"If I was ever to see myself in any of my sons, it would definitely be Hisham! - Hussein Hosseini.
Imagine your greatest fear.
Then imagine it becoming your reality.
A self-chosen reality.
A reality from which there is no turning back...
Ever!
FLASHBACK...
"Good men are for good women."
That is what she had always, very strongly believed in and still did, until...
Today!
A day in which she had supposedly "completed half her deen".
Completed it, but with the wrong man!
She sadly stared at down at her dark henna filled hands, the huge brightly shining wedding ring on her finger, doing nothing but weighing her heart down to its greatest depths.
A wedding ring that had been quickly and forcefully pushed down her finger without him even looking at her.
Tears stained her eyes and she quickly and continuously blinked, causing them to start rolling down her beautiful face as her lips quivered due to immense fear.
Immense fear of nothing but the unknown!
She wiped away her tears, heart growing heavier and heavier as it slowly began to dawn on her on how much alone she was in all of this.
Alone because she was the one who had chosen this.
She was the one who had chosen him!
Therefore, there was no one she could really blame.
Not even her husband- Hussein!
She let out a loud sob as she buried her face in her hands when her mother's much pleading eyes flashed right across her face.
Eyes that had continuously begged, continuously pleaded for her to say no.
For her to simply say no to this marriage!
She sobbed even more loudly as she remembered how tightly her father had hugged just seconds before the Nikah and whispered to her...
"Yasmin, one of your biggest and greatest blessings in life is that you are a woman. The beauty of our religion is that it considers a woman, to be nothing less, than a priceless jewel..."
"A woman is someone who needs to be loved, she is someone who needs to be cherished and most of all she is someone who needs to be protected. That is why she has so many rights. Rights that are meant to do nothing but, protect her, Yasmin..."
"Forceful marriage is forbidden! That is why you have been given the right to say simply say no and that is it. Please I beg you my child, when the Imam asks for your consent, please say NO!"
She however, had ended up saying...YES!
It had now been hours since she had said yes, hours since she had last seen her husband and hours since she had been brought to their hotel's honeymoon suite and still there had been no sign of him.
She wiped away the last of her tears from her face using the ends of her hijab, deep down not knowing if she really even wanted him to show up.
What if he tried to...
Would he dare?!...
Her thoughts were cut short when she heard someone fumble with the room's lock and the second Hussein entered the room, their eyes met and they both quickly looked away, fear once again settling in the depths of her heart.
She nervously bit her lip as she watched him near the bed from the corner of her eye and relief immediately surged through her when all he did was silently plop on the bed and pull the covers over him.
Her relief was however very much short lived because she was immediately hit with the strong stench of alcohol and tobacco causing her heart to sink but what caused her heart to sink even further was the...
Much stronger scent of another woman's perfume!
***
Jaw drop to the floor!
Jaw.
Drop.
To.
The.
Literal.
Floor.
That was the only way one could accurately try to describe Hisham as he stared at his father in utter disbelief.
Hussein too patiently waited for a few minutes so as to allow his son to take it all in but when the only thing Hisham did was continuously gape at him while blinking his eyes from time to time, he couldn't help but say, a stoic expression on his face...
"I am giving you only five more seconds to GET OVER IT!"
Millions of thoughts and millions of questions zapped through Hisham's mind but the only thing he ended up blurting out in the end was...
"That is one mad skeleton you have in your closet!"
"One?" asked Hussein as he quirked his eyebrow at Hisham.
Hisham gulped as he stared at his father, moved a few inches away from him and said...
"Stop scaring the crap out of me. I swear I will scream my lungs out if you try to do anything I would consider haram, illegal or even funny!"
Hussein let out a loud laugh and while staring out into the distance he said...
"The only thing I am trying to tell you Hisham is that there might be a bit too many skeletons in my closet..."
"A bit too many to even try count!"
FLASHBACK...
Passion!
A heartfelt passion!
A heartfelt passion, for nothing else but cooking!
Yasmin delightfully shut her eyes as all the different flavours from her cheesy Spanish omelette and early morning hazelnut coffee, slowly combined and sank into her much eagerly awaiting taste buds.
There were only two words that kept coursing through her mind as she took another humongous bite and those were the words...
SIMPLY DELICIOUS!
A small smile lit up her beautiful face, when she remembered how she always, was cheerfully cooking back home and her smile widened even more when she recalled her dear father's never ending praises.
Her father!
The biggest, most loyal fan of her cooking.
For as long as she could remember, there never ever had been a day that he had failed to shower her with praises for her food, be it a simple sunny side up, plain freshly cut fruits or even water.
A beautiful laugh escaped her lips when she thought back to the never ending, adorable arguments they always had over the simplest things such as drinking water.
"MashAllah Yasmin, even the water tastes so cool and flavourful when you serve it," he always used to say.
"Come on Baba, this is too much now. Water is basically tasteless and secondly, it has to be so cool since it's from the fridge!"
"What? No way! Then how come water doesn't ever taste this good when your Mama serves it to me?"
They both would then burst out into loud laughter when he would earn an angry glare and an extremely loud snort from his wife.
"Be careful Nasser! Don't flatter our daughter too much. What if she ends up with a husband who doesn't appreciate her cooking as much as you do?" her mother would ask.
"What? That can never be unless he is suffering from...What? Taste bud paralysis? If that's a thing!? Secondly, which retard would not want his life to be spiced up with such beautiful cooking?"
"He is going to be one lucky man for sure. Some of us unfortunately didn't turn out to be that lucky!" he would cheekily say and they both would once again burst out into laughter when he would another murderous glare or sometimes even a flying spoon from his wife.
That however was now all gone.
She had lost both her parents.
All she had now was her grandfather.
The person because of whom all of this...
Her beautiful train of thoughts were cut short with Hussein walking into the kitchen and she immediately rolled her eyes when she noticed that he was shirtless.
Like yes, she knew that they were married and he was now UNFORTUNATELY her husband but still like ewww, put a damn shirt on!
He chose to ignore her entire existence in the kitchen and she too silently watched him as he silently rummaged through the kitchen's cabinet for painkillers.
It had been three days since they had gotten married.
Three... long... days but they both had not even spoken a word to each other.
He had even moved out of the master bedroom, something she had been extremely grateful for but that had only but given him more freedom to bring over his long list of never ending girlfriends.
She took another giant bite of her omelette choosing to ignore the shit out of him as well but the second he looked down from the kitchen cabinet, their eyes once again met and she didn't fail to notice how his eyes slowly drifted to her omelette filled plate.
"I...umm...I made extras...would you like some?" she asked, hating herself for always having this strong uncontrollable urge to always share food.
A strong, very clear debate played in his extremely dark hazel eyes and just when she thought that he would choose to further ignore her, he came forward, picked a fork and knife and cut himself a huge piece.
She expectantly looked at him as he took his first bite and all the blood drained from her face when he immediately spat it out and hissed...
"That was disgusting!"
Anger coursed through her as she watched him begin to walk away and she quickly and tightly held on to his arm, turned him around and shouted...
"Never ever insult food like that again!"
"Never ever dare TOUCH ME again," he too shouted as he pointed to the part where she was holding on to him.
"I hate you Yasmin. I freaking hate you," he added and fire lit up both their eyes when she replied with...
"WELL, THE FEELING IS VERY MUCH STRONGER IF NOT MUTUAL, HUSSEIN!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
***
PLEASE DO VOTE AND COMMENT!
I KNOW THIS DOES NOT GIVE ANY ANSWERS BUT THE CHAPTER WAS BECOMING A TAD BIT TOO LONG WITH THE FLASHBACKS.
IN SHA ALLAH I PROMISE TO UPDATE THE NEXT CHAPTER TOMORROW SO THAT IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
I HAVE WRITTEN MOST OF IT ALREADY.
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THE CHAPTER.
UNTIL NEXT TIME,
ASALAM ALEIKUM.