Stay Mine

Chapter 48 - Protecting Her

"I don't... I don't accept this. Alan is the only person I see as my husband. I don't..." Fiza's voice trembled with disbelief, her world unraveling before her.

She fixed a gaze on her father, her eyes filled with anger and betrayal. "You are such a hypocrite, pappa! All your life, you worked for Muslim women's rights, and now you take away mine using the very loophole you fought against."

Her father's face contorted with pain, and she could see her words were causing him anguish, but he had, in her eyes, stripped her of her freedom and forced her into a marriage she vehemently rejected.

"Fiza, I wouldn't have done this, but you left me no choice. You were ready to give up your dreams for him. You were blind!" Her father defended himself, his words laden with desperation.

"You are the one who's blind, not me. You are biased because of Fiza Ammai. Alan is not Ronald Chittappan!" Fiza shouted, her frustration boiling over. She turned her gaze to Faisal, who stood silently.

"And you? You are not my husband. This marriage is illegal. I will never accept you. I will divorce you," she declared with unwavering determination, though she knew that proving the marriage's illegality would involve taking legal action against her father, a painful and risky path that could land her father in jail - no matter how angry she was with him, she didn't wish to do that.

"Fiza," Faisal said slowly, his eyes filled with sadness and concern as he approached her. "Let me talk to you in private." His voice held a plea, and Fiza, despite her anger, clenched her teeth and reluctantly agreed. "Fine."

She led him to her room, a room that held memories of their last encounter, a bittersweet thought that briefly crossed her mind.

He appeared lost in thought, seated on her bed, and patted the space next to him, inviting her to sit. However, Fiza remained standing, arms crossed defensively.

"Fiza, your father told me that Alan was hurting you," Faisal explained.

Fiza opened her mouth to argue, but Faisal held up a hand, his eyes beseeching her. "Let me finish, please."

Faisal's words bore the weight of his genuine concern and emotions. His eyes welled up as he confessed, "I was already worried about you. I knew you were afraid of him. I knew he had been cheating on you. But you overlooked everything that he did. I wouldn't have done this if your dad hadn't sent me a picture of you. You look... you look like..." He couldn't continue, wiping away a tear that escaped.

Fiza's heart was torn between the sincerity in his words and the fact that he had taken away her choice, her freedom. He had imposed his views and decisions on her, and that reality was hard to ignore.

She couldn't however help but recall how Alan, too, had once taken away her right to choose by breaking up with her believing that she would be better off with Faisal. But, he had returned, had he not? He had realized his mistake.

Taking deep breaths to steady her emotions, Fiza spoke with a mixture of frustration and defiance. "Faisal, you are not my knight in shining armor. You haven't saved me from anything," she declared scathingly. "I will never be a wife to you!"

"Well, I'm your husband. You'll eventually warm up to me," Faisal declared, his eyes unwavering as he met her gaze.

Fiza's anger flared as she shouted, "I belong to Alan, and he to me. He is as much my husband as any man could ever be. And you know that!" She couldn't comprehend how Faisal could look past the depth of her love for Alan, given what he had witnessed between them.

"Fiza, Alan's gone. He's not coming back to you. He knows to stay away," Faisal stated with an unsettling undertone. "I'm not going to let him come anywhere near you."