I See Fire

56 | The other family

Abdullah lowered his body on each leg down a step till he reaches the ground floor. The policemen stood at the entrance with the handcuffs, frowning like club bouncers in their hunched stances.

Waleeda was seated cross legged on a couch while Farouk stood by the entrance of the living room looking sorry as ever. He couldn't believe his father was being arrested.

His body shook as if he was going into a seizure as he stretched his hands to hug his father. It broke him to know that his siblings would be coming back to meet the house empty because of his arrest when they were expecting their father to be home from Jordan.

On the bright side, it wouldn't be on the news. He was wealthy but not enough to be popular with his peers. Money made him a name that mostly shook tables in the underworld. As a legit businessman, he had politicians as friends including serving ministers but he avoided publicity to shield himself from suspicion and scrutiny of the always prying public.

What Abdullah and his family wondered was who exposed him to the police. Could it be Adeel? An enemy he made in the past? No—he was careful to only send soldiers instead of himself—the exceptions were associates and gang leaders who requested they meet with him in-person.

"Daddy," Farouk screamed as Abdullah released his body from his and strolled to his captors confidently "Stay please."

"I have to right my wrongs." Abdullah turns to him and puts a hand on his shoulder and lets them slap the cold metal against his wrists "Be here for your mother, sisters and brothers."

"You're already here.." Waleeda didn't allow Farouk to finish talking when she dragged him to the chair to seat while Abdullah was taken out.

He jumps off the couch and runs for the door. The tears he releases confuse him. He was deeply tortured. Zayda is dead. She is really dead and the only father he ever had in this life has been jailed. He didn't need time to realize he'd made a mistake with her. What he desperately needed was to wake up and see this was all just a long nightmare.

It was as if his family did something he didn't know. Were they cursed? Did they destroy a baba lawo's house? Abi it's just karma? Adeel got what he deserved but was this what they were supposed to receive as punishment?

Nonstop problems left, right and center—can the universe be a bit lenient?

Farouk sat by the entrance of the house on a cold tile that was a bit dusty. He didn't know whether to call Dr Henry or Yusuf. He weighed his options and chose who would hound him less with questions and also
listen.

Yusuf has been driven crazy by Amna's tantrums and his fathers arrest. Since the previous evening he hadn't had anywhere to keep his head. He didn't want to worry Amna but she was asking too much questions and he didn't just feel the need to share much about his fathers detainment yet even as she knew he'd been locked up. It was bad enough she saw her father-in-law as the criminal he was.

What more could he do to cover up for his family's lapses? If Amna heard more, she could start to believe she married into a family of convicts. Yusuf could even be the ring leader and Nadine, in charge of the accounts with the rest training to become con artists soon, speaking hypothetically.

This morning her test results were emailed to her and the doctor sounded serious when she asked if she could see them today. It was confirmed that she wasn't pregnant which saddened Amna. She didn't sleep properly yesterday and it was evident when Yusuf was the one who woke her up this morning not the other way around.