CHASING MARWA

43-TEN DAYS

OMNISCIENT

All the people arose from their sitting positions. Avisha held Rumaisa's arm tightly, the two squeezed their eyes shut to avoid the tears from falling. Hakami was about to fall to the ground when Dr Alameri, their family doctor and also Hakami's closest friend held him.

Umaiza had long fainted on her husband's chest, and Sabreen who was leaning onto Junaid for support let out an ear-piercing scream. Junaid just stood there, he didn't even know how to react to such news. Fear gripped all of them and the atmosphere in the corridor soon turned to that filled with paranoia.

"What is cardiac arrest? What happened to akhi [Brother]?" Eshaal whispered to Zayn even amidst her tears. He hugged his small cousin sister to his lean chest and whispered back into her ear.

"Don't worry, it's just brother's sickness, he will be fine. Let's pray for him" He comforted. The guy is too mature for a twelve-year-old, he intentionally refused to tell her the real meaning of cardiac arrest, and the tension that comes with it is beyond what a little girl can handle.

"Harith, take Umaiza and your father to the next room, I'll send some doctors to take care of them. Son, are you sure you can handle it or do you need someone to take over?" Dr Alameri broke the silence.

He was asking Turad who was sitting on the floor like a madman as he started at the operation theatre with a blank expression on his face. The guy couldn't bring himself to talk, he just shook his head and the said man helped him up. The prince opened the door and went in, immediately his eyes travelled to the doctors all dressed in their surgical gowns and waiting for him, he howled.

"Get to work, all of you." He intentionally didn't look at Khayr, the girl must have lost her feelings for him by now because she has seen how fucked up and toxic his family is. They have a perfect image in society but there is more to life than that.

"Sir, we've already given him a CPR but it didn't work. He needs an urgent operation and if it doesn't start in fifteen minutes or less, I'm sorry to say but we might lose--" Khayr trailed off, out of all the doctors there, she was the only one who dared to speak, knowing that he won't vent on her even if he wants to.

She gave him the look that gestures I'll always be there and he nodded before dressing in a surgical gown with his initials, TB, engraved on the left side and a new set of latex gloves after sanitizing his hands and putting on a face mask. Immediately after the operation tools were brought for him to start, he looked at the bare chest of his brother and squeezed his eyes shut.

Now, ten minutes have passed and he didn't flutter his eyes open. Many thoughts filled his mind as to why his brother's health will be deteriorating all of a sudden then it clicked! No emotion will ever make his brother like this except if something happened with Marwa, he just hopes everything is alright, and he needs to get to the bottom of the matter as soon as possible.

"Sir--" Khayr began but he cut her off. She was shivering in fear, the future of their state and her friend's health solely depend on this man and he has less than three minutes to give up.

"Let's begin the operation" He cut her off and muttered a silent prayer under his breath and it started with high hopes of being successful. He has operated on forty-three patients with different cases since the start of his career and none of them lost their lives, even though his brother's own is more chronic than all of theirs, he'll make sure he doesn't fail himself, by Allah's unwavering grace.

*

After six hours of a hectic but successful operation, the surgeons finally walked out of the place with dejected but happy faces, except for the prince and his girlfriend. Umaiza has woken up and her husband is now pushing a morsel of food in her mouth after every five morsels, she regurgitates everything.