"No!! He siad he loves me. He himself confessed it and...."
She confessed with her head held high in a proud manner but Tabssum had plans to ruin her, determined to break the bubble of happiness in which she was living. Snatching her happiness would cool her burning heart and that's what she was planning to do.
"Naive or should I say you are too stupid to believe him ? If he loved you then he would have married you not my niece but since he loved her, he chose her over you. It was always her and will always be."
Word by word she saw herself breaking with her world crumbling down effortlessly. Truth was what Tabssum aunty was speaking. Yes, it was bitter but it was truth which she couldn't deny even if she wanted to. Afterall, He chose few days of love over years of friendship. Her beautiful life got ruined in return of his peaceful life with Asmara Mustafa Ahwaan. His wife.
At last he chose his Asmara, over his little birdie and just like that she lost her most prized possession, getting a shattered broken heart as a punishment for loving him.
It was the first time her heart felt heavy after so many years. It was like she was again living the nightmare she used to run away from. Her heart hammered inside her chest feeling pain with those words but she chose to contain them and answer the vile women bravely ignoring the urge to cry at her unlucky fate.
"Say whatever you want to... But he is my husband now."
"Rahogi to tum dusri aurat hi. You are nothing but a rebound, Asmara's rebound...."
(You'll always be the second women.)
Placing the last nail in the coffin she left grinning without waiting for her reaction or say she left her too speechless to speak anything.
Feeling her legs give up she was about to fall down when her eyes landed upon Sadia dadi who was walking towards her with a worried look on her face, making her take deep breaths to contain her emotions not wanting to break down in front of dadi, having enough of everyone's sympathy.
"What are you doing here all alone ?"
Caressing her cheeks dadi asked detecting something wrong with her, watching her face which was pale as snow.
"I-i w-was......"
She didn't knew how she managed to speak and at the same time contain herself from crying. All she wanted was to wrap herself in the cocoon of her blanket and cry till she won't be able to cry anymore.
Being called Asmara's rebound shook her, broke her more, even if that was possible. She wanted him to deny it, assure her she wasn't but didn't had the guts to ask him.
What if she really was her rebound for him ?
"It's okay.... Let's go inside. Mustafa is asking for you."
Dadi gasped feeling her shiver badly when she held her hand which was cold as ice. Her heart wasn't alone, her body too was feeling pain which was getting unbearable for her with passing seconds.
"I a-am not fe-feeling well dadi jaan. C-can I go ba-back ? Please."
Her voice came out as a mere whisper tensing dadi ammi who wasn't able to dicipher anything.
"Are you fine Maria ? You know you can share anything with me."
Rubbing her cold hands, she caressed her cheeks looking at her eyes which were void of everything. For a second she saw pain in her eyes but it was gone as soon as she saw it.
FORTY ONE
Start from the beginning
