IMTIHAAN اِمْتِحان

epilogue

" Look at this little mermaid!" Sohai exclaimed excitedly as soon as she saw her sisters.

Mehtaab and Yumna awwed at the tiny little bundled up baby girl who had her feet out of the swaddle!

" Aap itni cute kyu hain Phupho ki Jaan!" Mehtaab cooed at the older Mir princess who just looked at her with her eyes wide in wonder.

Zartashaa Hunayn liked her body tightly wrapped up in a cloth but not her feet!

" Haaye!" Yumna sighed when she saw the little girl flail her tiny pink feet when tickled.

" Chachi ki jaan-o-jigar hain na aap Zartashaa!" Yumna baby talked the wee old baby and kissed her pink feet.

" Jii Yumi Chachi!" Sohai answered in a baby voice for the little one in her arms as if Zartashaa herself was talking.

And the girls burst out laughing.

" Aur Yumi Chachi main?" Yaaseen pouted at his wife, walking her way with the other Mir princess in his arms.

" Zehraa toh humara Dil hain, nahi meri Jaan!" Yumna and Mehtaab again cooed at the baby in Yaaseen's arms who was showing her off to the ladies.

" Aur aap mera" Yaaseen whispered in his wife's ears stealthily when he sat down beside her and passed her the baby.

Yumna blushed at her husband's words but hid it behind the swaddled up baby girl in her arms, kissing her tiny head and swaying her tiny body.

It was the Mir Princess' aqeqaah and they all had gathered at the Mir house to celebrate the birth of the babies. It was a family wide celebration and even Raabiya had come down for the girls.

Because the girls were just as precious to the entire extended family as they were to their own parents.

" Tum pehle hi hooron jaisi hou aur ab toh aur bhi pyaari lag rahi hou Zafiraa Abu Bakr!" Abu Bakr flirted with his wife as she sat at the vanity, applying some last minute finishing touches on her subtle makeup.

Zafiraa looked down at her bangles adorned hands and blushed, her heart beating a rapid tattoo against her chest.

This man is not good for her heart health and yet he is the one who has always owned it!

" Yeh noor meri betiyon ki wajah se hain ya meri mohabbat ka?" He whispered against her ears and she blushed even more.

What is with him today!

" Aapki mohabbat aur aapki betiyan mukhtalif toh nahi hain Mir Sahab" Zafiraa whispered back and turned her head to give his lips more access as they travelled the length of her neck.

" Haaye jaan hi lein lou bas tum aaj zalimaa!" Abu Bakr sighed against her skin and placed a deep kiss at the junction of her neck and shoulder.

Zafiraa took a deep breath in when she felt him nipping the skin there and she clutched her kameez even tighter than she already was.

" Ab main itni bhi achhi nahi lag rahi hoon" she mumbled insecurely, consciously aware of the stark difference between them right now.

Her husband looked like he had just finished a photoshoot for a magazine in a pristine white pathani that filled out nicely with his physique. His hair swept back from his beautiful face and his lips stretched in a never fading smile.

And then she looked down at herself. Her huge body adorned in a sage green zardozi outfit, her hair in a low bun and her fluffy hands having the smallest of mehendi designs, clad in a set of green and pink glass choodiyan.

And she didn't feel beautiful at all!

She still looked nine months pregnant. Her belly just as big if not a little more, her skin was marred with stretch marks, her lips were chapped and her hair was losing their lusture. Her eyes were not as shiny as they were in pregnancy and her face too had lost some of its glow. She was constantly bloated, sore and was using support to even go to the washroom. There was a perpetual fluid discharge from her body and she felt as if a boulder had hit her body.