𝑬𝒉𝒔𝒂𝒂𝒔 𝑬 𝑼𝒍𝒇𝒂𝒕 (𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 1)

Beholding Trust : Part 8

How her life was turned upside down by her own family. How she couldn't took a stand for herself and her daughter, how she was subdued everytime.

"Main aayi thi aapko batane Shahyaan. Aapko yaad hai nikkah ki date nikalne ke baad, ammi ko nahi pata tha ki main aapse milne ja rahi hun, mein yeh nikkah nahi karna chahti thi."

Shayaan clearly remember how they she had asked him to meet before the nikkah and had came also but before they could even initiate the talk, she was called back home.

That time he thought, maybe it was because of the conservative thinking of her family, but it is only now he knew that it was just to hide a truth from him and his family.

"Shayad meri khala ne us din aapse baat karte hue sun liya tha mujhe aur unhone ammi ko bata diya. Ammi always told me that it's difficult for man to accept a child of his wife who is not from him."

"Main aapko mana karna chahti thi, mujhe pata tha ki comprise har cheez par ho sakta hai par mere bache par nahi. Isliye I wanted to deny, Par ammi ko pata chal gaya. Sabne bola aap meri beti ko accept nahi karenge. Mein nikkah wale din bhi aapko sab bata dena chahti thi. But my parents forced me, for my better life."

"meri achi zindagi ke liye mere ammi baba ne mujhe meri beti se door kardiya."

Shahyaan felt his chest constricted, he had already known that she didn't agreed willingly but she was forced, was a new information. He always had this nagging feeling but today listening from her mouth, he felt his heart broke a little.

By now she was crying hysterically. Shahyaan held her in his arms as she cried.

"Mein aapko dhoka nahi dena chahti thi, believe me it was too difficult too contain all this, ammi mujhe meri zaara se bhi nahi milne deti thi, shadi ke baad toh unhone mujhse meri beti hi cheen li.."

His hands caressed her arms as she held his shirt, hiding her face in his chest.

"Aapne kyun nahi bataya Asbah? Itne mahino kyun chup rahin aap?"

"Mere paas iska jawaab nahi hai Shahyaan.." she whimpered.

"Don't cry now.." he tried to control her but she was hysterical.

He had seen her taking multiple trips to her home in the initial days of their marriage and now he understood that it was for zaara. The baby who was so small.

How she had survived without a mother all these months. He knew how babies need their mothers for everything and zaara wasn't having that one heaven that was supposed to be hers. Finding his head bursting with questions he asked her finally.

"How old is zaara exactly?" He asked her.

Shahyaan wasn't sure about zaara, she looked around seven eight months most probably.

"She will turn one next month.." she told him meekly.

Asbah, she looks smaller than her age. Shahyaan asked her suddenly. 

"She was born prematurely, as I was in lot of stress. Asif's family didn't wanted the baby." She confessed.

"After his death?"  He asked.

She nodded and revealed everything. Their relationship was based on untold truths and if it was not for shahyaan, these truths would have been hidden forever.

"They did a gender determination test. Asif wasn't even dead for ten days when his chachi suggested for the test. Beta hota toh wo rakh lete. Par meri zaara thi, so they wanted her to be aborted. I called Ammi. Ammi and Abbu came and talked to them."

"Unko sirf ek waaris chahiye tha unke bete ka.. ek baar toh unki ammi aur chachi ne yeh tak kaha tha ki wo hamara bhoj kitna uthayenge, isliye baby abort karke meri doosri shadi karden."