It had been a full week since Fariya had started avoiding Dayyan. The silence between them had grown thicker, more oppressive with each passing day. It wasn’t that they hadn’t spoken at all—there had been the occasional polite exchange, the bare minimum required to maintain a façade of normalcy—but the warmth and ease that had once flowed between them was gone. Dayyan, for his part, hadn’t made much effort to bridge the gap, though confusion gnawed at him. He was used to a certain rhythm in their relationship, and now that it had shifted, he found himself at a loss.
Fariya, on the other hand, kept herself occupied, her avoidance of Dayyan becoming almost methodical. She spent more time with her mother, Asmara, and her sister, Haya, who had were home for what seemed like the entire week. T
