As Long As I Live

Forgiveness And Family

Hope this length is good enough for you sj!

Happy Reading, everyone!

Enjoy!

*****

Mayra looked at her reflection in the rearview mirror of the car horrified. She could hear Aamir chuckle beside her and she threw him a look that shut him up instantly. Her cheeks were flaming red and there was nothing she could do about it because their car had already glided into their driveway.

She spent the night with Aamir in the hotel. What was her family going to think?

She pressed her palms to her cheeks as she blushed even more. This was going to be so embarrassing!

"You do realize that we're married, right?"

Mayra buried her head in her hands. Sure her husband seemed to be enjoying himself a lot, she could barely make out the humour in the situation.

"Of course we are. But .. but we.."

"Sweetheart," he warned, parking the car smoothly and turning to look at her, "if this is your reaction to just a night together in a hotel, be prepared for after our honeymoon."

She stared at him. "Honeymoon?"

Aamir sighed with exaggeration. "Yes Mayra, you know the trip a newly married couple take to get to know each other and - "

"I know what a honeymoon is!" Mayra said, exasperated at Aamir's teasing smile.

"Oh you do, do you?"

She threw her hands up in a sign of defeat and rolled her eyes at him. He was impossible.

He rested his head back on the seat and relished just sitting back and watching her, in no hurry whatsoever to get into the house. He was loving this new side to her. She was incredibly shy, a fact that endeared her to him so much that he had to keep himself from indulging in too much public display of affection. He didn't mind it though, he'd love to show her off to the world, proud that she was his and his alone but his poor wife seemed to be unable to face their own family after an innocent night, let alone brave the world with such actions.

Ironic, he thought as they had just confronted the media.

For the millionth time he asked himself how he could possibly hurt her. This was the same woman whose pain he had relished, whose helplessness he had craved and whose humiliation he had enjoyed. He had hurt her in every way, all the time. How could he have done all of that? How had he been so blind that he couldn't see her innocence, her simplicity and her purity. How could he have doubted her integrity? How could he have become such an animal?

How could he and her parents become so heartless, so unconcerned?

Mayra turned back to look at him. He was looking at her but she could see that he was lost in his own thoughts. She waved her hand in front if his face but he didn't respond.

"Aamir?"

She shook his hand gently and broke him out of his reverie.

"S..sorry, what?"

"Where are you lost?"

"No. I was just thinking," he said. "Funny, isn't it. You think that everyone inside is going to tease you and you're going to be so embarrassed. What I thing is that they are going to think I've hurt you again. They're going to be concerned about you. Who knows what the monster might've done to you?"

Mayra felt assaulted by guilt and hurt. She was the reason why his own family hated him, were always suspicious of him. Faiza herself had said that she had come to loathing Aamir, even though she had once desperately wanted to marry him.