Chapter 12: Freedom at the cost of Sacrifice...

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO VOTE, COMMENT N SHARE IF YOU LIKE IT>>

A FEW DAYS AFTER THE ENGAGEMENT

“No Amma. I’m not in the mood to get dragged everywhere you want me to go. You can buy whatever you want, or take a hundred rounds of the mall. I’m pretty comfortable here,” said Zahra, to stop her mom from pressing her to go for her wedding shopping with her. “Don’t be an idiot. It’s your wedding, not mine. I can’t buy your dress without your choice,” her mother replied to her entreaties.

“I’ll wear whatever you get me, alright. Now please go, and leave me alone.” “When you will learn to shop for yourself, I don’t know. It’s your wedding, for god sake. I’ve been buying your things for you almost all your life. Would I still have to do that even when you’re married, or until I’m dead? You tell me that,” her mother replied giving up, exasperated.

“What’s all the commotion about, my dearies?” Arif (Zahra’s dad) asked smiling, as he came into the room. “It’s your daughter dearest, not me, who’s causing all the commotion. Doesn’t want to go shopping with me to buy her wedding dress. Wake up Zahra, you are getting married in just five days,” her mother replied, a little too acidly. “How she will live her life, Arif, I fail to understand. She’s too lazy for words. Doesn’t care for anybody’s emotions either.” Lines of worry creased her forehead as she said all this.

“Just leave her to herself for a bit. There’s a lot of pressure on her at the moment. She’ll understand as she gets older, okay. Now tell me, do you really don’t want to go shopping?”  Arif asked, addressing her daughter, in answer to which Zahra shook her head.

“Well then, you don’t need to go if you don’t want to. We will do all the shopping for you.” “Yes, encourage her even more to do things her way, right. Like father, like daughter, I say,” Zareena (Zahra’s mother) said, glaring with all her might at the duo. Arif laughed at her words and planted a small kiss on his daughter’s forehead.

An hour after her parents had gone to the market, Zahra heard the doorbell ring. Who could it be now? And the last person she wanted to see in the morning to make her day worse than ever, was standing in the doorway, his shoulders lifted, as if he had just come from winning some battle.

She had frozen seeing him there, but quickly gained her composure. “Wouldn’t you let me in?” he asked, peering into the hall behind her. “My parents are not home at the moment….so come another time,” she replied, straightly. But that was a mistake. Because upon hearing it, his eyes lighted in a menacing way.

“I’ve come to see you. Can’t I see my fiancée before the wedding?” he asked, with a bit more enthusiasm than necessary. “No. It’s not deemed good in my family for the girl to meet her fiancé before the wedding, and that too alone. Besides you’re not welcome, do you understand that?” Zahra replied, her voice stern. “Just let me have a drink and I’ll leave, fine?” Adel spoke questioningly, his jaw clenched. And Zahra left the door to make way for him to come inside.

The moment she let him in, her brain was shouting at her to stop him, to tell her to shut the door on his face, but she hadn’t. What was the matter? Why was her heart beating like mad? Why in the name of the Great Lord was she feeling scared? Were his intentions bad? But she quickly brushed aside her fear as she picked up the tray to give him the glass of juice he had asked for. There was an uncanny silence in the whole house, as if she were in a graveyard, instead of her own home.

Zahra put the tray on the table and stood there to get him out the moment he drank the whole glass down. “Look I don’t want to be harsh with you but please drink and leave if you have even a bit of respect for my family. Allah is watching, and I don’t want to anger Him, being here in your presence,” Zahra spoke to somehow, make him go. Adel paid no heed to her words.

He slowly picked up the glass filled with juice, his hand shook violently, and a major content of the glass splashed onto Zahra’s dupatta (a long piece of cloth worn by Indian subcontinent women to cover their heads and the upper part of their torso). Before she could stop herself, a shrill cry escapedZahra’s lips.

“What did you do? Can’t you even hold a small glass properly?” she shouted. “I’m so sorry I….I didn’t mean to do that,” he replied, taking the juice-smeared part of cloth in his hands. “Let me clean it for you,” he said, tugging at her dupatta. “What in the world are you doing? Don’t you have any shame in you?” Zahra shouted with the top of her lungs. Her anger had now risen to a fever-pitch high.

“Now listen to me girl,” Adel whispered menacingly, in a hoarse voice. “What did you think, that I had come for just a drink? You are going to be my wife, and I am going to do as I please with you, do you understand that?” he shouted, and Zahra shrank back, terrified. “I don’t care for your stupid culture of the guy not meeting the girl alone before the wedding. I have the opportunity and an ample amount of time on my hands, and I am going to utilize it well.” And saying thus, he tugged Zahra’s dupatta free from her bosom.

Adel grabbed her hand in a steel grip and pushed her onto the sofa behind her. Realizing for the first time that she was powerless, Zahra pleaded to him, “Adel please don’t do this to me I beg you. Anything but this.” “Come down to the ground, have you? No baby, I don’t get such great opportunities like this every day. And leaving it would be a huge foolishness on my part,” he replied, with a cunning and sarcastic smile.

“Don’t get scared. You are totally safe with me.” He slowly inched towards her, enjoying his power to the core. His heartfelt wish had been fulfilled after such a long time, and this idiot of a girl was telling him to go away.

The moment he came near her, a mere inches from her face, Zahra thrust him backwards with full force, and he staggered backwards, getting a bit misbalanced in the process, which made Zahra’s hands slip from his. She grabbed the opportunity to run towards the door, shouting with all her might for help. She hadn’t gone far when Adel caught her up with her kurta (a long shirt-like dress),and it got torn in the process. He grabbed her wrist in a vice-like grip once again, determined to not let her escape this time.

“You won’t get away from me now. I told you that you were safe with me, but, you just didn’t listen. Shout all you want, nobody is here to hear you out,” he said, and squeezed her wrist so hard that a dull moan came out of her mouth.

“Please let me go. I swear I won’t tell anyone about this if you do let me go. And I’ll do whatever you want me to. Please…Just…Let…Me…Go” she begged him, sobbing, whispering each word distinctly to emphasize, upon hearing which, he laughed. “That’s exactly what I can’t do, my girl. Don’t try to struggle so much, and you won’t get pained. Otherwise, you’ll get scarred for life” he said, and cackled with laughter that echoed throughout the place.

Now Zahra was getting desperate, and if nobody came to help her soon, she would be lost forever. She kicked his shin to slacken his grip upon her waist, but it was no use. He did wince but that was all. Anger raged in his eyes. He pinned her onto the wall behind her and losing his patience after so much struggle, suddenly, he pushed his lips onto hers and locked both of them in a vicious kiss that made blood ooze out of her lips.

Zahra mustered all her force to detach herself from him, and succeeded in her endeavor this time. Adel grabbed the collar of her kurta and shouted, “You won’t learn, right? Well then, I think I need to take this a step forward. Another string of tears escaped from her eyes hearing it, and she gave herself up to her doom.

At the same moment, Zahra’s mother, hearing all the shouting came into the room. She had been near when he had said all that, and had been puzzled to see the door wide open. Certainly, Zahra was not so childish to leave the door open like that. She ran to the next room as fast her legs could carry her, and her husband followed her. The scene they saw made a gasp escape from their mouths.

Enraged beyond words, Zareena, Zahra’s mother, ran towards the guy, who by now, had his hands away from Zahra’s throat and was striding out the door as if nothing had happened. But before she could run after him, she saw her husband fall onto the sofa clutching his heart.

“Abba, are you okay?” Zahra cried coming towards him to check if he was okay. “You….you’ve got bbl.…blood on y….your l…lips child,” he said, trying to extend his hand to touch her face. “Zahra, child, give me that ring you are wearing and see to your father. I can’t let that b*****d get away,” Zareena said, her eyes glowing like fire.

“You dare touch my daughter,” she said holding him from his shoulder to stop him from stealthily running away, and grabbing his collar with all her might. Before he could comprehend who it was, he got a hard slap on his cheek, which left large clear imprints of five fingers upon his cheek.

“Let GO of me woman,” Adel spat, trying to remove her hands from his collar. “Zahra was right about you. You are a filthy man with a filthy brain,” Zareena said, and slapped him hard, once again. “You deserve none……least of all my daughter. So keep your ring. We don’t need it, because the engagement is off. Tell your parents that we are not in the habit of selling our daughters like that.” And with that she threw the ring on his face and stomped inside.

“Abba please say something. What is the matter with you?” Zahra said sobbing hard and shaking her father to make him come out of unconsciousness. “Amma please see what has happened to Abba. He doesn’t say anything,” Zahra implored, crying. “Call the doctor, please.”

“He has had another heart in the gap of just one week. It is extremely miraculous that he has escaped death. But the next time, I’m afraid it will not be so, because his heart wouldn’t be able to take such immense pressure. So try to keep things normal for his heart is not strong enough to take in any kind of shock,” the doctor said, tapping his pen on the notepad in his hands.

“Be very cautious to not discuss anything shocking or painful in front of him. You can meet him after about two hours but please go one person at a time.” Upon hearing thus, the mother and daughter nodded. Something came into her mind, and Zahra asked, “Doctor, is he still unconscious?” “No but he has been put to sleep. All possible care will be taken, so you do not need to worry. He’s out of the danger zone now,” the doctor replied, smiling kindly, then patted her back and left.

About an hour had passed since Zahra and her mother had begun pacing the whole length of the gallery, each immersed in her own thoughts, when suddenly, Zahra’s mother paused in her tracks. She had a determined expression upon her face. She kept her fond gaze fixed upon her agitated daughter. And after some moments of internal deliberation, she said, “Zahra, child, come sit here. I want to talk to you about something.”

“You remember I told you how famine came to our land and we came upon Jamal’s house in our travelling from place to place in search of food,” she said and Zahra nodded, remembering. “There was no famine…nothing of the kind,” Zareena stated, and her daughter’s eyebrows lifted in surprise.

“It’s a long story about how it happened, and I may tell it to you, but now is not the time. Your father told me to tell you about this almost a year ago, but I didn’t, because I thought you were not ready for it. Now listen to me carefully. By now I’ve been talking in riddles, but you need to know this that ‘you are our adopted and an only child’.”

“We knew two people who were very close to our hearts and before they died, they gave you to us for safekeeping. None of your relations know about your existence, because your parents wanted to keep it that way. We’ve never broken our promise to them.

To us, you are like our own daughter that we were never able to have. Whatever we’ve done as yet, it has always been in your best interests. But, if we’ve ever made a mistake in judging you, I implore you to forgive us,” she pleaded, joining her hands to ask for forgiveness.

“No Amma please don’t do this. I know that you always do what you find best for me,” Zahra sobbed, holding Zareena’s hands in hers and preventing her from belittling her in the eyes of strangers. “I’m going out into the balcony. I need some fresh air. Call me if you need me, okay,” Zahra said, as she stood up to go, and her mother nodded.

Zareena knew she wanted to cry out loud in private, and she wanted Zahra to vent out her feelings in a torrent of tears, instead of bottling her pain and sorrow inside of her. The day had been a long and painful one for her.

The moment she got out into the balcony, the tears she had been trying to hide for so long, came out in streams soaking her face wet with them. She’d never had such bad experiences in one single day. She was exhausted beyond description, physically and emotionally, and her wrists hurt her. Her mother’s words kept ringing in her ears.

But, she wasn’t her mother. She didn’t even know who her mother was. She felt lost like a little kid at a candy store. And now she understood, why she didn’t have any cousins of any kind whatsoever. She didn’t have any grandparents either. It was weird. No one except uncle Jamal and his family, and a few of Abba’s friends came to their house ever, and that was just about it.

Nobody came to their house who could be, in any way related to them. Avi kept asking her why she never introduced her to her cousins, why she never went to her granny’s house in summer etc. etc. ever since they were in kindergarten. Zahra always asked about her grandparents and cousins to her mother, and Zareena gave her the same reply every time that “they were all dead”.

Now half the riddle was solved, but the other half, about her real parents….was still left to be uncovered. But she neither had the strength nor will to do the asking. She felt cheated, pained and lost in such a big world. She realized she was an orphan, without a close relation alive in the whole world.

She had always been a quiet girl. Determined yet quiet. Taking each and everything as it came. Of course, she resisted whenever she didn’t find anything to her liking, but if people were adamant she always, always gave in. The only things that she was firm about were her religion and her work. No one could move her from those two things. But, the other things…she wasn’t so sure about them.

When her mother had told her about her marriage with Adel, she had resisted, knowing the kind of guy he was. But her parents’ security and respect was at stake here, so she had reluctantly agreed to the proposal. And at another time, when questions were raised about her dress at the Office by a certain someone, at first, Zahra gave them back what they asked for. But after some months, she accepted it as a part of her everyday life. It wasn’t the lack of determination that she did all that, it was just plain surrender.

And look where it had brought her. Her purity and piety, both were lost by the hands of that fiendish monster. Her lips quivered thinking about it, of their own accord. Those were the lips he had touched with his own ugly mouth, and Zahra felt the need to rip them off her face and throw them away, even after washing them and gargling her throat a thousand times with a strong mouthwash. She was free, but she’d had to sacrifice her purity with it.

‘Ya Allah, forgive my sins. They are indeed many, but you are kind,’ she internally prayed, and all the while, her tears streamed down her face, soaking her hijab wet with them. She had never been in such a huge turmoil as this one. Feeling the need to talk to someone about her sorrows, she began to go through the contact list in her phone, but she didn’t have to go far. Avi’s name was right there in the beginning, the only constant person in her whole life. Even her parents weren’t hers anymore.

She picked up on the second ring. “Hey how are you? I was just going to call you,” she sang on the other side. “Avi…I…I, he tried to assault me Avi. He left me bruised and broken. And the engagement, it’s off. I’m at the hospital right now, dad’s got a heart attack once again. He saw it all,” Zahra replied between sobs. “That da**ed b*****d,” Avi shouted. “I’m coming in a trice okay. Don’t worry. Even if you call me to the end of the world, I’ll be there dear. Ok…bye.”

The moment Avi (Avantika) came into the hospital waiting area, she pulled her best friend in a consoling hug. She didn’t have the heart or the words to tell her everything would be fine. But she had to show Zahra, the immense love she felt for her. She so much wanted to protect her but she was not able to do so. “Give me his number and his address. I’ll see to it that he gets spanked,” Avi said, flaring up. And that was who she was. An exact opposite to the calm and serene Zahra.

“What? No. It’s no use, Avi, believe me. Amma has already spanked him. He won’t learn. Don’t do anything stupid okay, he’s far too rich and powerful. You’ll be mincemeat before you know it,” Zahra said, putting her hands on her arm to prevent her from doing anything foolish. “Why the common man has to bear the brunt of these filthy rich, I fail to understand” Avi replied, her brows drawn in frustration over her helplessness.

“I need to tell you something and I need your help in convincing my parents about something else. Will you help me?” Zahra asked uncertainly. “Definitely,” Avi replied. “Then listen. Firstly, I am an adopted daughter of my parents, and secondly, I need you to make my parents’, I mean my adoptive parents, to agree to send me back to Clydesville. And you miss, are going with me, do you get that?” Zahra said, asking to make sure she’d heard her right for she was gaping like a fish taken out of the water.

Avi was dumbstruck, but nevertheless, she agreed. She could do anything for her best friend.

--------AUTHOR'S NOTE-------

I've had my exams so i've actually been busy. one is still left to be done with. but Insha'Allah it won't be a problem. the chapter is a bit sad and emotional, but i still hope that u guys will like it.

I'm sorry to all those who've waited patiently for me to update :( gosh! its been a month since i did.

so enjoyee ;)