Mending You And I

Chapter Ten

Third Person's POV

"Dinner is served, Mistress." With her gaze on the ground and her head bend down with respect, the young lady in a maid's uniform stood at the door of Cornelia's room. She didn't dare move her gaze from the floor and waited for Cornelia's response.

"I'm coming!" Cornelia's tone was cheerful the way it had been for the last few hours. Even though Maryam was still furious at her for sending her very private  0.b: Abdullah, she was still excited to have dinner with her and her family.

"My mom's going to love you!" Cornelia remarked as both of them walked downstairs to the dining hall. Maryam nodded, a bit unsure. "Does she know I'm here?"

Cornelia nodded. "Duh! I told her the moment you agreed to stay over. She was at her boutique so she couldn't greet you but told me especially to bring you to dinner." she explained to me while pushing the big door of the hall open. The door opened with an echo that filled the room.

"Maryam! It's really nice to see you again!" A woman, in her mid-forties dressed elegantly in a body-fitted skin-colored dress with a belt at the middle. She was a brunette with long hair like Cornelia's but they were in a French bun.

Maryam didn't recognize her but still greeted her respectfully and with the same enthusiasm, she showed her. "Come sit with me!" she said and took Maryam to the I'm relieved to see that Cornelia made such a nice friend. I was afraid that my daughter was a weirdo no one would befriend." she looked serious as she said that but her tone sounded playful so Maryam giggled a little.

"Well, it was more like she befriended me," she answered, honestly.

Cornelia, Maryam, and Annie Wilson talked until the opening of the door echoed in the room again and diverted their attention to the person that entered. A relatively short man with a big belly and a bright smile on his face took a few steps further and stopped when he reached the special seat placed for him at the start of the table.

The table was decorated with delicious-looking food; from roasted chicken to mashed potatoes, fried rice, salads, chicken soup, prawns, and all the exquisite dishes you could ever think of.

The man directed his smile at Maryam, who adjusted her headscarf when she felt his gaze upon her. "Meet my dad, Maryam." Cornelia introduced her father who just smiled at Maryam as if he knew who she was very well.

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Abdullah Saleh. It's a big surprise that you're my daughter's friend even though your husband is my business...umm... associate." he stopped after business and it took him a while to find a suitable word before ending his sentence.

"Yes, sir. Cornelia told me about it." Maryam replied, politely giving Cornelia a look to which she gave her a secret thumbs-up.

"I see," he said. "My name is David Wilson by the way, though I was expecting you to know that." he still had a nice smile pasted on his face as he said that.

Cornelia didn't seem to feel the weird vibes her father was giving off because she was too busy being excited about the meeting.
Maryam just nodded hesitantly and smiled at him. She thought he would offer her to start eating the mouth-watering dishes but to her disappointment, he didn't.

"By the way, Mrs. Abdullah. It's a good thing that I came across you." he started. Maryam wanted to correct him about calling her Mrs. Abdullah but she didn't because she didn't think it would be appropriate. "Maybe you can convince Abdullah about selling the estate of the Saleh Textiles in Pakistan," he said, taking a sip of the red liquid that was poured for him by a maid standing nearby. Maryam didn't expect him to start talking about business so suddenly and how he thought that he could take her help in it.