Salaam
I'm so hyped to release this chapter.
I hope you enjoy this chapter.
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Karim had 3 hours till 1pm. And he had no idea what to do. He had thought through everything severally and yet he couldn't find a loop hole.
In the end he had decided to go with Z's idea. He'd go and meet Z and flirt his way or pat his way to see Amira later on.
Anita's family would be there so she'd not realize that he hadn't yet arrived.
What if it was a trap? Well he had thought of that. It could or could not be a trap. He had to go to find out.
He made himself busy with school work until it was 12:30pm. He dressed up in casual jeans and a short-sleeved white shirt with a leather jacket.
He'd go. They'd have the meeting. Hopefully agree on something and he'd go straight to the hospital.
He took his keys and went downstairs to get his car. He met his uncle on his way.
"Where are you going?" His uncle asked.
"To visit a friend at the hospital." Karim answered.
It wasn't a lie. Just not the whole truth.
"Oh okay then. See you later." His uncle went into the kitchen and he took it as his cue to leave.
~
His ride there was filled with thinking about what exactly Z wanted. But he pushed it down before he got into an accident. His mother would resurrect his body and kill him again herself.
He spotted the café by the stadium and parked right in front of it. He glanced at his watch.
12:55.
He was on time.
It was pretty quiet. Almost looked abandoned. The whole place looked dead. It had this eerie feeling to it too.
Karim wasn't even sure if he was at the right place anymore. But he still entered. There were a few people sitting at different places and they all turned when he entered.
Awkward much.
He walked to the closest seat by the door and sat down as he fiddled with his keys. At exactly 1pm, he heard footsteps behind him.
"Your highness. You came." Z beamed and said in a loud voice.
Karim's eyes widened. There were people around them. He looked around them. No one even looked up at them.
"You scared? Don't worry. They hear only what they've been told to hear." She sat opposite him.
This time her hair was blue and shorter than before. Way shorter. Like those short wavy hairstyle. Not a shocker. Blue seemed to be her color.
She did not fail with the makeup too. It seemed even more than she used to wear before. Her eyes looked gothic.
"New look. It's good you noticed." She smirked at him.
"Maybe a little less makeup would do just fine you know."
"Again with the makeup." She rolled her eyes.
"We didn't come here for my makeup. We came here for a meeting."
"Yes."
"A moment." She whistled.
All the people in the café quickly got up and left them alone
"My people." She gestured to them.
"Back to business." Z smirked.
"This meeting is simple. I want to make a proposition." She added.
"What proposition?" Karim eyed her.
"You have something I want."
"What's that?"
"You."
"Me?" What the heck did she want with him!
"Listen to me, first. You were born here. Am I wrong?"
"You seem to know everything about me. Why do you ask again then." Karim was getting annoyed.
"I will take that as a yes. You were born here. So you have citizenship by birth as an American."
He did. He had an American passport but he tended to use the UAE passport.
"Yes. What are you trying to get at?"
"I need citizenship. As an American." She shrugged like she was asking for water.
"Citizenship. From me? Shouldn't you be taking that up with the Embassy? I'm think you are confused. I'm crown prince of the UAE not President of the United States. If you were talking about the UAE I'd gladly help you. But I have no jurisdiction here."
"I know that. I need to get a permanent stay here. My visa will end soon and I will be forced to go back. Before that I need reassurance that the next time I come back it'd be permanent. I can not go back." If she wasn't a drug dealer or something, Karim would think that she was scared. She quickly composed herself and smiled.
" You can apply for a US citizenship then. After getting a workers permit to work here for a few years, I'm sure you'd be granted. I will even vouch for you if you promise to get off my back." Karim gave her an idea but all she did was chuckle.
"I know how to get a citizenship card. Trust me. I have been told a million times. But it's going to take years. Years I do not have. And in the end I'd get rejected every time because of my background."
"That's the only way I can see you getting it."
"Not exactly. Now that's where you come in." She smiled.
"Because?"
"I can't wait years for my citizenship. I don't have the luxury to. I'd rather wait a few weeks for it." She smiled wildly.
"That's literally impossible. I'm not sure with the connections my family has here you'd get it in a few weeks. Maybe I can help you get it in a few years. 3 years tops." Karim explained to her.
"I'd have thought you'd catch on. Unfortunately you aren't as bright as I thought." She laughed.
"Get to the point." Karim glared.
"You, my darling boy, are going to marry me." She smiled.
Karim almost choked on air.
"What do you mean marry you?! I'm sure as hell not marrying you. Even if you were the last woman on Earth." Karim sneered.
He wasn't going to marry her in this life or the next.
"Ouch. That hurt. But I will take it that you aren't over your dead wife. What's her name again? Shamsiya? Yes. And you don't have a choice. It's either you sacrifice yourself or throw away everything you've worked so hard to achieve."
"You are insane." Karim breathed out.
"I will take that as a compliment."
"You are just a kid. You couldn't even be older than 18."
"I'm going to be 20 in a month. I'm older than I look."
"Let's find another way. Please. Just not marriage."
"I've made up my mind. I'm expecting a proposal in a month. Make it fancy. Please. We need the officials to believe we are in love. So I get my card as quickly as possible."
"Why are you doing this?" Karim wondered.
It was like she had planned everything out. From the day they crashed into each other at the airport till now.
"You to... I just need my card." She changed her sentence before she even started.
"And when you get your card you will leave me the fuck alone?" Was he seriously thinking of it?
"And I will keep my mouth shut too in addition. Burn the copy I have too." She smirked.
"You know I'm Muslim. I'm supposedly one of the bad guys in the world. You'd risk your image to marry me?"
"You still haven't caught on. My name is Zaira bint Abdul Rahman. I'm a Muslim. Sort of. Not practicing anymore but I was born into that belief. Unfortunately."
Even Karim did not see that coming. She looked and behaved nothing like a Muslim.
Zaira... Rose.
" You are a Muslim? "Karim repeated.
" Yes please and you are going to be my dear husband soon. A wonderful Nikah we will have. I can already see it. " She looked into the sky like she was daydreaming.
"You being a Muslim does not change the fact that you are crude and inhuman. You take pleasure in making people unhappy don't you. You feel like you are on top of the world when people suffer."
"Oh my God you caught my secret. Don't! Please! Don't reveal my secret." She role played.
"A month is what I'm giving you to get everything you need for our marriage."
"Fine. The second you get your card you leave. You get me?!"
"Loud and clear. Oh I can't wait to meet the King and Queen on our wedding day."
What was he going to tell his parents? Everyone would ask how they met and what not. He had no idea what he would say.
"I think this meeting is done. It's nice doing business with you. You better get going so you aren't late to visiting your girlfriend oh sorry ex-girlfriend. Good day fiancé." She got up and walked to a door which led to God knows where.
Before she entered she called out.
" Oh and sorry about your tires. "
She laughed and disappeared through the door.
His tires? What had they done? He went to the entrance of the Cafe and from where he stood he could see his tires had been slashed.
Arghhh!!
He didn't know what came over him and he punched through the glass of the door. Pieces of glass fragments hand entered his hands but he did not care. His hand was bleeding and he still didn't care. He just wanted everything to go back to normal. Before Shamsiya died. Before they got married. Before they had that huge fight. Because everything he was doing now... It all started from then and here he was hiding a secret he once shared with his dead wife.
Now there was someone else who knew the secret. And he wouldn't rest till every proof of it had been lost.
He made a promise then. He made one now.
~
Amira stared at the door, not fully listening to what her Uncle was saying to her.
"Amira? Amira? Amira! Are you even listening? You've been staring at the door since I arrived."
"I'm sorry. I was just lost in my thoughts."
"Okay. As I was saying. I'm going to apply for a loan for the chemotherapy and the surgery..."
"Oh Uncle Yaseen don't worry about it anymore. A good friend of mine has offered to help me with the payments."
"A friend you say?" As far as he was concerned, Amira had never talked about having a friend before.
"Yes. Long ago I had a very good friend. He's back again in the country and he's promised to help me. I am going to pay him back though."
"Who is this friend of yours?" His uncle looked at her carefully.
"Oh just a friend. His name is Karim." Amira couldn't stop the smile on her face.
"I see. And is this Karim interested in you? Because he's giving you that much."
Amira blushed at his uncle's words.
"Oh no! He's just a really good friend. He is too handsome to settle for me." She chuckled.
Every time they were together in school she'd see the looks people gave her. She was a low life. She wasn't pretty. How come she walked with such a handsome guy. She noticed all the looks and heard all the murmurings.
Karim on the other hand either acted oblivious to it or was actually oblivious.
She thought.
After she was better In Shaa Allah, she'd pay him back fully. And maybe when she became prettier, Karim would like her again?
Who was she kidding? Karim was just too handsome to settle for a bony and not so pretty girl like her. And besides he was going to be a king. He deserved a princess who would be a perfect queen for him. She was just plain old Amira. Nothing special.
**
Karim didn't appear even after his Uncle had left.
It was almost 4pm when she heard the doors to her hospital room open.
"Karim!" She screamed when she saw him. She blushed when she realized how overexcited she sounded.
Karim placed a finger on his lips signaling for her to keep quiet.
"Amira shh."
"Why?"
"I may have smuggled myself inside your room. Visiting time was over and they wouldn't let me in." Karim smiled at her.
He wasn't going to show her that deep down he was exploding from rage.
"You seem happy to see me." Karim sat on the seat by her bed.
"I'm so not." She looked away.
"From the way you screamed my name I'm sure you were." Karim raised an eyebrow.
"Fine. Maybe a little. You were supposed to be here earlier. Where were you?" She asked him.
"I had a flat tire and the maintenance shop was at the other side of town. I'm sorry for being late." Karim apologized.
He mistakenly forgot and put his hand on the bed. He had passed by a pharmacy to get it bandaged.
"What happened to your hand?" Amira asked with concern.
"Oh this. I thought I could fix the tires. Turns out I couldn't." Karim laughed nervously.
Amira could feel something wasn't right but never in the world would she think of what was actually wrong.
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I know it's short but I wanted to give you guys something small.
Anyways I hope you enjoyed it.
#VCS
Ciao✨