IMTIHAAN اِمْتِحان

three

" We're pregnant!"

Aafiya immediately felt a smile make way to her lips and Shahbaaz was none the better. They couldn't be happier for their children and prayed to Allah for their well-being.

Zafiraa smiled gently as her hand unconsciously caressed her belly, the other one clasped firmly in her husband's grasp. Abu Bakr couldn't wipe the grin off his face, his hand squeezing his wife's, as if letting her know he's with her.

Zafiraa unknowingly moved closer to her husband and placed her head on his shoulder as her fingers refused to leave the sanctuary that her husband's hand provided, her hand still caressing her flat belly.

Or rather her empty womb.

She looked at Sohai and Saifaan thanking everyone who came up to congratulate them and her heart was filled with sorrow. She knew it wasn't the appropriate to think about it right now, especially when they were celebrating Sohai's child but she couldn't help it.

Couldn't help the thought of her lost baby creeping up in her mind. Or rather the thought that always stayed there like a permanent reminder.

A reminder of what could have been.

Zafiraa smiled at her sister-in-law, genuinely happy for her but she just couldn't forget the fact that had her baby survived, she would have been four months pregnant now. Almost entering her fifth month.

She too would have been glowing like Sohai is right now. Or that Abu Bakr would be blushing whenever someone teased him about their impending parenthood just like Saifaan is doing. Or the way everyone was pampering Sohai even when she was only in her first trimester.

Zafiraa couldn't help the tears that crept up silently and unannounced when she was reminded of her own pregnancy. The pregnancy that didn't even survive it's first trimester!

" Jaana?" Abu Bakr whispered softly, feeling his wife tremble beside him and her silent tears wetting his shirt.

His heart pained whenever he sees her like that and he too felt his eyes brim with hot tears when he thought of their own child. The child that they didn't get a chance to even feel before she was so cruelly snatched away from them.

He was thankful for their seat at the back of the living room and leaned down to kiss his wife's head who was shaking with the intensity of her emotions. With the amount of effort it took to not wail out painfully.

" Mujhe ghar jaana hain" Zafiraa cried to him and he nodded his head a little, wiping her face stealthily.

Abu Bakr didn't want to tarnish his sister's happy announcement with their pain. He just wanted to lay down with his wife and cry his heart out for their daughter.

" Bass thodi dair aur Jaan, Soha se milkar chaltein hain. Aise yun bhari mehfil se uth jaayenge toh achaa nahi lagega na?" Abu Bakr whispered in her ears and held her hands even more firmly.

They had to suck up their pain for the sake of their sister's happiness. Just for a few moments more.

Zafiraa stared at her husband blankly and wiped her tears with the back of her hand, grateful that no one had noticed them yet. She left his hand abruptly and stood up, leaving behind a shocked Abu Bakr.

" Mubarak hou Soha. Allah aapko nek aulaad se nawaaze" Zafiraa congratulated her sister-in-law as she hugged her tightly, careful to not let her tears resurface.

Abu Bakr looked at his wife and sister talk in hushed tones and then saying something to his mother who nodded her head affirmatively and before he knew it, his wife had walked out of the Jafari House and most probably to their own.