Love and Lies

CHAPTER 19

Date: 11 April, 2020

Present day

“So Faria’s parents don’t want to delay the wedding. They want you two to get married as soon as possible. What do you think?” Shahana asked Zayer as he sat on the couch, his legs plopped on the coffee table with laptop on his legs.

His fingers froze in the middle of typing. Shaking away the thoughts of the dream that almost came true, he responded. “Do whatever they want.”

“Are you sure you don’t want time. Don’t you think you are rushing?”

“I have known Faria my whole life. There is nothing new to know about her.”

“I didn’t mean that. I meant to ask whether you are ready to get married.”

“I was ready two months ago. Why won’t I be ready now?”

“Because two months ago you were marrying out of love, not out of spite.”

He stopped working and looked at the woman he had come to love as his mother now. “I am not marrying out of spite. I had made a promise and I am fulfilling it.”

“Yes well you must have made lot of promises to Samreen too. I don’t see you fulfilling them.” Shahana said these words and left the room to prepare dinner without waiting for his response. She, like everyone else, wasn’t fond of Faria and knew perfectly well that Zayer wasn’t going to be happy with her. What Samreen did to her daughter infuriated her, but she also knew that she was the best choice for Zayer because both loved each other.

Her phone rang and on seeing Amaan’s name flashing on screen, she smiled. She grabbed the phone from counter and received the call.

“Assalamualaikum Darling.” Amaan greeted.

“Walaikumsalam honey. How are you doing?” Shahana answered with a smile. Amaan’s habit of calling his mother-in-law darling was adorable and comical too.

“Alhamdulilah I am doing great. How are you?”

“Alhamdulilah. How is Haya and the baby?”

“They are both doing good. In fact, we were thinking of dropping by today.”

“Oh that is wonderful!”

“Yeah and Shahana aunty I had to ask…”

“Oh god what is it?” Amaan hardly called her Shahana aunty and when he did, it was because he had to talk about something serious.

“Is Zayer really going to marry Faria?”

She sighed “I am afraid so.”

“Can’t you stop him?”

“I wish I could, but he is really stubborn and I don’t really know whether my opinion matters to him, yet I tried a bit, but I don’t think he is going to budge.”

“We have to talk him out of this. She is not the right person.” Amaan said as he recalled his conversation with her at the hospital a week ago.

“You and Haya can try. He may listen to Haya.”

“He is making a bad choice. Anyway, we will be there by 6.”

“Alright. I am waiting.”

………………..

In his room, Zayer paced back and forth. So many times, he was close to calling all this off, but everytime he restrained himself. Very soon, he was about to get married and yet, Samreen’s thoughts wouldn’t leave him. After everything, he was in love with her, yet forgiving her was very hard. It is not easy to forgive the person you trusted the most, the person you let yourself be vulnerable for. He sat on his bed and pressed his temples, tried to get rid of her thoughts, muffled his scream by a pillow, and yet, nothing took her out of his mind. Afterall, the heart wants what it wants.

Eventually, he succumbed to his thoughts, to her thoughts. There was no point fighting what was within him because it was a part of him now. You can’t leave a part behind and expect to move on and he wasn’t even moving on. He was making decisions to get as far away from her as possible.

There was a knock on the door and lazily, he stood up and opened it. His sister stood in front of him, beaming.

“Assalamualaikum” She chirped and walked in to the room.

“Walaikumsalam and sure.. Come in” He said as Haya invited herself in without asking.

She seated herself on the couch which was against the wall with a window that faced the backyard of their neighbour. Zayer walked to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulder, he pulled her in for a hug.

“How are you and the baby?”

“Oh we are just great. I mean he has got great mom. You know kids follow their mom more than dad, especially when it is a girl.” Haya replied along with the answer to the question Zayer didn’t even ask.

“Ok?”

“So you know always make sure your kids have amazing Mom.”

Zayer sighed as he realised what she was trying to do. He chuckled at her attempt to get him out of marrying Faria. He himself wasn’t fond of marrying her, but he had made up his mind and nothing was changing it.

“Don’t try Haya. Its not going to work.”

She groaned. “Look I am sorry for what happened. I really am. And if you don’t want to be with Samreen, then fine. But marrying Faria? You are throwing yourself in a deep deep well. Its marriage Zayer and it needs more than just a promise made. And I feel bad because you only made that promise to meet me.”

“Really? That’s what you are feeling bad about?”

“Well yeah.”

“How about feeling guilty about hiding everything from me?” Zayer asked. He didn’t mean to be furious with her, but the truth was she did hurt him too.

“Because it was my secret.”

“No. Her being with Nadir, her past wasn’t just your secret.”

Haya took deep breaths to calm herself down and then holding her brother’s hand in hers, she commenced. “you are right. I am at fault. I hid everything from you and I am the reason Samreen hid it all too. She wanted to tell you everything from the very beginning, but I stopped her. You want to blame someone? Blame me. But forgive her. You still have time. You cannot let her past make you give up something that could be really beautiful. You and I both know she is the best thing that ever happened to you. Marrying Faria won’t make you forget her. It will not stop you from loving her. And to be honest, it is not fair to faria as well.”

“She is her own person. You don’t have to take credit for her mistakes. You have enough of your own. Plus, Faria is getting everything she wanted.” He replied, although his heart did not comply with him. He missed her so much.

…………

The wedding was two weeks away only. Zayer’s restlessness increased more and more. And Faria wasn’t making it easy. She pestered him into tagging along to choose her wedding dress. He so badly wanted to get away, but fighting her and her family was not something he ever succeeded in.

As he drove with her in the car, continuously talking about the plans he wasn’t interested in, he wished to end it in that moment too. Everyday, he wanted to get away from it, get away from the mess he put himself into, and yet his manly ego stopped him. And he thought that maybe everyone was right. Maybe he was doing this to hurt her.

He stopped the car in the middle of the road as he saw a girl sitting on a footpath, holding her ankle. Her bag was lying beside her and her head was hidden in her arms. He couldn’t see her face, but she did seem in trouble.

“What are you doing?” Faria asked.

“I think she needs help.”

“So?”

“So I think we should help. Plus, it might stop you from incessantly talking about stuff I don’t care.”

He got out of the car. Faria followed with a frown on her face.

“Excuse me? Are you alright?” He asked

The girl slowly lifted her head up and when he saw her, he stiffened. Her eyes were red with excessive crying. And now, on seeing him, they were wide with shock too. Zayer looked down at her foot which she was holding. It was bleeding and swollen.

“Oh wow. So that’s why you wanted to help.” Faria said as she stood beside him and stared down at Samreen in anger. Zayer ignored her. His concern for her returned again. Forgetting everything, he knelt down in front of her, and touched her ankle. She winced at his touch.

“What happened?” He asked

“I…ummm…I twisted my ankle and there was a pebble. I think I got hurt because of that. I wanted to call home but--” She stopped as she realised that the only reason she didn’t call was because her parents still didn’t talk to her and Samar was in college and didn’t pick up.

“No one picked up.” She simply answered.

“Come on lets take you to the hospital.” He helped her stand up and walk to the car. Asking Faria to open the car door, he moved the box that was on the back aside and helped her sit down.

“Careful. Don’t ruin my wedding dress.” Faria said with an intention to hurt her. Zayer who was still helping her, had his arm holding her. He stared at her and saw the hurt cross her features. She looked away from him to hide it.

Closing the door, he got in the car too and drove off with Faria still talking about the wedding, but this time, it was to not to annoy Zayer, it was to break Samren a little bit more.

And more.