Besabriyan

38|THIRTY EIGHT

The vastness broke out with the cracks of the young day's light after hours of dark gloominess that cradled his wife to a peaceful slumber. Last night was Zaviyar Ali Dawar's worst nightmare. For a man who wouldn't stand up without something to back him, the monstrous night humbled him. In a circle of protecting her, he forgot that there was no end and that he would have to clash with his own monsters one day. He knew he would but he wasn't expecting it to befall on him this sooner.

The only and mighty son of Yahya Ali Dawar, who was celebrated for his infallibility, spent his entire night staring at his hand that raised on his wife, unintentionally though. He spent his night quivering and withering. He knew he would have to pay back for what he did to Noorul Ain. He was preparing himself but before he could get there, destiny played its part and pushed him to the ground.

He couldn't imagine the depth of Noorul Ain's pain now that he was made aware of the fact that she loved him. He couldn't imagine the number of masks she pulled through before smiling at him every time their eyes met. He had fallen in love and he had experienced heartbreak but he didn't know someone's tears could be that powerful- powerful enough to stir someone's life. How far he had wronged the woman that loved him for years? He didn't know but he did know that he would have to repent for what he did.

Maheen stirred in her sleep under the comfort uncomfortably pulling a halt at his thoughts and he looked outside the window- the night died and the sky was now painted in the somber shades of orange and red and ironically pretty enough to be admired by anyone. The last time he witnessed such a beautiful sunrise was when he was on his way to the airport to buy himself a ticket to where Noorul Ain was- to tell her that he had broken his promise and to tell her that he married the woman he loved. To see everything align with her misery, it felt like the loop was repeating and taking him back to square one.

"Mahi?" He sank deeper into the bed and close enough to her to whisper in her ear before the little being in his mind began to chant the same thing that it had all night.

You left your wife to suffer alone.

You didn't know.

You couldn't keep your promise.

You don't deserve love.

You can't love like a human with a heart.

He wished it was all his mind had to say to him, however no. His mind taunted him for all the things that he couldn't protect in his life. It reminded him of how he failed his sister when she asked him to run to her husband and tell him to save their relationship. It reminded him of how he almost became the reason for someone's decision to end his life. It reminded him of how he needed his father to save his back for it. It reminded him of how he had been ignoring his mother's effort to serve the family. There were so many things that had been present in his life before his wife came into the frame, yet somehow, she was all he saw.

Maheen took her time to adjust to the light and attempted to open her eyes ever so slowly- feeling her eyelids heavy and unable to lift. Peeking through her half opened eyes, she found her husband sitting beside her- looking deeply concerned and the events from last night washed over her. How fool of her to have gotten hit by a man who claimed to love her? How fool of her to almost have her mother's fate repeating. She moved away from her husband only to be engulfed by him. She couldn't breathe nor could he. However, her posture loosened when she felt him melting in her embrace. How fool of her to blame him when she was the one to lose her mind?

"Mahi-" He breathed in her scent and she allowed him run his fingers through her hair; still taken aback. Where would she have taken a shelter if she had run away from haveli? How would she have reached Ahmed residence and what would she have told her mother, who wasn't already happy with her marriage, about all that happened or about how her husband unleashed his beast for a minute.