UNDER HIS PROTECTION

- Chapter 41 -

How could this be?

Anisa had trouble believing her eyes. She scoffed as she spoke to herself and said, "I must've been broken to the point I'm seeing hallucinations."

Seeing Mr. Amin in front of her had come as a shock she had not expected. Especially his ghost. But that guess was overruled as soon as he spoke and told her,

"No, child. I'm not a hallucination."

Her breath hitched after hearing his voice. She slowly got up from her chair, releasing the pen in her hand. Walking around the desk, her eyes were fixated on him, never leaving her gaze.

"How...how is this possible?" She was still in disbelief.

Mr. Amin walked up to her and slowly grabbed her hands. She looked up at him and seeing the sorrow and pain she held in her eyes, Mr. Amin looked down at her hands in regret.

"I don't have much strength left so please explain how I'm able to see you at this moment," Anisa sobbed. 

She was feeling so many emotions, she couldn't look Mr. Amin in the eyes. He understood, so he directed her towards the chairs on one side of the room. He made sure to sit beside her so she wouldn't hurt herself from losing balance. 

"Child, there's so much to explain. I want you to understand everything from the start. But first, I want you to know I never left. I was always there...watching you," he explained.

Anisa continued to sob. Mr. Amin reached in for the tissue in his chest pocket and gave it to her to wipe her tears. Then, he began to explain everything to her. 

"I'm sure Saif told you about Tahir's occupation and how I was the head of the whole organization. There's a task that the head of that organization must do. In order to truly test the ones I can trust, I must observe their actions during my absence, once they've known I'm truly gone. That is why I faked my death. I gave you the evidence for everything, wanting you to find it. But, casualties occurred along the way and Abbas got to it before you could. He figured out our secret. The document I left in the safe that was in your office detailed everything you needed to know."

Anisa looked up this time in shock. 

"You were going to find out everything that day, through me. I left a phone number inside that document so I could reach you without alerting the others of my survival. I was the one that made the explosion at the palace that day. But, it was only so you could figure out the true culprit behind the problems in the castle, which was Abbas."

"Mr. Amin, how could you plan something so public, so violent. People could've gotten hurt," Anisa told him. 

"I was aware. I made sure the explosion was set up in the right place of the castle. We escorted everyone out and then I hit the switch for it to go off. You see, everything was my doing. No one was going to get hurt that day and I made sure you were the first person I see to it that was out of there," he assured her. 

***

Saif paced back and forth through the hallway. He was eager to know what was going on. He knew that Mr. Amin was going to re-introduce himself to Anisa. But, he was still in the hospital and Nadia was the one assigned to Anisa in the palace. 

"Is something troubling your mind? Did the doctor tell you something I don't know of?" Reem asked, observing his behavior. 

He stopped and looked at her for a few seconds.

"No, there's nothing wrong. Just, I've gotten tired of sitting down all day," he made an excuse.

Reem nodded, unwilling to get the truth out of him.