Samaah's P.O.V
We finally reached the Hamid 'palace' as Samiha and I preferred to call it. Saamih dropped us off and drove away and I wished he could take me with him. I felt Samiha take my hand and I grasped hers as if my life depended on it.
Immediately, one of their hundreds of workers came to us.
"You must be the twins' to-be fiancées?" He asked and we both nodded. He then gestured to us to follow him, and we did.
This time, the walk wasn't as interesting, firstly because of the fact that I was overly tensed regarding this engagement which was what occupied my thoughts, and secondly because I was mesmerised the first time I came here and I had already seen all this before. By the time we reached the actual house, the doors were wide open, with a guard standing there, holding a list with the names of the invited guests. We had to give him our names and introduce ourselves as the would-be fiancées and he let us in.
A woman in her mid-twenties saw us lingering at the door and she immediately came rushing to us.
"Assalamualeikum, Samiha and Samaah. You girls are standing here and the whole function is for you! You do realise it can't start without you two, so you have to go?" She asked. She seemed very bubbly. I was suprised that she recognised us.
"Yes, but we don't know where to go. Where is this function held?" I asked.
"That is why I was sent here, to show you two where your engagement is held. We'll be going to lounge 1," she replied, and started walking, the two of us in her trail.
"My name is Aliyah, by the way. I'm Asif and Arif's older sister," she introduced.
She asked us about ourselves - our ages, occupations, hobbies, whatnot. She seemed very nice. I could hardly believe that such a humble woman was the sister to those big headed twins. She didn't have a drop of arrogance or pride in her. And she was actually very bubbly, as I had assumed earlier. We learnt a lot about her. She got married a year ago and lived overseas with her husband. She came back here yesterday for the engagement and was to stay here till we got married. She was 26 years old, and unlike her brothers, she had pursued a university education. She was a qualified engineer. I found it interesting how she pursued a career which was stereotypically for men. That showed her open-mindedness. Unlike her brothers, who were narrow-minded and decided not to pursue any career because they were the heirs of their father's company. Besides, they didn't even work at their father's company. But she was very different from them and I liked her immediately.
"We're here!" She said, after a long rant about how during her own engagement, she had to go all the way abroad just for a single function. Believe it or not, that was a very interesting story.
The lounge door was also open. This was lounge 1. The first word that came into my mind to describe this lounge was massive. This lounge was humungous. I mean, lounge 3 was as big as the entire ground floor of our house, but this was a completely different definition of massive. This lounge was as big as a whole hall. I looked at Samiha and noticed her mouth open in shock and her eyes as wide as saucers. I was pretty sure that's exactly what my expression looked like as well. There were about seventy or so women, and this lounge held them all very comfortably. In fact, it was big enough to hold about two to three hundred women.
Not only was this lounge absolutely massive but it was beautiful. The colour scheme here was white and gold. The wallpaper consisted of white and gold stripes, and there were several sets of white and gold pure leather sofas, which had been pushed away against the walls. A large mat partly covered an expensive looking carpet, and it was placed for the women to sit on. However, one sofa was placed facing the women and Aliyah directed us to go and sit on it since it was kept for us. Once we sat, all the women stopped talking immediately and their attention was diverted to us. Mrs Hamid saw us and gave us a wide smile which I returned. She was mum's friend and I knew her from before. I just didn't know her family. She immediately made her way towards us and stood by where we were sitting.
"So my future daughters in law are here and now we can begin their engagement," she announced. She motioned to Aliyah and another girl and the two of them came over, each carrying a cushion with two velvet boxes, the small one on top of the large one. Aliyah came first, and she held the cushion close to her mother, who picked up the small box on top. She opened the box to expose the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. It had a platinum band with a cute design and small diamonds encrusted on the band. In the middle was a large sapphire. The ring was quite simple, but the prettiest I'd ever seen.
She pulled out the ring from the box and made Samiha wear it. She then beckoned over the other girl and took the small box from her. She opened the box to display an identical ring to the one she made Samiha wear and she slipped it on my ring finger. I looked at my hand, and it looked beautiful with the ring. I was glad she gave the two of us identical rings.
Mrs. Hamid then took the large box from Aliyah and opened it to show us a beautiful tiara. It looked like it was pure silver.
"This tiara is your engagement gift from us. Arif and Asif are our princes. And since you will be getting married to them, you are going to be no less than princesses. Hence the tiaras," she said. She then made Samiha wear the tiara and took the second large box from the other girl, opened it and took out the tiara. I bent my head forward and she placed the tiara on my head. The tiaras, unlike the rings, were not identical. They were both very pretty, but quite different.
After the rings and the tiaras had been given to us, my mother came forward and handed Mrs. Hamid two neatly wrapped boxes which I assumed contained gifts for the twins. After that, everyone came and congratulated us. Pictures were taken, snacks and drinks were served and all in all, the function went pretty well.
Then came the time for all the guests to leave, and they all exited the lounge one by one in their small groups. After everyone left, only Samiha and I, mum, Mrs. Hamid, Aliyah and the other girl who had brought the ring and tiara for me remained.
"You already know Aliyah as she is the one who brought you here. This is my other daughter," she said, gesturing to the other girl.
"Assalamualeikum, my name is Asiyah," she introduced herself.
"Asiyah is 22, and she's currently away studying in university. She doesn't like staying here, because she claims she gets lost in this place, so she prefers staying in a tiny little room at her hostel," Mrs. Hamid said, humour filling her voice. Asiyah just shrugged and smiled. The sisters were very different from their brothers. They were both interested in studying. Although Aliyah was chatty and bubbly, Asiyah seemed quite reserved, but I could tell that she was also a very nice girl. The two of them were both very pretty, but looked very different from each other. Asiyah resembled the twins a lot, while Aliyah looked like Mr. Hamid. She had his grey eyes, thick lips and slightly tanned complexion. She was also tall, just like him, while Asiyah was of medium height. Samiha and I, on the other hand, were both short.
"Your daughters are very pretty MashaAllah, Marwa," mum said.
"Ah come on, you are one to talk! Look at your own daughters! My sons are very lucky MashaAllah!" She replied, and her daughters both fake-pouted, then burst out laughing.
"No, I think my daughters are lucky to have your handsome boys," mum said.
"Oh come on, will you two keep arguing on who is more good looking and who is luckier? I can't imagine why you would want to have such a meaningless discussion," Aliyah said, and the two older women giggled.
"Alright, fine! Moving on to the engagement topic! I can't believe it's done! On a more serious note, Naila," she said, and then turning to my mum, continued, "Zakir will now sign an employment contract with your husband. I know initially we wanted the marriage to take place then he becomes a part of our company, but we don't want to keep you guys waiting. It's better to get your husband back on his feet as soon as possible. I'm sure Zakir has already spoken to Habib, but I just wanted to let you know."
My mum's eyes filled with tears and she engulfed Mrs. Hamid in a hug.
"I don't know how to thank you and Zakir, honestly, Marwa. All you're doing for us," she said.
"You are more than thanking us by giving us your lovely daughters. They are so disciplined MashaAllah, and I'm sure they'll be able to knock some sense into our sons' heads," Mrs. Hamid replied.
"Well I'm glad they can be of help to you. Girls, you're engaged! There's no turning back now!" Mum said and laughed.
It seemed humorous to her, but it was true. There really was no turning back now. The deal was sealed, especially since dad and Mr. Hamid were going to sign the employment contract. The only comforting thoughts I had were that atleast I was helping my father who had done so much for me by agreeing to this arrangement, and secondly, even though my fiancé was a jerk in many ways, atleast he was quite religious from what he said, and lastly, unlike my fiancé and his twin, my in-laws were very loving and nice people, and didn't let their wealth get to their heads.
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10 chapters finished. I feel great! But I'm not happy because frankly I'm trying so hard with this book and so far I only have 27 reads 😢😢😭😭
Please people, give this book a chance and read it! And please comment and vote your opinions and suggestions.