A lone tear traced its way down his cheek. I looked up at him, and with one final sob, lifted my hand and wiped it dry with the tip of my thumb.
"I love you, Ehsaan, my strength, my world. And nothing and nobody can ever do anything to change that...
"You all know Amma's beloved cousin Yaseen, who cares about us...how much? Someone enlighten me, because I don't recall him ever being here for any of us, no matter what we've been through." Papa was listening intently. "Anyway, Amma here and him decided it would be a good idea to pass on his newborn child to us, merely a few months after the passing of our own infant daughter, because he isn't capable of treating his wife well. It's disgusting – how could she possibly have even bared to listen to him asking if my wife, the woman who means more to me than anything in this world, my everything, could breastfeed HIS child?!"
"What?! Maryam is this true?" Papa asked, his voice furious, disappointed and upset all in one go.
"It wasn't like that!" Amma tried to argue.
"Oh quit the victim card and stop trying to defend yourself!" Ehsaan shouted.
"That's enough!" Papa bellowed, "Yasmine, Noura, go upstairs please"
"But we-"
"No buts." he said firmly.
They stood up and both gave me quick hugs before going upstairs reluctantly, not wanting to be left out of the loop on what was going on in their house.
"Aleena beti, come over here" Papa ushered me over and made me sit beside where he stood. "Silence, all of you!" he said, momentarily stopping the commotion before continuing, "I want to know exactly what is going on here, right now!"
As Ehsaan retold the story of what had happened since Amma had called us over that day, finally unleashing the storm that roared inside of him, a wave of disgust had passed through the room. Aaminah was furious when she learned about what they wanted from us, including the baby, the feeding and everything that came with it. To say we had their support was an understatement –every single person in that room was outraged.
But it only got worse, as when it was Amma's turn to speak, she accidentally let slip that she'd liaised with this Uncle Yaseen yet again since we had refused to take in his baby, and it was now getting clearer that Yaseen approaching my Husband for legal advice was not a coincidence.
"Hang on Maryam, are you saying you pointed him in the direction of Ehsaan for the divorce battle?" Papa was intent on getting to the bottom of this, and he was more angry than I'd ever perceived he could be.
"I'm saying that I had no choice –I was being backed into a corner, with his entire family breathing down my neck until I agreed to help!"
"Wait a second," Aaminah piped up, "Why are they so adamant that you help them?"
At that question, Ehsaan and I looked up, curious to find out the answer.
"Because I owe them"
"Owe them how?" Ehsaan demanded.
"When I was born my mother was sick, too sick to feed me. At the time, culture deemed it unacceptable to formula feed a child, so I needed a milk mother instead –my family have always been very traditional, you all know that. Yaseen's mother, my Aunty had given birth to Yaseen's brother a few weeks prior to that, so she volunteered to feed me. She was my milk mother for around 4 days, and nobody has ever let me forget that since. Of course she has treated me like her own daughter, but we grew distant when my family left Ireland. And after she passed away, Yaseen and his brother have always relied on me! For everything!"
This is just getting from bad, to worse.
I did, no doubt, feel sorry for her, but what she was now proposing was worse.
"Listen to me. I love my religion. I also love my culture –however much I may have moulded it to fuse with the western world. But when it comes down to it, Islam rules over culture any day! And this, is just purely wrong!" Ehsaan said loudly."What you were suggesting is worse than what happened when you were young, but instead of sticking up for us, you entertained the idea of us taking her on. That encouraged them, motivated them to make it work. And now what? He has mixed personal with professional. He's brought the case to the firm and requested I be the leading barrister on the case. And I refuse, point blank, to let him get away with it."
"Ehsaan if you'll just help get what he wants-"
"No!"
"That's enough!" Papa shouted yet again. "Ehsaan, you are not taking the case. Make sure it's known that there is a personal affiliation and therefore a conflict of interest. Maryam, you and I are going to speak to Yaseen together, and explain where we are coming from. Aaminah and Umar, I want you to go to Dadi's house, I won't be able to go tonight, there are pressing matters at hand. Aleena beti, calm yourself, InshaAllah this will all be over soon. I am in full support of you and my son. Don't worry about it, alright?"
I nodded my head, battling the recurring thoughts that spiralled like a tornado in my mind. I was grateful for the support system that we had around us in our hour of need, but I was also feeling extremely guilty that Amma had now been isolated from us and was being attacked from all sides by our thoughts alone.
I knew she was wrong, but somewhere deep inside my heart, I knew that I would never want to be in this position with my own children –and made a vow to myself, in that moment, that I would persuade Ehsaan to forgive her, like I knew he would, as the kind and loving man that stole my heart from the very beginning.
Ups! Tento obrázek porušuje naše pokyny k obsahu. Před publikováním ho, prosím, buď odstraň, nebo nahraď jiným.
"And hold firmly to the rope of Allah and do not be divided."
Quran 3:103
Soo, what do you think?
Apologies for Ehsaan's bad language slip up haha - don't come at me! Nobody is perfect!!
