Forbidden (Now Published On Amazon,Kobo, B&N and Apple Stores -FREE)

The Bad

6

At first, everything was perfect. Jasmine felt like the happiest girl in the whole world to have found someone who loved her this way. In their culture, it was acceptable for a man to marry more than one woman and she wished it could be possible for them in future. Although Hamza wasn't too keen on the idea since his father had married a British woman when his mother had still been alive and the unfairness Ahmed Qureshi, the senior, had shown towards his first wife and her offsprings still rankled.

The British wife had given birth to a son and Hamza's father had paid them more attention than was necessary for a man who had other commitments as well. Hamza had only been twelve when his mother had breathed his last in his arms and to this day, he blamed his father for it. Once he'd gotten a job, he'd kicked away his family fortune and taken Zoya out of their mansion to come and live at the university quarters. He'd married Alisha then and never looked back on his former life.

Jasmine felt kind of sad that there was this rift in their family. Zoya sometimes confided that she actually missed her father who had apologised to them multiple times over the years, asking them to return home but she didn't say anything because she didn't want to upset her brother. For a girl like Jasmine who had no family to speak of, this seemed so unfair. Broaching the subject with Hamza was useless. He shut her down every single time she tried to get him to cave and forgive his father for Zoya's sake.

"I can't wait to see Ahmed," Zoya was saying happily as they stood at the bus stop one afternoon after classes and it began to rain heavily. "He's picking me up now and we're going for coffee. Hey, make sure you cover for me."

Jasmine nodded, looking away towards the rain and feeling a strange sense of dread creep up on her. She hated lying to Hamza but Zoya was her best friend who really wanted to meet her half-brother, the son of the British lady, and she had every right. Why couldn't Hamza understand something so simple?

Her phone vibrated a few times and she knew it was him trying to call her but she ignored it because she didn't want Zoya to get suspicious.

"All right, he's here. I'm going," Zoya suddenly announced, jumping up from her seat happily. "Hey, do you want to meet him? He's really cool you know. I'd love for you to-"

"Maybe some other time," Jasmine quickly interrupted. No, she didn't want to meet any guy because over the past several months, she'd discovered Hamza's jealous and distrustful side which came alive whenever a boy so much as looked at her. It wasn't her fault but he somehow found a way to blame her for it anyway.

"See you later, then," Zoya called out, sprinting away and hurriedly getting into the waiting car which Jasmine assumed was her brother's.

Jasmine removed her phone from her pocket at last and gasped at the numerous missed calls and text messages from Hamza. Her heart thumped wildly and she chewed on her lips, feeling miserable all of a sudden. He was a man who didn't like being ignored even if there was a perfectly good explanation for it.

"Hey," someone breathed in her ear suddenly, startling her. It was Rizwaan, Zoya's boyfriend, who stood there with a cheerful grin on his face. "Where's Zo? My phone's battery died so I couldn't reach her."

Rizwaan was such a nice guy. Jasmine really liked seeing them together because he cared for Zoya a lot and she knew he'd never hurt her best friend. It was another reason why she had covered for them for so long.

"You just missed her, Riz," she said ruefully. "She went to see her brother. The other one who lives in Milan."

"Damn it." Riz sighed and settled in the seat next to her, spreading out his legs. "I never got to kiss her goodbye." He slid a glance at her. "Could you do that for me? Let me kiss you and then you can convey exactly how I-"