Page 3 of Nothing Without You
They had to be.
What else explained the unfiltered panic on their faces?
Molten bubbles catapulted off the inner layers of my skin, eager to burst out.
Sexual violence.
Young intern.
Board members.
Indecision tasted of unsolidified, bitter truths. They just so happened to be the exact flavour of the repercussions I faced for being unaware.
My heart clenched in my chest at the thought of Ayeza never being able to move on with her life.
As I left the room towards the elevator, all I could think about was one thing.
She was only eighteen.
It wasn’tuntil I was halfway across the highway that I pulled to the side and dialled Eda’s number. Each agonizing ring flooded my anxiety to the max.
Please pick up.
“This is Eda Mikael, please leave a message at the beep.”
I’m gonna shoot myself in the head.
“Now, now. No need to get all violent on me.” The soft,precarious tone travelled through the rifts of the car and into my shallow ears. “Eda,” I dropped my head to the steering wheel.
A gentle laugh pursed through the speakers. “My dear Adelaide, what’s wrong?” The sound of blankets shuffling caught me off guard. She was in Bali, resting, and enjoying her well-deserved retirement. Then there was me, here in New York, suffering with the heavy burden of responsibilities and adulthood.
“Have you seen the news by any chance?” Nervous prickles tiptoed down the back of my neck in beads of sweat. It didn’t seem like she knew otherwise I wouldn’t have been the one calling her.
“What happened, Adelaide?” Her stern tone pricked at my soft skin.
“It’s not that bad,” I said quickly. “But I need some old auntie advice.”
There were two ways this could go. Eda would eviscerate my very being through the phone or she’d fly out from Bali to solve this mess herself. Personally, preferred the latter.You can’t handle anything yourself, can you? Always running to the first person for help. She’s been working for years, providing for you, and taking care of you—here you are, bothering her like always.
After giving her the breakdown of today, leaving out details relating to the impersonating email, Eda sighed. “First of all, I amnotold.”
“And secondly?” I asked.
The highway was busy during the end of the afternoon—a lot of them eager to get home from work. A sudden chorusof cacophonous honks demanded my car to move out of the way.
I knew better than to cry while driving but I couldn’t help it. A tear shot straight out of my eye and onto my arm.
“Why has there been no press statement yet?” I imagined Eda’s short bob swaying to the side as she sat in a chair with her hands on her thighs, and the phone on speaker in front of her. Nowthatwas a typical Eda response.
“I didn’t know about it before this morning,” I said too loud for someone sitting in a car.
“Were you busy playing hooky when this was happening?”
Her sarcasm elicited a subtle twitch in my eye as I released a low, shaky breath.
And desperately mouthed numbers from one to eight.
Getting off the highway, I manoeuvred the vehicle in the direction of Umaima and Hasan’s house. “Maybe you should come back, Auntie.”
