The Unfortunate Peace Treaty

Chapter 1

Grand Da would have bought her the moon if she so demanded it, but she didn't... thankfully... and so it was all right. Also, he punished anyone who tried to tell him that he was being unfair regarding Adiva and the other children, just ask her elder brother Sinan Rasan and he would tell you about the day when he had complained about Adiva being given royal treatment and he had been punished by making him stand in the corner of the room, facing the wall, while none of them dared to talk with him for the rest of the day. He was also asked to clean the lawn and mow the grass, the next day. He had since then grown up and himself became quite accommodating for this sister of his, when he noticed, how she didn't even realise what was happening around her. She didn't complain regarding many things to Grand Da, even though he always knew, somehow. But when she did complain, the person better watch out.

Returning back to the present though, Adiva and Yamin were done fighting and now were aborting their fight for their grumbling stomachs. They decided to meet the other at the dining table and went off their merry way.

•••

Riesha Rasan sat on the dining table and watched her elder sister skipping down the stairs. An automatic scowl etched on to her face. Adiva greeted her warmly and seemed unaware of her sister's irritation but Sinan frowned when he witnessed the blatant dislike his little sister showed towards Adiva. He understood that it was difficult being Adiva's siblings. They paled in the shadow of her sun. Especially as their Grand Da thought that everything ended and began with Adiva. But Adiva had nothing to do with anyone's behavior except herself and she had never been anything but nice to her siblings. Yet Riesha had grievances that had escalated as they had stepped into teenage years and now she wanted Adiva as far away from herself as possible.

Riesha had tried to trip Adiva many times in the formal dinners, so that she would lose her face in front all and stop being Grand Da's precious. But Adiva had escaped unharmed. How? She herself didn't know!

She had also tried different tricks from physically harming herself to set up her sister, to emotionally blackmailing her parents against her, but nothing worked. Adiva couldn't be dislodged from the hearts of anyone. They could ask her, Riesha, if they didn't believe this sentence. She had tried after all.

Adiva was also very impulsive, saying and doing things that were actually quite rash and surprising. But she seldom cared. She had been this way since she was young and now wasn't the time that she could change it. She had pulled Sinan and Yamin through enough impulsive actions along with herself and gotten away with it. But somehow all of her cons just made her more and more likeable, making her female cousins and sister jealous of her. But she didn't realise this either.

Sinan sighed as Adiva settled herself and began to load her plate with a sandwich and filled her glass with the orange juice. Yamin joined them a while later and seated himself between a fuming Riesha and a clueless Adiva. Sinan was sure his action was to protect Adiva from Riesha if need arose. Yamin had always been this way.

"Get ready." Adiva told Sinan and Yamin. Riesha narrowed her eyes at her sister, while the other two frowned in confusion.

"What are you gonna do?" They enquired anxiously. They knew her well enough to know that these kind of words meant she was going to do something impulsive again. In reply to their question, she just cackled and gave them an evil smile. They gulped before looking towards the other.

•••

Ehlam Rasan sat in the conference room of their mansion along with the next two generations of his family and some members who were from his generation. Some members of the Furaats were also present. They were all accumulated to choose the next name for their peace treaty. It had already been twenty five years and last time the daughter of the Furaats had come to their home, as a grand daughter in law of his cousin brother. Now it was their turn to send one of their daughter to the Furaats. Even though each time they sent a daughter they were apprehensive regarding it, they still trusted the Furaats and the Furaats them, because the daughters stayed happily in their married life. Yet the tension remained, reminding them starkly of what could go wrong.

They had all made gold plaques with their marriageable daughters' name engraved on the plaque, and then another layer which slid on and off the name hiding it from view (They are extravagant I know, but what else did you expect?). There were twenty five girls from the whole family, who could be married off in the Furaats. The plaques were kept in a small wooden bowl, made of sandalwood. He gestured towards his favourite grandson, Adiva's father Aun Rasan, who nodded slightly and picked the bowl before shaking it gently till the plaques mixed with the others and then set it on front of his Grandmother Nyqa Furaat, who was blindfolded, for this work.

Nyqa Furaat had come on her own will not the treaty's, married to Ehlam Rasan. Now she sat as the head of the family, a loving matron and an intelligent advisor. Her presence in the main branch of Rasan family, even though she was from the side branch Furaat family, had done a major change to the way the families saw each other.

She smiled and inserted her hand inside the bowl and shuffled the plaques once more, before softly picking one and then taking it out of the bowl. She removed her blindfold and handed over the plaque to her husband who graced her with a soft, loving smile rarely seen and reserved for his favorite people, before he accepted the plaque and met each eye in the room as he slid the layer off the name.

Etched in gold on the plaque, was a name that seemed to mock him childishly. It was the name that made him go soft in the heart and an automatic smile to grace his face. He inhaled sharply as he read it again and again trying to make sense of what he was seeing... It said-

Adiva...