Fasaana

NINE

It was the great escape, the prison break
The light of freedom on my face.

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The loud wailing of a five-month old Sehrish echoed in the living room, distracting Zoya from her studies. Before she could get up, a seven-month pregnant Aarti picked up Sehrish and gestured to Zoya to sit back. Aarti took the child to the balcony to calm her down. Malti came out of the kitchen and put a small bowl of roasted dry fruits in front of Zoya and took another similar bowl to give to Aarti.

The past three months had flown by. Zoya had gotten enough time to study, thanks to Aarti, Rohit and Malti who had literally taken upon themselves to take care of Sehrish. And Zoya is just so, so grateful to them. She really didn't know what she had done to deserve such awesome people in her life. Another name in this list was Mahmood's. When he had heard that Zoya wanted to continue her studies, he had started to transfer her a fixed amount every month. The sum wasn't too much, but she knew how big a deal it was given his financial condition.

Kausar, however, was a totally different case. Zoya tried talking to her once, but all she did was lash out on her about how she had brought shame to their family and how negatively it is going to affect her sisters. Zoya hadn't spoken to her since.

The exam was in two months, and Zoya had never been more serious about anything else in her life. There were going to be three sections: Verbal Ability, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Ability. Math had always been a strength of Zoya, so she wasn't much worried about that. For the logical section, she was solving as many questions as she could. Verbal was where her main problem lied. She was not very good at English. So for this section, she had been relentlessly reading articles, novels, newspapers, reports, basically every sort of english content she could find. Rohit also sat with her on weekends and guided her through.

It was obvious she wasn't able to spend a lot of time with Sehrish, but in the middle of the night, when she woke up to feed her, she made sure to give her all the love and kisses.

Aarti and Rohit had started building a nursery for their future child. The whole theme of the room was white; walls, furniture, curtains, everything because Aarti loved white and she wanted a neutral color since they didn’t know the gender yet.

Zoya wasn't able to contribute much in the decoration of the room because of her studies, not that anyone minded. Finally, when the nursery was ready, they asked Zoya to have a look.

As soon as the door opened, Zoya saw that there was a diaper changing station on the left, followed by a very comfortable looking couch. A huge box filled with different types of soft toys was kept in a corner. There were two plants kept on each side of the window. But what got Zoya’s attention was the two cots lined up against the right wall.

"Are you having twins?" Zoya asked in confusion.

Rohit chuckled.

Aarti shook her head. "No."

"Then why two cots?"

"One for our baby, and the other is for Sehrish." Aarti replied.

And once again, Zoya was left dumbstruck at their gesture.

"What? Why? You didn't have to do it." She fumbled with her words.

"I think she deserves her own room now." Rohit said.

"Yes! See, we also set all her clothes in the closet." Aarti opened the closet door from one side and it revealed all of Sehrish's clothes.

Zoya’s eyes filled with tears. "Guys, I really appreciate it. But I can't live here all my life. I will always be thankful to you both for taking care of me and Sehrish, but I was planning on moving out when I get into a college."

Aarti's eyes widened. "What? Absolutely not. You're not going anywhere."

"But.." Zoya started.

"She is right. You're not leaving anytime soon. How do you plan on focusing on your lectures, taking care of Sehrish and managing a house by yourself?" Rohit asked.

"I will look for a house around the neighborhood, so we'll live close. And before leaving for lectures, I'll drop Sehrish with Aarti and pick her up when I get back." Zoya tried to reason.

"The answer is still no." Aarti said.

"Try to understand.."

"Zoya, you are not going anywhere. You complete your MBA and get a job. By that time, Sehrish would also grow up enough for you to handle her alone, and then we'll talk about you moving out." Rohit wasn’t going to let Zoya go and run a household on her own when she had absolutely no source of income.

Zoya let out a few tears. "Why are you helping me so much?"

"Because you're Aarti's family." Rohit said, "and that makes you my family as well. If a girl can mold herself into a new household and accept her husband's family as her own, why can't a man do the same?"

Zoya couldn't control a sob and came forward to hug Rohit. He hugged her back just like an elder brother would do and gave her the comfort that he was there to take care of her.

Aarti felt herself tearing up as well looking at the two people she loved the most in this world.

________________

The day of the CAT exam came way earlier than Zoya would have liked. In the morning of the exam day, she was freaking out so much. Aarti and Rohit drove her to the center while Malti stayed with Sehrish at home.

Those two hours were the fastest of Zoya’s life. She did her best, and she could only pray for the best as well.

The result would be out in a month or two. But before that, Aarti got into early labor at eight months and gave birth to a slightly underweight, but beautiful baby girl. Just like Zoya’s.

When it came to giving a name to her, Aarti passed the child to Zoya, "Just like I got to name Sehrish, you have the right to name my daughter."

"Avni," Zoya said while placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

Three weeks after Avni was born, the CAT results were declared.

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I think my arms fell off while writing this chapter.