61

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE.
“It’s going to be a long story, so brace yourself.” Jamal warned and Adele nodded her head in agreement. She was ready to sit and listen to him all night if that’s what it was going to take.
“I’m ready.”
“Good. So, back when I was eighteen years old, which means when I was in my first year in college, my interest in business was growing enormously bigger, same as my interest in you. I was in my first year in college, studying business and instead of travelling the world and spending the glorious days of my youth doing something fun, I didn’t do any of that because my greatest passion was the world of businesses even at that young age. As a result, I was impatient and I wanted to learn from the man I looked up to as soon as possible. I wanted to follow the steps of the best teacher in the country, my father.” He smiled.
“I naturally started to go more often to Dominick Co which was under my father’s management at the time. I watched my father carefully and I learned from him tricks the books don’t teach and with the passing of days, I, who was initially just a distant witness, soon began to give many beneficial and remarkable contributions to the company with the purpose of helping my father. I simultaneously decided to establish a small company
of mine with the little experience I started to gain, within little time and with my talent and acquaintances, the small company was astonishingly prospering and enlarging.” He shook his head and smiled. “That company was my first dream Adele, the first thing I ever put so much effort into building. I had thought in a matter of a few years, I will have my own small independent company to support you and I.” Jamal smiled
said pensively.
He sighed and smiled like an old man recalling the best days of his life.
“Back then…” he continued. “You, coming home for the holidays was something I was looking forward to. I liked you very much. I tried very hard to conceal my feelings for you. I never asked any girl out, because you were the only one I wanted. I was already laying down plans for us thinking I had everything within my reach, but I was so clueless, I had nothing!” He lamented bitterly and Adele was already feeling sorry for him.
He hadn’t even reached the hit part yet, but she felt like telling him to stop.
“I cherished Dominick Co and my father to the point
where I literally poured all my heart and might in
his work. The business partners at Dominick Co were not as naive as I was. They soon noticed how aspiring and smart I was and were willing to collaborate with me. Shamefully, the man who watched me even more carefully than anyone else, was my own father. He considered me and my new company as a threat that needed to be cleaned in order to protect Dominick Co.”
“No he did not!” Adele denied in horror when she understood what he meant.
“Trust me he did!”
“Oh my God!”
” I tried my best to help my father and my father tried
his best too, but in doing the exact opposite thing to me. He wanted to destroy the biggest threat he ever had. His
own son! The water was running underneath my feet
without me realizing it. Father started assigning me fishy deals under the pretext of training me, which I blindfoldedly accepted and kept constantly getting the best out of them thinking that the world of business is simply a dirty place where I just had to be careful. I didn’t suspect my father no matter how muddy the situation was and how high the risk was until father asked me to take care of a certain deal which apparently looked clean but was in fact the worst among them all. That was not too long ago. It was during this time when Danielle suddenly asked to meet with me privately and when we met, she brought many files for me to see. They were copies of the fishy contracts my father had made me sign, the frauds and all the dirty business I didn’t understand but I vaguely understood that it was against the law . As for the last deal, namely the one that seemed clean which I will conveniently call “Red deal”, it was literally my ticket to jail and it was going to completely ruin my reputation. Thankfully I had not signed it yet when Danielle met with me. She further warned me against my own father.”
“But, wouldn’t it have been hurtful to the reputation
of Dominick Co at large if you went to jail?” Adele asked curiously and he shook his head.
“Father was planning to report me personally to the
authorities and you know how the media works. He would have looked like the epitome of justice and righteousness because he reported his own blood and flesh to the authorities once he found that he was a fraud. No one would suspect him, his reputation will
be even better if he sends me to jail with his own
hands, but as for me, I would have been sent to prison for a couple of months which weren’t so much of a deal to him and even when I would be out, it would have been quite impossible for me to set my feet in this field again with a damaged reputation.”
Adele felt nauseated just hearing how cruel and filthy her
father in-law could be. She always knew their relationship was strained, but she blamed it on Eliyas thinking that he was just an ungrateful son. It never occurred to her that his father was the one at fault.
“But you were working for Dominick Co when we got married. Why did you keep working for him after discovering all of that?”
” I was still one of the major shareholders in the
company and had the support of many minor share
holders as well. When I was younger, father moved
those shares to me in order to protect them. That was his
mistake and my advantage. What I did was, I made it impossible for him to take them back, then I used them to inter the company and slowly took it from between his hands.”
“Smart move.” She applauded and Jamal chuckled.
“As for the matter of Danielle, when she told me about my father’s plans for me she said her motive was me being close to their family so she didn’t want me to go to jail, which is a lie because she didn’t refuse the generous reward I gave her. Also, she didn’t give me those documents easily. She tried to blackmail me into being with her. When she heard I was going to get married to you, she got mad and threatened to stop helping me. She said she was going to tell my father all that I know so he would expose me immediately. I did want her to do that. She asked me to keep my marriage a secret which I agreed to. She is the reason why I suggested we keep our marriage a secret. She had a great hold on me. With the passing of years she gave me more info about my own family for which she had her share of money out of. She had no idea she was damaging her father in the process. I was too forgiving to her actions in order to keep her close, and I hurt you in the process because of my greed.
“You did.” I said confidently.
“And I’m sorry. All that I explained is the reason why I was such a scumbag to you, but now, everything is over. No one has any hold over me and I am free to live and cherish and show you to the world, all I’m asking for is a second chance. One last chance, Adele and I promise you won’t regret it. Please.”
He pleaded with puppy eyes and Adele shifted uncomfortably on her seat.
She had no idea what to say or do at that moment.