As Long As I Live

Daughters - The Precious Ones

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"Wisten to me! Twinkie Twinkie wittle star. Howwa wonder what you are. Up abba the world so high. Wike a dy-man in the sky. Yay!"

Mayra smiled and clapped along with the adorable four year old who adamantly refused to leave her alone. Amina had barged into the room, had Aamir listen to her proud achievement of a nursery rhyme ten times straight till his eyes were begging Mayra to save him.

Mayra pulled the little bundle of cuteness and energy on her lap and requested for a repeat performance and Aamir, ever so grateful to Mayra, made a run for it to the office for a post-lunch meeting.

Mayra smiled at her and hugged her tightly to her chest. Amina looked at her with so much love and adoration that Mayra felt herself tearing up. It wasn't everyday that people looked at her like that, with love. They looked at her with pity and with guilt. And she hated that.

She had some pride too, even if most of it had been demolished during the two years of her marriage. She had a sense of self-respect and honour. She held her head high.

Now she had been reduced to a helpless beggar, an impoverished leper, who turned to her husband to fulfil her needs. So helpless was she, that even though her husband had been the vilest of abusers, she was still living with him, pretending - for the sake of her own sanity - that her life was fine.

But it was not fine. It had become a joke! She had merely graduated from being Rizwan Khan's daughter to being Aamir Hassan's wife. The real Mayra had been lost somewhere in that transaction. The worst of it all was that she feared her identity was lost permanently, and that there was no chance of getting it back. That would kill her. There would be nothing left worth fighting for, worth living for.

Amina's baby voice cut her thoughts. "Mami?"

"Yes, sweetheart?" Mayra looked at the cute kid staring at her with big eyes.

"I wove you, Mami."

Mayra hugged her fiercely and whispered, "I love you too, my princess!"

Amina played with a lock of her hair and said, "When you were sick and mommy said that you had a tummy ache, Amina was very sad. Now you are ok, and Amina is very happy!"

Mayra looked at her puzzled. "Tummy ache?"

"Yeah!" Amina nodded her head enthusiastically, her pigtails bobbing up and down. "Mommy said that you were having tummy ache just wike Amina has tummy ache when Amina eats too much candy."

Mayra smiled at the innocent description and said, "but now Mami doesn't have a tummy ache. Mami is fine."

"Yay!" Amina clapped and kissed Mayra's cheek.

Mayra played with her and listened to her babble till she fell asleep, out of exhaustion, cuddled to Mayra. Gazing at her peaceful and innocent face Mayra thought of how precious she was. How precious daughters were.

All daughters, except her.

Her own parents refused to believe her when she told them the truth, they believed Sameera instead. How could they? But Sameera had those photographs. The ones where she appeared to be really friendly, way too friendly, with Jaffar. It was only natural that they doubted her, but to accept doubt as guilt and to convert allegation into conviction, no parent should do that to their child.