The plane ride was long and tiring for both Tahir and Anisa. But, it was now time to head to the hotel.

After placing the luggage in the trunk of the car while Anisa took her seat, Tahir quickly walked to the driver's seat and began the car.

Anisa pulled out her phone and saw that she had a series of notifications. But, out of them all, Yasin's call was what sparked her interest.

She called back immediately, hesitant to find out what he had to say. She hoped that it was about the pills so she was able to remove that worry.

"Hello?" Yasin answered

"Yasin, I'm sorry I just got off the plane and I called back as soon as I saw your missed calls," she apologized

"No worries. Reem told me you were taking a small business trip,"

"Yeah. It's just a partnership deal. But, what were you going to say?" She asked.

There was silence on the other line and Anisa began to worry.

"Yasin?"

"I was going to tell you that you shouldn't worry about those sleeping pills. They had only what they should contain."

"Oh alright. Thank you for finding out for me."

"Yeah of course. Anything for you."

Anisa scoffed while smiling and told him, "Take good care of yourself and watch out for the family in my absence."

"Yes ma'am. You don't have to tell me twice" Yasin chuckled.

With that, he hung up and Anisa looked at the screen of her phone, still speculative about the tone in Yasin's voice. He didn't sound like his usual self. But she decided to brush off the thought and look out the window of the car.

"What'd he say?" Tahir asked

"He said there was nothing unusual about the pills," she simply replied

"Why do you sound disappointed?" He looked at her through the rearview mirror.

Anisa sighed, "I don't know. I just grew a wrong feeling about those pills. Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions."

After that, Tahir stayed silent and focused on navigation. It took them almost half an hour to get to the reserved hotel and as he was unloading the luggage, Anisa grabbed both of her suitcases.

"What are you doing?"

To Anisa, it sounded more like a command than a question, especially since it came from Tahir.

"Getting my luggage?" She replied

Tahir sighed and walked towards her to attempt to grab her luggage from her hands. But, Anisa didn't allow that. She felt his fingers brush past hers and instinctively, she took a step back and stumbled upon his gaze.

She felt her cheeks burn and got angry at herself for being so weak in his presence. She hadn't had this reaction towards anyone else.

Ever since the passing of Mr. Amin, she felt herself soften up in terms of her attitude and behavior. She felt the feeling of losing a loved one and realized that she didn't take advantage of it. So, her regret had been eating her side that would instantly snap at someone or even display a form of disrespect.

"It's fine. You're not my secretary. You're my bodyguard. There's a difference," she finally said.

With that, she walked off and headed straight towards the entrance of the hotel. Tahir furrowed his brows. He was caught off guard with her statement and didn't know how else to react to it.

Once they entered, he walked ahead of her towards the front desk to check-in.

"Hello sir, how may I help you?" The lady smiled.

"We've got a reservation under the last name Hassan," he told her.

The lady looked into the system on her device and looked back up after a few seconds.

"Your room is the double Delux located on the fifteenth floor. It'll be room number 1509," she handed him the key but he stopped and said, "There should be two rooms."

"Due to high customer rates, we're not able to reserve another room,"

Tahir blinked a couple of times, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"What does that mean?"

She looked through the screen once more before responding, "There are currently no available rooms other than the one you've reserved."

Anisa stood there and didn't know what to do. The lady made it clear that there were no other rooms left. There really wasn't much else she was able to do.

"Why don't we go up to the room first?" Anisa looked up at Tahir as her height only came below his shoulders and after giving one last look towards the lady, he turned around and led the way to the room.

When the elevator came to a stop, Tahir waited for Anisa to get out before he did. They didn't walk much down the hallway as they were greeted to the numbers: 1509

Tahir swiped the key and opened the door. Anisa made sure to move the luggage before she entered to be greeted to a wide and beautiful room.

Even the view from the window had her looking out for a while. Until, Tahir cleared his throat, prompting her to turn around.

"I'll stay on patrol overnight," he told her

"Nonsense, you just came from a flight. You need rest," she walked towards him and grabbed his luggage from his hands.

Tahir watched as she placed it on the other side of the room and said, "We'll both sleep on the ground. The bed serves as a wall."

"Anisa," he started

"What?"

"I'll do overnight patrol," He repeated, avoiding her gaze.

"You have tons of guards out there, what difference will you make?" She asked. But then she realized what she was doing and took back her words.

"Fine, go do your overnight patrol. Let's see if you can handle three days without sleep. I'll only lose my trust in your capability then. You won't even be awake to protect me from your fatigue."

Tahir scoffed and walked directly towards her. He towered over her and she looked up. He paused upon being greeted by her eyes.

Their form and color were what made her gaze beautiful. She only made his job harder with her presence. Despite her modesty, she was given a gift of beauty, inside and out.

But, he cleared his throat and looked away as he claimed, "I'm taking the side towards the window."

Anisa gave him one last look as she rolled her eyes and went to open her suitcase. She grabbed some of her necessities to use in the washroom and disappeared afterward.

Tahir sighed as he sat on the edge of the bed, putting his fingers through his hair.

What am I going to do with her, he thought to himself.

It was true. He was tired. Before making this trip he hadn't slept the previous two days. Mr. Latif wanted last-minute meetings in the middle of the night since he'd be gone for three days.

Rather than wasting his time, sitting, he got up and opened his suitcase to grab clothes to change into and got other necessities ready.

He changed just in time before Anisa walked out of the bathroom and took him by surprise.

It was his first time seeing her without makeup. Even when she had it on, it was barely noticeable. She wore a light, sill robe that touched the ground and kept her hijab, but it seemed as though she took off the pins she'd normally put.

"Make sure this door is locked while I'm in the washroom," Tahir said as he stormed past her.

Anisa was confused as to why he said that when it was common sense to keep the front door locked in the first place.

She sat down on one of the chairs in front of the coffee table and looked at the menu. There were a lot of options to choose from so it took a while to go through the whole thing.

Because Singapore's time was five hours ahead of the time at home, she hadn't felt the jet lag yet. But, she was tired and couldn't get much sleep.

She waited for Tahir so she could make the order through the hotel's phone. As she did, she even prayed Isha and finished.

"Are you hungry?"

She looked up to see Tahir's hair wet with beads of water dripping down while he had a towel on one hand.

"I was waiting for you to order," she replied, changing her posture to reach the phone. But, he stopped her as he walked over to the chair beside her and said, "I'll order."

After taking a quick look at the menu, he picked up the phone and dialed the extension. Anisa couldn't help but watch him multitask. He held a towel and wiped his hair with one hand while he talked and held the phone with the other.

Ever since the questions from the flight, she grew curious of him. She only knew basics and he only told her what she needed to know. But the things she wanted to know were left out.

"They should be here in 20 minutes," Tahir said as he placed the phone down, "In the meantime, I'll be praying"

"Yasin, what if she does something to you?" Reem's worried voice filled his ears but it didn't matter anymore.

He was going to interrogate his mother and even let her know ahead of time to come to a certain location.

He hadn't left the beach house yet because he told Reem about the situation. Right now, she was still shocked and couldn't believe her ears.

"She won't be able to do anything to me. She won't touch her own blood. We're the only ones she's got. But I need to know why she poisoned Anisa's pills," he explained.

Reem nodded, understanding how he felt.

"Why didn't you tell Anisa?" She asked.

Yasin sighed and slowly ran his fingers through his hair before he said, "I just couldn't tell her that my mother was trying to murder her. The evidence was solid but I wanted to be sure. I love my mother but I just couldn't tell her without confirming."

"But don't you think you should let her know, just in case she's experiencing any symptoms?"

Yasin looked up to see Reem's worried face. He held her hand and told her, "Don't worry, I promise I'll tell her when I feel that I've gotten the first story. I love Anisa and worry for her too. Maybe even more than Layla."

Reem nodded, "I trust you."

With that, he stood up and grabbed his keys before walking out of the front door and driving off to the location they agreed to meet.

While Yasin was on his way, Humeyra had already arrived and couldn't figure out as to why he wanted to meet here of all places. It was an empty garage. Usually, this place would be used for the hotel just beside it, but it seems like he rented out the place.

While she questioned where she stood, she heard the sound of a car and looked to see that Yasin had arrived. He parked just beside her door before going out with a serious expression.

"Why did you want to meet here of all places?" She asked him, scrunching her brows.

Once Yasin stood in front of her, he replied, "So you can comfortably admit your wrong doing."

"Son, what are you talking about?"

He scoffed, "Don't act like you don't know what you've done wrong."

He examined her expression as she tried to think. But, she wasn't putting much effort into it.

"Let me give you a hint," he said, "Anisa's sleeping pills."

The corners of her mouth dropped and held a solid expression, indicating her full attention.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she responded

"Don't play dumb with me. Your doctor wouldn't prescribe something like this, especially not to the princess!" He raised his voice which took her by surprise.

Yasin had never raised his voice at his mother. But, his stress and anger were eating him alive and he wasn't able to control himself in front of her.

"We're talking about another life that you thought you could just take and get away with. Why would you poison her pills?!"

Humeyra stood there, gazing at Yasin's aggressive actions. She knew Yasin was good at heart but she didn't expect that she would be found out so easily.

As her silence spoke for itself, it only made it harder for Yasin to accept this reality. But, then he realized something and asked,

"Was Layla a part of this too?"

A/N:

Hi guys! I hope you're all well and safe. The world is going through hectic times so I hope this update helped you escape from reality for a brief moment ☺️.

Just a quick question: If I were to make a mafia story, would you guys like that? I'm curious and would like to know what you guys think :)

But don't forget to show this book some love and hit that star button or even comment wherever you'd like.

Thank you ~