26. Adelaide
TWENTY-SIX
ADELAIDE
There was exactly one week until my wedding and today was my first day back as CEO of Starlight.
I didn’t know who pulled the ropes, but it was happening, and Adelaide Mikael was officially back.
It’s been a couple of weeks since I entered the large building of Starlight. Starlight was located near Brooklyn Bridge. There were days my dad would bring me here when he was responsible for picking me up from school. He’d forget about his job, and we’d walk to the bridge. Bilal, an older man, would be selling ice cream from his personal cart as we’d walk on. Dad would always ask him what flavour the best was. Bilal would always answer that he only had one flavour. Dad would laugh and say something around the lines of one flavour is always the best, then proceed to buy us mango ice cream and a pack of nimco, a popular savoury snack in Pakistan and India.
To this day, I carried a bag of it with me everywhere. It reminded me of my dad and tasted like a sweet reminder that even when he wasn’t here, parts of him still were.
Dad made sure the space wasn’t colourless. Pale yellows with orange inspirational words written in big bubble letters throughout the walls.
Something felt different as I walked through the lobby.
I felt like a changed woman.
It was busy as usual. People rushed in and out of the building. Some came back from their lunch breaks, others’ started. People said their congratulations to me on their way out, some giving me a firm handshake and an apology for assuming wrong about me.
Having a powerful man behind me had its privileges.
After our little… accident , we kept our distance.
Touching Christian was a portal into the past and no doubt, it felt amazing to connect with him like that again.
But when your love language was physical touch, it was a smart idea to stay away from people you once fell in love with.
Touch was a manipulator, and I couldn’t deal with all those feelings on top of the company’s stress. Touching someone was allowing yourself to accept them. Just because I was nice to him, allowed the spaces between us to grow closer, didn’t mean I’d allow myself to fall for him.
You might be a little too late.
I only had half of my broken heart and that chunk wasn’t the effective half.
A shoulder sharply bumped into me; papers flew everywhere.
“I’m so sorry!” The young man got to his knees and hastily collected the documents.
“Don’t worry about it.” I got down to help him.
When all the papers were back in his hands, he blanched. “You’re Ms. Mikael.”
There was something amusing about him being scared of me. No one found a five three blondie intimidating. Ever . I was the equivalent to a capybara—it’d be weird running away from them when they looked like the squishiest animals to exist.
“And you are?” He was a tall, lanky guy. A stubble across his chin and an awkward tilt to his nose. He alternated between standing on his left and right foot. His discomfort oddly reminded me of my own.
“I’m… Arun Klahan.”
“You must be a new intern,” I smiled. “Where are you going with all these documents?”
“To Mr. Rasool.”
He was headed in the wrong direction, but I didn’t have it in me to tell him that. “Let’s get these to him then.”
“Do you like working here?” I asked after getting into the elevator.
“Um… yeah, I do.” He hugged the papers around his chest.
“What do you like most about it?”
He turned his head, studying me. “I don’t think anyone’s asked me that before.”
“Starlight’s inclusive with their products. Which is rare for a company this big. Most businesses focus on their selling point and expand it, but Starlight doesn’t have a core like that. Instead, it focuses on importing smaller brands to promote them worldwide.”
It’s been a long time since I saw someone passionate about the business. Dad always said Starlight’s goal was never fame or money, it was affordability and inclusivity, the rest happened from hard work and luck.
“Is that why you like working here?”
“That's part of the reason, but another one is because there’s this?—”
Harry looked back and forth between us.
An imperceptible grin curved up his devilish dimple. “I see you’ve met my intern, Ms. Mikael.” Disbelief shredded straight down the middle of my body. Harry never called me Ms. Mikael.
Why start now?
Arun carried to the opposite end when Harry pushed his way next to me.
His words replayed in my head. Vulgar and revolting.
“I’ve been thinking about you,” he hushed.
When his hand smothered against my lower back, I wanted to say screw this and knee him in the nuts.
Except I didn’t. I leaned into it, giving the impression that I wanted him to touch me. “Tell me what you’ve been thinking about.”
Seduction wasn’t my forte, but I caressed his arm and pulled him away with alarm. Glancing at Arun who looked disgusted.
But not at me.
The doors of the elevator opened.
Just as I was about to follow Arun out, Harry pulled me back against his chest.
It was a different feeling than how Christian pulled me against him. He was all comforting. While Harry’s touch was unwanted and uncomfortable, he could never compete with Christian.
Not now and not in a hundred years.
No man could.
“I have a proposition for you, Adelaide.” I knew the formalities were wishful thinking. But I opened my ears wide and clear because if he was about to say what I think he was going to say, then we were much closer to ending this situation than I thought we were.
“I’m listening,” I said.
“The board members are quite proud of your accomplishment, marrying Christian and all that. We’d,” Harry’s hand assaulted up and down my arm. Left in its wake were goosebumps. “Well, we’d like to make it up to you.”
“Make it up to me how?”
Just then a woman walked into the elevator and smiled at me. I was never getting used to society’s mercurial behaviours. The last I remembered, people had signs with red Xs over my face and now they were buddying up with me because Christian was my fiancé.
He was right all along. People forgot. The scandal died down which was a good thing for Starlight, but terrible for humanity. How could they easily forget ? A girl was violated, and they moved on because they found their interest in something as insignificant as two rich people marrying each other.
Nasty is what it was. People pick and choose what they wanted to believe in, what they thought was right . They were ignorant to the events that mattered most and persuasive when it didn’t.
They’d scream for women’s abortions rights.
But stayed quiet when their own was sexually defiled.
Real issues only mattered to the world when it came to people that looked like me. But for the minorities, it was nothing but a blip in their life they’d get over. They didn’t have access to the privilege I had. All they kept with them was their sanity, their countries, and their religions.
People raped them of their identities, as if their organs were arranged differently from the rest of us humans. As if they couldn’t speak the same languages or understand the same music.
Our souls must have grown rotten from isolating sincerity.
I was given this much power to have control and if there was something useful, I could do with it other than be a couple of men’s punching bags, then I’d do it. Which is why it was up to me to help the girls— Ayeza —and the hypothetical future that could occur if the group of us didn’t step in.
I was a terrible boss from the start, I could admit that.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t start being better.
Confidence was resolved, but I was resolute in my aim to destroy them.
Harry audibly yawned.
“What was the proposition?”
My courage withered when he narrowed his eyes into slits. “Did you know that your fiancé is a new member of the board?”
Well, there was a contract I signed that stated he’d receive thirty percent of shares. I only had five more percent than him.
Which is another reason why you can’t fall in love with him again. He’s using you for material reasons and you’re… well, you’re naive.
Great. I should win self-advocate of the year.
“What does Christian have to do with this?”
The atmosphere in the tiny space shifted.
“The board members want to hold a party in celebration for you, Adelaide. Christian is now a problem for us.”
His eyes tracked the movement of my hand brushing down the front of his shirt. “Then I guess we have to keep it a secret from him.”
A sinister grin. “You naughty girl,” he stopped my hand with his own. “If I knew you were like this , we could have had something from the start.”
The elevator doors slide open.
He ended with, “I’ll text you all the details.”
When it was just me and the obnoxious rhythms bouncing, I sunk back against the wall.
It was morning and I already felt exhausted.
And there was only one person I wanted to tell everything to, and it wasn’t my best friend.