Love? A Disaster

♪ 34. (c) An Unannounced Storm ♪

As far as standard days go, today was going too good for Amal. Her schedule at the university was sorted. Inam-ud-Din was not trying to mess up the free time on her hands, Sami had gone home to meet his folks, and there was no conference to organize, no event to supervise, and nothing that demanded her immediate attention.

Easy. Light. Per her liking.

That was before the call.

She was sitting in her office, ready to leave as soon as off hours rolled in, when her phone rang with an incoming call.

From the USA.

Usually, her reaction would be a cheery smile and a little apprehension, but now, there was only dread and nothing more.

As far as sisters go, Zahra calling her was never a good thing. Go figure.

With a sigh, Amal picked up her phone. There went nothing.

"Hey, Zahra."

She mumbled softly, hoping for the other person to get the hint.

"Glad to know you still pick up calls from your family."

The scathing drawl. Amal wanted to scoff at the predictability. Just Zahra.

"How are you? It's been a long time."

It wasn't a jibe at Zahra's lack of contact with Amal. It could've been but Amal didn't believe in serving cold fury to her immediate family. No matter what, they were kith and kin, and she had to tone down the sass.

"Can we come to the point? You and I both know how superficial these preliminaries are."

Ouch. Amal ran a hand through her hair. The knots weren't there before or she failed to notice them. Much like the strained relationship with her family. The knots appeared every so often but the tag of the family stopped her from doing anything about it.

"Yeah, sure. By all means."

That was all the incentive Zahra needed, it seemed.

"I won't sugarcoat my words, Amal."

This time around, Amal didn't even try. A scoff left her lips. "That'll be such a difficult thing to do, I'm sure."

The sarcasm wasn't well accepted by Zahra but Amal was not going to play nice. Her niceties were for family and Zahra hadn't called her as an older sister, rather the shrewd lawyer she was, successfully so.

"Are you hearing yourself? This is why I had to take matters into my own hands."

"As far as my knowledge goes, there's no matter that'll need a lawyer to intervene."

"You're refusing every solution Baba and Mama have put forward."

Amal sat straight in her seat. She knew this was Zahra's reason for calling her but still, hearing it from the horse's mouth had her guard up. She wouldn't be going down without a fight, least of all, before Zahra.

"Their every solution entails one thing: sell off Ghar. And I'll never let that happen."

Zahra took a deep intake of breath as if she was dealing with a petulant child. That infuriated Amal some more. Well played, Mama Baba. They had very cleverly given the reins in Zahra's hands. It meant they were done playing nice. They didn't want to give into Amal's tenacity, so had to choose their biggest contender to solve this issue for them. Zahra would always be their choice to do the hard work.

It hurt Amal immensely that they were that desperate to get done with Ghar. What pained her more was the fact that she still had no say in the family matters. For them, she was still the youngest child.