Shunned

Chapter 13

That Friday

Zoya and Asad were busy the rest of the week with their respective works and preparing for the arrival of his family. Zoya was not sure what to make of this nervous and agitated Asad, the guy rarely shows any emotions, but now even she could feel his nerves, he kept on tossing and turning last night and she was sure he barely slept the whole week from the dark circles around his eyes. Even now he was staring off into nothing with a blank look in his eyes. She wondered what happened to warrant such a reaction out of him.

"Asad", she called out. No response. "Asad!", she yelled. He jumped, looked around confused and then noticing her, glared at her. "Allah Miya! What's wrong with you", she exclaimed exasperated, "You have been moping around for a week now, can you please tell me the reason why your family coming to visit has you so worried", Asad looked at her stoically, "No", and walked away. Zoya spluttered in indignation, it felt like their relationship was back to square one with him ignoring her completely.

She followed him into the training room and saw him putting on gloves. "Asad, please don't act like that, I am just trying to understand what is wrong so I know how to help you", Asad whirled around, "I don't NEED your help, do you understand", he asked menacingly. Zoya looked lost. Gone was the caring, considerate man who read with her to alleviate her fear and in his place was this growling lion who seemed as familiar as an old nightmare ,oh she almost forgot, he had always been this way till the last couple of weeks. She was the one dreaming fantasies it turns out. Seeing the hurt and confusion in Zoya's eyes Asad turned away and started hooking up his punching bag. Zoya walked out of the room, softly closing the door behind her.

The Next Day

Zoya was starting to feel uneasy with the awkward silence between everyone. Asad's family had arrived that morning and she was starting to understand why he was dreading the visit. His step mother, Shireen was to put it mildly dull and it is too blatantly obvious she prefers her own kids to Asad with the way she keeps praising them non-stop. Other than Ayaan she has two daughters, Nikhat and Nusrat. Asad's sister Najma was also with them and was smiling shyly at everyone. They had barely any contact with each other after the wedding but they seemed like nice girls. The way they kept on cringing and avoiding everyone's eyes when their mother praised them gives Zoya hope.

The one person Zoya took a instant dislike to, is their aunt, Raazia who kept on making pointed jibes at Asad about almost everything and he kept on clenching his jaws and grinding his teeth. Zoya shivered looking at him. "So Zoya, how is married life going so far", Shireen asked her. Zoya plastered a smile on her face and replied without missing a beat, "It's so unexpected, but wonderfully so", Asad snickered at that. Everyone looked shocked at him. It almost looked like they didn't know Asad had other shades to his character other than the angry growling lion.

Zoya gave him a sidelong glance but looked otherwise unaffected. After some more formal conversations they decided to have lunch."Wow Bhai the food tastes delicious", Nikhat said shyly to Asad. "Zoya made it", he said smiling at her. "Asad helped me a lot", Zoya chimed in. True Zoya had woken up early and started prepping when Asad unexpectedly had joined her and started helping her chop and sauté so she was able to multitask which made everything so much easier.

"The menu should have included a bit more variety", said Raazia in a condescending tone. Zoya who was used to Asad's inane grumpiness didn't even feel a thing and said sweetly, "Yes Raazia aunty, I will definitely keep that in mind for the next time. It's just that since its the first time I am cooking for everyone I wanted to keep it simple but made sure everything tasted great". Raazia looked surprised then said mollified, "It did taste good". "Thank you", Zoya gave a innocent smile. Asad gave her a disbelieving look, Zoya guessed it's because she had better control on her emotions than he did. Unlike him she can't go around ignoring everyone and grinding her teeth. can she? She liked having teeth, thank you very much. Raazia looked put off as she was expecting Zoya to feel bad and even cry, not this cheery response. She didn't know what to make of her. Asad's cousins all looked impressed.

That evening

After everyone were settled in their rooms, Zoya went to her room which the girls were sharing for the night. Asad had bunked with his other male cousins.

"So girls, tell me all about you", Zoya said excitedly to everyone. The girls had become comfortable with each other after spending the day together. They started chatting about their college life. Around midnight everyone starting feeling drowsy and went to bed.

Zoya couldn't sleep so she went outside to get some air. She was sitting on the garden bench with her faithful dogs around her when she heard a timid "Zoya, can I join you", Zoya looked around and saw Najma standing with a coffee mug looking uncertainly. "Of course Najma, come on, You couldn't sleep either, could you", Zoya asked.

"Yeah, I am not used to staying away from home", Najma shrugged. They both sat in a comfortable silence. "Are you really happy Zoya with my brother?", Najma asked suddenly sounding serious. Zoya looked shocked but then said tentatively, "I wouldn't say I'm over the moon, but I am happy I think", she said with a sad smile.

Najma looked thoughtful for sometime then said," I think bhai is happy with you", Zoya looked at her surprised, "Really? How can you tell? I hardly think it's from his expressions. Don't get me wrong but your bhai only has two emotions when it comes to me, angry and angrier" Najma laughed. "Has Bhai told you about his childhood?", Najma asked her. Zoya shrugged, "Not really".

"As you know Bhai and I were Abbu's children from his first marriage. Before our Ammi died, our family was so happy. Abbu was protective but caring father, Ammi was the kindest and the best mom and bhai...", she trailed off. Zoya could see her blinking away tears and trying to compose herself so she laid a hand on her arm and squeezed reassuringly.

Najma smiled at her sadly and continued, "Bhai was such a happy kid, he was always pulling pranks on us and was very outgoing. My Ammi had a tough time making him stop talking, he was that chatty", Najma continued with a far away look in her eyes. "When Ammi died in an accident that fateful day, everything changed. It was like we didn't know how to go on anymore. Abbu threw himself into his work and there was no one to take care of us. I was still a child then so bhai took the role of Ammi and cared for me. For almost two years, Abbu went into depression and rarely even talked to us so we grew apart. Then Abbu brought home a woman and told us he's going to marry her and we should call her Ammi", Najma sighed.

"Everything started going downhill from there. Abbu married her and bhai couldn't forgive him for replacing our Ammi. She wasn't exactly cruel but after her children were born it was plain she preferred them over us. After Ayaan was born bhai started coming out of his shell a little bit. They were so close and bhai almost raised Ayaan on his own as Shireen aunty often got sick. After Nikhat and Nusrat were born, we got used to Shireen aunty".

She sighed, "Then again things started getting worse. When bhai was a teenager, on our Ammi's death anniversary Abbu threw away Ammi's things after a huge fight with Shireen aunty. Bhai was very angry and hurt so he started rebelling against Abbu. It started getting worse day by day after that, so Abbu sent bhai away to a boarding school abroad", Najma looked pretty sad by then.

"Bhai only came home on holidays from then on, after every visit bhai started drifting apart from us little by little. He rarely smiled and spent most of his time alone when he did come home. Time went by like that. Bhai moved back to India and started his business few years back. Ayaan started meeting him often since his college was close to Asad bhai's house. He says he is doing okay these days and even jokes around sometimes", she said sadly.

"I always wished to see bhai like his old happy self you know. I saw a glimpse of the old bhai today", she said smiling at Zoya. Zoya looked uncertain, "Really?", she asked doubtfully. Najma laughed at her. "Of course, he was smiling more than usual, he even teased us. I did see his gaze kept on searching for you whenever you were not around", at this Najma gave Zoya a small smirk. "He looked at peace and calm most importantly. I haven't seen him this content in a long time", she said wistfully.

Zoya was silent for a while taking it all in. "I am glad bhai married you Zoya", Najma said with a grateful smile. Zoya pulled her into a hug and both of them held on to each other. Najma told her goodbye to Zoya and left after that. Zoya sat there in thought. Her husband's past is more complicated than she imagined. "Zoya", Zoya jumped startled and whirled around to see Asad looking at her, arms crossed.