Forever Yours

Epilogue

Nawal

"You look beautiful." That pulls a grin out of me. Being called beautiful after you've become a mother is the biggest compliment.

"You look the same as always." He laughs, casually slipping out of his t-shirt to wear a dress shirt. Moments like these where it's just the two of us are so precious to me, considering almost all our attention goes to our daughter, Zimal.

"I don't want to jinx it but it's been awfully quiet in the past two hours." That's because Zimal is sleeping, having her afternoon nap.

He does jinx it because I glare at him when I hear the sound of her cry from the room beside ours. I mouth the words I hate you before setting down the earrings I was going to put on and rushing out of the room.

I was going to wake her up in a few minutes anyway to dress her up for the small gathering we're having, right here at our house, and she needs to be up and dressed for it as the little host.

"Uth gayi aap?" I look down at her in her crib as she looks up at me with glassy eyes and quivering lips that instantly turn into a smile when I reach down to pick her up and coddle her against my shoulder.

*"You're awake?"

Its on rare occasions that my hair are left open because I mostly keep them tied up nowadays. Zimal instantly takes that as an invitation to grab a strand of my hair. She doesn't pull, as nice as she is, but instead wraps it around her tiny fist and babbles on about something. I can only hope she finds it soft and doesn't pull.

"Here, hold her until I take out something for her to wear." Ahad is more than happy to hold her and she is equally happy to be in her father's arms. She's now fascinated with his sparkling watch and I shake my head in amusement as how easily she gets distracted.

I'd chosen to wear purple today so I pick out something of the same color for her– a light cotton dress that she loves.

When I turn around again, Ahad is rubbing his nose against Zimal's as she takes out random baby noises, her hand resting on his cheek as she does so. I instantly melt at the sight of my Ahad acting like the biggest softie for our daughter.

"Enough Papa and Princess time. We need to change." I try and take her from him, and obviously succeed considering she's like four times smaller than me, but she smacks me in the face with her fist that takes me by shock.

"Did you just hit your mama, baby?" I playfully narrow my eyes at her and her answering laugh is all I need to know that it was intentional. Ahad looks like he's stifling a laugh so I slap his arm lightly before turning to the small bed in the room to change her out of her onesie and into the elegant dress.

Our house was smaller compared to my parents' or Ahad's parents' house but it was big enough to gather everyone here. I'd only hit the realization that we hadn't had everyone in this house ever and immediately called for a gathering. Everyone was happy to comply.

"Ahad!" I call after him when I see the time on the clock and when I realize Zimal is taking too much time in putting on her socks, since she keeps kicking her feet. She's always more compliant to Ahad which feels like betrayal some times considering I'm the one who carried her for all those months and went through labor for her.