CHAPTER | TWENTY | THREE | UMAYMAH | POV

The day of my birthday passed by quickly thankfully and I found myself anxious to start questioning Shoaib about the disturbing activities that seemed to be happening. There was a nagging feeling in my head that made me question whether he would even tell me the truth or just give me bits of information. I hoped by the end of our conversation I would at least have an insight to this situation.

At the moment he seemed to be taking his sweet time in the bathroom while I sat cross legged on the newly made bed. He had gone inside over 15 minutes ago and by the sound of water, I could tell he was having a shower - he was also trying to prolong this. This wasn't going to be avoided though considering I spent the whole night tossing and turning in annoyance of not knowing what was happening.

The sound of the water stopping made my head shoot up in longing because I was finally going to get some answers. Well, so I hoped. My gaze was fixed on the door and as it opened revealing Shoaib, I squealed and covered my eyes with a pillow that was beside me. Ahead of me I heard laughter and I sat rooted on the bed in embarrassment.

"It's nothing you haven't seen before." I could just imagine the smirk that was on his face as he said that, and sure enough as I peeled the pillow away from my eyes, he stood with a smirk and amusement on his face.

I cleared my throat trying not to get distracted by the fact that he only stood a few feet away in only a towel and wet hair, "I was caught off guard, that's all." I said as cool as I could and shrugged my shoulder.

He rolled his eye at me and made his way to the walk in closet which I couldn't see the inside of from where I was seated. I aimlessly played with my fingers trying to forget that image of him and waited, a little impatiently, for him to come out.

Soon enough he strolled out in a pair of sweatpants that hung low on his hips with no shirt. His eyes flickered to me but he carried on walking out the room, making me frown and follow him. My feet hit the soothing, cold wooden floors and I took a moment to appreciate the coldness before moving out of the room.

"Enlighten me on what you're doing please. We have things to talk about." I said as I stalked behind him. The worst part about this was that he knew I hated waiting but he carried on making me do so.

"That can wait, breakfast is more important." He simply replied back to me in a knowing voice before burying himself in the fridge.

I sat down on a stool and let out a frustrated groan which he heard and chuckled at - he was definitely finding my annoyance funny. I, on the other hand wanted to tie him down to a chair and interrogate him without having to wait for him to eat breakfast. It was definitely a messed up situation seeing that I was disregarding food like this.

Not so patiently I waited for him to finish his bowl full of fruit so that he could start talking. The urges to be my greedy self and wanting to reach out and grab the tropical fruits were hard but I restrained myself on doing so knowing that he would just find it even more amusing. He tried offering me some but I simply brushed him off stating that I wasn't hungry. Oh, if only he knew how hard I was trying to get my stomach not to rumble.

After a painful ten minutes of watching him eat, which he did deliberately, he pushed away the bowl and unlike before where he looked at ease, he looked at me with conflicting emotions that I couldn't recognise to be either fear, determination or anger.

"Well you probably have a lot of questions." He stated and looked at me as to say start the interrogation off.

It was then I realised that I had been engrossed on waiting for this moment that I didn't think of a particular question to ask, so instead I said the first thing I thought of, "how do you know the guy that called me?"

His expression didn't change as he listened to my question but he sucked in a deep breath before answering, "the things that I do with the boys isn't the most safest, I'm sure you've guessed by now. But, when we do our job we meet a lot of angry people that don't like the fact we're taking away their employees, or rather servants. The man that called you, his name is Ross. My dad put his dad in jail." It took a while to comprehend exactly what he was saying, but as soon as his words clicked, an involuntary gasp left my mouth.

He gave me a weary smile and carried on talking, "what he does is wrong - he takes girls and sells them off. He was trying to recruit some teenagers into his business but me and the boys took care of it and made sure they were no where near Ross. As you can tell he didn't like that, so he threatened to take away the person I cared for the most. Obviously I didn't pay attention to him because at that time my family was everything and the security around them was tight so I had nothing to worry about. But then he found out about our engagement and thought that it would be better to take my wife away from me." By now his hand had enveloped both of mine in his.

I didn't know whether this action was for himself so that he could stop himself from breaking something, or whether he was worried about how I would take this piece of information. However he wasn't done speaking yet.

"Over these past months he's had men surround the house but dad, me and some of the other boys had managed to get them away. He was trying to get under my skin and the only way to do that was through you. I successfully blocked of his number from your phone so that he couldn't call and made sure in no way did he get close to you. But things have starting to slip nowadays and he's finding ways to get to you and soon enough he might do." The fear was starting to grow inside of me as he mentioned that.

"Shoaib I'm scared." I admitted. He looked up at me from our hands and once again there was a mixture of emotions running through him. Admitting my fear was hard because I had always kept things like that inside of me, but I knew I had to let it out.

"Don't be. That prick will never get to you." He said in a tone that made me believe him at once. "I guess I should also explain my recent behaviour. When I had that fight with Xavier it felt good that I was punching someone because all the anger and frustration that I had was somehow being let out. Not talking to you for a while had nothing to do with me being mad at you, well partially, but I couldn't trust myself to not take that anger on you. And lately I could tell that he was getting close so my mind always seemed to drift off but I knew I had to get you out of the country for a while. It was a perfect coincidence that we hadn't been on our honeymoon yet. I just hope you're not mad at me." He finished off and gave me a sad smile which I couldn't return.

Was I mad at him? No. He'd been doing so much these past few months behind my back in order to protect me and I doubt that I could get angry at him for wanting my safety. Granted I had been left in the dark these months but know that I know the truth, I was glad he chose not to tell me. Having someone that wanted me made my toes curl in not a good way.

From what I remembered and had been told, this Ross person sold girls who he probably had no ties with or even know what their names was. However, if he got his dirty hands on his enemies' wife then there was no doubt he would be doing a lot worse than selling me off. I shuddered at the thought of many things he could do - unfortunately for me that shudder didn't go unnoticed by Shoaib.

"Come here." He whispered and I didn't waste any time before leaping out of my seat and onto his lap where I clung to him, letting my tears flow. The thought of me straddling him right now didn't matter as I let everything out.

It was strange of me to be breaking down like this. I'm a strong girl and even though I was never put in a situation like this, there had been many complications that I went through and still hadn't let out a tear about it. I felt weak. Infact, Shoaib was probably thinking just how much of a pathetic person I was not being able to handle this information.

The tears couldn't be helped though; the thought of me being in danger with someone as ruthless as this person got me cowering in fear. No mercy would be given because he wanted revenge.

Hesitantly I pulled away even though I had many more tears that wanted to come out. I needed to be strong. "I-I'm sorry about that." I said weakly and used one hand to wipe away the tears and my other one to somehow get rid of the wetness on his bare chest.

Instantly he grabbed my wrists in one hand and forced me to look up at him, "there's no need for you to apologise. If anything it should be me apologising, for getting you in this mess and for slipping when I shouldn't have had." There was so much sincerity in his voice that it made me want to break down again, but I fought the urge.

"I must look so stupid though, I mean I feel so weak for crying in front of you like this." I said sheepishly and looked down to where he held my wrists.

"Oi don't say that. I would've been worried if you weren't scared after I told you all this. It's your life at stake but you best believe I won't let anything happen to you." My heart fluttered at incredible speed as he said that while he placed a kiss on my forehead.

I sighed out loud, "when did things get so complicated?" I mumbled mostly to myself but found myself looking up to see Shoaibs face.

He had been looking down at me, and even now that my head was levelled with his, his gaze was still fixed below. Confusion etched on my face, I followed his gaze down only to slightly jump and move away from him - I forgot that I had been straddling him. Shoaib however wasn't having that as he pulled me back just as quickly as I managed to escape.

My head snapped up in embarrassment to see he wasn't as worried as he was before; he was now playful and momentarily I was glad for it made me forgot what was happening too.

"I think being sad about this situation will only make it worse, so don't think about it." He said and suddenly I couldn't concentrate while his face was buried at the crook of my neck. Knowing that I had on a playsuit with spaghetti straps with a neckline leaving enough imagination to my cleavage, was something I was aware of and tried backing away from his hold.

"Hey, why don't we go for a swim?" I suggested quickly and felt a smile form on his lips as they were pressed on to the side of my neck. Feeling him nod against my skin, I pulled away from him and without looking back, I ventured to our room, through the walk in closet.

His advice played in my head to not think about the situation we were in and Shoaibs quick change of behaviour made me wonder whether that was for my own benefit. Either way I snapped out of my thoughts and began looking for a swim suit to wear.

As my hands finally got a hold of one, I instantly regretted bringing up the suggestion to go swimming. In my hands lay a pretty, floral swimsuit with a deep neckline that was bordered with black lace. The thought of me never wearing a swimsuit since I was the age of 5, came rushing to me and I felt conscious going out like this.

To my dismay it was the only one here so stripping off the playsuit, I put the swimsuit on, noticing how it clung to my body and grabbed the cover up and slipped it on. I loved swimming but now I was having second thoughts on whether or not I wanted to be in a pool with Shoaib.

His mood has changed drastically and was now playful, but in a totally different context than one that wanted to play games. Perhaps the word playful was the wrong word to use - he was lustful.

I shook my head and finally walked out of the double doors that led directly to the pool to see that Shoaib was no where in sight. Not bothering to wait for him, I slipped the cover up off of me and let it fall to the ground.

"Wait for me." A strong pair of arms grabbed on to my waist whilst I felt myself being pushed forward and before I knew it, we were both in the water with his arms still gripping my waits and me holding on to him for dear life.

As soon as we shot up again, I was aware that I could finally breathe and that Shoaib was laughing evilly at me. I ran a hand through my face before splashing water on his face, which resulted in some going in his mouth due to his laughter. The sound of his laughter dying and him coughing viciously made me laugh and in attempt to run away, I swam away from him as fast as I could.

My journey didn't last long before I was pulled back and heard him whispering in my ear huskily, "I got you."

And I hoped for the sake of my sanity that he would never let me go.

***

How was this chapter? I switched it up from depressing to a little bit of fun because me updating should be good news 😉 Tell me your thoughts in the comments 💙 Also, my apologies for using the p word ☺️