IN LOVE WITH THE FRENCH BEAUTY

Chapter 23

~*Chapter 23~*

2 years later…

Dahveed felt like banging his head on the concrete wall with frustration. In general, when someone didn’t answer the door, it meant that either they weren’t there or they weren’t interested in whatever the other party was selling. He groaned in annoyance as he inched closer to the door and opened it with a lashing on the go, ready to give his piece of mind to whoever the wind had blown to his doorsteps. When he saw the person on the other hand however, he felt just drained.

“Hello Dahveed.” Sarah said. Her eyes widened when he opened the door. His hair had grown to his shoulders; he’d grown a beard and a moustache that made him look like one of those hairy prestigious bible characters. Sarah couldn’t decide what was scarier: the worn-out jeans and the burgundy sweater he was wearing or the look in his eyes. He looked like a lion that had been disturbed from enjoying its meal of the day.

“Hi.” He said in a clipped tone that suggested that he wasn’t interested in whatever she had to say.

“May I come in?” she asked with a smile. Dahveed nodded and stepped aside to let her in. she looked around with mild interest and curiosity because the place looked spotlessly clean for a guy. The house was your normal one story brownstone, but there was nothing normal about this one; its furniture alone was more expensive than the value of the house itself. Dahveed had moved out of the mansion as soon as possible two years ago, and moved into Arabelle’s old house; the one she’d grown up in with her beloved grandmother.  She’d sold it when nana Deb’s sickness progressed with no hope of getting better. He’d bought it back for her as an early surprise birthday gift before the shit had hit the fan, or so to speak.

Sarah fidgeted nervously since she didn’t know how or where to start on what she was going to tell him. The way he was watching her wasn’t helping either. She felt like a criminal even though she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Was there something you wanted?” Dahveed asked in a gruff indifferent tone while he sat back in his chair.

"I saw her. I saw Arabelle.” She blurted out wringing her hands.

Dahveed froze for an entire second before his mind completely understood what Sarah had said. He leaped out of his comfortable chair and in front of Sarah faster than a lightning bolt; he gripped her upper arms and shook her. “Where, when, how is she? Did she tell you anything? Did you talk to her?” he fired the questions rapidly, so much that Sarah had to blink several times before she could understand a word he was saying.

“Calm down!” she exclaimed as she untangled herself from his painful grip. “I saw her in London a week ago in a place called Walton-on-Thames.” What Sarah couldn’t tell Dahveed was that he’d seen a woman who resembled Arabelle, for Arabelle was a ghost now. “I’d just gotten back from Spain with a friend who wanted to visit her aunt. Arabelle lives in the same neighborhood as the aunt.” Sarah continued. She also couldn’t disclose the fact that the place looked like where they dumped the garbage from the city.

Dahveed had been waiting on hearing what Sarah had just said that it almost felt like he was dreaming the whole scenario. Two weeks after Arabelle disappeared, he’d received a packet from her and he’d thought that he’d finally found her. But Arabelle was clever; she sent it using her formal address. The packet had broken his heart, for it contained everything that had to do with him: a designer dress he’d bought for her, his mother’s diamond set, and a painting of Dahveed. All she’d told him was that she liked drawing and painting, but he hadn’t really known how talented she was. And now, just like that, Sarah announces that she’d seen her.

Dahveed had renovated and furnished the house according to what he knew of Arabelle which was close to nothing really. He’d hired the best private investigators that money could afford, but there was no sign of her. It was like she was a ghost who came to break the fog he’d been living under for so long and then disappeared as soon as her job was done.