Adnan close the glass walls with something foggy by touching a button adjacent to the door so the people outside won't see what's going on inside. Jannah was impressed but she is more focused on looking around the office now. Typically cliché office of billionaires you see on Pinterest. Dark, enigmatic and entirely mysterious like the Delphian with her presently.

A huge possum oak desk sat just few feet away from the floor to ceiling glass wall that is warranting vigorous rays of sun to cascade promptly into the room. A head chair behind the desk and two in front of him looking similar but you'll know who the boss is without seeing the chairs. His table is neat with a blueprint in front, he's clearly been working on it before the meeting. A few folders stack by the side, sheaves of paper arranged adroitly, his MacBook, an ashtray with pack of cigarette by the side —she does not know what that is though, too elegant to be toxic.

Adnan's office temperature resembled that of an industrial freezer. Everything was neat, minimal, organized, and silver-chrome. Clinical and deliberately unnerving to suit the man that dominates it. Everything in the room is exactly him, cryptic and ambiguous.

She went to sit down at the same time with him on the head chair, he stared down at her with that irritating brow aloof. Jannah gave him an angelic beam and since she is smaller than him, she easily fit into the seat before he could. He narrowed his eyes at her but she looked away and decided to swirl around on the chair while giggling. Reluctantly he went to sit opposite her.

"Why are you here?" He asked playing around with a lighter —The Ligne 2 Champagne lighter, part of Dupont's Prestige Collection— in his hand unconsciously.

Jannah tightened her lips. She's almost forgotten why she was there in the first place. She opened her bag and brought out his platinum credit card. His eyes settled on his American Express Centurion Card, he didn't see any alert. Or maybe because he is not in charge of that, Bakri Khaled would see it and will call him to—

His phone rang from his suit pocket, he extracted it and checked the caller ID only to let out a satirical smile, the man in his head. He refused to answer though, place the phone on the table and lean his back supinely on the chair. It's so uncomfortable and so not his leather executive swivel chair, she should get the hell out of his office right now.

He is not one to invite people to his office talk less of them sitting down on his executive head seat. No one has ever done that if he could recall properly. But she is comfortably turning around on it like a bairn, Imara wouldn't do that. Or she would. His phone rang again on the table, vibrating and blinking furiously like his temper. Not answered still.

Slipping his hand into his pocket to remove the JP Morgan Chase Palladium Card he made for Jannah and made sure to inundate it with lots of cash, he stopped abruptly when she leaped and took his phone as it rang again indignantly between them. He raised a brow —something he's been doing lately around her— and watch as she touched the green button that accept is written in capital letters.

She tentatively placed the phone to her ear only to shriek and drop it on the table. Adnan's instinct immediately rise but he didn't stand up, just sat there and watch her for a few seconds to see what happened. The person on the other end is still speaking, a cacophony he wants to bring a cessation to. That should be Bakri though, why did she shriek like a banshee?

Not used to hearing a man's voice or something?

Her heart still skyrocketing in her chest, Jannah leaned forward to tap speaker on the phone so Adnan could hear how this so called Bakri Khaled CFO is screeching like an owl. He's got a deep voice but right now, it's strident and creepy. Or maybe Adnan is more into these type of people that shout? She's got a throaty voice, if she shouts, it'll be the end for all of them.

The disembodied voice continue to rant in discordant clamor. "...what on earth happened with your American Express Centurion Card? It's not my place to ask but forty eight million at a time? Yes you spend money a lot but this is not anything we've talked about and I'm shocked..."

"I'm glad we have unruffled that the money is mine. Have a great day, Mr. Khaled." Adnan cut him off before hanging up the phone. Such a nuisance, little vermin.

Jannah blinked. They spent forty eight million or there is something missing? Maybe Adnan also did something with the money, that should be it. Then again, those clothes she bought were the designers of the season and limited edition too at that. And to top it all off with the fact that the clothes were never meant for her but other stores in Lagos. It might be possible. She gulped.

Forty eight million? Why isn't Adnan bothered by that fact?

Adnan on the other hand went back to his mission of extricating her own credit card from his pocket. He slid it in front of them to her, beside his phone, she stared at it with her brows lowered and nose scrunched to the side. He could only watch her feeling that fluttering within him, those damned uncomfortable webs some weird spiders are making inside him. Are there spiders in other people's bodies?

Everything about his wife was messy, annoying, and inconvenient. The worst part was that somehow the docile little creature had managed to put him at a spot of disadvantage. He didn't need this mess. Didn't need his heart rate hiking over sixty whenever he thinks about her or she is at the vicinity.

Isn't that some sort of illness? He'll seek out for Dr. Abdussalam about it.

He is the opposite of the patriarch people wanted to see at the head of a company that killed rainforests and robbed Mother Nature of her natural resources on a daily basis. Not his looks by any chance but his entire ruthlessness and attitude, his rude remarks. People also wonder about his family if he is ever going to marry.

Oh, not because he is at any disadvantage, but it looks like no woman will be perfect enough for him. She is going to go through so much heartaches to keep him. That is their thoughts though, they don't know just how accurate that is.

His wife here. She was perfect. Too perfect, in fact. So perfect that sometimes he had to look away whenever they were in the same room. He averted his gaze from her more times than he could count, always opting to observe their daughter instead.

Instead of taking the credit card, Jannah lean her head on the backs of both her hands in front of her staring at him fixedly. Like she is trying to unriddle and unsheathe every layer of gossamer he's used to occlude himself without leaving an aperture for the ones behind. He seems so padlocked and fastened that it scares her. He is the father of her daughter and future children, maybe.

"What made you the way you are?" She asked before she could stop herself. The question has been at the tip of her tongue since yesterday night.

It felt like he was not going to answer but then he threw in sotto voce. "The way I am?"

"Cold. Ruthless. Omnivorous. Jaded." Her eyes roamed around his face as if the answer was written plainly on it.

"A mixture of crushing expectations, a bad past, acute insufficiency, and lackluster upbringing." He hauled just like she did, taking the pack of cigarettes from the table and extracted one from the miscellany.

Her eyes widened with intense curiosity at the sight of the onyx wrapped thing he placed between his two lips and lightened with a lighter. Her lips drop open when he took a drag of it and blew out, his shoulders literally dropped in relaxation. She's never seen him smoking before, never thought he does actually. His lips or whatever signs people give about smokers is thoroughly absent on Adnan.

So he smokes too? She is not stupid not to know what that is but Jannah is half not in her right state of mind, she's lost her memory after all.

"Can I try?" She asked voice replete with piquancy because she is enthralled by it all. It looks so effortless and relaxing, she wants to try the toxic death stick.

Adnan's brows shoot up to his hairline and there she knew she's finally astonished him and he showed it. "Try this?" He pointed at the cigarette between his forefinger and middle finger.

She gave an eager nod but he shook his head which elicited a large exaggerated pout from her, she whined adorably. "But why? It looks exciting. I wanna try."

He refused so she stood up from the chair and rounded it to stand right in front of him, leaning her butt in the desk behind her. "I'm not going to give you this."

She crossed her arms beneath her chest brattily. "And why is that?"

"Because...it's not for kids."

"Do I look like a kid to you? I have a three year old daughter!" Her face heat up wrathfully, her ears turning hot beneath her veil. How dare he call her a kid because he is eleven to twelve years older than she is?

"You've lost your memory." He dragged again and this time around puff it out in front of her face, all over. She gritted her teeth.

"If you don't give me that, I'm going to go out there and tell everyone that I'm your wife. Even tell them about our little daughter." She threatened looking every inch serious but she wouldn't have done that, not now at least. She is just sharpening her blade, till then though, blackmails.

Reluctantly, he passed her the cigar seeing how serious she is. She took it between her thumb and forefinger, stared at it critically before she clasped her pink lips around it, her heavy-lidded eyes blinking back at him innocently. He wanted to rip it out from her hand but the way she's got a grip on it, it is almost infeasible.

She inhaled, almost coughing out a lung, and passed it back to him waving her hand around like she is drowning. He didn't take it, still preoccupied by the way her lips wrapped around the thing. This was an entirely new side of his—a fourteen-year-old one, presumably— he wasn't eager to explore. Then why did he react in such a way that was banned from his books?

"It tastes like rotten eggs." She coughed again, tears running down her face briskly.

"You're not supposed to inhale." A wry blade of amusement colored his tone, he couldn't help it. "Nor are you supposed to lick rotten egg. Now suck on it like it's a sweet, not a joint."

She cocked her head sideways, squinting at me in amusement and contemplation. Wondering whether he is seriously offering her a cigar with his own hands when he refused her just few seconds ago. What? She wants to try it and the way she just called his expensive cigar a rotten egg didn't sit well with him.

"Sounds like an audition." She shook her head. She won't ever taste that stupid thing ever again, it's ridiculous. "Why are you taking something you cannot smell though? It's seriously disgusting."

He shrugged and returned his cigar into his mouth and inhaled. "It calms me down all the time." He stopped talking when he noticed her staring at him with a Cheshire smile on her lips. "What?" He asked out of sheer curiosity that is gnawing his insides. He wants to know what's so funny about him that she is laughing while staring at him.

She shook her head. "A ridiculous thought that we just kissed. With the marijuana thing in between of course."

Adnan's eyes opened a little but he refused to answer instead his eyes settled on the credit card on the desk. "That is your credit card. Use it for whatever and you can go now. I have another meeting."

Jannah shrugged, pushed herself away from the desk to stand straighter. "When do you usually come back home? We are going to have dinner together today or you starve again, I'll make sure of that."

"Don't wait up. Maybe around midnight, the time I shall go home."

"Midnight?!" She shrieked, her hand lax on her bag.

"Yes."

"That's absurd and totally stupid. You are coming back after Isha or I'll bring Imara here so everyone could see the family you are hiding." She threatened again, her hip cocked to the side mutinously.

"Alright." But he won't go back home, he just wants her to leave so his heart can darn stop ricocheting beneath his chest.

Jannah was galvanized and she showed that with her slackened expression then she scowled. "I'm serious. If you don't make it to dinner today, I'll come with Imara and other evidences that shows I'm your wife and she is your daughter."

Adnan stopped walking back to his desk and then turn to look at her. "I said alright. Why the spiel?"

"Because I don't trust you obviously." She pursed her lips and made a move to leave then turn around. "You should accompany me outside like a gentleman because that secretary or whatever doll you placed outside need to be put back in her place. I'll come back for her though. And teach her a lesson or two."

In order to make her leave as soon as possible, he accompanied her to the elevator and watched her leave while giving his secretary the middle finger, the woman scowled. Pivoting around, Adnan made his way to where she is standing and slanted a look his at her. He's never noticed her red lipstick and tight clothes till then, an act of seduction.

"You are fired." He announced out of the blue before stalking into his office.

Wait, why did he fire her like that? Because she wears tight clothes which is against the company's protocols. But he knew that wasn't the main reason, he refuse to acknowledge the other one.

"Employee compensation within the oil and gas industry is currently on the rise, and we came up with a great plan to preserve key staffers and encourage potential prospects to apply to AIA Pipelines..." Adnan drifted off at the sound of the head of HR in the company talking.

It's almost six in the evening which means he's got only two hours before he packs up and leave for home. He'll tell her that this won't go on, it's only for the day. And he won't have dinner with her so if she thinks her threats are going to work with him, she's got another thing coming her way.