Chapter 80: 80

Straightaway, the tabloid articles, the pictures all rolled up in her mind’s eye like credits at the end of a movie. And with them was the unhampered anger and hate she felt towards the person standing before her. So much for ‘enough drama to last a lifetime’. If only she’d known, she’d called it too soon.

“Good thing this will be the last time, then. Excuse me.” Ziza attempted to sidestep her but, like a pre-schooler, Rashida jumped into her path.

“You seem to be in a rush.” Ziza let out an exasperated sighed.

“I’m always in a rush, especially where you’re concerned Rashida.” She tried once again to walk away.

 But Rashida blocked her, “That’s rude your Highness, don’t you think?”

Ziza scoffed, knowing full well that Rashida was baiting her. Well, thought Ziza, she’d have to try harder. Rashida seemed to catch her drift, and she changed tactics.

“You sure love all the accolades coming your way, don’t you Ziza? But I have to hand it to you, you did it neatly. Only you can act like the big helper and have even Aliyah eating out of your palm.” Rashida’s every mocking word dripped with spite.

“Oh, I don’t know Rashida, it’s just that when I have the best schemes cooking, I always take notes from the master’s book.” Ziza shrugged and shot her a pointed look that had Rashida’s face momentarily contorting with anger, only to recover at an amazing pace. Something that twinkled in her eye replaced that anger. Whatever it was, she wouldn’t stick around to find out what it was.

“If you’ll excuse me.” Using her hand, Ziza shoved Rashida to the side. “I have somewhere important I have to be.”

This time Ziza walked away without the other woman obstructing her path. However, she only made it a few steps when Rashida’s next words had her stopping in her tracks.

“I have been meaning to ask. How are you and Rafiq?” A devilish smile spread across her lips. Rashida looked like the cat that got more than just the cream when Ziza turned to face her. This time, she’d failed to mask her anger and the fact that she’d slipped beneath her skin.

“He seemed a tad troubled when we last spoke. I’m sure you knew about that.” The horrible feeling that Rafiq had divulged their private matters to her had her feeling sick to her stomach.

“Whatever happens between me and my husband, is none of your business. So why don’t you stick your nose into what is.” Ziza said, though she dreaded whatever would tumble out of Rashida’s mouth.

Rashida clasped her hands behind her back as she went on. Meanwhile, Ziza lost her grip on any rebuttal she’d mentally prepared against any attack the witch could have hurtled her way.

“Oh Ziza, Ziza. Haven’t you taken this lesson out of ‘the master’s book’?” She cackled then added, “You don’t tell a man like Rafiq you love him, dear. That is a lesson you’ll definitely have to revise, sweetheart.”

Ziza wished so hard the floor would open up and swallow her whole. Humiliation like she’d never experienced before caked inch of her. How could Rafiq have stooped so low? After everything?

“What’s the problem?” Rashida paused and tapped her chin. “How do the Americans say it… ‘Cat got your tongue?’”

Ziza refused to have her enemy see her pain and enjoy it.

“No,” she folded her arms across her chest, “I’m just thinking how funny it is, how only you would look so glorious after having taken someone else’s leftovers.”

Then her anger prompting her. She dropped her arms to her side and took a step in Rashida’s direction. “Tell me, what else you two talked about?”

Seeing the anger blaze in her black eyes had Ziza feeling somewhat triumphant. The urge to put Rashida in her place returned full force.

“The only one taking any leftovers here, is you, honey. And as for talking, I can’t tell you much… since there was little of that. If you know what I mean.” Rashida winked. “I’m sure the tabloids told the rest of the story.” Self-satisfied with herself, she flipped her hair and smiled.

She hadn’t wanted the tabloids to be true, she’d held some hope that there was a good explanation behind it all. Ziza had planned on finding out the truth from Rafiq himself.

“I don’t believe you.” Even to her own ears, Ziza could hear that her voice hesitated.

“Oh, I think you do. But if you really don’t, then why don’t you ask him yourself?” She paused as she looked at Ziza before laughing. “You thought you were the one genuine love he’d been waiting for all along. The one who he’d fall in love with and make him give up his lifestyle for you, didn’t you? The one who’d save him?”

Ziza squeezed her fists into tight balls. “And what? You thought you were his perfect match? The one who is perfect for him in every way? Don’t fool yourself, Rashida, you don’t know the first thing about that man.”

“Well, he felt like I did,” she shrugged, “or else we wouldn’t be here talking like this, hmm? He couldn’t take the stifling life you had him trapped in—“

“I don’t believe you!” Ziza practically shouted this time, as if more to convince herself than to thwart Rashida’s accusations. And she was.

“You don’t have to kalila. Facts are facts?”

“What do you hope to gain, Rashida? Don’t you think this is getting a little too old, what have I ever done to you? What is it you want from me?”

“What you took from me! You took him away from me—my life—all I had worked so hard for! You think I’ll not let it all go so easily.”

“I cannot believe this,” Ziza threw her hands in the air as her frustration peaked. “I will not stand here and tolerate any more of this.”

“Then why don’t you ask him yourself, you are going home together, aren’t you?” Rashida’s smug stare flicker to something behind Ziza’s shoulder, causing her to follow her gaze. It felt like the floor beneath her feet disappeared when she saw him standing a distance away from them.

Fury directed towards his lover blazed in his sinful gaze. Then something resembling guilt substituted it when he looked into Ziza’s frantic eyes, wordlessly confirming Rashida’s claims. That’s when Ziza broke. The other two watched her as if she’d grown two heads while she laughed as tears welled in her eyes. Ziza walked up to Rashida till they were practically chest to chest.

“Shame on you.” She said, then walked away. “You both deserve each other.” She glared up at Rafiq as she walked right past him.

“Aziza—“

When he tried to reach for her arm, she successfully darted out of his reach.

Not caring who saw her or what they thought, she bolted. She just knew she needed to get away from them. Ziza ran until she reached the SUV that waited for her, where she fleetingly alarmed the guards with her hasty arrival. Only when she got inside did she look back to see whether he’d followed her? But he hadn’t, which made disappointed her more.

“Let’s go.” She ordered.

“Your Highness, the prince said—“

“The prince has other matters to attend to now. He won’t be joining us anymore. Let’s go!” Ziza knew she’d feel bad about snapping at the poor man later, but for now she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

________________________________________________________

The silence in the corridor quickly grew deafening in the wake of the ‘thump-thump’ Ziza’s retreating shoes had made. Rafiq’s nostrils flared as he subconsciously clenched his hands into tight fists. It felt like the rage was boiling in every single atom he possessed within his body. He had no words for what he’d just witnessed.

When Rashida talked again, he closed his eyes and promptly held up a finger to motion for her to be silent as he counted backward from five. The hurt he saw mirrored in her eyes haunted and chilled him to the bone. It did nothing to help keep his temper in check. He’d wanted to rush after Ziza and soothe her, but he couldn’t. He had to get this over and done with first!

The pain and betrayal he saw there tore him up inside. It hurt to realize how much she meant to him, because now he knew how much he’d damaged her heart. The worst part of it all was he couldn’t turn back the time and make himself see the truth sooner to save both of them this much distress.

When he reached one, Rafiq switched off his thoughts and breathed slowly through his nose to look at Rashida’s confused face.

“You had no right to say the things you said.” He bit out each word.

“It didn’t make it any less true.” She lifted her chin.

“She’s your princess.”

“And it’s my crown that she’s wearing!”

“Rashida—“

“She’s not right for you, Rafiq,” she interrupted him and shuffled to him, then grabbed his hands in hers. Her eyes desperately tried to convey the stress she put in each word. “I know you know this. We had plans for us. Then she came around—came between us. But we can change that habibta.”

Rafiq’s eyes bored into hers. Then he looked at their hands and removed himself from her grasp. He sighed before looking about the area, checking if anyone was privy to their conversation, before ushering Rashida into a close by empty room. Puzzled by his actions, Rashida watched him as he moved to peer out the window.

“You were wrong, Rashida.”

“Which part? Because as far as I know, I told her the truth.”

He spun around so fast, “All of it!” Rafiq paused and cleared his throat. “Must you always take everything to the extreme?”

“I will. Just like anyone would to protect what’s theirs.”

Those words had Rafiq enraged in record time, startling Rashida into silence when she saw his face. Watching him had her realising her mistake. Good, he thought. She remembered who she was dealing with.

“First off, never refer to me as if I’m your property. Because we both know I’m the furthest from that.” Then he abruptly let out a dry chuckle as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I knew that night was a mistake. If only I hadn’t been foolish enough to not listen to myself, we wouldn’t be here having this conversation. All this nonsense filling your head.”

Bewildered, Rashida simply stood there for a moment, staring at him as if he’d grown two heads.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Rashida squinted her eyes. Rage was apparent in both her tone and her cynical eyes.

“Lower your voice. You want the whole of Dhakhar to hear you?”

“To hell with that! I won’t tolerate this kind of ill-mannered treatment from you any longer, Rafiq. This… indifference, I’m better than that!”

“Have you ever thought that perhaps your company would be more pleasant if you swallowed your insufferable attitude like a bitter pill?” Rafiq threw his hands in frustration.

“It never bothered you before.” She remarked, arms folded across her chest in a challenge. Then that didn’t last because, as if she thought that changing tactic would get him to yield, her expression changed from being that of anger and into as she glided up to him and gently clasped his arm.

“We can still do this, Rafiq. We had plans and—“

“Plans change all the time.” He shrugged out of her hold. “Damn it, woman! You’re making this harder than it has to be.” He put some distance between them to get away from the stifling feeling of her heat and perfume.