The chapter y'all have been quite literally waiting for 😭😭 Buckle up cause major tea is about to be spilled
Shehryar POV
Flashback starts
Four years ago
Its been almost four years to mine and Mila's nikkah. I still haven't told anyone, I am thinking about telling mom soon, so that we can have our Walima and we don't have to meet like this in secret. After our nikkah, I bought Mila an apartment in downtown Toronto, but she refused to live there, until I moved there with her full time. So she was living in her parent's house, whilst taking care of their business.
You could say, that we're doing good career wise, because right now I'm the COO at baba's company and I'm training to be the CEO, whereas Mila has taken over her dad's company. It's my 25th birthday today, I think tonight would be the best night to tell mom because she's been nagging me to get married for a while.
That night, I got ready and told mom I had a call, went to pick Mila and came back home. Mila was so nervous, that she couldn't even come in. I held her hand and kissed it, trying to calm her down. I didn't notice but ammi was standing right infront of me and seeing this the dishes fell right out of her hand,
"Shehryar, iss larki ka haath choro yeh kon hai?", she screamed at me
(Shehryar leave her hand, who is she?)
To her screaming and my surprise, Saima rushed out of the kitchen, great if one troublemaker wasn't enough, I have two. Rolling my eyes, I let go of Mila's hand and ushered everyone to the living room. I told ammi, the entire truth on how much I liked her and under what circumstances, our nikkah had taken place.
By the time I was done speaking, ammi stormed out of the room, followed by Saima and obviously this all making Mila cry. Freaking out, about who to go after, I decided to console my wife first. She asked me to take her back to her place and handle the scenario here. I dropped her back home and nervously paced outside the house for about half an hour to get my head clear to talk to ammi. I walked in and there sat ammi and Saima, with a smiling face. I was a bit confused but then ammi spoke up,
"I spoke to your father and he talked some sense into me, so I'm geniunely happy for you, your father is gonna come to Canada in three days and we can have the Walima two weeks from now", she said.
I was shocked but I was extremely happy that ammi had accepted mine and Mila's relationship. I went and called Mila when I went to my bedroom upstairs and told her the entire situation. She couldn't believe it and was really excited for us officially announcing ourselves being husband and wife to the world.
A month had now passed in a blur, both of us had gone to Maldives for our honeymoon. In the past month, other than our Walima, baba gave me charge as the CEO, because he was really proud of me and said that I was mature enough now to be CEO. This was by far, the best year of my life. Being the CEO has been hectic and I have been working late. It has been affecting mine and Mila's relationship because I haven't been able to give time to her a lot. When I walk into our room at night, I can see that she has been crying herself to sleep and I feel responsible for it. When I ask her about it in the morning, she just brushes it off by saying that she missed her family. But I think its because that I haven't been able to give the both of us time.
Anyway, today is our fourth nikkah anniversary. I know, some might say its insensitive that I'm celebrating it, considering this was the day her parents died but we talked about this and she told me that it was okay and we could celebrate it. I decided to take an early day off and stopped at flower market to get her a bouquet of roses and then surprise her to a romantic evening getaway.
I parked my car as quietly as possible and went inside the house from the back door when I heard my mom screaming at someone, I went near to the living room, still in hiding to hear what she was saying,
"Churail hou tum, tumnay meray betay kay upar kala jadoo kia hai", ammi screamed
(You're a witch, you've done black magic on my son)
"No aunty, I didn't do anything I swear", Mila cried out
"Mera beta, itna haseen, gabru jawan aur woh tum jaisi kaali Bengali ladki say shaadi karay, aisa hou hee nahin sakta, tumay usko koi taweez pilaye houn gay", she said
(It isn't possible that my son who is this tall and handsome, would marry a dark Bengali girl like you, you've clearly done black magic to rope him down like that)
"Aunty, believe me, I didn't do anything, me and Shehryar are in love", Mila cried out
"Bas kar dou tum, mainay tumhari aik baat nahin sun'ni, meray betay kou phassa liya hai tumne kisi kisam kay jaal main", ammi yelled at her and raised her hand to move forward to slap Mila
(I don't want to hear another word from your mouth, you've trapped my son)
I jumped out from the door that very second and stood infront of Mila
"AMMI YEH AAP KYA KAR RAHIN HAIN", I roared out
(Mom what are you doing?)
"Mai-mai-main beta yeh uh, MUJHSE YEH BADTAMEEZI KAR RAHI THI", ammi yelled at Mila
(I-I-I, uh, SHE WAS DISRESPECTING ME)
I could feel Mila shiver behind me and cry on my back
"Ammi, Mila aisa nahin kar sakti, main isko janta houn, koi misunderstanding hui hou gi", I said trying to pacify the situation
(Mom, Mila can't do this, I know her, there must've been a misunderstanding)
"KOI MISUNDERSTANDING NAHIN HAI, SHEHRYAR TUM ABHI ISSI WAQT ISKO TALAAQ DOU WARNA MAIN TUMHARAY LIYE MAR GAYE HOUN", she screamed
(There isn't any misunderstanding, Shehryar give her a divorce right now or consider me dead for you)
"Ammi main kaisay isko talaaq day sakta hou", I looked at her helplessly
(Mom, how can I divorce her?)
"MUJHAY NAHIN PATA, TUM ISKO TALAAQ DOU, YA PHIR MUJHAY APNI SHAKAL DOBARA MAT DIKHANA", ammi said
(I don't know, give her a divorce or don't show me your face ever again)
I was torn to choose between them and I didn't know what to do. Thinking of ways to calm the situation down, I asked ammi for some time and took Mila out to Woodbine Beach. She didn't say a word throughout the drive and once we settled there, she said,
"Shehryar, please don't leave me, I only have you in this world", she pleaded me
"Mila, meri jaan, you're my one and only, I could never leave you", I assured her
I just didn't know what to do in this entire situation, on one side I had ammi and her insistance on divorce and the other side, I had the love of my life.
"Shehryar, today wasn't the first time", she said
"First time to what, my love?", I asked her
"Ever since you went back to the office after our honeymoon, this is a daily occurance", saying this she pulled up her sleeves and all I saw were some fresh and some faded out bruise marks. I know men aren't supposed to cry but my eyes instantly filled up with tears, seeing my love go through so much pain, because of my own mother.
"Why didn't you tell me?", I asked her tearfully
"You were busy with office, plus I didn't think you'd believe me over your mom", she said
I held my head in stress, thinking about my options. Mila knew, my mother meant a lot to me, she raised me after baba basically abandoned us after his buisness. We might not be extremely close but she is still my mother after all and I can't lose her, but I can't lose the love of my life as well. After about 15 minutes of silence, Mila spoke out,
"I have an idea on how to tackle this situation"
"How so?", I said
"What if when we go back home, I'll pack up my stuff and move to our apartment and we can fake getting divorced in front of your mom. That way she'll be happy and so will we. You can even play the depressed workaholic CEO and spend a few nights a week with me at the apartment", she joked at the last part.
"Would that work?", I asked her
"I mean its worth a shot and we don't really have a choice", she said
With a plan in hand we went back home and executed it. Ammi was extremely happy when she found out Mila and I were getting "divorced". I was a bit skeptical about but this plan worked perfectly.
One year ago
The past three years have been really challenging, juggling work, Mila and ammi. Ammi still thinks we're divorced and she's touched the getting remarried topic, pretty much every time I'm home. Today, I was sitting in the office, when I got a call from home
"Shehryaar", ammi rasped out
"Ammi what happened?", I asked worried
"Beta, I'm really sick, you haven't come back home for two weeks, I want to see you, maybe for the last time", she said
"Sorry ammi, I was in Mississauga, handling some things, I'll drive back this instant", I lied, I was with Mila the past two weeks
I quickly drove back home and then rushed inside to see ammi, when I saw her watching TV with Saima looking extremely healthy.
"Ammi, what was this? You scared me and here you are all fine", I said
"You weren't coming home to see me, so I did what I had to do", she laughed out
I swear to God, women are going to be the reason why I'll have grey hair at such a young age.
"Why ammi? You knew I was busy with work", I said
"I wanted to tell you something", she said turning off the TV and looked towards me
"Yes ammi. What is it?", I sighed and looked at her
"I arranged your marriage to Kashmiri girl from Pakistan, she's nineteen and very gori chitti, will be an upgrade from the kaali billi you brought", she said laughing mockingly
(gori chitti- white skinned)
(kaali billi- darker skinned)
"Ammi did you even ask me about it? And she's nineteen, I'm twenty eight, please end this drama right now", I begged her
"If you want me to still be your mother, you have to do as I say", she played that card again
"I'll think about it ammi", I said sighing defeatedly
"Remember, your nikkah is in a month", ammi said
Great so I quite literally do not have an option. I looked at her in disbelief and picked up my car keys and drove back to the apartment whilst telling ammi that I was checking up on the Toronto office. The entire drive back to the apartment, I couldn't stop thinking about the whole situation, one thing was clear in all of this, the only woman who has been sincere to me is Mila. I entered the apartment, hugged her and came clean to her over the day's events. We sat in silence, for half an hour when we both spoke at the same time,
"I'm telling ammi the truth", I said
"I give you permission", Mila said
"Wait what? Mila what did you just say?", I asked
"I give you permission to take another wife, you need my permission before getting you nikkah done right, so you have it", she said
"No I am not doing that", I said utterly horrified
"What else will you do Shehryar, your mother means a lot to you and I'd like to think, I do too", she gasped out
"I won't do this, it won't be fair on the poor girl, she's only nineteen", I said
"We'll make it work Shehryaar, We've made it to 7 years of our nikkah and we can't end it now. Go to Pakistan and marry that girl", Mila said, whilst tears were dripping down her cheeks
"I can't do this", I begged Mila
"You need to do this Shehryaar, for me, for you and for our unborn baby", Mila said, whilst taking my hand and putting it over her stomach
"What?", I gasped out, "We-we-we're pregnant?", I said to her in utter disbelief
"Yes I am pregnant, I'm 4 weeks along, I just found out today", she smiled at me
"Mila I'm not doing this nikkah thing, I need to be here with you and our baby", I said
"You have to Shehryaar, suppose your mom finds out your reason of rejection and makes me divorce you, after the baby is born, would you rather only see our baby on weekends?", she cried out
"Okay okay don't cry please, its not good for you or the baby, I'll think about it, I promise", I said
Four weeks later, I flew to Pakistan, leaving my pregnant wife at home and going to take in another wife. After the nikkah was done and I was sent into Ayla's room, all I could see was a teenager who had a life ahead of her snatched away from her, seeing her made me feel guilty about the mess she's in, so I walked right out before we could engage in a conversation.
When we came back to Canada, I had found out that Mila had miscarried the night of mine and Ayla's nikkah because she had a nervous breakdown. I didn't know how to react because my kid was taken away from me just like that. I lashed out on Ayla on the day of our Walima and when I looked into her eyes again, I saw tears and the dreams of a teenager broken. She needed to know that I couldn't fully commit to her. I told baba about how I had to go to the US office to handle something and I did go there for a month, where Mila underwent therapy.
Her therapist had asked me to come and told me to be there for her all the time because she needed someone by her side to get by this loss, that is why I moved in completely with her. Ididn't want to leave her alone when both of us were vulnerable like this. I did get updates on how Ayla was doing via Saad. Only he knew that I hadn't divorced Mila, even Henna didn't know about this. He would reprimand me that I was doing wrong to Ayla, but I geniunely didn't know what to do, than carry on my life like this.
Flashback ends
A/N: Major shit boutta go down in the next chapter! I hope you liked this chapter on Shehryar's POV. This is one of my most anticipated chapters, so please lemme know if you like it or not. Rate it out of 10, if you will, idk 😭 just give me a feedback of some sort.
Guys Ima be honest, I never really cared about votes and everything before, but idk I do spend a lot of time on these chapters, so a vote is just a mere click and it makes my day so much more happier. So if that could convince you to vote, please do! Don't forget to follow and comment! I LOVE Y'ALL MWAHHH!!!