Read with BonusRead with Bonus

Chapter 3: Money Theft!

As the sun ascends bit by bit, the sky in the west became deep neon blue as the light reached further out. Slowly, she opened her eyes but then squints it shut, trying to ward off the sunlight that filtered through the curtains.

Bushra let her breath out as she got off her bed and sauntered into the bathroom to take her bath. She slipped out of her pjs and hopped into the bathtub. She turned on the shower and warm droplets of water falls onto her skin, releasing tension. The water slowly warmed her, soothing the ache that clawed at her limbs.

She stepped out of the bathroom, body wrapped with a clean fluffy pink towel. She walked across the room, straight to her closet, not noticing a figure sitting on her bed.

After picking out an outfit for the day, she turned and her heart nearly dropped to the floor. "Aunty, you scared me." She heaved a sigh of relief when she realized it was her mother. Aunty chuckled a bit. "I'm sorry I scared you. I've been here for more then thirty minutes waiting for you to come out." She said, watching bushra as she did her usual routine when getting ready for work. "Never get tired of the hot water," she responded without a glance at her.

Aunty shrugged and waited till she was done getting set. Bushra settled down on the side of the bed beside her mother and begun wearing her shoe.

Aunty anxiously looked at her. She thought Bushra would make the first move by asking what she wanted but failed. She cleared her throat and bushra knew there was something up. "You look lovely," aunty commented. Bushra smiled. "Thank you," she mouthed, pompously modifying her blazer.

She got to her feet, fixing her veil before taking her bag from the hanger close to her bed. "Aunty do you need anything? I'm leaving for work." She checked the time, "almost late." She heaved a sigh. Aunty saw smiled – she was finally given the opening she was looking for. "Sadiq is waiting for you in the living room." She stated vigorously.

Of course it had to be about him -- she thought with a sense of displeasure. "Aunty..."

"He got ready really early to take you to work. C'mon, Bushra. He's certainly trying to make things work between you two. Unlike your father that's trying to push you into marrying him."

Bushra folded her arms on her chest as she snapped a brow up at her mother. "Look, it is better to fight your ego and pride, give this boy a chance. Because your father is not going to let you add another year in this house." Aunty got to her feet.

"You're really going to let Baba marry me off to him? Aunty, he's not really what you think he is." A knot tied in her throat. It hurts but she ignored it.

"All I know is he wants you to get married because you're not getting any younger. It mustn't be Sadiq. But since he showed interest in you, your father welcomed the idea. So don't be bowled over if you one day walk into this house and receive the news of your wedding date with him. Unless you have someone."

"He's waiting for you." She patted her shoulder and ambled out.

He stood up the moment she walked into the room. "Good morning." He offered her a warm smile but she returned a glare. "What part of ‘I don't love you' don't you understand?" She told him with a tone of irritation.

He cleared his throat. "Look, can we just keep that aside? I'm just offering you a ride to work," he stated. She stared at him keenly, arm folded over her chest. "I have a car." He was obstinate and self-centered. She despised that.

If he thinks he was always going to get ways with whatever he wanted because her father was on his side — she doesn't see herself giving him a chance. Not only because he was full of himself — Sadiq was a philanderer. And he has a short temper that she knew it might lead to one day him hitting her. That she wouldn't want to get herself into. But her father would never pay heed.

"Listen, you are just like every other girl so cut it with the crap and let's get this over with. I'll be waiting for you in the car or you'll hear from Bappah." He turned to leave but her father came into view. He smiled at Sadiq.

"Good morning, bappah. Hope you slept well. We were just leaving to work." Sadiq ducked his head as though he wasn't the one that spatted those unpleasant words to his daughter.

"Good morning. I'm leaving to work as well. Bushra, something happened to your car again? I thought the mechanic returned it yesterday evening."

"No baba, nothing is wrong with my car." She sharply looked at sadiq as she spoke. She turned her head to her father. "I told him but he kept insisting on taking me when we work in completely different — far place."

Sadiq made a face at her but wipes it with a soothing smile. "Bappah, I'll take her if that's okay. And I have more than enough time to take you to work and head to mine," Sadiq said purposefully. It irritated her because she knew her father would agree.

Baba smiled as he nodded. "That's fine. He can pick you up when you're done I'm sure."

Bushra picked up her pace towards the building. Once she slowed down, she started to catch her breath. She checked her watch and exhaled. She was almost late but made it.

She would've been at work more than thirty minutes ago if it wasn't for him. Bushra let a out a slight hiss as she made her way to her office.

She made herself a cup of coffee before finally settling down. It helped her tired a** to get through the whole day.

She sipped her coffee as she powered her computer on to start her work for the day.

Her phone interrupted her and she picked it up to see the caller. It was Madina – the only silly person that'd call her at that time of the morning. Bushra smiled and answered the call. That was the person she needed to lighten up things for her. The day was so bright but she couldn't see it — sadiq helped things to get gloomy and dark.

"Madina," Bushra began sunnily. "Okay, Would you rather lose your sight or your memories?" Madina asked, abruptly. Bushra chuckled, wondering how Madina just sits and come up with such farfetched questions. "Why are you asking me that?"

"Just answer," she said shortly.

"Okay, umm.." she drummed with her fingers on her desk. "Lose my memory?" She wasn't sure of her answer. "Oh common. You'd rather forget the most precious human being you know? Me?" She said conceitedly. "Yeah, well at least I'd forget some jerks I've met in my life." Jerks like sadiq, her supervisor when she was in the university— Mahir Dan-Musa. She wished she hadn't known them.

"I think I'd go with losing my sight. Too much sinful things to see and it'll end up messing with your Iman if you let it get the best of you. And speaking of forgetting people — how on earth do you know Mahir Adam Dan-Musa and he even paid for our dinner last night." Madina's voice went pitch high with excitement.

"Oh! Him... yes I'm the Dan-Musa Global Trusts' account manager. Nothing biggie," Bushra spoke and shrugged it off. It was something huge.

"You must me joking, right? Nothing biggie? Why didn't you tell me that before? You get to see Alhaji Adam Dan-Musa? Or even better... that fine-looking son of his." She said in a triumphant voice. Bushra didn't expect her to get that excited over something normal. Well, it wasn't something you see everyday but in some cases, it wasn't anything to hype about.

"His son. That spoilt brat!" She said abruptly. "He is so bossy and spoiled to the extent that he expects things to be done as he wants it to be... He's so full of himself." Bushra said with the tone of irritation.

"Whao!" Madina mouthed. She fell too deep in the moment. "Are you sure you guys didn't just start off on the wrong side. Cause it feels like—"

"What? No! We had a meeting yesterday and this guy interrupts me every single time I start talking. He just speaks without having a thought. That's rude!" To think of it, he only did it to her.

"Does he do that to your colleagues?" She asked. Bushra was reluctant at first. "No," she murmured. "Haaa! You see! Are you sure this guy is not into you or something? Maybe he's testing your patience to see if you are a wife material. He freaking paid for your dinner." Madina was now talking deafeningly that Bushra had to move the phone away from her ear.

"Okay, sometimes you think with your butt. How can you possibly say that or even — think that?"

"I'm just saying — love stories always starts off this way. From frenemies to friends to best friends and..." Madina squeaked elatedly.

"Oh c'mon! No! Never! Gross." Bushra grimaced uninterruptedly at the thought of dating Mahir or even inferior – being his wife. "Now I'm starting to think about accepting sadiq. At least he doesn't boss me around."

"You really think Sadiq is better than Mahir. I doubt that," Madina said with a laugh.

"Yeah… I was joking. And maybe I judged Mahir too fast," Bushra admitted.

"Maybe he's not as bad as you think he is. I say if he makes the first move, you should take it. Because I have never met a girl that's not dwell over Mahir Dan-Musa." Madina said. It reminded Bushra of their meeting with him yesterday. "You should've seen the financial manager yesterday. She was all over him. But he ended up debasing her. Now she might end up in suspension or get demoted for trying to harass him." Bushra giggled -- she didn't feel bad for her because she deserved it for publicly not acting professional.

"Why are you just telling me all of this? Oh my God—" Peals of laughter burst from deep within. Madina's laughter was contagious and Bushra laughed also, a very appealing, purely feminine sound.

Bushra heard a soft knock at her door and she knew it was time to end the call. "I have to go. I'll call you as soon as I'm on my break. Bye!" She mouthed and quickly ended the call.

Her boss walked in as she gently got to her feet. "Good morning sir," she greeted, adjusting her blazer. He nodded his head. "How's your schedule for today?" He questioned.

"Umm..." she briskly checked her computer. "I have a meeting with ABX Enterprises at 10am and then Presco Plc at 2pm, sir." She looks at him after stating her schedule for the day.

"Good, after that. I have a task for you at 4pm. It won't take much of your time," he said as he shoved his hand in his pocket to get his phone. Few seconds later, "I've emailed you the work. Analyse it and email it back to me."

He walks out of the office. Bushra slumped on her chair. "Seriously!"

The sigh that escaped Bushra's lips was slow, as if her brain needed that time to process what had happened. Her eyes remained fixed on the door her boss had passed through.

Bushra sluggishly walks into her office after attending all her client's meetings. She collapsed on the sofa as all her energy seemed to have diminished. She closed her eyes and gazed into nothingness. She could feel her limbs going numb by the way she was tired but she still had one more thing to do.

Bushra heaved a long, tired sigh before sitting up. She massaged her temple as she felt a splitting pain erupting through her head. She stood up, her feet almost giving up on her. It tortured her to move, so she kept the movements small and steady.

She never bring it to her mind that the two meetings would completely drain her energy. Especially the first meeting with ABX Enterprises. They drained her and dragged the meeting to the extent of her thinking back to why she accepted the position of Account Management. It was exhausting and tormenting. Some clients don't really know how to be tolerable.

Bushra prayed Asr and had her lunch that Madina stopped by to drop off hours ago. What would life be if Madina wasn't in it? Madina was right, she's such a precious girl that Bushra could not afford to lose.

It was past 4:30pm in the evening when Bushra started her bosses work. She anatomized through everything and did as he asked her to.

It was almost 6pm when Bushra finished the work and emailed it back to him.

She was packing her things to leave before Sadiq showed up to pick her up when someone hastily walked into her office.

Bushra snapped her head up to see who the intruder was. Her heart dropped, thinking it was sadiq. She'd rather call a bolt than to follow him home.

"Mr. Adam? What— what are you doing here? I mean Good evening." She was perplexed to see him by that time in her office, looking tensed.

"Is everything all right?" She sensed something was wrong by his unnerving expression. "Does it look like everything is all right? Numerous transactions were made from the company's account to an unknown account. And we're not talking an amount of money to ignore. It's a life threatening problem. Bankrupt if you don't understand what I mean!" He explained, eyes darting around restlessly.

Her entire body jerked to a stand still unexpectedly. "What?" She dropped her bag and powered her computer. With trembling hands, she went through the Dan-Musa's account summary. This was not a problem that involves Adam Dan-Musa only, it involves her as well.

She panickily checked the previous and present-day transactions. Numerous amounts of money made her to move uneasily was transferred to another account. She began with freezing the account before they could figure out the other account and who was behind it.

"Who's stealing from us? How can you not notice an usual act like that? You have been in charge of the account for months and you know every single standard of the company's transactions. How can you foolishly let such happen?" His voice was so loud, so thunderous, that she couldn't concentrate on what she was doing.

Irritation surged up inside her. "I am tired, and please keep in your thoughts that the brain is a physical organ. You wouldn't make a kidney work harder to check it's functioning, that would be considered terrible medicine, yet that is exactly what you are doing to my head with all these stupid questions and accusations—"

The door opened and her boss with some of her colleagues briskly walked in.

Just as she thought things wouldn't get more heated, Sadiq walked in. He glowered at Mahir who was unguardedly standing so close to Bushra.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter