Deceptive Glitters ✅

Chapter 52: A Shoulder

Fahad was dumbfounded, she has a daughter! Or was it had she said?  But she said she couldn’t have children, his head was starting to hurt with all the thoughts running through it.

He had to count to five to get his mouth to coordinate and form a coherent sentence.

“Your daughter?” he croaked out.

She nodded wiping her tears, seeing how she wasn’t stopping, he pulled out the hanky he had in his pocket that he kept it in case Layla decided to talk because he knew there would be tears, he just didn't expect it from a different person.

“Our EDD would’ve been the same but she was born premature,” she let out a small whimper, “I’d only seen her for about an hour before she passed.”

He took a deep breath, not very surprised to see she was just staring at nothing in particular.

“Khadijah,” he started but she stopped him.

“I thought I was getting a second chance when ya Sadiya had given birth to a girl and now she’s gone too.” She cried, with every sob that left her mouth he felt like a part of him was being removed, painfully slow.

He remembered what he heard his mother saying to Jawad’s mother, he didn’t know if it’ll help but that’s all he could say, that was the only way to console her.

“You know with every hardship comes ease,” he stopped felling a lump rise in his throat, he cleared his throat and tried again, when he still couldn’t make up any words he gave up and instead watched her as she tried to catch her breath, her body wracking with each agonizing cry that left her lips.

It took almost half an hour for her to calm down and when she looked at him, the pain in her eyes was so raw it broke his heart, it took everything in him to fight the urge to at least squeeze her hand, anything to relieve her of her pain, even if just for that moment.

Her eyes! It all made sense, she always had a longing in her eyes, her eyes were always clouded, he realized then that she was trying to hide the pain, why show it when there was nothing she could do?

If Basra was three then it meant it happened about four years ago, it made him wonder when she got divorced and who the husband was, he made a mental note to have a check in with Salis, for his peace of mind at least.

“I didn’t even get to hold her,” she managed through her tears a few seconds later.

Fahad didn’t say anything after that and he hated himself for that, but what could he tell her to make her feel better? Absolutely nothing came to his mind, she didn’t look like she wanted to be consoled.

He knew that because there was a type pain that you just want to be left to your thoughts, you don’t want anyone to tell you it’s going to be alright, you know even though it doesn't feel like it at the time but you know deep down that it’s going to be fine, you’ll be alright even if not whole, but the truth was, you don’t want to be whole again, you don’t want to be better, maybe it was guilt, maybe not, he didn’t know but he understood that, and the fact that he couldn’t help added to his self loathe.

“I heard this hadtih once,” he started, the words were leaving his mouth without his permission but he found it was the right thing, it’s just the thing he needed to say, she might not acknowledge it now, she might hate him for cutting her mourning but when it does register in her mind, she’ll be glad she heard it, or at least he hoped.

“The daughter of the prophet Muhammad S.A.W sent for him when her child died and he said “It is His what he has taken, and it is His what he has given, and everything in His possession has a prescribed lifetime, so let her be patient and content (with Allah’s will and reward)” she didn’t indicate that she heard him but she’d stopped sobbing.