Endurance

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

The car ride home was quiet as Layla toyed with the thoughts of what happened back in Mansoor's home. She couldn't take Hafsa or what she wrote out of her mind, and the depth of Alia's cruelty was astounding. Something she had never saw coming even after knowing of the woman's atrocities.

"What happened back there Layla?." She sighed and looked away from the window to her brother where she was seated at the backseat. Layla hadn't planned to talk about it, hell she didn't even want to. But now with Mansoor in the car for a reason she had no idea what, she felt the discomfort even more than if he were not there, knowing that Hafsa was directly connected with him.

"Hafsa was telling me about her... experience." She mumbled with a clear of her throat to remove the touch of anxiety that laced her voice.

"Why?."

"I... I had questions and she.."

"So you couldn't keep your questions to yourself until she recovered fully?." His indignant tone made her instantly defensive, her head whirling completely in his direction. Why he suddenly cared this much about whether the girl had recovered or not, she had no idea.

Because she's related to his friend now, duh.

Almost conforming to the urge to roll her eyes, she restrained herself and turned to the window, again. Staring at absolutely nothing because her mind was in shambles without any idea how to get a hold on her rambling thoughts.

"What happened was that she is traumatized Ya' Khaled. It's not physical. Whether she was fit or not she'd react the same as whatever happened is taking its toll on her now that she was out of it."

"You still didn't have the right to trigger it if you knew that she was traumatized." A blow in the gut was surely to feel a little less painful than the words he just directed at her. His face was cleared of all jokes and masked with a seriousness that she thought was uncalled for.

"I won't do it again ." She replied and dropped it at that, wondering why he'd be this angry about what she did.

The rest of the ride home was quiet, painfully and tensely quiet. Dropping her off was what she had been looking forward to ever since what happened as she mumbled a 'thanks' and sauntered into the gates not able to wait to get into the comfort of her room. Munira hugged her immediately she walked through the entrance as if she had been waiting for her and Layla unexpectedly finding comfort in the little girl's embrace. They moved further into the house and met her cousins in the living room, her aunts' voices loud with chatter from the kitchen.

"Have you seen Abbu?." Layla asked her sister as they ascended the stairs together, keeping in mind to be back down and help with whatever it was her aunts were doing. With that, Munira would be able to bond more with her family.

"He looks old and he has white hair." Munira whispered with wide eyes that were full of curiosity and wonder. Her little sister had always been a bubbly child ever since she was little, and Layla was happy that the girl hadn't lost her exuberance because of their parents' separation. It was something Layla will never be able to live with or forgive herself if it were to ruin her sister's life. Chuckling, she opened the door to her room and entered.

"He'll be young again. You'll see." She replied and winked before dropping her bag and retrieving a chocolate bar from it to pass to her sister then took off her Abaya, adjusting the temperature of the air conditioner to suit Munira.

"Maama and I went to see him." At that, Layla almost strained her neck because of the way she had whirled around while her sister absentmindedly munched on her snack.

"You did?." Layla took a seat and concentrated on Munira who nodded and licked a finger. "What happened? I mean did you see him?."

"Mhm. I heard aunt Salma begging Maama to consider something when she was taking us to him but Maama said no. Then we were in a very big house and when we entered daddy was there." The girl's eyes had lit up at the part where she mentioned seeing Abbu and Layla felt the guilt crawling up her gut at how their lives had turned, because of her.