UNHOLY MATRIMONY

Chapter 3

Yasmin had mastered the house rules clearly in less than 48 hours at the villa.  She had learned Ali's father was addressed as the master of the house; his mother was addressed as young masters by all servants. Then his only cruel daughter from her,  Amy as miss. Ali's mother was addressed as the mistress of the house while his maternal grandmother who visited from the next villa like to be addressed as Umi by all. She believed herself to be the caretaker of all due her giving everyone advice on certain aspects in their lives.  Now this boy Amir was notorious for luring maids into his certain areas of the large house he called his hub then he would assault them. Rumour had it he had impregnated at least six maids who were all forced into abortions. Now his parents looked upon him with disgrace, he was arrogant. But Jasmine could see no wrong in anyone, she just thought he must have been through something that made him this way, in fact, he felt sorry for him. Mr Al Masi’s other children were all overshadowed by the three siblings. No one pretty much seemed to care what they did, were they went or who they met except that they were taken care of. Spoilt even more that Ali as a child.

Ali's father seemed like a gentle looking tall slim man in his sixties It was barely believable that this man had forty- three children with seven different wives, three divorced, and he had built such a large successful empire and Ali was his crown heir. 

His mother obviously despised her the  moment she launched her eyes on her. She was blonde, afghani looking the splitting image of Amy. Ali's looks fell more on the father's side. Even though she found out later he was not his real father. She did what she thought was the right thing to do. She hid the secret from Ali exactly what Mr Masi paid her for. He had run a cold sweat when he found out Yasmin had overheard his and   his wife's conversation on the topic.

"You have to relieve her of her duties habibi" She now knows too much! You can get new help for Amir! I can't risk Ali knowing you're not his real father!" She had told her husband. 

"It's ok Isminah, I'll talk to her!" Her husband had replied. 

" No, you simply can't trust the help, these servants love gossip, you know that as well," she said in a cold harsh tone. "I said get rid of her NOW!"  The poor Yasmin stood outside the room while weeping in fear of losing her job. 

Now her husband had lost his temper, Jasmine heard the sound of a slap coming from the room, followed by Mr Al Masi' s quiet angry voice.

"Know your limits Isminah! I am your husband and I am  not one of your sons!  You cannot speak to me like that! You can't always have things your way!" 

"I said she is staying! That poor girl has no where to go and you simply cannot get rid of her because of an error on our part." 

He then marched out slamming the door behind him, which made the weeping Yasmin even more anxious. It brought back all those memories back home when  her  father would slam  the door after assaulting her poor mother in the kitchen. Were all men like this? She thought. Although she hated to admit it, Yasmin had grown to despise men of  her culture a lot.  After the incident, Ali's mom sat in the room crying and complaining to Grandma umi the whole day about how her husband  didn't  love her, how he beat her, then Yasmin was punished by placing her hand over an open flame for an hour while making an oath to never tell the secret to any living soul. The girl stood repeating the words over and over again in front of her evil mistress while tears were streaming down her face. The mistress stood holding her hand in place over the flame, staring   in pleasure at her distressed face. Amir stood behind the gigantic door way watching the ordeal as if it were some pleasant movie. He giggled to himself every now and then. Then later he tried to comfort Yasmin and  aided her  reddened  swollen  hand. The  skin on her palm had been burnt off revealing a red patch of  flesh.  She was  crying  in agonizing pain. When Ali head of this, he was enraged and demanded to know why this had happened. Though he was more pained watching Amir sitting next to Yasmin while applying  medicine and bandaging her hand. He felt a little jealous but dreaded admitting  it to himself. "Shes just the help." He whispered to himself in a tone of embarrassment while approaching  them. 

" I broke  mistress's favourite  tea set." She had lied.   By  evening, Mr Al Masi had heard of everything and beat  his wife even more for her  cruel ways. Her  cruelty didn’t end there.... One time  Ali   had  had requested  Noora one of the maids at the villa to serve him   coffee instead of the traditional Arabic tea that everyone consumed daily; the young man sat  by the gigantic  oak dining table with his family  smiling  with a newspaper in hand… reading and thats when the accident occurred.  Noora came from the kitchen holding the mug with shaky hands, she was twenty-three at the time, timid and it was her first day on the job. She spilled the hot coffee on young master Ali’s leg as she was about to set  it on the table , sending the young man flying out of his chair screaming in absolute agony. Mrs. Al masi had been so enraged she slapped the woman that she lost her balance and fell to the floor while Ali tried to reassure everyone that he was fine. Mr. Al masi was not happy by the behavior displayed by his wife that he went to the  now weeping and apologetic girl and helped her up. Later on Yasmin would find that Noora had been the first victim of this brutal punishment as she was accused of having an illegitimate relationship with Mr Almasi. Everyone thought it was all well and done with until the next day in the afternoon a piecing scream from the kitchen broke the silence and everyone rushed to see what the commotion was all about. Noora was lying on the floor covered in food, hot potatoes with gravy, tomatoes, and other vegetables. Apparently Mrs. Almasi wanted revenge, her craving for retribution was so powerful, so abundant that she took the large pot of potatoes boiling in gravy that was on the stove  and spilled all the contents on the poor unwary woman sending her  crashing on the floor with the  pot still on her head. She was rushed to the hospital with second degree burns.  The matter was never reported and Noora was not allowed to quit her job because of the contract she had signed with Mr. Almasi. She still possessed scary scars from the burns when she returned from her sick leave. It was to be kept a secret because nobody wanted the mistress of the house to end up in trouble with the police. 

Ali's father's first wife was in her fifties but had only bore him daughters, one can understand why she wasn't a favourite due to the culture that favours men to women. '

Then his other two wives were young in their thirties. Some of their children we're still toddlers. 

She learned one lived on the second floor of their villa with her children  and the other lived with his parents in the largest  villa. She had only met them a few times but she learned the villa had been designed for the comfort of specifically three large families. The mansion had multiple entrances, three balconies, and an underground floor. It also had a built in heated pool were notorious young Master Amir would spend his evenings seducing the maids at the mansion while consuming alcohol.   She then learned that no one live in the glassy villa, it was only to be cleaned on casual days during the month. 

She learned there were levels of hierarchy  even with savants.  Those assigned to be personal servants of the family members were viewed at the top of the hierarchy. Then there were others who we're assigned to do tasks like cleaning and tidying up , others were only allowed to work in the kitchen with the chefs, the lowest were the one that attended to the gardens, pool area and sports field. 

Yasmin didnt enjoy her job as young Master Amir' s servant, she was forced  to abide by his orders even the most ludicrous ones. The days always ended with the  young Master sitting on his  couch drunk, smiling while making some ridiculous s****l offer to her then he'd pass out. She would take off his shoes, and jacket and help him to bed. Ali seemed to distance himself more and more from her after the slumber party night's incident. She also figured  it was due to his grandma umi passing a few months after Jasmine started working there. Now the middle grand villa was empty. Despite  that though,   the man was doing successful. He was in his fourth year at a local university. He also worked in for his father during holidays. He had been given a good position in his father oil company due to his cleverness. While on the other hand Amani preferred to spend his father's money as if it were her last days on earth. The now twenty-one year old was  the meanest person   you could find in the villa, she fired maids like no man's business for  simple things like bringing her cold coffee, giving her food that is too hot, and she spent her days away on parties and luxuries with her cousin Khadijah who stayed at the villa. Now Khadijah had been that unfortunate child to lose both parents to a plane crash, but fortunate enough to be adopted by his billionaire uncle and loved enough to be treated like his own. The girl had fallen into depression a few weeks after the plane crash, she was fourteen at the time but no one predicted the next two years would be hell for her. The girl would spend months visiting therapist and psychiatrist. She would spend her days sleeping in or sitting in her room alone. She would go without food worrying her beloved uncle and angering her annoyed aunt till one day she was admitted into a hospital for malnutrition. The skin on her body could be seen sticking on her fleshless bones. A perfect shape of her ribs could be seen as the shocked nurses bathed her on some days. Her eyes had sunken in and her dark strands of hair were turning a brownish, whitish, reddish colour, some even starting to fall out. She was put on a drip. The doctors predicted she wouldn't survived if she didn't change. She seemed to make a little progress after months of being visited at those hospital then she was discharged. She stayed at the mention but this time the therapists came to visit her due to her ailing condition. One day her uncle lost it. He just couldn't take it anymore. He enters her room without knocking and sat next to her. His face looked tired with worry. He had tried to talk to her before but his efforts were to no avail. Kadijah my child, I know you were deeply hurt  by the death of your umi  and papa, but I want you to know that your papa was my brother and I am  extremely saddened as well." He paused taking out a handkerchief from his pocket.

" I know me and your aunt can never replace  them  but we're trying our best child, what can I do to make you well again because I don't want to lose you like i lost your papa." He then burst into tears and started sobbing loudly, something never seen before in the Al Masi mansion. The servants nearby thought a death had occurred; they withdrew to their quotas for gossip. The balding, thin girl watched heartbroken at the site of her helpless uncle cry. Something seemed to have been triggered in her because she started feeling emotions again and that numbness faded away. She became conscious of the fact that she had been too entangled in a web of grief   lamenting over what she had lost not realising her sorrowful state was  burdening  all those who loved her. She stood up and comforted  her uncle, who was astonished by the gesture. 

"I'm so sorry uncle!" she uttered with tears streaming down her face, her lips quivering. 

" You know if you miss your papa so much, you can call me papa too. I cannot replace him but you know..."  he continued jokingly with a smile on. 

The girl though her uncle was serious and she was moved  by her uncle's request that she  hugged him her arms wrapped  around his waist and  her light sobs burst into loud cries that his wife Isminah came to the room, peeking in while he motioned   at her with his hand to  leave them alone for a while. Obviously, this young girl was not only wounded by her parents' death, this child was exploited, he thought. During their long talk that day she opened up to him and he was touched when he learned of the girl sad lonely life of being abused by her neglectful parents. He was shocked to learn that Khadijah  wasn't depressed because  her parents died,  Khadijah was saddened  by the sudden change that occurred after their death it triggered a lot of emotions and all those memories  of years of abuse flooded black into her mind and suddenly one day she woke up feeling numb. She felt as though they had gone too soon and never realised realized how bad they were treating her and she thought maybe they would have realised how much they loved their daughter. Now despite the fact that she still had relatives like uncles and aunts, the girl felt all alone in the world, like she had no family.  But the fact that someone could love her more than her parents was baffling enough to her that she forgot about her abusive past. 

 "Thank you, papa!" The girl had said smiling at her uncle after their long talk, Mr Al Masi was more than happy to call her his own daughter. It was a scene with a happy ending. From that day on the girl seemed to be more vibe up and cheerful.  It didnt take much time for him to legally adopt her.