Ishq Kinara[Love Ashore] Complete

30. Crevice

He shook his head as if he was lamenting over everything.

"I know we can't change the fact but moving forward we can at least try not repeating our mistakes? I don't want to fight you anymore, Baba because this whole situation is only going to resolve if we act like a family. Irma endured so much because she was both mistakenly optimistic and scared. Scared of coming back to this house and why wouldn't she be? The environment of this place is toxic. You made it that way. I made it that way. I'm done with arguing. I just want you to please not act like a military man but a father this time around. Let Irma decide for herself that she was never given the opportunity too. Don't speak over her. Let her have control over her life. That's the least we both can give her after all that happened."

The resignation in his tone was crushing. Farwa was expecting him to go all ballistic on his father, like he normally would but Sarim was tired. What happened with Irma has broken something within him and it wasn't hidden from Farwa. The fight had left him.

He hadn't waited for Nauman or Farwa to respond to him. He slowly got up and walked out of there towards the stairs. Farwa was watching his retreating back with something akin to longing on her face. Right in that moment, she felt the most at distance with him. There was a wedge between them with was getting wider with each passing day.

"We haven't been kind to our kids, Nauman."

Farwa whispered. Nauman had heard her. If his sharp intake of breath was any indication.

"Sarim is just twenty two. It's not his age to be this aware and bitter about the realities of the world outside. Irma shouldn't be sleeping in her room to get respite from her messed up life when she has a baby on the way but no husband she can rely on. What have we done to our kids, Nauman?"

She was crying now. Her damp cheeks and red rimmed eyes were telling of the anguish she was feeling from within.

"Your strict rule and my cowardice. What a combination. When did we make this house so much of a prison for our own children that they started looking for escapes? Whenever Sarim gets upset, his idea of comfort isn't this house but his friend. Irma accepted her fate as the ticket to escape and look where it brought her? We could give our children the kind of environment where they wouldn't have to look everywhere else to be accepted. We have failed as parents. "

This was the first time she was voicing her thoughts out loud in front of her husband. She was always too scared and too entangled in her own assumptions. Nauman was a no nonsense person not only when he wore that uniform but also when he was away from his base and off field. She had understood this fact very early on in her married life. It wasn't new to her. She came from the family of a generation after generation of army men so this kind of environment she had lived in all her life. She adjusted well with Nauman but never had she thought after living a life together she'd one day question everything. Her own role she played and how it affected her own children. Would things be different if she was a bit better at standing her ground? Or standing up for the people she loved so much. Farwa didn't know. She didn't want to know. Delving on the what ifs was painful and made her feel like she was just a statue in the workings of her own house.

She would look up to Nauman to know the solutions to their problems, he always seemed to know what to do albeit silently or without showing any emotions. But right now, as she stood up to leave she didn't look at him.

He couldn't fix this.

_______

Shoaib Ansari had always been a businessman. He never had much penchant for academics but he knew facts and figures like the back of his hand. This was the reason after completing his education, he had opted for running the shop which was now an important part of his life. But he was the son of a literature professor so it was only fitting that he'd have at least some of the habits inherited from him regarding the love for books. His before going to bed routine was that only. Reading.