Chapter 3: Forbidden trust

Time is flying like a wind for Elizah, it's almost two weeks after Dalil postponed his reserved engagement with her.

No sign of him after that. She is thinking of forgetting of being retail florist.

She is a floral designer or some called a floral artist. Her work is recognized as the art of creating flower arrangements in vases, bowls, baskets, or other containers, or making the bonquets  and compositions from cut flowers, foliage, herbs, ornamental grasses, and other plant materials.

As everyone knows florists are people who work with flowers and plants, generally at the retail level in a sense of retail florists offering fresh flowers and related products and services to customers.

But Elizah on the other hand, is only a designer of bonquets and a seller of flowers. Sometimes she even decorate wedding parties or any kind of occasional parties or arrangements like the stadium. She never had to produce her own flowers and nurture her own garden then making out of them her desired products.

She get her own flowers from wholesale florists who sell bulk of flowers and their related suppliers into their own professionals of the trade.

She is losing her confidence on the idea of Dalil's business proposal.

The shop she is using to sell her flowers is a rental space where she started her small business as a florist but Dalil is offering her to be a small greenhouse garden owner with her own space to produce her own flowers, make her own product line and sell them to the local people like she is doing now. She is starting to think it's too much for her. She can't do it.

However, the wedding parties are absolutely gone crazy this season, one after another happening almost every day. 4 to 5 wedding in a row sometimes or wedding occasions. Her business is blooming this season.

It's just about a month before when Dalil came to her, still no news from him. She is forgetting him when he suddenly came to visit her in shop.

Elizah is surprised by his presence. He seemed extremely apologetic to her. He started to talk before she can guess otherwise.

Dalil says, please excuse my delays, I am here to talk about my earliest propositions, if you can share me small amount of time from your busy schedule, I can explain it to you.

I want to take you to dinner if it's possible please come with me now.

He appeared to be very helpless to her. She goes easy on his desperation of her assistance.

She ask him to wait for her. Dalil then gave a beautiful smile to her and went to wait for her outside the shop.

She saw it's almost 7.30 pm, too early for a dinner then she checked out her schedule, no, everything is done for the day, she could close the shop.

She was not ready for this kind of unannounced dinner invitations but still, he seems very frustrated.

Hurriedly as she could, she closed her shop to join him. He is staring the sky probably counting the stars.

Whenever she reaches to him, he is back to his usual state. He is very quiet. Nothing he said along the way. They walked to the nearby restaurant. Elizah never had anything from this restaurant but she sees it every day whenever she is passing the alley.

Dalil is the fast one who take her to this restaurant. They ordered ramen and icecream with plain water.

He explained the whole business plan to her. He is going to give her a small little house with a beautiful greenhouse garden. The shop of her will be infront of her very own greenhouse. She will going to assist him till she learns how to manage the whole business.

What she have to do is to shift her whole business to her own home and leave the rental place. The house will be on his own name but she is going to live there and operate the business. He will be the owner of 60% of the total business. At the end of every month she has to deposit the amount in his business account. The account will be on the name of her business. He will help her to make it profitable.

He arranged everything. If she agrees with his proposal then he will going to start the business.

He will stay with her only during the daytime and at the night time, he will leave.

He showed so much compassion during his whole conversation with her that Elizah relied on his words and accepted his proposal.

In the end of their dinner, they became a business partner.

The next day, Dalil came to her shop to take her to show her very own house to live. She was so excited with the whole idea but couldn't share it with anyone.

Lyaan went for his herbs plantation training to the next city, so he is nowhere to be found right now.

When Dalil and Elizah arrives to the site, at the first sight of her very own house she fell in love with it.

The house is surrounded by the small flower hedges with iron fence, on the side of the hedge, a long pathway for walk, open empty cemented frontage with garden patios where every customers going to wait for her.

Her shop is right in the corner of the house, on it's back there is the glass greenhouse with many kinds of beautiful flowers, herbs and flower buds.

Upon the left, the front door of the house. The pathway leads to the front door. The whole house is the beautiful compliment to the nature, at the back of the house there is a small pond with water lilies and beautiful colourful fishes.

He is asking her, do you like my arrangements. You can eat those fishes if you like, then smile at to her.

Then he also says, the maintenance expenses of the whole property is mine too, you are just going to stay here with your families to look after my business property.

Elizah never felt so much appreciation for anyone. She has no idea why he chose her for this generosity but still he didn't said anything about him without this business proposition.

Dalil said goodbye to her at the front gate of her house and gave her the keys of the house.

With heart full of gratification Elizah went back to her home to give her grandparents the good news.

They went together in the evening time to see her place when she is returning to her home, it's almost a night.

Dalil do asked her for a dinner but she refused for her grandparents who are waiting for her in their home.

For some reason the whole area is fall in dark bosoms, Elizah feeling thrilled all of a sudden. She couldn't see her own hands. What can be happened for such a darkness, she is thinking, she doesn't have any kind of lights with her nor she has any car only a mobile phone.

She then turned on the mobile torch to see her paths when she reaches to her desired destination, the front door is wide open.

Elizah is thinking why it is open at this hour. Then something knocked her head and darkness in her eyes fallen before her.

She didn't think of what she is going to experience or else she wasn't going to open her eyes. Both of her grandparents were killed by gunshots of couple of teenage thugs. Both where looking very tired and surprised by their sudden death. Those thugs took every valuable things from them including money.

When they noticed she awakened, they managed to tie her with a chair then one of them cut off her white cotton blouse and started to embrace her against her will, kissed her enormously against her will, touched her wherever he could be rapidly over and over out of desperation. Elizah never get touched by any man in her whole life. But she never imagined like this. She was crying and sobbing by her conditions but out of a sudden before she get completely warned of, the lights came back.

They get frightened by the lights and ran away.

It was Dalil who fixed the lights. Those thugs cut off the electricity from the main electrical system. For some reason, he came back to see Elizah when he encountered the fallen darkness.

He sent his men to fix it and came to see her at her home. It was too late when he came back to her, those thugs ran away.

Never happened in this area before but for some reason this vary day it's happened with Elizah.

Dalil was looking so pale when he saw her like that. Right after he saw her, he called his men to find those thugs who could be teenagers because they left few beer bottles behind and it's from local store then he called the local police station and reported her conditions then took her to general hospital by taking the permission of the police officer. They didn't harmed her anyway but she need a good rest while he is handling all her problems.

She couldn't say anything to him but fainted on his arms when he came to her.

Later on, Dalil came to know that her grandparents took a good amount of loan from their one of the local rich brothers who wished to get back their amount of loans immediately but her grandparents could not pay them, moreover, they behaved badly by the proposal of lending their grandchild for few months as a full payment.

The horrible incident happened accidentally. Her grandparents died after she get back to her home as those rich teenagers admitted. They gave those two old grandparents a loan out of kindness and they were very short in cash that time, they have to go back to their across the lands, to their home when this happened.

They were drunk, they drank too many beers before the incidents and left few over the incident place. Those beers were bought from the nearby store, no else bought at that time, that's why, it was easy for Dalil's man to find out.

Dalil knows their parents, they are very good people but their sons are very much spoiled out of richness. Even if he catches them and handover to the police officers, they will be able to get out of it and make her suffer more or worse.

They are very powerful indeed. Dalil then asked them the amount of loaning money and had to pay them double with interest including her which they are claiming even after the incident. They know very well how to handle this kind of situation.

They appreciate Dalil's ability to pay them, even paid them in full, and bought Elizah from them which they inherited as a souvenir from those couples especially, when they were dead.

Out of curiosity, Dalil asks them why didn't you take her with you then they says, we have no intentions of keeping her with us probably used her for couple of time then sent her back to her grandparents but because of their overdoing that accident happened.

Dalil continued to control his outrageous anguish against them and helped them further as a trusted aquentance.

Dalil took the whole responsibility of sending them to their home safely with his own boat. He even made them think about their prosperous future ahead to be more cautious about it.

Furthermore, without any delay they should be get going to their home and should never returned to this part of the country.

Dalil earned those two brothers trust and gained the respect. They didn't delayed their departures from him. Showed utmost sincerity and gratification for what he has done for them then promise to do the same for him and never to return.