Ali watched as the seats filled, it was 8 AM. The meeting was beginning. He had given everyone a binder outlining what was going on and providing his references.

"Let's begin," He said.

Everyone had taken a seat and they were flipping through the binders, Ali could feel his father's gaze burn through him but he could care less.

"I, the head of the Ahmed-El Sheikh mafia, will be choosing to retire from my well-respected position early, I will also be effectively leaving. I will be the first to do so in decades, so be sure to refer to the laws we have been given to obey. I will be returning every dime I have earned as the head back to the board. The total of that precisely calculated amount is also on the last page,"

He could hear some whispers and talking as they reviewed the folder.

"The voting can take place now," He said, taking a seat.

"All in favor, say aye." The transcriber said.

Eight out of the ten-member said aye, Ali would feel relieved but he knew this would be the outcome. He wasn't shocked, because even if they all said no he would've threatened them to say yes.

His father remained silent, Ali looked at him.

"All in opposition say, nay," He spoke.

One of them said Nay, and his father remained silent.

"Mr. Ahmed Sheikh?" He asked again,

Ali gave his father a stare back until his father broke.

"I,"

"Motion is passed," Transcriber finished.

It was a done deal. The board itself wasn't losing much, instead, they were gaining money it was an easy pass. Of course for his father, it was a hard pill to swallow.

Ali got up and began to leave, as everyone had already adjourned.

"You're no longer my son," His father said to him

"I didn't feel like I was anyways," Ali replied curtly, opening the door.

As Ali came out to the hallway and his mother sat outside.

"Ali! My son," She cried, grabbing his arm.

"I am sorry. Your mother did wrong, but I am your mother. I birthed you, you have to stay. You have to do this for me, Ali." She begged, crying fake tears that everyone could see.

Ali grabbed her arm, lightly taking it off.

"For what it's worth, if your apology is sincere that is, I forgive you and father. But I am never coming back," He said walking away.

Ali called Romano on his way to his car and instantly he had picked up.

"Yes, boss,"

"I need you to tell me, how long the house is going to take?"

"They are furnishing it as we speak, they said they'll be done by 6:00 PM I've also arranged a great sale for you boss. I listed your current furnished house to be sold as it is, and we have a bidder for $3 million, should I close?" He asked

"Great news. Yes, go ahead and close," He said, reversing his car out.

"Okay. And boss, I found Anaya's old belongings, her phone, and stuff, as you requested,"

"Yes! Give it to someone to bring by my house within 15 minutes," He ordered.

"Got it, anything else?" Romano asked

"No, thanks." He said, hanging up.

He was driving back home until he remembered Anaya. Yesterday she was wearing a black dress, he remembered that because Martha gave it to her. It suddenly, hit him that he had never bought her clothes.

He raised his hand to place a call, but instead, he smirked. After driving straight for a while, he finally pulled into his driveway. He didn't park and told the chauffeur to wait for him. As he went inside, John stood in the foyer with a plastic bag in his hand.

"Sir, this is the belongings you requested."

"Oh good, place them in the backseat of my car, I'll be there in a second." He said.

"Oh! and I'm going to need you to follow me to the mall, I'll need you and another guard," He said

"Did you need me to pick something up sir?"

"No, just come behind me,"

"Yes Sir,"

He walked past him and into the kitchen, where he heard the voices from and Anaya was sitting on the counter talking to Amee and Martha.

"Let's go," He said to Anaya, standing in front of her. Amee and Martha looked at him confused.

"Where? it's Monday morning," She said, eyeing him.

"Are you sick?" Martha asked.

"No I'm okay, Anaya, and I will be back in a bit." He announced, pulling Anaya off the counter by her waist.

"Wait!" Anaya said as he began to walk away with her wrist in his hand.

"No, come on." He smiled.

They already made their way to the car, and she got in.

"It's Monday and it's 9 AM. I am guessing a CEO isn't such a productive job is it?" She teased.

"Be quiet," He smiled.

"Another date?" She asked.

"Maybe," He said, pulling his car up to the highway.

"How'd the meeting go?" She asked.

"Good. I left," He said.

"Yay," She smiled, holding his hand that was placed on the gear lever.

"Oh! before I forget. Look in the backseat," He said.

"Hmm?" She said looking back, and then gasping out loud.

"My stuff!"

She quickly took the bag and ripped it open.

"My card," she smiled, showing it to him.

"And my phone! but it's dead. Dang, it."

"But I have a portable charger," She said, pulling out the iPhone charging cord, She quickly plugged it in, and waited for it to turn back on. She looked through the other stuff but it was just her credit card, debit card, makeup, and her USB for work.

"Now that I have my card, I can buy you something instead." She smiled

Ali chuckled, as he pulled into the parking lot.

"The mall?" Anaya questioned

"And THIS one? This is one is expensive," She added

"I've never been here before, let's go," Ali said unbuckling his seatbelt.

Anaya unbuckled her seatbelt too and got out of the car. Ali locked it and took her hand to go inside. Ali looked at the manual and then took the elevator at the front to go up to the 2nd floor. As the elevator doors opened, Anaya's eyes landed on the store names.

"Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Versace, Dolce, and Gabbana, do I need to go on? Let's leave," She said

"Why? Come on," He said

"No," She resisted

"Are you buying it for yourself?" She asked

"Yeah," He played along, he knew she wouldn't go if he said it was for her.

"Let's go," He said, pulling her into Gucci.

"Welcome," The manager bowed his head lightly.

Anaya smiled lightly and nodded, as they went further inside. She was looking around and all the designs were not his style at all. She still wanted to help him so, she saw a white wool sweater with a v-neck.

"This looks good," she said

"Hmm, no I don't wear that color," He said

"Look at this," He added, pulling her to the women's section, directing her gaze to the dresses. They were all so modest, long in length, and the colors were stunning.

"NO, you came here for yourself." She said

Ali ignored her and picked this gorgeous floral pink and purple ruffle dress.

"This looks great," He picked it out, and on the same stand. He picked out 4 more, each of them even Anaya found astoundingly beautiful. He picked a long peach mesh dress, a red and black mid-length dress, a red silk dress, a green and white floral one, and an all-white long dress.

"Let's go," But the hand he was holding resisted

"Anaya," he said

"I'm not going to wear these, are you crazy?" She said

"Be quiet," He pulled her along anyways

"All of these," He handed them to the manager.

"$21,499.98," She said

Ali handed her his credit card, as he felt his hand being squeezed.

"Thank you," the manager said, proceeding to wrap all of them.

Ali felt the consistent pull, and squeeze to his hand.

"Don't wear them then, I'm still going to buy them,"

"If you want to buy me clothes, buy me normal ones," she said, her forehead creased in trouble.

"There you go sir," She said

John and another guard who followed picked up the bags for them. As Ali walked out, heading to another store.

"Wait," Anaya pulled him back.

"I'm not having fun. I don't want to go around wearing $20,000 dresses, it's not comfortable the whole time I will be worrying if I'm going to rip it or-"

"It doesn't matter, Anaya I have had this kind of money for years, with no one and nothing to spend it on. So whether you like it not, wear it or not, I'm going to buy it, it's not a big deal." He said

Anaya stayed quiet for a whole minute.

"Okay, then let me buy you something really expensive too," She said pulled his hand and walking him into Louis Vuitton.

She nodded at the manager and she looked around until she eyed this black sweater with a simple multi-color design on it.

"What about this?" She asked

"Looks good," He said

"$1,200," She read in her mind

"It's okay," She thought

"Okay let's go," She said giving the sweater to the manager to check out, handing the manager her debit card.

"Thank you," The manager said, packing the sweater in a box and then putting it in a bag.

"Here you are." She handed it to her.

Anaya took the bag and handed it to Ali, smiling.

"Thank you," he grinned, as they left the store.

Ali made Anaya shop a little bit more and went through the whole floor, and each shop as Anaya protested silently. They were finally done, and Anaya kept asking John to let her carry the bags, as he kept refusing.

"We should go, they're having to follow us lifting all these things." She said

"You guys can go, take these home," Ali said

"Thank you so much!" Anaya said

"Where do you want to go now?" Ali asked

"Don't you have work? It's 11:05 AM," She inquired

"Nope," He said

"I can always sign papers tomorrow," he joked

Anaya chuckled, as they left the mall.

"Let me drive!" Anaya suggested as they got the car.

"What?" He asked

"Yeah, let me drive! I have my driver's license on hand now," She said.

"No, I don't trust you." Ali smiled

"Please, please I'm really good at it, and I haven't driven in forever..." She said giving him big doe eyes.

"Okay fine," he gave up handing her the key.

"Yes!" She unlocked it and got into the driver's seat. She pulled her seat closer to the wheel. As she started the car, putting it in reverse. Muttering the travel dua.

"Oh, what's this?" Ali said showing her, the fully charged phone.

"No," Anaya said, stopping the car in the middle of the lot.

"That's an invasion of privacy," She said

"You didn't say that with mine," He said pulling her phone up for her face identification.

Anaya closed her eyes, so it wouldn't recognize her.

"There's a car behind you," He said, as Anaya shot open her eyes and he unlocked her phone.

"Ali!! No! give it to me," She whined

"Hurry and drive home, I want to go eat breakfast," he said.

"No give it to me first," She said reaching for it but he held it out of her range, blocking her hands.

He opened the photos gallery, and a lot of the photos were work-related until he scrolled up. He found some selfies, some mirror pictures. He laughed, as he added his number to the message list, and quickly sent them to himself.

"Hmm, let's see messages,"

"Ali," She whined.

"If you don't start driving, I'm going to." He warned

As she stepped on the gas pedal, leaving the lot. Ali read out her conversation list.

"Amee, Mrs. Sanders, Alya, Principal McCartney, you're so boring,"

"Oh shut up," Anaya said,

"You do have a lot of games," He said

"You're a whole kid," he added

Anaya glared at him.

For the rest of the ride, he kept teasing her about the content of her phone, making Anaya regret choosing to drive.

As she finally pulled into their driveway, she snatched her phone, giving him a side-eye as she got out. Anaya and Ali began to go inside, and Jameela and Martha were sitting at the dining table.

"Oh yeah, I need to speak to you," Ali said to Martha

"We bought a house," He said

"That's great!" she said

"Movers will be coming by soon. The house is quite small, so there's not going to be a staff," He added

"It'll just be us four," He said

Anaya's heart fluttered because he also thought of Amee. She smiled at Amee.

"I thought you said there won't be a staff?" She asked

"You're not staff, your family."

"It's not that small, there is a base floor, we didn't see," He looked at Anaya to tell her as well.

"There are three rooms, downstairs. I'll have them build a kitchen as well, so you can have your privacy." He said

"My son," Martha smiled, caressing his head

"Thank you,"

"I- I think it'll be a hassle for me to stay," Amee said, shaking her head

Ali looked at Anaya, and back at Jameela.

"The house is Anaya's, so of course her family will be with her." He said

"You can't get rid of me, Amee" Anaya grinned

"Let me go get you two some food," Martha said getting up, Amee followed her to help.

Anaya felt a thumb caressing her hand, as she looked at Ali. She gave him a heartfelt smile, as she came forward to kiss his cheek.

"Thank you, Ali."