Shadow of Doubt

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

I didn't like how we left things with Sa'ad the night of our dinner and I can admit that it was entirely my fault. Sa'ad had left no stone unturned to make me enjoy my time that night and just towards the end of the night, my feelings got the best of me and my attitude changed completely towards him. He only complimented me and somehow, I felt he was trying to trap me because he had no right to do that when he has a very jealous fiancée waiting for him. I was surprised she wasn't blasting his phone with calls actually. He had tried to set a normal conversation as we ate, but I wasn't having any of it and I only ate less than half of the plate too. I wasted his money, which I almost angered him by insisting to pay.

So we drove back home in complete silence and when we arrived at home, it was past 9pm and I was surprised that daddy didn't call me even once to find out how I was doing. So unlike him.

Sa'ad had turned around after parking in front of the entrance to the foyer and turned around to look at me. "Okay, you had a great time until we entered that eatery." He had said. "Tell me, was it something I said or did?"

I scoffed out loud but immediately regretted it because this man dropped everything to make me have a good time. It wasn't his duty, he just did it out of pure kindness and some twisted affection towards me. I'd prefer if he kept the last part to himself, i wouldn't give in to false hopes.

"Thank you so much for this." I said this with a straight face and I knew I was being a brat but I couldn't help it. "I'm tired, I'd like to go in now."

"You're free, Hafsah." He said in a low voice, not giving away any emotion and I lingered for a moment but I realised there was no point. So I just left. Though I made sure to send him a text asking if he'd reached home safely after forty minutes or so. He replied with "Yes, thanks for checking in. A huta gajiya."

That was my last conversation with him and I was still staring at it, allowing my fingers to hover over the keyboard, wanting to "check in" with him again but my pride won't let me.

Just three days ago, I made my way to the gazebo to have some fresh air and read when I saw him making a phone call there. I changed my route the moment I locked eyes with him but when I stole another glance towards him, he looked unaffected because he was still on the phone, paying no attention to me.

That had hurt but I had nobody to blame but myself. For someone who was turning 21 in a few days, I was acting really childish and confused.

Just as I was about to start typing out a message to Sa'ad, the door to my room barged open and I rolled my eyes as one of the wonder twins walked in, swaying. I resisted the urge to hiss at these kids' stupidity anytime I was near them, I was still finding it hard to believe that I was related to them.

"Adda-" I didn't have to look up to know that it's Amna, the lesser evil between the two. "Aunty na kiran ki."

That was weird, I thought. Their mum hardly ever sent them to call me or look for me, especially not when she has guests. She was already at the door when I said "Did she say what this is about?"

She just mumbled no and walked out. I was even lucky, if it was Amra, she would just send me a text. A carbon copy of her mother, that one.

I stood up and pulled over an abaya on top of the camisole I was wearing and wrapped a veil around my head. I took my sling bag with me because anything might happen. I checked myself in the mirror to see what the guests would be seeing when they looked at me and I looked presentable at least.

Upon arriving at the visitors lounge- because that was where the noise was coming from and not her side, I saw a woman who was well dressed and looked decent. She was fair in complexion, two golden teeth detected from her grin when she saw me. She turned around to look at aunty and asked "Is this Iram?" Aunty nodded almost nonchalantly while the woman turned to me as I plastered a smile on my face. "Masha Allah" she said and I greeted her.