ALIYA

Chapter 18 - Bilal

While watching Aliya as she returned back and fetched her bag from the car, our eyes met. She stared at me for some seconds, perhaps wondering if it was me or not, before leaving the spot to our head office. One thing wasn't clear to me, was nurse Fawad the fiance she told me about? I thought as I swiftly began walking towards him lest he hop back into his car. "Hello nurse!" I said halting him.

"Huh?" He puzzlingly turned to me. I guess he would be wondering who would call him with nurse at such environment, it had to be someone he knew or knew him.

"I am the guy you saw yesterday in Aisha's ward holding a boy, Aisha is my wife's cousin" I said extending my hand to him for a shake.

"Oh, wow, nice to meet you" He said as we shook hands. "Do you work here too?" He asked.

"Yes" I nodded my head and glanced at the top of our head office. "I am the CEO" 

"CE- what?" He queried.

"The CEO" I beamed at him.

"Wow, that's great!" He huffed and continued. "My... my sister actually works here, she's the one I recently dropped"

"Aliya? You mean she's your sister?" I asked.

"Yes, though... not really blood related, it's a long story" He said.

"Oh, so you are not her fiance?" I wrinkled a brow at him.

"Not really, but we are more like lovers" He said breaking my heart. "We fit each other, right?" He asked.

"I think so" I said with a faked smile.

"Thank you, I should be going"  He said about entering his car when I halted him.

"Hold... hold on please" I said bringing out my phone from my pocket. "Can I have your contact please?" I asked staring at him. "I would like us to be friends"

"Alright" He said, hence we exchanged each other's contact before he left. He really seemed nice.

By the way I didn't really understand his relationship with Aliya, his sister or what? I mulled over heading towards our head office. If by any chance they are in a relationship then I would have no other choice but to draw myself back because there would be nothing I could do. If only I could just make her mine, could I? But she didn't even give a damn about me, she seemed indifferent. 

I went to my office, packed the necessary things I needed and then headed back to my car. "Take me to our construction site" I said to my driver.

"Okay sir" He started the car and off we went.

Yesterday Sufyan reported about attacks by the locals, I would like to see that myself today. If it's something that could be addressed by me, I would do that but if it's beyond me then I would involve the government into the matter after all they were the ones that gave us the project.

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Immediately we arrived at our construction site I was humbly welcomed by our labourers and some of our staff members there. The securities however remained where they were while holding their firearms.

"We have to be cautious sir" The chief engineer said. "Because yesterday we were..."

"I heard about it" I cut in and continued. "Sufyan told me"

"Okay sir" The chief engineer said handing me a plan. "I supposed to give this to the construction manager but he's been absent"

"So? You want me to give it to him?" I wrinkled a brow at him.

"No sir, I just want you to take a look at it" He stretched it open. "It's from our last year's project in Lagos"

"Okay, so what are you implying?" I asked as soon as I acknowledged the plan.

"I want us to adjust our present plan to something of its nature because the level of water here is dynamic and we only put few levels into consideration" He said and continued. "To avoid doing what we will later regret I suggest we drop the old plan and use this one, we shouldn't underestimate the level of this water"

"Fine then I will see what I can do about it" I muttered.

"Okay sir" He said folding the plan. And just as he turned about to head back to his team I halted him.

"How bad will this project be if we don't use the plan?" I asked.

"Well I can't really say sir, but it would be good if we use it" He responded.

"Okay then I will arrange a board meeting tomorrow, and we would discuss about it" I said.

"Alright sir" He nodded and left.

Thus I began walking around inspecting our work until the locals began showing up one after the other, yelling at us to leave their river alone.

"We don't want the dam!" One of them said.

"Yes, we don't!" Another one uttered in support.

"Please leave our water alone" An old man chimed in with his kolanut stained teeth.

And as they kept on yelling at us, the head of our securities approached me. "Sir, I think you should order us to send this people away before they start attacking us" He suggested.

"No!" I protested. "They don't seem like people that will attack us today, I guess they learned their lesson yesterday"

"You think so?" He asked.

"Yes!" I said and ordered him to stand down together with his men.

The locals however continued with their protest until nearly an hour later they began leaving one after the other just like I predicted. And that made me to despise Sufyan for his poor leadership yesterday, I guess he asked the securities to confront them that was why they were attacked. Maybe if he had acted the way I did today then nothing would have happen yesterday.

"Wow, they left!" One of our staff members said and before I knew it they all started clapping, including the securities. "Excellent sir!" They adored my leadership.

"Thank you" I beamed feeling myself. Actually, my happiness knew no bound. I would definitely make sure Sufyan learn from my remarkable leadership today. As my assistant, he ought to follow my steps to avoid drifting apart or... I couldn't complete my thought when I began spotting the locals coming back again. "What the fuck?" I muttered and just then, they began throwing hard stones at us – eventually wounding me and several others.

I didn't even know I was wounded until after running towards my car my driver told me I was bleeding, that was when I realised it. Hence I ordered the securities to fire warning shots which they did, and it really worked out the fact that not a single local remained – they all ran for their life.

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Update don land!

By the way it's dual update today, swipe down to read chapter 19.

I hope you now know why I kept you waiting? I wanted it to be two that's why💖😄

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