..."Okay, whenever you're ready." he said and sauntered out, not waiting for her reply. He was being entle with her just because he had no choice but it was so unlike him
She finished what she was doing, wondering what he had to say to her. She packaged her cookies in a jar, took some with her in a bowl with a glass of milk and went to meet Muslim in the garden.
She went through the path she saw and was looking around till she saw where he was seated. She moved with her tray in support of her palms, she reached the table he was, placed the tray gently and sat down opposite her husband.
When she noticed he was pulling the tray towards him, she said, emotionlessly, "it's not for you."
"Where's mine?"
"You didn't tell me you want to have some." She said and paused for a while, then continued, "besides, I thought you do not want my food." She added, referencing her statement to what he said earlier in the morning.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."
"Straight to the point, what do you have to tell me? Let's talk fast, this place sucks." She pretended to look around, her facial expression disapproving though she admired the place so much.
He cleared his throat and started, "Jasmine. Our marriage was arranged, yeah? I thought you were the one that came up with that but later realized that you were also forced to marry me."
"Well, same here."
"I know. Just like you don't like this marriage, I also don't want it. So I called you so we can see what we can do." He said and there was that ‘melodious silence’ that visited them before Jasmine decided to talk.
"Muslim. The deed has already been done, the knot is tied, we are hitched, I don't think there's anything we can do. And if you're thinking of divorce, I'm not in support of that, not because I like you but because this is what my father, and your late father, agreed to. I know right now, Uncle Omar is happy in his grave and I'm proud of that. But I also have someone I want to spend the rest of my life with and now I just cannot do anything, we are helpless." She said her last part in between sobs as she wiped the lone tear that escaped her eyes, and more that followed.
"Jaz, this is not the right time for you to cry. Be strong, we can do this." He said. Like seriously he called her Jaz, he shortened her name in a romantic way which neither him nor her noticed what dripped with that statement!
Seeing that ‘Jaz’ would not stop crying and for the fact that he understood her pain, he stood up from his chair and went to hers, he placed his hand on her shoulder and used the other to help her up. He swallowed a lump and said, "let's get in." His eyes suddenly turned red, she reminded him of Ummulkhair, he was hurt to the point that his whole body wobbled.
"May you be in Jannah waiting for me to come and marry you, Khayr." He muttered under his breath, feeling dizzy. He was crying internally, his wife was crying physically, her eyes were swollen and red.
As they were about to step into the house, Jasmine collapsed, he didn't even notice she slipped out of his grip until he heard the sound of her body hitting the tiled ground.
"Jaz!" He called and bent down, realizing she fainted, he took her in his arms; bridal style, and went with her into the house, his room.
He placed her gently on his bed and went to get water.
He sprinkled water on her face and kept on saying, "please wake up Jaz."
She took a very sudden breath and woke up in freight. "Sadeeq." was her first word, much to her chagrin, it was not her Sadeeq, it was Muslim, her so-called husband.
