth he'd be able to win any sort of fight against Adeel, legal or illegal.
Adeel turned back to face Madinah, "Come with me." He bit out.
She wipes as much of her tears as she could and trailed behind him, into the elevator and up to the last floor. Where daddy's office was.
But he didn't take her to daddy's office, he took her to one beside it which she realized to be his.
He went to the fridge and got her a bottle of water, uncapping it and placing it on the table infront of where she was sat.
"Stay here." Was all he said and exited the office.
Adeel did not know he was still capable of feeling all the things he felt today. The last time he felt this way was when he caught his sister Aaliyah in a similar situation. The urge to kill in the most brutal way possible, and he will get to that.
It particularly pissed him off that the man was audacious enough to try to assault someone in such a professional and public setting, he was sure this was not the first time it was happening. And that thought only infuriated him the more.
The thought of any woman so helpless as she was being violated right under everyone's nose made him see red. Related to him or not, fiancé or not. Since he got the misfortune of witnessing it, he would not sleep until that man's hands are incapable of ever being able to inflict pain on anyone else again.
Daddy was not in the office today so he rang him,
"I fired your head of Human Resources."
Daddy was quiet for a while before speaking up, "May I know why?"
"I caught him trying to assault someone." He purposely left out said someone's name.
"SubhanAllah! Who? And is she okay?"
"Yes. Maryaam." Adeel bit out after a few seconds.
He could practically feel daddy's smile, "You have to be a bit more specific, your Maryaam?"
His eyes rolled as he cut the call. Daddy never missed an opportunity.
Next, he had a brief call with the inspector general of police, an acquaintance of his. He was certain by the end of today, David would not be able to lay a finger on any other woman.
And then he had the formalities for his dismissal processed, also scheduled a meeting with his father and the heads of all departments for collateral damage the following day.
Daddy was not around so Adeel filled in for him in all the meetings he had today, three precisely.
It was evening when Adeel went back to the office where he left madinah, though he was sure to have different varieties of food sent to her.
To his utter shock, she was asleep. She was on the couch he'd left her on and asleep in an upright position. The food he sent was left untouched on the table.
He let her sleep for a while as he rounded up everything he had to do in the office and then he moved closer to where she lay,
"Maryaam." She stirred a bit but still did not wake up.
Adeel thought over it for a while and decided she may not be comfortable waking up to just the both of them together considering what happened today, so he walked out and rang for his fathers assistant.
Anne appeared a few minutes later and went into the office to wake her up,
"Bring her to my car." He left them there. She did exactly that.
A confused madinah slipped into the car and greeted him.
She waited for a reply that never came as he glanced at her, "Put your seatbelts on."
She did so and then turned her head to look at him, "Where are we going?"
"I am taking you home."
She heard the sound of sirens and realize they had another car trailing them, it seemed he never went anywhere alone. Very strict security followed him everywhere.
Madinah shut her eyes and relaxed, trying to process all that happened.
It had been a few days since he visited her home, they hadn't spoken or met since then but she heard from the grapevine that he was at her place to meet Abbie yesterday.
When she'd gone back to her room that day, Ammal had bombarded her with questions making sure to praise Adeels looks to the point that it started to slightly irritate her. Ayaan also questioned her, she lied to all of them. She told them Adeel was okay, nothing about how he threatened her.
Adeel looked slightly to his right to catch her deep in thought, the girl always seemed to be thinking. She had the most innocent looking face and it infuriated him, he did not know the world still had people who were so bright and whose light was yet to be dimmed.
At the same time, he relished in that fact. He saw her light, and he wanted to protect it in every way he can.
When they got to the gate of the house, he honked and it was opened immediately.
"Maryaam." He called her name in that voice, as if it was the most unsure he'd ever been about something.
"I am sorry for what happened to you today. As a Muslim I cannot promise you that it will never happen again because I have no control over that, what I can promise you is that I would die before anything ever harmed any woman in my family, except that I am unaware of it."
Madinah felt his words at the pit of her stomach, it was the most he'd ever said any amicable words to her and she was afraid it did affect her. Even after he warned her.
She realized then that this man could truly ruin her. Because if he could make her feel a sense of security with mere words and actions, what makes her so sure he would not make her fall for him in the same manner? Especially if they are to be under the same roof as husband and wife. She knew he only fired and supposedly is going to sue David because he did not want an assaulter working under him, it had nothing to do with her and she told herself that. However the last time she even had a male friend was probably in her teenage years, her heart was so naive and prone to falling in love. Prone to being broken.
"Thank you." And then another question crossed her mind, "would you let me work once we are married?"
"Do you want to work?" It was the fastest he'd ever responded to anything she said.
She thought over it for a while, she was a homebody so she had no problem with staying at home. But she considered the fact that he was a soldier and she may be home alone for months at end, and even when he'd be around since they're not exactly a love match, she'd basically be alone.
While she was used to the concept of loneliness, she did not want to be bored 24/7 so she shook her head yes.
"Then that bit is up to you."
"I have somewhere to be soon, so please extend my apologies and regards to your father."
He passed her his phone that already had the keypad displayed on the contact app, he didn't need to say a thing. Madinah took his phone and punched in her number.
Her door was pulled open before she could even touch it. She stared at the man in a suit standing by door, "Good evening ma'am, I am Robert. Generals head of security."
She looked back to Adeel who stared blankly at her and then meekly nodded at Robert, being at a loss of words as usual. Madinah muttered a small thank you as she got out of the car and walked briskly inside the house.
Hi pretty girls💋
OMGGGG loveddd writing this chapter!! We've been anticipating it since we started coming up with the plot!
General is general-ing🔥🔥🔥 idk about y'all but ya shiga ido na. So if him and madinah don't work out, y'all know who he's with🤭 y'all are gonna meet Ammals man soon but this one is mineeeee😍😍🤭
This madinah seff, all my hopeless romantic girlies gather hereee.. she's your ring leader, we still have a long way to go before any feelings are felt though sooo buckle up.
Vote, comment, share😓 manifesting soft hair and clear skin (universal problems) for whoever does all three!
Kisses BBY'S💋💋