53

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE.
The news of Adele now working in Jamal’s conglomerate reached Danielle and it did not settle well with her because she knew how much Jamal loved Adele.
For the past year, she had been doing all she could to make the man notice her, but he did not even look at her for a single second. When she noticed that he was no longer going after Adele, she was happy because she thought he was finally going to let go of his wife and look at her, but that did not happen and now, it seemed like he was about to start going after his wife again.
Danielle loved Jamal from here to the moon and back and her ultimate wish was to one day be his wife, but with Adele in the picture, she knew that was something that would never happen.
That afternoon, she decided to pay Jamal an unexpected visit in his office to confront him about the issue. When she got to his floor, his secretary tried to stop her, but she pushed the woman away and barged into Jamal’s office as usual.
“Jamal!” She called in fury and as she walked over to his table with her heels clicking on the expensive tiles. Jamal, who had been buried in his work, raised his head up upon hearing her voice and sighed in frustration when he saw her walking over to his table.
His frightened secretary rushed into the office and Jamal quickly gestured her to go out and she did, not failing to close the door behind her.
“Jamal!” Danielle called yet again, but Jamal did not respond.
He calmly put down his pen on the papers piled up before him and calmly raised his head up to look at her, with an eternal frown plastered on it.
“Danielle.” He finally called in a calm, but deadly tone, looking her straight in the eye. “How many times have I warned you not to barge into my office during work hours? How many times!” He scolded the last part, banging both hands on the table and the loud noise it produced made Danielle jump in fright.
“Jamal…” She whimpered.
“Answer me!” Jamal scolded yet again, his voice thick with rage and fury. “Why do you keep disrespecting my orders?”
“Because you keep doing things that will make me disrespect the fucking orders!” Danielle fired back as she took a bold step forward. She was looking back at Jamal with tears stinging in her eyes.
She was there to give him a piece of her mind and his menacing demeanour was not going to stop her from doing so.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jamal questioned, this time around calmly, but one could tell he was still furious.
“Is it true that Adele now works here?” She posed the question and Jamal shook his head as he chuckled.
“Of course this has got to do with Adele. She is the only person who is capable of driving you nuts.”
“Just answer the damn question, Jamal!”
“Yes, that’s true. I don’t know where you got the news from and I’m not going to ask, but yes, it’s true. Adele now works in this conglomerate.”
“But why? Why did you employ her here?”
“That’s none of your business, Danielle. If you have nothing relevant to say to me, leave my office. I have a lot of work to do.” He said in an attempt to dismiss her, but Danielle crossed her arms over her breasts and took a firm pose before the table, staring daggers down at Jamal.
“I’m not going to leave this place until you give me a valid reason why you hired her or better still fire her!” Danielle asserted as she repeatedly tapped her left foot on the floor, still looking at Jamal like she wanted to swallow him.
Jamal, who was very much amused by her words, laughed hard!
He could not believe her level of entitlement and audacity. She was indeed a spoiled brat.
He quietly rose to his feet and walked away from his office table that stood at the centre of the office. What he was about to tell her did not require him to sit down.
“I’m still waiting for your response, Jamal.” Scolded Danielle and that caused Jamal’s smile to fade. He furrowed his brows as he sauntered towards her, with both hands shoved into his trouser pockets.
“Danielle…” he hummed her name as he stopped before her.
He took a few moments to eye her from head to toe, with a thousand questions running through his mind, but he pushed them back and focused on what he wanted to ask her. “What makes you think you have the right to do all what you are doing?” He questioned in a deadly tone, staring deep into Danielle’s eyes and that made her uncomfortable.
She took a nervous step backwards and swallowed dryly, still looking at Jamal, whose gaze seemed to be glued on her.
“Jamal we are childhood friends…”
“You are going off topic, Danielle. The fact that we are childhood friends… what the fuck am I even saying? I have never been your friend, we have never been friends. What the hell are you talking about?”
“Even so Jamal, you have spent more time with and I’m the one who is supposed to be your wife not Adele. I deserve to be your wife, not some stranger!” She cried and Jamal just kept staring at her blankly.
He wanted to tell her that Adele was not just a stranger to him.
He wanted to make her understand that Adele had caught his attention the first day he laid eyes on her even though they were just children back there. He wanted to let her know that Adel was his first love and he had always dreamt of having her as his wife and no one else, but he chose to save his energy because he knew Daniel would never understand him even if he explained it to her for the next ten years.
“I can see you have nothing relevant to say to me, so leave.” He said, pointing to the door.
“Are you in any way trying to win her back? Did you bring her here to keep her close to you so you’ll win her back?” Danielle asked at the top of her voice.
“What if I am.”
“Jamal you can’t do this to me! I’ve been there for you for the past one year after she left you. I have helped you come out of the mess your father put you in. I have assisted in making you the most powerful man you are today. Is this how you plan to pay me back? By reuniting with the same woman who left you?” She asked, crying. Tears fell from her eyes like a waterfall, but Jamal wasn’t moved.
Her tears meant nothing to him, neither did her pain and frustration.
He knew she was only doing that one man display of agony to get him to pity her, but that wasn’t going to work.
“Don’t act like I haven’t paid you back for that, Danielle. Remember your father’s company went bankrupt. The news of his bankruptcy was almost spreading and I was the one who ended them. I brought your father’s company back to its feet and today it is thriving in the global market again because of me. Danielle, because of my connections, you are a top class model and influencer. You are well known in the country and respected as well. Your family owes their riches and successes to me. That is your payment for getting me out of my father’s cage.”
“No! I didn’t ask for any of that” Danielle cried. “That’s not the payment I wanted. You didn’t ask for my opinion! That is unfair and I won’t accept it.” By then, she was screaming like a mad woman and Jamal didn’t know how else to handle her.
“Danielle, please leave. If you don’t, I’ll call security to send you out. Leave!” He ordered at the top of his voice and this time around, Danielle obeyed. She rushed out of the office, sobbing like a baby.
Jamal walked over to the sitting area and slumped on one of the sofas, heaving out an exasperated sigh. Danielle did nothing, but frustrate him every time they met!
******************************************
Danielle left the conglomerate and went straight to Shannelle’s modelling agency.
She needed to talk to her about what was going on because it seemed handling things on her own was not going to work out. She needed Shannelle’s help and if possible, their mother, Aliya’s help as well.
“Oh my God, Danielle! Are you alright?” Shannelle asked in awe the moment Danielle walked into her private dressing room.
She quickly signalled the makeup artist and designers working on her to leave and when it was just the two of them in the room, she walked over to her friend and hugged her.
“Shannelle.” Danielle cried in her arms. “Your brother is going to give me a heart attack with his actions.”
“What did he do this time?” Shannelle asked worriedly as she led Danielle to the sitting area so they could sit down.
Once they were settled, Danielle wiped her tears away and tried to steady her breath and voice before explaining everything to Shannelle.
“Tell me what happened.” Shannelle urged and Danielle odded her head.
“I… I recently found out that Adele is working at the conglomerate.”
“What?” Asked Shannelle, in pure shock, Danielle nodded as a stubborn tear rolled down her cheek.
“Yes… she does now. So, I went over to confront him and he made me understand that he brought her into the company to keep her close to him, to try to win her back. Shannelle, I was so heart broken when he said those words to me. I felt like my world was falling apart. What can I do? I don’t want to lose your brother to Adele again. I don’t want to lose Jamal.” She lamented in agony and Shannelle , who felt really sorry for her, took her into her arms and began stroking her hair.
“I understand how to feel right now, Danielle, but not to worry, I will talk to mum and she will know how to handle this issue.”
“You will?” Danielle asked, looking up and Shannele and she nodded.
“Yes, I will. I promise.”
“Thank you very much.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Danielle. You are the only one fit to end up with my brother and mother will make sure that happens. Just let her handle things from here.” She spoke with so much confidence, but she failed to understand that her brother was not Mama’s boy.
The last thing he ever did was take any advice from his mother.