WrongSufferedAtHands

26.

"You said smoking would kill me someday, and you were absolutely right." As she was seated across from a Bushra, she grinned.

She was given a critical look by Bushra, who said, "You're pretty awful at cracking jokes, like your old self."

Afiyah blew out the smoke, "Life has imparted me a lot of learnings, my friend." she twisted the cigarette between her finger, gazing upon the ceiling. "Never entrust a single people in your life; You never have anyone as yours."

"What now?"

"What now?" repeating her friend's query,"Waiting for death to arrive on my doorstep and consume me whole." she chuckled.

With her face buried in her hands, Bushra sighed.

"It is better than bleeding to death day in day out." said Afiyah, her voice growing mellow as she fixed her eyes on the ceiling. "Suicide is a sin, but death from cancer isn't. It's far simpler than having someone plunge daggers into your chest every day. Anyone that needs you approaches you and then slashes you like a piece of a fucking meat." Bringing the cigarette to her lips, she complained.

"Did you inform Hassan?"

Afiyah scoffed in response to her query, "He doesn't even want to see my face." She let the ash to land in the ashtray.

"You ought to find out what happened." Bushra urged her, proclaiming.

"I don't need to since I already know." Afiyah replied after consuming another plume of smoke, "There is only one lady who has her power over him. His mother is his first priority, and I assumed it incredibly late." she lamented indignantly, her voice growing coarser from all the coughing over the last few months, "I am only an ordinary girl that he once had feelings for."

"How about Affan? How did he find out?"

"Same situation. She has extended hands that allow her to reach wherever she desires." She sighed, "I knew the way he handled me like a worthless servant, and I knew it's her behind all of this."

"How are you so sure?" Bushra said as she drew closer.

"She is back from overseas." Afiyah said, snorting through her nose as she turned to face Bushra. "I inquired of the employees, who informed me that his mother had returned from overseas a few weeks prior and something had undoubtedly occurred the evening we had met in the gazebo."

She took a brief pause before saying, "Love really makes you blind. He begged me to leave him alone for the sake of God, but here I am remembering him in every prayer I say."

Bushra reclined back on the couch, watching Afiyah become engrossed in her thoughts.

"I loved him so completely and utterly that it tore me into shreds. Just when I thought I had everything — money, a house, and a family; my life began to spiral out of control"

"How can you implore someone to hear you, Bushra?" she took a deep breath as her mouth parched.

"When there is no longer any mercy offered, you should cease pleading for it." Bushra said as she moved closer to her and rested her hand on hers. "Therefore, it is pointless."

"I love him to bits." Afiyah remarked, attempting to grin but it flattened and her head drooped lower, "I am so naïve." Self-loathing made her chuckle, "Life is far too brief to be consumed by troubles." Bushra nodded in response as she spoke, catching her eye.

As the seasons changed, she grew quite uncomfortable with breathing. She concealed the presence of the disease from everyone; neither Sameer nor Hareem in her family were aware that she had cancer. Although it was obvious how the disease was consuming her, she preferred to remain discreet, stay quiet, and give the impression as though she had unexpectedly perished.