Amir's POV
I wake up in the middle of the night to the bed shaking and turn my head to see Aaliya shivering and mumbling something under her breath continuously as she curled up in a ball in the corner of the bed.
"No please, don't come near me Ibrahim, please don't come near me or else I will shoot myself with the gun you keep in your room!" Aaliya shouted as I froze in my place after hearing the word gun, was she really tortured so badly that at one point she wanted to kill herself?
I went closer to her and placed my hand on her shoulder as I was about to wrap my arm around her but she pushed me away as she thought I was Ibrahim which really stung me.
"Shhhhh Aaliya it's okay it's just me, Amir and nothing is going to happen to you as long as I am with you in sha Allah," I said to her as I tried to calm her whilst rubbing her back and cradling her in my arms. I felt her move and moved my head to see her slowly opening her eyes and getting up.
"Are you okay Aaliya are better now?" I asked her as I looked at her who just looked at me and nodded. Her face started turning pale and she quickly ran to the bathroom as I ran after her and held her hair as she bent over the toilet and threw up. I gently caressed her back and helped her onto her feet and waited patiently as she brushed her teeth before I led her back to our bed.
"I am sorry you had to see me in this state and had to see me being sick which must have smelt really bad and I am really sorry I ruined your sleep," she said to me as tears formed in her eyes. I took her by the hand and sat down on the edge of the bed with her right next to me and l lifted up her head so she could look at me.
"Listen to me Aaliya, you didn't ruin my sleep as I am glad I saw you in this state as I was there to help you and as much as I would like to know about your past that is for you to decide if you want me to tell me or not and it's okay to cry let it all out," I said as tears started to roll down her cheeks like waterfalls, it pained me to see her like this.
"Amir, it's not that I don't want to tell you, it's that I am scared you are going to leave me after I tell you my past and I am scared of how you are going to react," she said honestly as I was a little bit hurt but at the same time I understood why she would be scared.
"It's okay you can tell me Aaliya, I promise I won't leave you no matter what happened in your past as that is your past as we have all night and to be honest I am not tired anymore," I said as she took a deep breath whilst my heart started to beat faster.
"It all started when I had just turned 16 years old and we were going to have a family gathering and we needed to do some shopping for groceries, so I volunteered to go to the shops even though it was getting dark and I kissed my mom on the cheek and hugged my dad as he was going to work for some sort of emergency that we later found out was faked. So I left the house and was walking to the grocery store that was just down the round and around the corner. As I was walking to the store I felt as if someone was following me but I thought I was being pathetic and paranoid, so I ignored it which was a bad idea.
I had bought the groceries and was walking back home when out of nowhere a hand was placed over my eyes and a piece of cloth was placed over my mouth as I screamed for help but nobody was around to hear me, the next thing I knew was that I was being thrown into a van and driven somewhere. When I woke up I was in an abandoned warehouse and was tied to a bed with ropes around my wrists and chains around my ankles," she said as she broke into tears, I started to wrap my arms around her as I bought her into the bed and pulled the duvet over us, cuddling her as she rested her head on my shoulder as I placed a kiss on the crown of her head.
"I was continuously being tortured, by this mysterious man that always had his face covered with a mask, by being hit with metal chains until I bled, I was always being left to starve and die without food and water for many days, there was this one time where that guy came in drunk and almost forced himself on me but Alhumdulillah I had Allah on my side as my weapon and the guy passed out before he could do anything. A couple of weeks later a girl came and was told she had to look after me and after days of persuading her she told me that they were a Mafia gang and did this to many innocent looking girls where they would sell them to gain money, the only reason she told me this was because of the way I treated her as apparently I was the only girl who treated her with kindness so I tried and tried to escape and every time I did I would get caught and put to sleep in a room where the would torture me until my whole body would be covered in blood.
Two years went by and I had almost lost hope and wished I could die already but I guess Allah had different plans for me, another year had passed and Allah had listened to my dua's as I heard police sirens right near the warehouse and the people inside the warehouse had run away leaving me behind as I was so weak I couldn't even walk and they thought I would slow them down so I again thanked Allah. The police came and found me and untied me and started interviewing me I was so scared I thought he would burst through the door and kill me but it never happened and I spent six months in hospital getting treatments as I had fractured my rib cage and broke my arm and my leg with a fractured skull I was only 19 years old at the time.
I got better and I thought that was it until I got a marriage proposal from someone called Ibrahim Yousuf which was a fake name. My dad knew who his dad was and was his dad's friend so he agreed to it only to later find out that his parents didn't know what type of person he was. So I got married to him within a month and moved into his house and after a day of our marriage he would start snapping at me for every little thing I would do and would start coming home drunk and with another woman and it hurt me I was so stupid to imagine having an amazing husband who would take care of me at the time. Days went by and turned into months and he would start hitting me and would start cutting me with knifes whenever I would do something wrong he would grab a knife and find any area of skin and drag the knife down marking me, is what he used to say, he used to come home drunk and there was this one night where I had locked the bedroom door and hid in the wardrobe but he found me and as his punishment he forced himself on me and I know this sound weird but he raped me, he raped me all night and never stopped, I woke up the next day in so much pain I had decided to make a plan, the next day when he went to work I decided to call my parents and because every call is recorded I decided to use codes that I had made with my parents when we used to joke about saying if my husband ever hits me or tortures me I would phone you and say in a really high voice ' Hello, how are you I want to see you I absolutely love it here' and my parents recorded the phone call and got the police involved and came over when Ibrahim wasn't home and I quickly told them to come in from the back and I showed them all the evidence I had of what he did to me and the fact that he owns a Mafia gang and by the time I left with the police Ibrahim had left the country.
I had found out I was pregnant with Amira and decided to not have him involved in mine and my child's life so I got hold of some divorce papers and signed them and shipped them off to wherever he was and he signed them and sent them back," she finished off as so much anger ran through my veins at how could he do that to my Aaliya. I noticed how she never wears half sleeve tops, shirts or dresses and I wondered why not even my shirt that she is wearing now.
"What are you doing?" she asked as I reached out and gently grabbed her arm and began to lift up her sleeve and the sight in front of me broke my heart into a million small pieces, there in front of me was a dozen light scars covering her arms but luckily you couldn't see as they are covered in henna, but I could see every little scar as well as a big, thick one that went from her elbow all the way to her wrist which had turned a light pink in colour and almost blended into the rest of her skin tone.
"You're thinking of ways to kill him aren't you?" she asked me as I looked at her with a grin on my mind and nodded. Then one idea popped into my mind.
"You know when I said I wished for a caring and loving husband, Allah granted my wish because Allah gave me you as surely indeed Allah is the best planner," she said looking at me with a smile on her face as my heart melted at her words.
"Hey, Amir do you really love me?" Aaliya asked with a nervous look on her face.
"Yes I do Aaliya from the bottom of my heart," I replied whilst placing a kiss on her cheek as I noticed a blush spread across her face.
"Okay then, find your name in my henna in two minutes," she said as I looked at her with a smile on my face trying to make it look like I was confident when in reality I am not. Where do I start?
"Okay game on, If I do it under two minutes then you have to say yes to everything I say for a day and if I don't succeed then I have to say yes to everything you say for a day, Deal?" I asked her as I reached out my hand and smirked at her.
"Deal by the way you still are my slave for a month don't forget that," she said as she placed her hand in mine and we shook on it.
I started by looking at her feet even though it was a stupid idea you might never know and after about a minute I realized it was, I quickly moved on to her hands and started with her left one and all up her arm and didn't find it.
"30 seconds left," Aaliya replied as I started to panic but at last I found it but before I could the timer won.
"Ha ha ha ha you lost, now prepare to say yes to everything I say for the whole of the day," Aaliya said as I enjoyed seeing her happy. I checked the time and it was 6 in the morning. We had been talking for a whole six hours.
Well let's see what this day brings for me, hopefully nothing too crazy, little did he know what was about to happen and how she would change his life in the best way possible.