Under That Niqab

39. Perplexed

A/N: TW, flashback in italics. 

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"Here, rest your back now...slowly" Rabi adjusted a white stuffed pillow on the backrest of the hospital bed, behind Haya. Her coffee-brown, barren eyes flickered while she gently pressed her back against the pillow.

"Thank you" She mumbled, her voice merely a whisper edgy. She was feeling way better now after a few days, since the mirror incident that is. Rabi was the only person she saw apart from the medical staff. No one asked her what had happened earlier to make her land in a hospital neither did she tell.

It was like she had a nightmare whose aftereffects she was suffering right now. A nightmare that threshed her every single nerve. It was never leaving her mind and stuck like a leech, painful and provoking her senses and sinking her heart into a never-ending empty pit.

She never spoke until words were dragged out of her vocal cords or she needed something and couldn't get to it. Her body was extremely weak.

"Someone's here to meet you" Rabi informed her, smiling widely, she was keeping a smile on her face like it was permanently painted there just to make Haya feel lighthearted little did she know that smile unsettled Haya because contrary to Rabi, she had lost her smile permanently. It was snatched away from her features rather harshly.

Rabi didn't wait for Haya to answer back, she wouldn't anyway, and pulled the door open.

A face very familiar appeared from behind the door which petrified Haya. Her brows twitched while she stared at the presence of that new person.

"Remember her?" Rabi asked her as if it was some ordinary thing to throw someone whom her mind almost wiped out of existence, in front of her. Her hand reached the bandage on her forehead obliviously.

"F-Faiza" she breathed out, still looking horrified because she could only see the presence of one person who was associated with her, someone she never wanted to see in her life.

"I am" Faiza came inside, the door closing behind her carrying a little girl curled up in her arms, head resting on the shoulder, sleeping.

Haya panicked looking at her approaching figure and moved back pressing more into the pillow "H-he didn't come right? He sh-shouldn't come. You should go too" Haya stuttered, shaking her head and gesturing with her hand.

"Who are you talking about?" Rabi inquired as she got closer to sit beside Haya on the bed itself.

"Zaki?" Faiza asked, confused.

Haya shook her head vigorously. "A-Adnan should not know about this. F-Faiza please go. I don't want to- I don't want to see you"

"It's just me. Zaki's not here" Faiza stilled her feet assuring Haya that she was alone making Haya free of her insecurity. Or so she thought.

"N-not him" Haya shook her head along with her hand, while the other two women shared confused glances at each other, confused by Haya's state.

"Shavez?" Faiza caught on immediately because she could never forget how uneasy Haya was even back on her wedding day, asking about Shavez many times, she muttered but it was loud enough to reach Haya's ears.

"Please don't take his name. Adnan-Adnan, he will-"

"Hey shh" Rabi shushed making Haya glance at her, creases on her forehead prominent. "There's no one here. Just me and Faiza" She asserted, easing Haya's tense state, her forehead unwinding.

No one mentioned Adnan in front of Haya up until now, it was like everyone was avoiding the topic and focusing on Haya's betterment. And Haya, she was just scared to utter anything related to that because she wasn't simply ready to hear whatever must have happened before she got conscious on a hospital bed.