Duplus (Ongoing editing)

Chapter 33

——Third Person's POV——

Amaani felt more than excited to be tagging along as she couldn't stop speaking about it to Saira and Eileen. Saira was getting annoyed by the second at her, more so because she still felt jealous. Eileen quietly listened to Amaani, her eyes traveling around the room to study the apartment.

Amaani threw in another scarf, describing how many times she had to take off her hijab in the harsh circumstances. She wasn't gonna take any risk that time because whatever the reasons, her niqab was as important to her as her life.

"Jaber told us we were going to head out at night to be as secretive as possible. I'm sure Sufiyaan will call me anytime now." Amaani informed Eileen and Saira who perked up at his name. Saira made a face, her expressions unreadable which didn't escape Amaani.

She may be oblivious about many things but the weird thing hate-like atmosphere going between them was not one of them.

Just then, a knock on the door shook them out of it. Amaani went up and opened it, revealing Sufiyaan as expected. She smiled brightly at him and turned around to face the girls, giving them a signal to cover themselves if they wanted to.

"We're leaving?" she asked, unable to contain her excitement. He nodded, his eyes falling on the bag filled with scarves and a few necessities. "You wouldn't need all that, you know." He said. Amaani shrugged. "Just in case." then she turned to Saira and Eileen.

"Well girls, it's time." she pretended to be sad, sniffing back a fake tear. Her dramatic expressions couldn't help but make them smile. "Bye, Amaani," Eileen said while Saira just nodded. Though she felt disappointed not to have received a goodbye hug from them, she couldn't grieve over it because of the hurry.

She waved, grabbed her small bag, and pulled up her veil to cover her face. "I'm all set! Let's go!" she ignored the discomfort in her leg due to the bullet she had taken and rushed outside. Sufiyaan smiled involuntarily at his cousin's typical behavior. As she skipped away, Eileen walked after her probably to see preparations that were made for their journey.

Before he could leave, he turned to Saira once, not very eagerly after the hurtful remark she had made to Amaani as he was still upset by her. With a forced poker face, he spoke. "Aren't you going to see Sir Jaber off?" he asked. Saira got surprised at that, not expecting him to address her after the little argument they had.

"I've got something to do." she replied indifferently after snapping out of her surprise. The answer made him feel a bit annoyed. It wasn't the first time as her attitude was something he usually disliked, not just her weird behavior towards Amaani.

It made him think in anger; What was she so rude and arrogant about? Especially when she acted as if she cared about nothing. Not when someone talked to her, not when someone tried to be nice to her. All she cared about was following Jaber's orders.

He frowned unconsciously. "We're going to be away for a while and who knows what lies ahead? Whether we'll return in one piece or not. Whether we get into some big trouble or not. We don't even know if we're going to return at all. This may be the last goodbye." Weirdly, he was waiting for a specific answer from her which pushed him to convince her to see them off.

Saira's eyes widened as soon as his words hit her ears, disrupting her indifferent expression. "Allah forbid!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I mean," she quickly caught herself and cleared her throat. "My—our prayers are with you. Inshaa Allah, everything's going to be all good. You'll all return in one piece and hopefully good news with you." she looked at the ground, trying to hide the concern on her face, her heart fastening its pace.