A Tale Of Happiness

Chapter Ten: Dreadful Night

Momina walked up the staircase in
After few moments the door opened and Saleha greeted her and took her through the narrowed small way toward their lounge room. Fatima's parents were seated on worn-out sofas with their worried faces upon seeing Momina, Naheed got up quickly to meet Momina.

"Assalamualaikum Beta! It has been a long time, I hope you are well." Naheed greeted her.

"Alhamdulillah! Auntie. I'm all good." Although Naheed met her with a smile on her face but momina dedicated the worry in her voice. So after greeting Fatima's father and her sister momina sat down with them. Tooba put a glass of juice in front of her.

After thanking tooba momina started, "I know you guys must be worried. I've met Fatima recently after a long time. I never knew that how the events will turn out."

"Beta! Can you please tell us what's gotten into Fatima? My girl has never been like this before, I've never seen her like." Naheed said with worry lines on her forehead which matched with her husband.

Momina took Naheed's hands into her. "Auntie I know this might come as shock to all of you, but it is not late the good part is that we got to know it on time." Fours furrowed eyes were on hers, tension was in the air. She never thought she'd need that much energy to reveal this news. She took a sip from the juice glass and faced Fatima's parents then said, "Uncle! Auntie the man you getting your daughter marrying to was married before."

Gasps were heard from the lounge, Naheed had a hand on her heart, "Nagina never said anything about this, how do you know this beta?"

"Auntie, I work in the same company as Sarfaraz khalid and few people in the company knew about his first marriage and I am friends with one of their relatives, so when Fatima told me the other day about her engagement and upon knowing whom she was getting married to I had to let her know about his first marriage." Momina hesitated but then she knew that she came here to tell them all this so then she narrated all the information she knew and what she had to them.

Naheed was in tears after listening to Momina, Zakariya face was filled with dread. He can never imagine he was getting his daughter married into a family like this. He suddenly got up and picked his phone, he dialed the number which he had been dialing with hope and prayers, and yet there was only dread at this time. The phone rang few times...

"Hello?" Ansari khalid said on the phone, Zakriya wanted to scream at him but he held himself back and asked instead.

"I want to ask you one thing and you have to reply to me with all honesty!." He said, "was your son married before?" His throat felt dry after uttering those words.

Ansari had gone quiet for a moment, heavy breathing can be heard from the side, then he said, "We'll come over to your house and explain it, please we didn't want to intentionally hide it...." It was all that Zakariya needed to hear to confirm what he asked about, Ansari continued, "Please give us a chance to explain all this, we'll come by your house tomorrow. Will that be okay?"

Zakariya knew that they have sent wedding invitations to their relatives, he knew this will cause a big scene and questions will arise if they broke the marriage like this so accepted what he said and hung up the phone. All curious eyes were waiting for Zakariya to disclose about the conversation he had just now. But Zakariya only said, " They will visit us tomorrow to explain this." Then got up and went to his room and close the door.

Just after Zakriya's leaving Fatima came out of the room with a pale face, and upon seeing Momina in their lounge room he figured that she wasn't the only one who knew the truth. She darted her eyes from momina who had a guilty expression on her towards her mother, her mother who had brought her into this world, which she knew has crumbled and she knew she couldn't see tears in her mother's eyes which were drop effortlessly after seeing Fatima's pale face.