Tahir slowly crept up the stairs with his gun ready, in his hands, pointed to the ground. It was strange as to how there wasn't even a single sound coming from upstairs and he felt as though there was an intruder.
As he was fully alert, he suddenly felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and ignored it. Once he finally went up the last step, he quickly turned and looked for Anisa's room. The place was still big but not as big as the palace which made his search easier.
When he spotted the door at the end of the hallway, he walked closer, noticing that it was slightly open. The closer he approached the door, the more alert he became and it was at that moment when his phone stopped vibrating.
Finally, he pushed the door open in a matter of seconds to realize the window open, with the curtains flying out from the wind. But, there was no sign of Anisa. He placed his gun down after realizing there was no threat in the room and as he walked around to the other side while putting his gun back, his eyes widened slightly at the sight of Anisa on the ground, just beside the bed, unconscious.
"Anisa!"
He knelt to feel her pulse with two of his fingers on her wrist. Her pulse was weak and he rushed to pick her up in his hands. When he came towards the stairs, he made sure to be careful as he could lose his balance with her in his arms. She wasn't heavy but neither was she light.
Seeing her in this lifeless state made him frustrated. But, he was angry at himself. There were no visible wounds he saw, so it must've been something internal. But, he didn't remember any health conditions she was facing based on her documents and descriptions he had memorized.
Once he placed her gently on the passenger seat of the car, he reclined the seat backward as she wasn't able to sit in this state. Quickly, he walked to the driver's seat and started the car, driving out of the garage.
At this point, the speed limit didn't matter, even with a royal in the vehicle as it was a situation of life and death. He even managed to skip a couple of red lights and did whatever was necessary, whether that meant cutting cars off or signaling others to move out of the way.
"Shit," he cursed under his breath.
Finally, he pulled up in front of the royal hospital and rushed to carry her from the other side of the car. He ran inside while carrying her lifeless body and called out, "I need help, the princess is unconscious!"
People around the main entrance of the hospital gasped as they saw her in his arms, motionless and Tahir felt it was only right to threaten them.
"I will make sure that if any of you start recording or speak of this, that your lives become hell."
The people chattered amongst themselves, showing signs of fear and starting to walk away as doctors rushed towards them with an emergency bed. He gently placed her on it and pushed the bed with the other doctors as one of them asked, "What happened to her?"
"She was found passed out in her room."
"How long was this?" the doctor asked.
"I'm not sure," he simply replied.
As they came to a room, the doors slid open and a nurse stopped Tahir and said, "Sir, you cannot come beyond this point."
"I'm her bodyguard. I can't entrust her with you," he calmly said.
"This is a hospital. It's the most trusted place anyone can walk into. Now, please, let us perform our job."
Tahir sighed and stepped back to start pacing back and forth. If anyone heard of this, he knew that his job could be on the line, as well as his whole mission. He needed her alive in order to successfully perform his mission.
Then, suddenly, his phone started ringing again. Annoyed, he pulled it out to see that it was an unknown number.
"Who is this?" Tahir said into the phone
"I want you to come here right now!" The voice sounded familiar but he wasn't able to put a name on it.
"Who is this?"
He heard her sigh from the other line as she responded, "It's Layla."
Tahir scrunched his eyebrows and frowned.
"What do you want?"
"Is that a way to speak to your princess? I need you here right now. I tried to reach my bodyguard but he wouldn't come. It's an emergency!" She explained.
Tahir looked back at the door that Anisa went through before he sighed and said, "Send me your location."
***
Tahir got out of the car and looked around to see that he was in the middle of a hotel. But, what made it strange was that it wasn't the royal hotel. He tried spotting Layla and found her by the check-in area.
He walked up to her with an angered expression and said, "What is it?"
"Someone broke into my room."
"Isn't that a job for the police?" Tahir answered
"Why would I call the police when I've got bodyguards," Layla snapped back
"Newsflash, I'm not your bodyguard." Tahir made himself clear.
"You're the head of security which makes you everyone's bodyguard," Layla smirked and Tahir countered her statement by asking, "Did you ever ask Mr. Amin for help?"
Layla was taken back by the question but nonetheless, she ignored it and said, "I'm telling you someone broke into my room and you're interrogating me?!"
Tahir sighed in annoyance and couldn't believe that he even came here. Layla didn't look as effected but either way, he decided to see what happened with his own eyes.
Once Layla stopped in front of her room, she swiped the card and opened the door to reveal an open window with the curtains flying out.
The scene looked familiar to the one back at Anisa's beach house, so, he walked over to the window and looked down to see if he could find any evidence.
"When did this happen?" Tahir asked
"Why does a question sound like an order from you," Layla rolled her eyes, "it happened a few minutes before I called you?"
As Tahir kept looking outside the window and even using the flashlight of his phone, he grew more speculations about the incident Layla claimed.
While he did so, Layla slowly walked up to him and brought down the front zipper of her dress by a few inches.
Then, she stood just behind him, waiting for him to turn around and Tahir did so after a few seconds only to take a step back and look away from her.
At this point, flames grew inside him, setting off the feeling of anger that almost wanted to curse her out.
The cleavage of her chest was visible and he was clearly brought here to be seduced. There's no way someone would be able to open a window on the tenth floor of a building without a sign of equipment. It all made sense to him.
"So, who do you think broke into my room?" Layla asked in a seductive tone and was about to place her hands on his chest until he dodged them and stormed out the room, angrily responding, "Clearly, shaytan (the devil)."
As soon Tahir went into the car, he sped back to the hospital and called Saif. He picked up after the second ring and said, "What's up?"
"Saif, ya himar, why don't you know how to pick up your goddamn phone!" Tahir growled
"What are you talking about akhi (brother)? I just picked up?" Saif was confused and caught off guard by Tahir's anger.
"Layla ended up calling me because your ass didn't pick up!"
"Tahir what are you talking about? I never got a call from her since yesterday."
Once Saif explained, Tahir raked his hand through his hair and growled in frustration, realizing that was also a lie. His frustration was getting the best out of him and thankfully he arrived back at the hospital before it got worse.
"I'll explain everything to you soon, but first, come to the address I sent you," Tahir said.
"Alright, I'll be there."
He hung up and Tahir walked up to the front desk and showed him his official ID and asked the man, "Has Anisa been treated already?"
The man knew who he was speaking of as he remembered the threat Tahir announced when he came in with Anisa. So, he replied, "Not yet, the doctors are still not out of the room. You've returned just in time, sir."
Tahir nodded and made his way through the door and walked past a couple of hallways to make it in front of her room. As he was taking a seat on the chair across from it, the door handle moved to make him stop and stand back up.
Eventually, it opened revealing a doctor and two nurses.
They approached him and the doctor said, "Hi, my name is Dr. Hafsa and I just handled the treatment of her highness."
"Why was she unconscious?" Tahir directly asked.
"She had an overdose of sleeping pills."
Tahir's eyes shot up and Dr. Hafsa continued explaining the situation.
"It seems as though she's been taking these pills for almost two weeks, consistently, which is what ultimately caused her to faint," she said, "But I'd advise that from now on, she discontinues those pills and starts taking herbs to help with sleep if she's having trouble doing so."
"I see..." Tahir scratched the back of his head.
"For now, I'll allow her to stay here at the hospital and get some quality rest before she returns to her daily life. But, I'd keep a close watch on her from now on. Not everyone is successful in quitting their addiction to such drugs without supervision."
Tahir nodded and thanked her but before she left, he asked, "Am I able to see her?"
"Yes, you may. But refrain from giving her any stress."
Tahir nodded once more and headed towards the door to walk in and be greeted to Anisa, leaned back on the bed, with her eyes fully open. But once they saw Tahir's blue orbs, she avoided them and turned her head the opposite direction.
"Are you that irresponsible? If you wanted to die, at least die silently. What's the use of overdose!?" Tahir scolded her.
"No one wanted to die, it's called an addiction that I couldn't control," Anisa corrected him.
"What's the use of sleeping pills when humans naturally shut their eyes and sleep!?"
"Well, then I guess I'm not human after doing so!" Anisa snapped back which silenced both of them.
They were avoiding each other. Anisa was already disappointed in herself after finding out she had an overdose of which she didn't expect and Tahir didn't make it any better with his words.
Tahir, on the other hand, was disappointed in himself for not being responsible for this matter. He should've done a thorough check-in in her room every day or even made her do checkups at the hospital.
But, he was also disappointed that she had come to this extent.
"What made you even begin such a thing?" He asked her
There was silence for a while before Anisa finally gained the courage to tell him, "It was hard to sleep at night knowing that Mr. Amin wasn't there to protect me."
Tahir eased up a bit after hearing the amount of expression Anisa put into that sentence and took a seat on the chair across from her.
"He was there during every nightmare, he was there during every shift, and he was even there during times I wanted to express myself but didn't have anyone to spill my feelings to," Anisa recalled her memories of Mr. Amin as she looked out the window.
Tahir wasn't able to take his eyes off her and watched her smile, thinking about Mr. Amin and the stance he had in her life. As he watched, somehow he found the strength to tell her,
"From now on, I'll protect you. I'm not Mr. Amin and there are some things that he's done that I can't do, but I'll protect you, even if it means my life. It's what I was trained to do and it's what I'm ready to do."
***
A/N:
Hi guys! This chapter has so much going on, I'm really curious as to what you guys think about it!
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