Her Tranquil Tales

1.1 you are the one

Afiya finally decided to wake up from her comfy bed and open the curtains through which rays of light from the sun were nudging here to wake up.

She roused up to the best view of the city which can make any person fall in love and to the view which will give you goosebumps. London! as exciting as it sounds. The dream of every girl to visit a place like this and live in a beautiful palace-like house.

Well, she too was a girl like that but not anymore. She stirred up with a frown on her face while carrying the saddest and most unpleasant smiles.

Her life has been like this for the past month. One month since her marriage with some stranger whom she hasn't yet met properly.

He always leaves early, always before she wakes up and comes home late at night. She often wondered why he is trying to hide from her. It's not like he was forced into this marriage. He was the one who initiated and married her.

Flashback

The hustle-bustle of elders, youngsters and children were saturated in the auditorium. Everyone was happy to attend the marriage of Afiya Binth Shareef except her. She was a girl with so many dreams and marrying the one in her heart being one of them. It's more heart wrenching when the feeling you have is one-sided and not mutual. She is a girl who never voiced out her opinions and said no to the opinion of her elders. That's how this marriage happened. Hiding the one she craved for in her heart and accepting some stranger which seemed to be good enough for her according to the elders.

Sitting on a small room inside the auditorium with her friends, she deemed about her life ahead and thought to give a chance to her uncertain future.

"Ma Sha Allah, you look beautiful Afiya" Alina, her best friend said.

she tried to smile slightly and just hummed.

"I heard Jeeju is from Dubai. Will you be going there after marriage?" one of her friends asked.

"Mmm... I don't know about that. I haven't talked to him properly" she replied nonchalantly.

Suddenly both her parents rushed and entered the room where she was sitting. Her Mom was crying and ran to hug her. While her father had a broken face and was at the verge of crying which clearly showed how much he was holding back not to cry in front of her.

She wanted to know what happened but at the same time, she also doesn't want to know. Eventually, taking the courage she asked, "What happened"?

"Th...the Nikkah is cancelled" her Mom replied while sobbing.

She should be happy hearing this that her Nikkah got cancelled. But no, rather she was feeling like someone stabbed her in her chest. The emotions she was having was unknown to her. She thought of the reasons why this has to happen on the day of their Nikkah and why not a few or just a day before, when she was not so happy about it.

Coming back to her senses she asked her parents more like whispered,

"wh...why?"

"The groom and his parents said they came to know something about your past and backed off", this time her father responded to her.

"Past? My what past?", she asked more like asking herself.

"I don't know my dear and don't even want to know. We trust you. Never thought something like this would happen to you." Her father said embracing her in a hug.

The small room was now crowded and the people gathered in the room had a pity look on their faces. That look was what she despised the most. Mr Shareef, her father left from there to give some space for her. News like this always spread abruptly more than a fire burns the paper.