UNHOLY MATRIMONY

Chapter 2

Yasmin followed up on the address to thank the man but almost turned back when she arrived at the gate. The unfathomable site before her had made her too ashamed that she almost gave up on her endeavour. 

She felt inadequate as she stood before neatly dressed guards carrying rifles. Standing behind a gigantic metal gate, in the distance; about two hundred meters stood a set of three large villas, one was painted in white, one in cream and yellow and the other one seemed like a glassy building. A pond with a fountain stood in the middle of the gate and villas about one hundred meters from the gate and the gravelled road split into three after the fountain. In the front of the first two story villa there were six cars parked, one a pink porch, two Toyotas one black, one white, the kind that sheiks rode in the desert, one a red Ferrari, one a Mitsubishi, and the last a silver-ish- black- ish Lamborghini. Not that she knew the names of these cars, all she saw was a bunch of expensive cars parked in front of really expensive houses. The next three-story villa, the largest standing in the middle had only eight Toyotas in black and some white parked in its drive way. Finally, the last glassy and fancy four story and smallest villa had the least number of cars only two Porsches one silver and one blue and a rolls Royce.

"Can we help you miss?"

One of the guards shouted in broken Arabic his face sweating from the heat. He seemed to be foreign because he did not have the average middle-eastern look. He seemed to be Indian.

She handed the note to the guard with her sweaty hand, flipping strands of hair from her face with the other. 

"What's your name miss?" The guard asked looking at her suspiciously.

"My name is Yasmin,"   she shyly replied looking down while digging her toe into the gravelled road.

" Yasmin!" The guard repeated in a mocking tone then smiled and winked at the other guard. "Ok I'll tell young master Ali you are here. Wait a few minutes." 

The guard left to his booth and seemed to make some phone-call because she saw him hold a black receiver to his ear, then motioned at the other guard to let her in. The guard directed her through a smaller gate and she was instructed to go to the first villa. She rang the doorbell and the door was opened by a young Thai woman about nineteen years old, dressed in a black and white maids uniform.

"Hello miss," she smiled, "how are you?"

"Come in!" She motioned with her hand inviting her in and she led her down a corridor to the Iiving room. The villa was decorated in fancy wear. Clearly these people were extremely wealthy, she thought. 

"You may take a sit miss, the maid motioned her hand towards one of the expensive white leather couches. 

"Young Master will be down shortly." She smiled through gaped teeth. "You may help your self to some snacks I brought for you."

"Thank you!" Yasmin nervously replied. She really felt out of place. Just as the maid was about to leave a woman dressed in leggings and a vest with sports sneakers on, came down in to the living-room looking for her set of car keys. She was about to go to the gym. Jasmine would soon learn that this would be Ali's sister Amani whom they called Amy. 

"Chati, you didn't tell me Ali was hiring more help. Why is she here in the living room, on the COUCH?"  she asked with a snobbish look of disgust on her face while scanning Yasmin from head toe as she stood up straightening her long floral dress, with a hurt look on her face.

"She is one of young Master's guest Miss Amani." The maid replied.

" Oh," Amani exclaimed pacing towards Yasmin with a look of feigned marvel on her face. 

"You arent even that attractive you know…what’s her name, she turned to the maid seeking an answer. I wonder why my brother picked you," she muttered in fluent English which Jasmine failed to understand due to her lack of education she only knew how to speak Arabic, but the maid seemed to understand because she sluggishly forged a smile and  gazed  down at her feet in distress. Clearly this miss Amani must have plagued all her housemaids because the maid didn't really seem to like her. It was only the sound of fear in her voice that startled Yasmin.  

"What's your name?"  Amani asked her.

" Yasmin," she replied with an    expressionless face. 

" Let me let you in on a little secret sis," Amani  continued, in Arabic, "my brother always brings all sorts trash off the streets to our home, spends the night with them, then chases them away like stray dogs, so if I were you I would kindly excuse myself and  escort myself out of this villa now,   leave, and spare yourself the humiliation, I'm truly  astonished he asked you to come here, he seems to have dropped his standards these days, I'm wondering which side street he got you from? Unless you're doing this for the money then okay!" She waved her hands bulging her eyes. She looked grave and ironic at the same time. "Judging by your appearance I don't think you'll get much though but it will be a lot for you I a guess..."

Amani was interrupted by a deep husky voice  followed by a casual cough; a muscular man in casual jeans and a Tee-shirt walked down one side of the round-about stares into the living room.  Yasmin was now crying staring down, a few tears dropping on the tiled floor. Amani was cruel and Yasmins assumptions about her had been true. Even the maid was silently sobbing. 

"I hope you aren't upsetting my guest dear sister." The man said. 

"No were just having a little chat that's all," she replied leaving, after grabbing her car keys which had been laying on the expensive coffee table.

The man drew closer to Jasmine lifting her face up with one hand on her chin. Her eyes met his, a greenish blue wish colour, slanted the most beautiful she'd ever seen. She compared them to her bulging brown eyes. She'd later learn that he wore contacts lenses. 

He had chiselled striking features, not just your average middle-eastern look but the man was painfully good looking. She remembered his noticeable features from the accident, of course she hadn't fantasised or imagined it. The man still had a bandage around his arm. 

"You came beautiful stranger! he uttered, his enthusiastic smile breaking into a emphatic laugh, feeling a little uncomfortable for invading her personal space. She saw his cheeks had turned  red. He sat next to her on the couch.

"I'm deeply apologise about that, my sister can be a little punitive and ill-mannered some times." He said smiling, revealing the most attractive smile she'd ever seen with a set of clean white teeth. 

Yasmin didnt reply, she nodded, abruptly feeling like a child again, she remembered those days when she used to fight with her sisters when they were younger and she'd cry. Harran her sister was most self-confident and the most fierce of all ands did not stand for any shenanigans or pranks her siblings played on her. Yasmin would cry like a toddler when challenged by her while her other sister cowered like frightened animal to the corner. 

Then she looked up at him. "You're the man I saved that night...

"Yes!" He cut her short. "I asked the hospital staff to tell you I saved you because i did not want to get into trouble with my father for drunk driving, the story would have been all over the news."

He pulled out an iPhone from his pocket and showed her an app with a title 'Gulf News Daily. Under one of the headlines read, 

'Billionaires' s son saves young woman in distress from drowning. '

The title was in Arabic followed by English at the bottom. 

Yasmin was shocked that the news had travelled so fast, next to the title was a photo of him carrying her unconscious body, bridal style into a taxi, his white t-shirt heavily stained in blood. There were a few more longer titles of the story like

'Young woman tries to end her life by jumping off a bridge, billionaire's son Ali Almasi saves her. '

"What about you Chati? Did Amani say something to you as well?"

"No young Master, it's just that I get a little emotional sometimes." She replied, but her silent weep had turned into loud sob this time. 

"Chati!" He said calmly, feigning annoyance, "did she threaten to fire you again like yesterday? I told you not to worry habibti., as long as I live here   you'll be here and I have no complaints about you , not just that but you're one of my best friends and you will always be."  Yasmin only listened in awe and bewilderment. Habibti? She hadn't expected to hear the rich man call his maid that.

" You know what?" He continued, "I'll give you a raise starting from next month, double the amount you earn, I'll speak to my umi to raise the others maids salaries as well." 

"Thank you, very much young Master," She replied with innocence in her eyes, " but I am already content with the amount you pay me." 

"Chati!" He replied feigning more annoyance, this time with a smile on his face. "Just accept it because you've worked really hard this month." 

"Thank you, sir, she retorted with gratefulness in her voice then took a slight bow and left. Ali then later narrated Chati's ordeal and harsh previous life to Yasmin. Ali was about sixteen years old when Chati  was brought in to work. The girl was fifteen at the time, that was about four years ago. Ali's mother had been too reluctant to higher her, but her father had taken a liking to the fifteenth-year old's cleverness and intelligence, so he employed her as a personal maid for his son who was suffering from depression at that youthful age. His father saw something in the young girl that could re- k****e the fiery persona that had been over-shadowed by sadness in his son. Chati had been found on the streets by one of his father' drivers looking for work and he brought her to the villa. Apparently poor Chati had been sold by her Thai parents and trafficked multiple times, but the girl was cheerful when she arrived. It didn't take much time for Ali to take a liking to Chati as well, he found her personality charming and since then, they had been best friends sharing their deepest secrets. His mother at one point thought they had fallen in love and she started to become afraid and thought the poor girl had cast a black magic spell on her son. Ali wasnt ashamed to talk about his mother in that contemptuous manner, the man clearly hated her, Yasmin could imagine  what she was like after he recounted everything that happened after Chati came. Yasmin felt sorry for him. Yasmin was quite impressed by Ali's gentle and caring nature. During those three hours of lunch she had never felt so welcome and so much at home. She was quick to open up and they chatted like they had been long-time friends. He was inquiring more and more about her and her home. Ali seemed to be perplexed by the ordinary common life like it's something only to be seen in the movies. Yasmin obviously figured the boy had never known poverty. He'd been spoiled rotten, getting expensive cars and luxuries from a very young age. He'd been to almost sixty countries by the time he turned nineteen. He had collected souvenirs from all the countries he had visited and took the pleasure in showing them all to her. Yasmin looked at each of them as the young man explained how he had attained them with an expression of excitement on his face. One was a watch, the other an old wooden box, one a pendant, one a dollar bill and so on. He explained how these ordinary things had deep sentimental value to him. How they were both linked to kind souls he had encountered on his journey around the world. Yasmin thought this man was perfect for her. Yasmin a free spirit, wasn't just looking for an ordinary man, she didnt want an average personality in the crowd, now that she'd blossomed into a woman, she wanted a soulmate and if she didnt meet one, she' wanted to stay celibate. But at that very moment, Ali seemed like the perfect definition of what she was looking for in a man. Of course, she felt a little embarrassed of how she was feeling because of their difference in social status. She didnt seem to care about that though but she knew she lived in a society and culture were majority were small minded enough to care about unimportant things like that. 

Soon it was past noon and Ali's parents arrived, one thing led to another and Jasmine was invited to spend the night after Ali told the she was homeless, far away from her hometown with no money. 

Yasmin could not refuse the offer after Ali had personally asked her to stay after hearing of her ordeal and Ali had been so kind to her. She was given a spare bedroom to sleep in. The villa was so large she thought she would get lost trying to find her way around. That night he chatted with her on the large balcony , but their chatter turned into a slumber party when they were joined by Chati, then now wearing pyjamas and one of the maids who was African, a twenty one year old  Chadian to be specific whom he had employed recently as his other personal maid. They brought a lot of drinking soda and junk food. Everyone was having a blast. They listened to western music on a stereo. They watched movies on Ali's laptop. The moon was out but at least that night, the skies were clear so they lay watching the stars talking about life, telling each other about their extraordinary encounters and ordeals they had faced in their young lives. They found Jasmine's story quite sad. Then soon Yasmin would be heart broken when she saw the chemistry between him and Chati. They we're only four hours into their tiny slumber party when she saw Chati lay next to Ali then she rested in with her head and arm relaxed on his chest in a romantic way. Of course they were in love, how could she have been so blind, the small gestures Ali made when she brought their lunch, the way he smiled and looked at her, it was obvious! A torn apart Yasmin quickly got up holding her dress and ran to the guest bedroom she'd been assigned to. What was this feeling? She frowned as she tried to get rid of the jealousy that was clouding her heart and the confusing racing thoughts that were now crowding in her mind. She felt really ashamed of her jealousy .... Of a stranger in love with another stranger. After all they had just all formally met. Ali then knocked on her door peeking in only when she had told her to come in. 

" Yasmin are you ok?"  He asked with a worried look on his face, innocent to the little love gesture his dearest friend had presented earlier on. 

"Yes." She replied.  "I'm just a little tired that's all."

" Are you sure you are ok coz you left..."  

"Yes, I’m fine." She snapped at him then she regretted it a moment after as another wave of embarrassment struck her.   "Ok then!" Ali smiled. "Goodnight and have some rest, ok?" 

She smiled at him. But what startled her the most was when she heard Ali chuckle in a displeasured voice as he left her room. Clearly, he was aware of everything, her envy, her heavy heart fell deeper to the bottom of the bottomless pit of shame, and embarrassment, she did not have a pleasant night after all ruminating on the night's events but that was her... always over thinking. 

Next morning, she was about to leave when Ali's father offered her a job as a maid in their villa, He promised her good pay and she couldn't refuse the offer. Jasmine had been employed as young Master Amir Al masi's personal servant because the young man had simply desired it, if it was not for that, she would have been in the streets again because the sight of her mingling with the Almasi sons simply disgusted Ali's mother. Ali's brother was a year and a half younger than him. The next evening when Ali came back from work, he stared at her with a grin, surprised to see her in a maids uniform. She smiled back at him. 

"Let me help you with that young Master. She said as she motioned her hands towards his black leather case. 

"It's ok Yasi, I can carry it my self habibti."

She blushed at Ali’s gentle gestures, her cheeks turning a red colour at the thought of him calling her habibti. Although Ali was happy that Yasmin would stick around, he didn't like the fact she was Amir's personal maid. Yasmin was a happy woman. Although she had given up on her dreams, working for the Almasi family gave her hope that one day her dreams were going to be revived  because from the moment she left the hospital, she  believed God had `         given her a chance to  a new life, a new destiny, because  every single day of her life in the city, she dreaded going back home were her father would marry  her off to some older man, and all her dreams would be crushed and  burned to ashes and hidden at the bottom of a sea of unhappiness as she imagined her-self lamenting  about the life she could have had and fate would take her to the grave; like many of her female  ancestors who perished with  unexecuted dreams and accomplishments, laying  deep in the desert sands buried along with their forgotten dreams. The autumn leaves shed from her bleak life preparing her for a new season. A season of ecstasy… a season of hope.