"You're going to be my present and my future. You're going to hold all my babies because I'm going to be the lucky man to marry you. You're going to love me again, Maryam Khan. Slowly and then all together. And I will watch you as you do."
Imran and...
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I clamp my eyes shut, suck in a sharp breath and scribble my signature on the line.
Pen in hand, eyes screwed tight, I stay the way I am for longer than a minute. Attempting to stomach the fact that I had signed on the papers myself. Without anyone asking me to. All on my own.
And when I open my eyes and my gaze lands on the document, I see my defeat. I see my loss. I see the failure I am. I identify the main culprit, the fasaad ki jard, the only person to blame. Me. Maryam Afreen Khan. And there was no denying it. Not anymore.
As I grab the paper and slowly turn around to face my now ex husband, it's all clear. I was the one at fault. From the very start.
I was the one who let this gem of a human marry me.
I was the one who wasted his time.
I was the one who took his patience, his love and his care for granted.
I was the one who thought the world revolved around me and anything that goes wrong in my life was because of someone else.
It was all me and my toxic self all along.
I am the problem.
And now, I am to live with that truth. The bitter truth of my life.
I take a baby step in Imrans direction, feeling pathetic and little in front of his generosity he has shown toward me all these months. I was so ashamed of my self that I couldn't even meet his gaze.
Keeping my eyes trained on the floor, I extend my hand for him to take the signed documents from me. Take away all the time, love and care wasted on me and shower it on someone else. Someone who is worthy of it. Worthy of him.
My heart picks up pace when he grabs the other end of the papers. My head lowered itself out of defeat.
"I won't apologize for the things I've said to you that day." He says in a voice that refused to give away any emotion. "Because I meant all of it. Almost."
Just as I was about to let go, I hear the unmistakable tearing sound. My eyes quickly fall on the divorce papers that he was ripping apart with me holding it from one end and him tearing it from the very middle.
"What are you doing?!" I exclaim, muddled at his actions.
Dropping one half to the ground, he snatches the other half I had in my grip. Imran puts the edge of the paper between his teeth and using the good hand, rips it into yet another half. I watch in utter horror, my eyes trained on the bit where I had just signed, now torn into two pieces.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Falling to my knees, I try and collect all the shredded pieces of paper. Like a mad woman, I hastily fumble and attempt at fixing it as though it was a puzzle and I were to work my way and put together the actual picture.
