Living Royalty

25. Everything was in ashes.

Samaah's P.O.V

I can't believe how quickly time flew. Two months had already passed and I sat in one of the studies with my fat psychology textbook, studying for my finals. Hopefully I would pass them and graduate In sha Allah. I pushed away all thoughts of what would happen after my graduation for later. I'll think about that when time comes, I thought.

I couldn't focus on my studies. My mind kept wandering, as it had over the past two months, to everything that Arif had told me. The events of that morning were crystal clear in my memory. I can't believe that both, Samiha and I had been so judgemental towards the twins, thinking they had everything on a golden platter and didn't face any sorts of difficulties. I realised how wrong I was when Arif had led me to lounge 3 that morning, and took out a picture frame from the cabinet. I peered at it, and realisation dawned over me. It contained the exact same photograph that I had looked at during the first time I came here. The photograph with a woman and a man, each holding a baby, another 2 men and 2 women, along with a group of 4 girls and 6 boys kneeling on the ground in front of the adults.

"That's my whole family. My mum and dad are each holding the babies. The babies are me and Asif. This man, right here is my dad's younger brother, the woman next to him is his wife. That other man is my dad's older brother and that's his wife," he had said, pointing to the people in the picture.

"What about those children?" I had asked.

"The youngest girl there is Aliyah. Next to her, that's my older brother Adil. The boy on Aliyah's other side is my oldest brother Amir, and the girl next to him is my oldest sister Aminah. We were seven children but Asiyah wasn't born yet when this photo was taken, as you can see because Asif and I were still babies. Then we have my cousin brothers Zayd, Fuad, Ali and Yasin. Zayd is my dad's younger brother's only son. He has two daughters - these two other girls here. They are Sakinah and Hafsah. As for my dad's older brother, Fuad, Ali and Yasin were his sons. He didn't have any daughters," he had explained to me.

"What happened to them? I thought Aliyah, you, Asif and Asiyah were the only ones with your mum and dad?" I had asked.

"There was a fire, ten years ago. I was only fourteen. Remember, I told you there was a fire? We had gone to our holiday home in another country. Once upon a time, my whole family including my dad's brothers with their families, used to live here. In this palace. So when we went to our holiday home, there was a fire. Investigations showed that this fire wasn't an accident," he said quietly. Before I could say anything, he continued. "You know, we are the richest people in the town right? Not in a bragging way of course. I've stopped doing that thanks to you," he shot me a small smile. "So clearly, being rich and all, we have a lot of haters and people who want to ruin us due to jealousy. When these haters found out that we were away from the country, they made a nasty plot. They set a fire in our holiday home abroad. Both my uncles and their entire families were killed. Three of my oldest siblings were killed. Only the six of us - me, Asif, Aliyah, Asiyah, mum and dad remained because mum and dad had gone out at that time they took the four of us youngsters. When we got back, everything was in ashes - completely! I was asleep in the car and while the firefighters were spraying water to the building, some of it hit my face, waking me up to see the disaster," He had finished, his eyes filled up with tears.

I had automatically grabbed his hand and he surprisingly held it tighly and squeezed it. It was so tragic, and I then realised what he had been through. He lost his entire family, except for his parents and three of his siblings. From then on, I vowed that I would never have any hard feelings towards him. I would be patient with him, and try my best to improve him.

I came out of my thoughts and willed myself to study because I really wanted to graduate and for that, I had to pass. I had a paper tomorrow and the day after, then I would be done.

When I was done studying, I looked out of the window. I was at the study which had a view of the backyard, where I could see Samiha sitting on the swing, and I was staring out of the window, recalling my moments with Arif during archery. I loved those moments. I was yet to love the person I shared them with...I didn't know if that would even be possible though. A voice brought me out from my daydreaming.

"Samaah!" I immediately turned around to see none other than Asiyah.

"Asiyah! How are you?" I went to her and hugged her.

"I'm good Alhamdulillah, Samaah. You?" She asked.

"Fine, Alhamdulillah. What brings you here?" I asked her. I wondered why she would come home in the middle of the semester.

"Oh, you know," she looked down, visibly upset. "Issues with...people," she said. I knew how difficult it was for her to tell me that, because she was reserved.

"With people? What's going on, Asiyah?" I asked her, scanning her face.

"Come with me, Samaah. I need to let it out. I can't tell my brothers because their reactions wouldn't be good, mum and dad are both away at the company, so that just leaves you and Samiha. I need to talk right now," she said, a tear coming out from her eye.

"Let's go," I said, linking my arm through hers. We went to look for Samiha who was still in the the backyard, sitting on the swing with a sketchbook on her lap. Samiha loved drawing, and from the way she was looking at the little bird perched on giant oak tree every now and then, I assumed that is what she was drawing.

"Assalamualeikum, Samiha!" Asiyah greeted, and Samiha looked up, surprised. The two of them hugged and exchanged greetings, then Samiha asked her the same thing which I had asked her earlier.

"How comes you're here already, Asiyah?"

"Yeah, about that. I really need to talk about it," she said.

"Come on, then. Lets talk," Samiha said.

"Not here. Arif or Asif might come here anytime. Lets go to my room. They don't know I'm here yet," Asiyah said.

We headed to her room, which was bedroom 5. It was huge, but ours were bigger. Her colour scheme seemed to define her. It was a light soft pink with traces of a light mild yellow here and there. Her room colours were as subtle and quiet as she was. They suited her perfectly.

"Someone is beginning to threaten me," she said, with tears pouring down her face.

"Threaten you?! Why?!" I exclaimed.

"Who is this person?" Samiha asked, clenching her fists.

"A guy from one of my classes. His name is Jawad. Thing is, no one knew my true identity at uni apart from my professors and the administration. Dad had requested them to keep my identity private. Instead of going by Asiyah Hamid, I simply went by Asiyah Zakir. No one knew that I belonged to the Hamid family. Jawad came to know because I once dropped my driver's license by accident and he picked it up. It read Asiyah Zakir Hamid, and in an instant, he knew who I was. Since then, he had been taunting me and calling me Princess. If anyone comes to know why he calls me that, I'll be in deep trouble!" She said, wiping her eyes.

"Why don't you tell your brothers?" I asked.

"They will finish him! And that would mean I can't go to university ever again!" She said.

"How has Jawad been threatening you?" Samiha asked.

Asiyah's bottom lip quivered and more tears streamed down her face. "He's been forcing me to marry him now that he knows I'm from a rich family, or he's going to make my life a living hell. I couldn't take his taunts anymore. I couldn't take his shamelessness anymore so I came home. I don't know how to get out of this!" She said.

"We'll get you out of this, Asiyah. But we need to talk to your mum and dad about this," I said, a plan already forming in my head.

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Was Asiyah's problem unexpected? Expect something even more unexpected now!