Second Chances: a Coincidences novel

Chapter 3: Settling the Past

            It's been two weeks since the incident and I was healing quite well. In another week or so, I would be able to remove the stitches, which looked so weird on me. But at the end of the day, I was alive and while I did not rejoice in my brother's misery, he had brought all of this upon himself, and now he was finally going to face the consequences of his actions.

It was high time he faced his stupidities.

"I'm surprised, but in a good way, that you bought and own a business" my uncle Ragheb said, with my cousins and aunt, as well as Anas Bukhash and his younger brother Hassan, all looking at me.

It was intimidating because they were all celebrities, even though the Alamas were also my family.

"Well, I had to start working and since school is not so much of an option for me at the moment, I thought 'what the hell?'."

"But you spent money on this auto shop and usually investments come with risks. How did you manage to make it into a successful business?" Louai asked, noticing the curiosity but at the same time wondering if that smugness he had for me was still there.

"I knew I could do it. I simply believed I could and I knew I could and voila, it became a successful business" I said, in a tone that kind of alerted him that while he was somewhat amicable with me before I left six months ago, I still did not trust him.

Or his motives.

I was a different person than what I was six months ago, or the six months prior I had spent in Lebanon when I believed my life would get better. But the opposite had happened and I had no real faith that it would get better if I returned.

The sad thing was that I had left a mark behind and not a very good one. It all came crashing down the night of the fashion show when Louai along with that other model, humiliated me and ended with Taline breaking up with me.

I still had strong feelings for her and even after not having seen her for months, those feelings did not fade away and only got stronger with time.

"It looks like you've done well for yourself" said my uncle. "But I still don't understand why you don't want to come back with us."

"It's not that I don't want to. It's that I can't. I have too many responsibilities and I don't think I can get up and leave."

"But look at what just happened to you. Your brother almost killed you and your mom finally gave you the blessing to come back with us" my aunt Jihan said, noticing the rather disappointing expression she had.

"Don't even remind me. Besides, what am I going to do over there?"

"It's not about what you'll do but about having peace of mind, and a peaceful life that is free from these types of incidents. Your mom loves you and she told me she wants what's best for you and that she regrets not listening to you."

"It's a little too late for that because the damage is done. I'm not the same Omar you met a year ago. I'm not happy, I'm not satisfied with anything these days as my life has not gone in the direction I wanted it to."

"Well what direction do you want it to go?" asked Khaled.

"I wanted to go to university, get my degree, and eventually get a good job, have a united family. Sadly, it never went in that direction."

"I feel something is holding you back" said Louai.

"Really, like what?" I glared at him.