"No I'm not moving an inch until you explain what the hell you just said?!" Minnie said.
"We don't have time for this, you could still be in danger! it's the best if I take you back with me, and we need to take your kidnapper too so we can question him.
You're not safe outside the headquarters Minnie." Radka replied.
"If you're looking for who did this, then you should explain to me why Rushil thinks that you're the reason Nikolai's life is targeted!
Because this guy the one I just knocked, said a similar thing, he said this woman a boss lady is targeting Nikolai to get revenge on her son that got killed by you!" Minnie said angrily.
"What?!" Radka was stunned.
"Shit...so I was right! it's that woman's doing, isn't it?!" Rushil spoke-up.
"We're not going to talk about any of This right now! like I said we need to get you back!" Rakda said, "And like I said, I'm not moving an inch until I get some information, because last time I checked I was your favorite, was I not?!" Minnie asked.
"Being a favorite is the title of Honor, that doesn't give you any power over me!" Rakda replied.
"Oh really baby? should I tell miss new favorite about the actual job of a favorite? the one that you took from her without her knowledge?" Rushil asked.
Defeated, " Rushil honey stop...you want a chance to talk and explain everything to me? you'll get your chance once we're back home I promise, but now let's just drop the subject." Rakda said.
"Minnie deserves to know the truth...You know 'Belkis' would be disappointed in you if she was alive and saw what you've done in the wake of her death...how you ruined everything she did for us and for our business." Rushil said.
"Who's Belkis?!" Minnie asked.
"Now is not the time...please Rushil, you won...let's just go." Radka begged.
"I love you but you deserve this moment...it's the time Minnie knows of Belkis and her death.
Because she's the reason why all of this is happening now, including our son being targeted, it's also the fucking reason why I am the traitor!" Rushil replied.
"You're not making any sense?! I mean I understand how Belkis's death is the reason why our child is targeted, but how the hell did her death make you a traitor?!" Radka asked.
"It's a long story, and I have all the evidence to back it up, so I promise you that nothing of what I will say is a lie." Rushil said.
"Again, this is not something to talk about in front of Minnie." Rakda replied.
"Whatever this is, if it's a secret then I promise you on my life that no one else is going to hear about it!
And Rushil is right, I deserve to know what's going on! if this has anything to do with my kidnapping and why Nikolai is in danger, then I'd like to know so I can help.
I've sworn to loyally work for both of you, so whatever you tell me I'll take it to the grave, but you have to explain this to me...please!" Minnie pleaded.
"You heard her! give me the chance to explain everything right now, and I'm sure i can manage to convince you to understand why I am the traitor." Rushil said to Radka.
Seeing the determination and seriousness of the situation in her husband's eyes, Radka sighed, "Fine do whatever you want...you can say whatever, I don't care anymore."
"No you should care, because I know Belkis's death that you tried so hard to remove from your memory, is still haunting you today." Rushil Said.
"Of course her death is still haunting me! she didn't deserve to die, and she died because of us!" Radka replied.
"Which is why you changed the role of a favorite, from it being a crucial rule to our business, to it just being an honorable title." Rushil said.
"What was the Original role of the favorite?" Minnie asked.
"Belkis was basically our representative, the favorite took charge of doing all the work of supervising important jobs, meeting with investors and talking with clients, and all of those things that Radka and I usually do ourselves because we find it difficult to trust just about anyone to do this job.
So basically, the favorite's job was to be our replacement on the field.
Belkis was the only girl we trusted with our lives, and her work allowed us to control our business without having to be there all the time, and thanks to her we were able to settle down in one place for more than a year.
We were able to be parents to our child, because before her we did everything ourselves, we traveled and moved too much and we couldn't be there for Nikolai most of the time as he grew-up." Rushil explained.
"Wow this makes me feel useless! also it sounds like Belkis's job put her in a lot of danger...far more danger than mine does." Minnie said, "So This Belkis girl was the original favorite, how did she become one?" she asked.
"It was a weird day, weird by all accounts...we got a weird job from a weirder person.
It wasn't assassination nor protection which were the two main services that we provided, we were tasked to locate and retrieve a person." Rushil explained.
Sighing, "It was 14 years ago when We got asked to find a girl Who was around 18 years old, she has somehow escaped from her country Egypt, to here." Radka said.
"At first I told Radka not to take the job, it wasn't the the kind of thing we usually do, it was in a way or another kidnapping, and the girl wasn't a criminal or Someone seemingly dangerous." Rushil said.
"But the person who asked us to find this girl, said she was his daughter, and he was so worried about her, he said all of the things a father would say.
And As a mom I fell for the act of the worried father, and I accepted the job.
though I asked for a ridiculous amount of money for the trouble of going out of my way and out of my style to help the man." Radka said.
"The man explained that he was a rich businessman from Egypt and that his daughter 'Belkis Elgohary', has escaped as a form of retaliation against his strict Parenthood, which he tried to explain as him being overprotective over his daughter." Rushil said.
"At the time The father presented a strong case, and we didn't really have any reason to suspect he's lying, like I said he put on a good act." Radka said.
"You keep saying that he put on a good act, which makes me believe that he wasn't a good person." Minnie questioned.
"Exactly, and we figured it out when we actually managed to find the girl...when we located her and she realized we came to take her back to her father, Belkis attempted to kill herself.
The girl preferred to die then to go back to her father." Radka said.
"We luckily managed to save her life, but we were still curious on why she would attempt suicide.
We were previously instructed by her father to avoid communication with her, and to just bring her alive to him but we broke that Rule and we made the girl talk, and explain to Us why she tried to kill herself." Rushil said.
"Turns out that the man who hired us saying he was her father, was actually the man she was forcefully married to." Radka said.
"I'm sorry what?!" Minnie asked surprised, "This girl was this man's wife since she was 14." Rushil said.
"You have to be kidding me ?! Belkis was a child bride?!" Minnie asked.
"Yes, we were baffled too back then, we knew these things happen, I knew these things happen.
I was also so heartbroken to hear about all the abuse she endured while being married to him, her father basically sold her to the man, and it was actually her mother who helped her escape.
Belkis knew she wasn't going to be able to see her beloved mother again if she left the country, but she was desperate for survival.
Like we said this girl preferred to die than to go back to this husband of hers.
We also got to know that this husband was heavily involved in criminal activities as well, that's how he got a wind of our business and tried to hire us to get Belkis back to him." Rushil explained.
"We knew Belkis's life would be in danger if she ever went back to that man, and although we had no idea how things will play out...we betrayed him, we chose to help her." Radka said.
"And how did you do that?" Minnie asked.
"By making it look like her suicide attempt was actually successful...we Faked the crime scene and made it look like she took her own life when we found her...Lucky for us at the time, that man bought the story and gave-up on her." Rushil said.
"You guys helping that girl was nothing short of heroic but I still don't understand, what made you help her?" Minnie asked.
"It was because it's kind of personal, to me at least...the whole child bride Thing.
Back in the past, in India...my grandma was a child bride herself, and shortly after her marriage, she immigrated with My grandfather to this country.
Needless to say, he wasn't a good man, he made her life hell, he abused her until the day he died.
Luckily for her, grandma's children also hated their father and did whatever they could to be anything but him...
Including my dear mother, whom from a young age raised me and my siblings to not only be kind and gentle to everyone, but to also be feminists and understand how important equality is.
Although I'm a man, I understood from a young age how difficult it is to live in a world like this, for a woman.
I have always being vocal about things like equality and I was never afraid to speak against racism and other forms of discrimination against minorities, even if it put me in danger.
I was raised well, and it's one of the reasons why I think I reacted very well to Nikolai coming out.
Actually it wasn't the first time I had someone come out to me, my own younger brother was gay too and he actually came out comfortably to our family because he wasn't scared that any of us would judge him, And we didn't judge him." Rushil explained.
"When a job Hits close to home, sometimes we have to make a choice whether we follow the rules or we break them.
Knowing how important this was for my husband, I chose to help Belkis." Radka said smiling a little.
Sighing, "After hiding her for a while and confirming that her husband was out of reach.
We told Belkis she was free to go wherever she wanted, we suggested that she would get a new name, but she said she loved her first name 'Belkis' because her mother gave it to her, and she couldn't bear the thought of changing it.
So she wanted to change only her last name..." Radka said.
"So she became what?" Minnie asked.
"Belkis Parmar." Rushil replied.
"What?! that's amazing?! Rushil you even let her use your last name?" Minnie asked.
"I did, I thought that was going to be the last act of kindness I do for this girl before she's leaving our lives, but it seems like Belkis wanted to pay back for all of the kindness we showed her." Rushil replied,"By joining our business."
Sometimes we have to make a choice whether we follow the rules or we break them.