I HATE you too

Amaan happened

By the time Asmaira was back to that shabby home of hers, it was evening. She saw her mother was wiping Ehsan’s body with a warm cloth since he couldn’t move or talk and could only blink his eyes.

“Let me do it; you are not well,” Asmaira took the clothes and, with her mother’s guidance cleaned her father.

“What happened?” she said only two words, but the meaning was profound. It was her asking her mother what had happened to them in those 5 years, what happened to his brother?.

“Amaan,” Suraiya couldn’t continue further, and she started crying hysterically.

If it was old Asmaira, she would have cried along with her mother, seeing her despair. However, not a single tear fell from her eyes, and she was hugging her mother to console the weak person her mother became.

“Ehsan and Hassan were on their way to your hearing, and next I heard, they met with an accident. I lost my son, and your father suffered a stroke which led him to paralysis. I was left alone. I have to sell our house for Ehsan’s treatment and rent this room for survival.”

“One day, the investigating officer told us, we might have offended someone with influence as the case was closed as an accident though they have evidence that it was planned.”

Amaan’s words were ringing in Asmaira’s head, Because of you, I lost my loved one. I’ll make sure to return the favor with interest.

So that’s how you returned the favor. You killed my brother, and as an interest, left my father half-dead, Asmaira thought.

“The investigating officer was a kind man, he not only helped me with selling the house and this place, but he also got me a place to work as a maid,” Suraiya said when she was done with the crying. She was surprised to see Asmaira calm and composed. She was expecting her to be a crying mess like before.

What happened to my innocent Asmaira, she thought while looking at her for any emotion, and she blurted out, “What happened to you?”

“Amaan,” was her only reply before she stood up and went to the kitchen to make tea for her mother.

“From tomorrow, you are not going to work anymore,” Asmaira came back with a hot cup of tea.

“But…,” Suraiya was cut in by Asmaira’s following words, “I’ll work, you should take care of yourself and Abbu now, leave the rest to me,” her face void of any emotions.

There was a tsunami of questions in Suraiya’s mind, but one look at Asmaira’s blank face. She let her curiosity die, but an unnamed fear haunted her whenever she saw her daughter. It was like she was her daughter by her face, but she is a different person altogether. Her once naive and timid Asmaira was nowhere to be found whenever Suraiya looked at her.

For five years, she didn’t get to meet or hear from her daughter, and one day she found her at her doorstep. She doesn’t know, nor did she have any interest in learning how Asmaira found them. She had a plate full of worries, like how they would afford the next meal and how she was going to get money for her husband’s next check-up.

Her once normal middle-class life turned into an essential deprived slum life, losing her only son, and she had no hope she would be able to see her daughter again. What was their fault? This was the only thought she had in those five years.

Asmaira was sipping her tea while looking at a distance; no one knew what she was thinking. One of the traits she learned in jail was to talk less and think more. Suraiya was still looking at her silent daughter with concern. Her pale skin, skinny body, and her eyes were deprived of her usual innocence. There was a new shine in her eyes now; determination.

Before she was released from jail, the jailer had helped her find a decent job as a waitress in one of his friend’s hotels that were enough for their survival for now, but Asmaira had many things to do. Oblivious to her mother, she thought of how to get her house back and her father’s recovery.

The room was dark, with only light illuminating from the full moon, falling through the open floor-length window. A silhouette of a lonely figure could be seen in the darkness, who was looking out, not particularly at anything. This was the routine for him, to stand there for hours looking out. His thoughts were interrupted by an urgent knocking.

“Sir, it’s Madam Hashmi,” Maya’s voice could be heard from the other side of the door, and before she could add, the door immediately opened with a hurried Amaan.

“Her heartbeat is unusually fast,” she said immediately.

“Call the doctor, NOW,” and with that, he rushed to his mother’s room.

Fariya was lying on the bed with an oxygen mask to help her breathe. Many apparatus were connected to her lifeless body just to keep her breathing.

“Her body is responding to all the medication. It’s a good thing. However, as a family doctor, I’d not give you false hope of her recovery. As I said before, waking up from a coma depends only on her will. Till then, we can only continue with her physical recovery.”

“Thank you, Amaan, escort the doctor, please,” a dejected Salar said while walking towards his wife, who, unknown to the sadness in her husband’s eyes, was lying peacefully. 5 years, 5 years since she was like that.

Please wake up, Fariya. I need my wife now. I can’t handle anything without you by my side, Salar cried.

Amaan witnessed her father’s despair from afar over her unconscious body. He mumbled, “It’s all because of you, Asmaira. You killed my mother, and I’ll never forgive you for that.”

“How’s Ma doing?” Gul asked her husband with concern.

“She is fine,” Amaan replied while looking at his parent’s condition.

“Don’t worry, she will wake up, and then we all will celebrate that day,” she said while holding his hand, but the next moment he removed his hand from hers and excused himself, “I’ll see what Raina is doing, she had school to attend tomorrow.”

“I know, Amaan, you don’t need my help. I am not forcing you for anything but let me be at your side. I just want to stand with you, not as a forced wife but as a friend we always were. And just to let you know, Raina is also my daughter as much as she is yours like Ali. I made them sleep early.”

Gul was walking away from her husband when suddenly Amaan caught her wrist, “I am sorry, Gul, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I know Amaan, after Asmaira, you never trusted any woman in your life, but I am not Asmaira. I am Gul; I am your friend first and wife later. It’s ok if you don’t trust your wife but trust your friend.”

Amaan stiffened on hearing Asmaira’s name, and rage took over him when he said, “Never, ever take her name in front of me or this house.”

Gul can only nod in fear when looking into her husband’s eyes which softened immediately, seeing her in fright.

“You should take a rest. You have been busy taking care of kids,” Amaan replied, and this time he held Gul’s hand gently, earning a smile from her.

While they walked towards their room, she asked, “Did you talk to Kabir?.”

Amaan halted in his tracks, “He doesn’t talk to me, Gul, you know that.”

“I know, and that’s why I want you to take the initiative and talk to him.”

“I tried, I tried every possible thing to make him talk to me again, I just don’t understand what he wants from me. I even sent him to boarding school as per his whim; still, he isn’t ready,” he sighs in defeat.

Now they were in their bedroom when Gul said, “Everything will be alright, Amaan, give him time and your attention. He will talk to you one day.”

When Amaan was lying on the bed with his back towards Gul, she proactively hugged him from behind, making his body rigid. However, seeing his hesitation when she pulled her arms back, Amaan turned around and held her in his arms.

Kissing her forehead, he said, “Sleep.”

He was looking at her sleeping form and thought, I know I have been unfair to you, and all you did was assemble my scattering life and keep me intact. It’s not in me to love anyone anymore, but I’ll definitely try to be a good husband to you from now onwards.

The night went by with Amaan promising to start fresh on their loveless marriage and Asmaira being grateful for her newfound freedom and a new beginning to her life with no past life to hamper her future.