"Stay inside and don't come out." He ordered and slammed the door hard. He did that because he didn't want to do something he'd later regret. The mere mention of “Sadeeq” was making his blood to boil, he wouldn't hesitate to beat the hell out of her if she had said his name again. To prevent all that, he took her to her room, she should just sleep since it was night.
*
"Mummy?" Sa'eeda called while they were in the kitchen with Nooria.
"Yes baby." Nooria said as she kept the pallet of spices she was holding and faced Sa'eeda. She could sense worriness from her daughter's tone.
"Are you going to arrange my marriage also? I mean if you're going to then let me stop Khalid from proceeding with preparations." Sa'eeda said as she played with the hem of her sleeve. Nooria smiled painfully and said,
"No one is forcing you into any marriage, relax your mind."
"Mummy don't give me this assurance, you are tensed yourself, you're not relaxed. I really don't want such to happen to me."
"Sa'eeda. I promise you, I give you the assurance that no one will force you into anything anymore. You'll marry Khalid in as much as you love him."
"I hope so. Thank you mummy." Sa'eeda said and hugged Nooria. Since when she met the Khalid guy and fell in love with him, the mere thought of her marrying someone else freightened her to the core. She then understood the kind of pain Jasmine went through, had been she knew it felt like that, she would've done anything she could within her power to stop the marriage but it was too late.
They finished preparing breakfast and set the table together, then Nooria went up to call Usman.
She faintly knocked at the door if his room before she salaamed entered. "Good morning." She said and he nodded.
"Food is ready. I want us to discuss something." Nooria said in her soothing voice.
"Go on."
"Sa'eeda's started talking about something. And I promised her that we won't ever force her into marriage like we did to her sister." Nooria said and Usman exhaled deeply.
"Now what?"
"I'm just informing you. If you have any plans for that, we have to cancel it."
"I won't ever make the same mistake ever again. You know that, don't you? So stop talking about it." He said and held her hand, then smiled. "Let's go, Sa'eeda must be all alone, waiting."
"Good morning daddy."
"Morning princess." They exchanged pleasantries and Usman dragged chairs for him and his wife.
The breakfast was a silent one. The silence was so awkward so Usman spoke.
"When last did you visit Jasmine?" He asked no one in particular.
"I think three to four weeks ago." Sa'eeda answered.
"I think we should go and see her. Since it's weekend."
"Yeah that's a nice idea even." Nooria said after sipping from her tea.
The doorbell rang and the door swung open, revealing Muslim and Jasmine. Jasmine ran to her mother and hugged her. "Ina kwananku (Good morning to you all)."
Seeing how Jasmine was all happy made the others happy too. She is their priceless jewel.
"Good morning." Muslim greeted to which they all answered.
"We were just talking about visiting you. It's been a while." Sa'eeda said.
"You didn't even inform us. We would've made breakfast for you." Nooria smiled.
Chapter 10.
Start from the beginning
