Màu nền Màu tối Mặc định Xám nhạt Xanh nhạt Xanh đậm Vàng nhạt Màu sepia Vàng đậm Vàng ố

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When shock wears off, when the body can accept that a trauma has happened, when it can let down its defences, it's a scary moment. It's vulnerable. The shock response had protected us, and it just might have saved us.

Omer

She stood there, not in her senses, her head on Omer's chest, her soft body pressed against his hard one. Omer felt a storm raging inside of him erupting from the pit of his stomach and reaching his every nerve, setting it on fire too.

His hand which was snaked around the woman's small waist, was burning. His chest on which the woman rested her head, was blazing.

Finally he looked down at her and his breath caught in his throat. She looked more beautiful like this, he hated to admit it.

She looked so peaceful, serenity oozing out of her body, that Omer secretly wished for her problems to evaporate into the thin air, selfishly forgetting that he was the sole reason her problems had turned into a mountain.

But the calmness was short lived for his thoughts were disrupted when his father reached him hurriedly and placed his hands on Fariya's arms.

He looked up at his father for a moment and his heart skipped a beat this time.

So much pain.

So much misery.

The man in front of him lost his brother and Omer felt that his anger towards him died, just like his Uncle.

He tore his gaze away from his father, who was still looking down at his dead brother's daughter, and bent down. Omer wrapped his one hand around her knees and with the other he tightened his hold on her waist and pulled her body up against his chest.

He swallowed the sudden feel that erupted in his chest and carried her through the corridor, followed by his weak father.

Entering the room on the left, and after he had laid her weak body on the sofa, Omer stood to his full height and peered down at the woman lying on the sofa.

Retreating his steps, he went outside and returned shortly afterwards with a glass of water in his hands. Omer sprinkled the water on her face but she didn't show any movements, still lying on the sofa, immobile.

He sprinkled the water again, this time more forcefully and let out a breath of relief when he saw that her eyes fluttered open and her lips parted a little.

With great difficulty, she opened her eyes but closed them again instantly when the golden rays of the sun peeking from the window made contact with her eyes.

"Fariya?"

Omer felt the tired yet worried voice of his father beside him but he didn't take his eyes off the lady who was trying to get up.

Swallowing the desire to go to the woman and help her, he finally averted his eyes and looked at the door and that's when his heart leapt to his throat as he saw his mother-in-law, his Chacho's wife standing at the door, her children beside her.

Her eyes were wide and petrified but there was confusion in them too, as if she was not understanding anything. Omer did not have the courage to go to her and break the news to her and he felt relieved when his father walked past him and stopped right in front of them.

"Bhabhi, please come inside."

His father's voice was low and weak, hiding immense pain behind it, masking it from the family of the man who had just died.

The woman stood there, not moving and her gaze fixed on the woman sitting on the couch.

"What happened to Fariya?"

Her mother tore her gaze away from her daughter and looked back at the man standing in front of her.

"Nothing, Bhabhi. She's fine. Come inside."

Her mother narrowed her eyes but didn't ask a question this time and moved forward to go to the couch. Sitting beside her daughter, she held her hands in hers. Fariya who was staring at some random point in thin air, tore her gaze away and looked straight in her mother's eyes.

She kept looking, not even blinking, when all of a sudden, she crossed the bridge that led to hell and let out a whimper.

And then the tears started flowing from her soft, beautiful eyes without a stop. She moved forward and placed her head on the chest of the confused and petrified lady while the tears flowed like a river.

"Baba!"

She repeated the same word again and again, pain in her voice which was more deep than the ocean itself.

On hearing her say the same word repeatedly, her mother pushe Fariya back and placed her hands on either side of her face.

"Fari, what happened? Is Ali okay?"

She asked with a hint on terror in her voice; hoping, praying, begging that the terrible thought which came in her mind was not true, it was just a mere thought, an attempt of the devil to crush their hopes.

But all the hopes of the terrified lady went out the window when her crying daughter broke the heart wrenching news to her.

"Baba in no more, Mama. He is gone."

After she had broken the news to her family, the woman with a petite figure started crying harder while her rest of the family placed a hand on their hearts with wide eyes and constricted hearts.

"Baba!" It was the voice of the younger sister of the family which made Omer turn his head.

Unlike her other sister on the sofa, she was not crying very hard. Her face had went pale and her big eyes had widened even more while she cried silently.

Omer saw that her eyes landed on someone standing beside him and that's when the dam broke and the tears started to fall. The tall man saw the brown-eyed lady as she ran upto his father and crashed her head on his chest, sobbing while his father placed his hand on her head.

Omer saw that his father too was crying and this caused his heart to constrict in pain.

Not knowing what to do, Omer went forward to stand beside the only male of the family, Hamza. He placed his hand around his shoulder and squeezed it gently. Hamza turned his head and looked up at Omer and pressed his lips in a thin line, trying hard not to cry.

After looking at Omer for some time, Hamza rotated his head and again looked towards his mother who was crying so hard that every time she hiccuped, a small piece inside his heart died.

But unlike Hamza, Omer's eyes were on the lady the world calls his. She was still crying, but not very hard now. It was as if her tears had died too and there were no more left.

She was lost in her own thoughts, not caring about what was going on around her. Tears were still falling, hearts were still breaking.

Suddenly, he saw her move, as if awoken from a deep slumber. Omer's eyes were still fixed on her when she, after wiping her tears with the back of her hand, lifted her head and looked up to gaze at Omer's jet black eyes.

The pain in her eyes was increased by a hundred folds when her eyes landed on him and saw her suck in a painful breath.

Omer was not looking at her with hatred and loathe, but with sympathy and pain. Not with cold and dark eyes, but with soft gaze.

Their eyes met.

Hazel against black.

Neither of them tore their glance and kept looking at each other, one with softness, other with tears.

It was the lady who broke the eye contact first and averted her eyes towards her mother who was crying beside her.

Omer let out a deep breath and closed his eyes, not comprehending why he looked at the woman with so much softness.

After some prolonged moments, he opened his eyes and looked at her again, but this time his cold gaze had returned. She was not looking at him but was saying something to her mother and that's when her sister came to sit beside her too. Omer felt Hamza move too tawards them and his hands fell back against his sides.

Fariya

Pain.

Ache.

It was everywhere.

Everywhere she looked, everywhere she gazed.

It consumed every ounce of her power, leaving her vanquished and destroyed behind. Her heart had broken into two; one was filled with heartache, other died with him.

Although there was everyone around her_ her mother, siblings, uncle, yet there was loneliness which surrounded her, yet she felt that she was alone, that no one was going to come to her rescue when she would drown in the ocean of misery.

Loneliness is not the absence of people around you, it's the absence of your beloved people around you and Fariya Ali Sikandar had learnt this lesson the hard way.

She was so immersed in her pain that she forgot about her mother for some time. When it finally came to her mind, she immediately shook her head, an attempt to get rid of the painful thoughts.

Her mother was looking like a mess, uncertainty clearly visible in her eyes. She still couldn't bring herself to believe that her husband had left her, for good.

It was so hard, so difficult, to believe that he died. One moment he was with them, laughing carelessly, and the next he was lying on a bed, his eyes lifeless.

She wiped her face with the back of her hand and raised her head to look for her younger siblings but she saw something else, rather someone else, which made her breath to catch.

The pain in her eyes multiplied as she stared at him, his presence reminding her of the last moments she had spent with her father.

But quite surprisingly, his eyes held something different this time, some other expression and it was enough to make her choke.

But she still lowered her eyes, not having enough energy to gaze at his mysterious, black eyes for too long. The softness in his eyes was too familiar with the softness her father's gaze had always bore.

However, she shook all of her thoughts away, turning her head towards her mother. Fariya felt her sister came and sat beside her, taking Fariya's hands in hers. Hamza too, who was standing beside Omer, came towards them.

"Bhabhi come."

Fariya's crying mother raised her head to look at the man in front of him with a questioning gaze.

"We should take Ali's body to home, Bhabhi."

She quickly nodded her head and stood up hurriedly, only to fall back at the sofa again.

"Mama!"

Three people with different voices cried and ran to get hold of their mother. With great difficulty, Fariya and Maida made their mother stand up but as soon as she stood to her full height, Fariya saw Omer moving towards them.

Her eyes widened when the man with handsome features came to stop in front on them and caught hold of their mother's arm which Maida was holding.

Maida looked up at him with a questioning gaze, just like every other person in the room, but retreated her steps as she comprehended what he was doing.

Taking Maida's position quickly beside her mother, Omer caught hold of her one arm and placed his other hand around the old lady's shoulder, helping her move forward.

Fariya was looking at him with wide eyes, not understanding why he was doing this. She thought him as an inconsiderate person, who hardly cared about anyone esle.

But this gesture of his made Fariya question her judgement about him. Was he really the cold and rude person everyone thought he was or was their really some nice in him? Some good that he had been hiding deep inside of him? Was their any possibility that he cared?

So many questions attacked the already weak lady with such ferocity that she started taking deep breaths but controlled her wondering thoughts quickly, not wanting anyone else to know that she was really surprised with Omer's actions.

Her mother was in the middle, with her daughter and son-in-law on her sides, helping her move. But she took no notice of it, still lost in her own thoughts which revolved around her dead husband.

Fariya glanced at her and then at Omer but quickly moved her eyes away, not wanting to look at the man for more than one second.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Getting out of the car, she hurriedly went to the other side and helped her mother get out the car. Once both of them were outside, Fariya started to move with her arms around her mother's shoulders but she was too weak to do that_ to carry an aged lady who was so completely dependent on her.

However, her worry was short lived because Omer again came to them out of nowhere and caught her mother's hand. But this time another man came in front of her too and politely asked Fariya to leave her mother's hand so that he could help her go inside.

Reluctantly, Fariya let go and stepped back, giving the boy a single glance. He was a tall man too, but not as tall as the man she was married too, with handsome features and brown eyes. He was undoubtedly good-looking, Fariya had to admit it. But she didn't gaze at him for too long. One look and she lowered her hazel eyes, now looking at her feet which were embraced by her shoes.

Walking behind her mother and two men who were beside her mother, she slowly made her way inside her Uncle's house.

Ahmed Uncle had told them on their way that he was taking them to Ali's real house, where his mother resided, and hesitantly they all agreed.

Fariya had some reservations because the house belonged to her husband but nonetheless, it belonged to her father too and that thought made her give up her objections.

As they stepped inside, Fariya's breath caught as she saw many women in the house. They were seated on the white covers placed on the floor in the living room, reciting Qu'ran and doing Tasbeeh.

Fariya's steps were slow and reluctant, but she still managed to stay on her feet, fearing inside that she would collapse here any minute.

After some moments, she looked up and saw an aged woman with wrinkled face and hands, white hair and frail body. She was standing in front of the sofa and was gazing directly at Fariya and Maida.

And all of a sudden, she understood. She understood who the woman was.

She was her grandmother. She could tell it without even talking to her as she bore so many resemblance to Fariya's father.

The same eyes, the same nose, the same face-cut; everything was so similar.

Tears again welled up in her eyes and began to flow on her cheeks without measure.

Fariya felt Maida cry too beside her and instantly knew that she had seen their grandmother too. Fariya turned her head to look at Maida and at the same time, Maida turned her head to look at Fariya too.

And the next moment, both of them crossed their mother and ran to their grandmother, their Dado. Fariya was the first to reach her and she instantly crashed her body to Dado's weak one.

She felt Maida hug Dado from behind too and heard her Dado let out a sharp cry. Feeling her son's daughter in her arms for the first time was an emotion so overwhelming that she just couldn't control her tears.

Was she crying for her son who had just passed away or because of having her granddaughters in her arms for the first time in her life, she didn't know. All she knew was that their were tears in her eyes which were running on her face uncontrollably.

Fariya and Maida stood like that, none of them wanting to get away from her embrace, for she smelt like their father. It was as if they were hugging their own father.

Finally, they pulled away and looked at the old lady closely. The old lady was finding her son in them, the young ladies were finding their father in her.

The emotional scene shared by them was witnessed by everyone in the room, making all eyes wet.

"Fari! Madi!" She breathed and again started to cry.

"My Ali's daughters!"

She said in between her gasps and again took both of them in her arms, this time crying harder.

Fariya felt someone come and stand beside her and she rotated her head only to look at Hamza's brown eyes gazing at their Dado.

Dado too must have felt his presence for she too turned her head to look at Hamza.

"Hamza?"

She questioned, her voice laced with happiness and pain simultaneously. Hamza only nodded his head with a shy smile on his face while his eyes were filled with tears.

Dado let go of her granddaughters and this time moved towards her grandson, pulling him into a hug. Fariya only looked at them hugging and a small smile appeared at the corner of her lips.

She looked back to see that her mother was walking towards them, Omer and the man still holding her. Fariya only looked at her mother and turned around again, not understanding what would happen next.

Her grandmother too pulled back from the hug and looked up to see her daughter-in-law coming towards her. Fariya gulped down the bile that was forming in her throat and awaited desperately for the thing that was going to happen next.

☆☆☆☆☆☆

A new chapter! I know it's small but that is because I wanted to post it today as a Ramadan gift even if it was small. VOTE if you like it and COMMENT to let me know how you feel about it.

Okay, so Ramadan has arrived and it's already keeping me busy. The updates will be a a bit slow and small. Please bear with it.

RAMADAN MUBARAK! Hope that in this Ramadan, you find your faith and reinvigorate it. Remember me in your prayers! May Allah soften your heart and solidify your faith. Aameen.

Till next time,
Salam!