The Two Kingdoms (Completed)

29.

TW : sexual abuse mentioned in the chapter, kindly skip if it makes you uncomfortable.

When Meera entered the room, the room was bathed in the soft yellow hue of the candle light. She looked into the bedroom to find it empty, stepping in she saw that Haider stood in the balcony facing the courtyard his back towards her.

"You finished quick." He said without turning to face her.

"I was almost done. You could have waited for me I would have hardly taken any time." Meera said sitting on the foot end of the bed.

Haider turned around and walked in her direction. He stood in front of her, his hair tousled and his curly mop falling on his forehead covering his eyes.

Meera could sense the heavy tension in the air, she stood up, her head just reaching his chin. She looked into his eyes which were fixed on the floor.

"Haider ?" Meera whispered. She pushed the hair off his forehead and caressed his cheeks.

"What's wrong ?" She said holding his face between her palms. He looked into her warm brown eyes and his heart clenched painfully.

Meera's breath hitched as she saw Haider's eyes were blood shot, she pushed him by his shoulder on the bed making him sit and sat next to him taking his hand and sandwiching it between hers.

"You have to tell me what's wron-."

"You want to know why I married you ?" He said interrupting Meera.
Meera was silent. After struggling for more than a month she had come to terms with this marriage, she had come to like the man sitting next to her, she was learning to accept being his wife, did she want to know why did he torment her.

"I'm going to tell you everything today, everything. You just have to listen to me and then you can decide if you want to stay with me in this marriage or you'll be free to go back to your father's."

"I don't want to know anything Haider please." Meera begged a lone tear falling from her eye. "Where is all of this coming from ?"

"We can't..Meera you need to know why I -."

"Fine." Meera said exasperatedly. "Tell me, tell me why did you spoil my life, why did you take my family away from me, why you made my father hate me to a point that he doesn't want to see my face anymore." Her face had turned red.

"I was seven, when we were blessed with Mahnoor. She completed our family, Ammi and Baba had wanted another daughter and it had taken seven years after a lot of miscarriages to finally have an angel." Haider said a small smile played on his lips as he spoke of his sister.
"We we're happy, very happy. I was a happy child, a carefree child, because my parents had shielded us from this cruel world. A small happy family." He chuckled humourlessly, a lone tear rolled off his cheek and he brushed it away immediately.

"My parents had prayed, they prayed a lot for Noor to be born healthy and when she was born our happiness knew no bounds, since our dua had been fulfilled it was our time to pay a visit to Ajmer sharif, Ammi couldn't travel as Noor was little and she was still recovering, so Baba, I and Reyha left -."

"Reyha?" Meera interrupted.

"Reyha was my sister, my best friend, four years older than I was." He said with a sad smile.

"We visited the Dargah and promised to be back together, the entire family when Noor was a little older. We had taken twenty days to reach Ajmer, and father wanted to return back to his wife and little girl as soon as he could so we left the next day back for Agra." Haider said taking a deep breath, he pinched his eyes shut as if he was reliving those painful memories.