BOUND

PART 4

One thing which Afira quickly discovered about Faris was that he was the man of his words. Just as he said, he discussed the prospect of re-enrolling Afira back in her college with his father. He spent rest of his day with Afira gathering all the necessary documents required for re-admission and on the subsequent morning he persuaded Mr. Dawood to accompany her to the college.

At her college, Mr. Dawood made few phone calls, and because of his social influence, the re-admission process, which was supposed to take couple of days, finished in just couple of minutes, and on the very next day Afira was able to attend her lectures.

Everything was happening so quickly that Afira didn't have time to review her entirely brand new life. Faris's driver would escort her to the college every morning where she spent majority of her day, in an environment she was accustomed to. When she returned from college, she would go to the backyard and play with Zoe and Dan. As Faris usually arrived late from work and Mr. Dawood was also occupied in his studies, Zoe and Dan became her only companions which would shift away her loneliness in this gigantic house.

Since the day they spent together at the backyard, Afira didn't have much interaction with Faris. He used to leave for work early and by the time he returned home, Afira would fall asleep. Out of courtesy she tried to stay awake for the first few nights so that she could have dinner together with Faris and had a chat with him, as he was indeed the only person in the house she could talk to, but then he got so late that her willpower gave in.

Sometimes, he would come early from work but then he would disappear into the drawing room to conduct zoom meetings. Even when he was physically at home, his focus and attention was still at work. On one occasion, Afira stepped in the dining room to serve him tea while Faris was engaged in one of his virtual meetings, and immediately she learned that Faris didn't like to get disturbed when he was working until there was an absolute emergency. So, she made a habit of never intervening him when he was in the drawing room.

Just like the night of their wedding, Faris had made a routine to sleep on the chaise lounge every night. Although Afira felt bad about it, she never stopped Faris because she was reluctant to share a bed with a stranger. She might had agreed for this marriage, but deep inside she had still not accepted Faris as her husband.

On one of the last weekdays Afira was lying on the double bed after setting up the alarm to wake up for college next morning. It was almost midnight and just as usual Faris hacn't returned from office yet. The darkness and silence of the room suddenly dissipated when her cellphone chimed by a message notification. She picked it up to read the text and the very next moment she sat upright on the bed.

She reread the message couple of times and each time her heart became heavier. Afira was going through so much stress already that even a slight push would break her apart, and this text message did just that. Her threshold exceeded, and just like her wedding night she burst into tears. Unluckily at that exact moment, Faris returned from office and arrived in the room.

The moment he saw Afira in that state, he became befuddled. It was understandable for him to see her crying on her wedding night but he was under the impression that all her problem had been sorted and he had no idea what was bothering her now. He tried to inquire what was wrong with her but Afira tried to swallow her tears and pretended that nothing had happened. When Faris tried to urge her to share her problem with him as it was not healthy to hold back her pain like this, Afira lost her temper.

"It's none of your business," she shouted at Faris. "Just leave me alone."

Faris was looking extremely tired and exhausted from over-work, and every neuron inside Afira's brain was sending her the signal that she'd made a terrible mistake yelling at Faris and now he was going to retort back at Afira by roaring at her with equal ferocity, but to Afira's surprise Faris didn't utter anything. He stayed quiet for few seconds and silently left his room just as Afira had demanded.