Fariya Shafiq's life seems to have become a series of unfortunate events after a life riveting accident that took everything from her, leaving her painted with scars, quite literally.
She struggles to find herself everyday, to find even a trace of h...
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She woke alone in bed as she had been for the past four days, and she couldn't say that she was enjoying it at all. Fariya stumbled off the bed, rubbing at her eyelids to wipe the sleep off.
On shaky legs, she walked down the stairs, gripping the railing with both her hands as she did so. On habit, she found herself in the kitchen, and her face lit up when she found another letter stuck on the fridge with a magnet.
Shehryar had been leaving her letters to make up for the time he wasn't spending with her.
Moving the grape magnet away, she grabbed the beige letter from under it and unfolded it with a smile, reading the words scrawled over it in a handwriting she'd now come to recognize as her husband's.
After all, it would be a little weird if she found a letter on her fridge that wasn't from her husband.
Inside of it was one sentence that made her heart skip a beat while she found herself stifling a squeal at how adorable he was.
I wanted to hug you but you were asleep.
Suddenly, she gasped with a jolt when an arm wrapped around her waist from behind her, pulling her back.
She felt his breath on her neck before she heard his whispered words in her ear. "I can hug you now, can't I?"
Once she recovered from the shock, she relaxed into him and rested her head back on his shoulder, smiling up at him. "What are you doing home?"
He turned her around, cradling her neck with one hand and caressing her back with the other. "I'm here to get my hug?"
"What are you really doing at home?" She leaned into him, letting out another soft gasp when she felt something silky brushing her neck.
A white rose.
"I took off today, I'm done commanding around people about where the hell I want the furniture to be." He tugged her closer, now trailing the rose down her arm and wrapping her fingers around the stem, free of any thorns. "I remembered something far more important to do instead."
Her eyebrows creased as she twirled the rose between her fingers. "And what would that be?"
He picked up a brown envelope from the kitchen counter beside them- one she had failed to notice all this time- and handed it over to her before threading his fingers through hers, holding her.
He figured she would need the support once she read the papers.
Meanwhile, her heart raced in anticipation of what was in her hands, something that was more important than his work. But her heart halted to a stop when she read the heading without even having to go through the rest of it.
"Shehryar, what's this?" She mumbled, her fingers already trembling around the paper she held.
He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, offering her a smile of reassurance. "You can't just give up like this, Fariya."
In her hands was the acceptance letter to the university she had dropped out of when her life had ended up in a mess and she had lost the will to live anymore.
She fought back the tears gathering in her eyes and took a step back, away from him. But he only tightened his hold on her hand, not letting her move away. It felt like he was mocking her, knowing she could barely even write anymore. Continuing her studies, at least now, was a thought so far to her.
When she didn't say anything, he spoke up. "You have to try. There are other ways as well, and I believe you can do it if you try." He reinforced his grip on her hand once again when he felt it shaking in his hold.
Fariya was robbed of her words as she let him guide her onto the sofa in the living room. Her hands stayed folded into her lap, staring at the brown envelope that now sat on the coffee table in front of her.
"What do you want me to do?" She asked, hastily wiping at the tears that had fallen down her face.
Shehryar felt his heart crack a little at the sight.
"I'm not your enemy, Fariya. I only want what's best for you." He told her before getting up and returning with a notebook, pen and his laptop.
She nodded at his words, his reassurances barely registering in her head past the emptiness that clouded it. He just didn't know that she failed each and every time she attempted to write anything, she could already feel the shame that would burn her face later. She just needed the strength to face her fears head on.
Shehryar opened the notebook to an empty page and found a piece of text on his laptop for her to copy down before handing the pen to her. She took it, adjusting her weak fingers around it that were incapable of doing anything after being broken once.
The tip met the paper, ink bleeding into it as Fariya's hand continued trembling on. She dropped the pen, taking her head in her hands as tears of embarrassment stung her eyes. Shehryar sighed, not liking how easily she chose to give up, and took both of her hands in his, pulling them away from her face. She peered up at him through her wet lashes as he took her right hand in his own, banding his other arm around her to shift closer. He took hold of the pen between their fingers, gently guiding the tip of it on the paper, gliding slowly to form alphabets and then words. Fariya's heart had come to a halt at his patience that never seemed to run out when he was with her and she yet again felt love and gratitude filling her for being blessed with a man like Shehryar.
"There. Wasn't so hard, was it?" He finally spoke once they had a sentence written down. His hand rose to her face, wiping away the tear that had fallen, smiling lovingly at her as he did so. Fariya let out a heavy sigh, her heart so, so full of emotions that all she could do was bow her head and rest it against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. She closed her eyes, inhaling his scent that had started to feel more like home to her than anything else.
"I'm so grateful for you that I can't put it into words, Shehryar." She muttered, her hand toying with the soft cotton of his shirt that was pressed to her cheek.
At her words, his arms tightened around her and she snuggled closer. "You don't have to use words, Fariya. I understand it, too." He stroked her head, pulling at the clip that held her hair up in a bun, letting them tumble now her back in dark, silky waves and allowing him to thread his fingers through them.
At last, she lifted her head to stare at what exactly had they penned down together. She felt her breath hitch at the words on the paper.
You're the most beautiful woman I've ever laid my eyes on.
