The Man And The Conspicuous Lady

CHAPTER 3

Chapter 3

*7 years ago*

"Good morning babe!", Noura says as she kisses Saad's forehead. Saad groans and slowly opens his eyes. He sees Noura standing besides him, smiling at him. It's been a week since they came back from their honeymoon from Maldives. Noura and Saad had married recently after meeting each other at a friend's party. Noura is a pretty girl with hazel eyes and long, dark, wavy hair. She has a petite figure and and soft but clear voice. Her looks had really enchanted Saad and that was the first time he had ever approached a girl at a party. Rather unexpectedly, he got married, much to his parents' dismay.

"Mornin' babe", Saad says as he lifts his head off the pillow. "Mmmmm.....what's that wonderful smell?", Saad asks as he could get some really good smell of breakfast.
"I made shakshouka for you. You like it, don't you?", Noura replies as she hugs him and brings him closer.
"Thanks a lot babe. You should have woken me up earlier so that I could help you", Saad said.
"Noooo dear. That's my surprise for you.", Noura says, winking at Saad.
He smiles and gets up, going to the washroom, freshening up.

He went downstairs to see Noura setting the table and serving the food. He came and gave her a hug and a kiss. They both giggled and sat down for breakfast.

"Oh! Before I forget, my dear Noori, mom and dad are coming tonight for dinner. So is Abdul bhaiya, Rani bhabi and Waleed. Don't worry about the dinner. I'm gonna make it tonight. Just wear the saree that mom bought for you.", Saad says as he proceeds to take a bite.
Noura puts down her fork, lifted her head and said,"Don't mind me saying Saad. But I'm really not looking forward to meeting your family. I know that they don't like me. Especially after my first divorce with-"
"Oh dear, dear!" Saad said as he held Noura's hand. "Don't think about all that. You know all of that are rumors and once mom and dad gets to know you well, they will immediately embrace you in their arms and consider you as one of their own." Noura smiles as they both clutch each others hands tighter. "But Saad", Noura says, "Did you tell your parents about the house as yet?"
"No but I'm planning to tell them tonight . Don't you worry about that. They'll understand." Saad says as he proceeds to the sink with his empty plate. Saad turns back and gives Noura a reassuring smile causing Noura to smile back.

*Same day 7:30 PM*
Saad's family arrives home just in time. They ring the bell and are welcomed by Saad. He greets each of them and gives them a hug and a kiss. As they enter, they see Noura. That moment the chattering stops and the family members awkwardly stare at her and then at each other. Saad breaks the silence and says,"Noura, come and greet them."
Noura walks towards them awkwardly and gives her salaam. They reciprocate and give her a hug. The couple escorts the family to the living room where they are seated and Noura goes inside the kitchen to bring some refreshments for the guests. As they are seated in silence, Zayed, the family patriarch looks at Saad.
"So how is the new life going?", Zayed asks.
"Yes dad. It's going good. And I'm hoping for better days coming ahead." Saad replies.
"And how's Noura?", Zainab, his mother asks.
"Yeah Alhamdulillah she's good mom. She's been adjusting quite well to this new life of ours."
"That's not what I meant.", Zainab says. "Then what do you mean mom?", Saad asks.
"You know very well what I mean dear. And you know your bride very well too. So does the entire society know her.", Zainab says. Saad immediately understands. "Mom, please. You know they are just rumors right. And can we please not judge her just because of her past marriage with that man. She's had a very tough time and what we should be doing is to be understanding and supportive. ", Saad says in a calm and cool tone.
"You're not getting our point, Saad", Zayed says,"Your mother and I have no problem whatsoever with her being a divorcee. The problem is with the rumors that's been going around with her divorce. You never know if what people said were actua-", Zayed stops as he sees Noura peeking from the kitchen. Noura gets astonished and makes her way towards the living room with a tray of orange juice. She places in infront of them on the table and proceeds to sit. She sits next to Saad facing his parents. Waleed is sitting towards the left while Abdul and Rani are seated towards the right. They start drinking the cold, freshly pressed orange juice in silence.
"So, Noura. Now that you are back from your honeymoon, are you going back to work or have you extended your leave?", Rani asks as she's sipping on the orange juice.
Noura looks at Saad waiting for a reply. Saad looks at Rani and says,"Well about the job. Her company pays her quite less than what she does and her boss isn't quite nice. So she left her job and is searching for a new one."
"Are you sure about that?", Rani replies staring at Noura with a mocking look on her face. "So where are you planning to work now? Have you got any job offers yet? What about interviews? Did you go for any-"
"I'll let you know once I get a job", Noura shot back. This kind of angered Rani but she keeps calm and quite.
"Mmmmmm.....that smell of biryani. What have you cooked today bhabi?", Waleed asks as he puts down his glass. "Oh I cooked today Waleed.", Saad replied. "There's chicken biryani, some boiled eggs, fried fish and roshgulla for dessert. Come in you all. Let's have dinner already. We can do some barbecue up in the terrace later at night."
Everyone gets up and proceeds to the dining table. Noura and Rani help with serving the dishes while the entire family is seated. The smell of the food made everyone go hungry as they pile their plates with food. They start eating, relishing the taste of the food.
"Oh dear! The food tastes amazing!", Zayed says as he puts a ball of the biryani rice in his mouth. "Yeah right. Who's son is he after all?", Zainab says, grinning proudly towards her son. Saad blushes a little and thanks her for the compliments. "Yeah I must say Saad. You learnt a lot from your elder brother", Abdul says mockingly as everyone laughs and his mother jokingly pulls his ear.
"Yes Saad does make really good food. He really made me forget about my mom's cooking", Noura says. Everyone looks at her and stays silent. The rest of the dinner was awkward with everyone sitting quietly and eating their food. After they were done and Waleed washed the dishes even though Saad insisted him not to, they went back to the living room to have some dessert. As they were seated and Noura brought the dessert, they ate some of it and started talking about the stuffs going on within their friends and family circle. Stuffs normally talked about with South Asian families like someone's work life, family, studies and so on. Then Zayed looked at Noura and asked,"So Noori dear, how's your dad's business going. I heard he recently bought a new property."
"Yes papa. It's near the Rodcliffe Inn." Noura replied and smiled.
"Didn't that belong to Salman, your ex husband?", Rani asks, grinning at Noura.
"Yes. It was my mehr from him before our marriage. Any problem?", Noura shot back. "But didn't he gift you a mansion as your mehr in one of the wealthy suburbs his grandfather used to live in? He never mentioned about the property near Rodcliffe." Rani replied wittily.
Noura was visibly upset and flustered. She looked at Rani and said, "Well, Rani bhabi, just because a husband gives mehr to his wife does not mean he cannot gift his wife anymore. I received that property as a gift right after my unfortunate marriage to him."
"But what I heard, Noura dear, is that he sold that property at the time of your divor-"
"That's ENOUGH BHABI", Noura yelled as she stood up and glared at Rani. "I know what you are trying to imply by this. I know you all think that I cheated on my ex husband and stole his wealth. I don't blame you all though. You all are just blind and believe what everyone wants you to believe. You know what? That's enough for today. Dinner's over. Y'all can leave."
"Who are you to tell us that? This is my brother's house." Abdul says sternly. "Moreover you have no right to talk to my wife like that. Of course as Saad's sister-in-law, she is extremely concerned about his well being and considering the fact that you have a terrible background, she has every right to-"
"Bhaiya, enough", Saad yelled leaving the entire family astonished.
"How dare you speak like that with your brother, Saad" Zainab yelled back. She then proceeds to look towards Noura's direction and says," looking at how defensive you are getting, I'm wondering if whatever people said were true or-"
"Mom, ENOUGH", Saad screamed, glaring at his mom.
"SAAD, HOW DARE YOU!? IS THAT HOW WE RAISED YOU TO BE? TO SCREAM AT YOUR MOM AND YOUR BROTHER", Zayed shot back. "And as for you Noura, remember this house is just not yours. It's my son's. I gifted this to him after-"
"Dad, I need to tell you something. I have been wanting to tell you this but I named this house under Noura. And whatever she says, I trust her. And yes, it's already late now and dinner's over. Maybe you all should leave and come back again once you all have-"
"You did WHAT!!?? SON, HOW COULD YOU?!!", Zainab yelled. "We have already gifted her a gold jewellery and named this house both under yours and her name. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT??!!"
"Mom please, that was my choice. It was a gift to her from my side", Saad replied calmly.
"But bhaiya, we have already given whatever she wanted", Waleed spoke up. "Why on Earth would you do that right now? If you really wanted, you could have gifted it to her a few years later. Why-"
"Waleed don't interfere. You're still young enough to speak about such matters." Saad shot back
"Saad, even your younger brother knows what you did was wrong", Zayed said, keeping his composure. "Especially after the fact that we have been hearing rumors about her and you still insisted on marrying her even after we-"
"DAD, SHUT UP. AND LEAVE", Saad screamed shocking everyone.
"Sure we will. Thanks for the dinner and for throwing us out", Abdul said in an angry voice. "C'mon let's leave. We don't wanna involve in Mr Saad's life anymore."
Saying this, the entire family left. Saad embraced Noura asking her to calm down.

*A year later*
"SAAD, WAKE UP!", Noura screams as Saad wakes up in a state of shock. "You seriously think you can sleep all day long and not do any work. Goodness!", Noura yells back as Saad makes his way to the washroom. Just within a year, everything had changed in Saad's life. The theatre degree just wasn't working out. The film industries work on nepotism and even though his family is well off, they don't belong to some political party or don't come from acting background because of which he has a hard time finding good paying jobs. Noura was the only breadwinner in the house as she now handles Saad's business. Saad had entrusted her over the business and even named all his properties under her name. His parents had begged him not to do so but he just trusted Noura with everything. As he is done taking a shower and changing into a new pair of clothes, he makes his way out the door, looking back at Noura who was eating breakfast and didn't bother asking him if he would like some. He said her good bye but she just ignored him, busy with her breakfast. He sighed and he walked out, thinking what just went wrong in his perfect life. He had everything planned out- get a good job, earn good money, handle the business, marry the love of his life and have kids. But nothing seems to be working. He went to the bus stop waiting for the bus. His car is now being used by Noura as she needs it to get to work. She had decided to take over Saad's business and quit working a 9-5 job.

As Saad got into the bus, he wondered if it was just him or if Noura's behaviour towards him had just changed terribly. She would taunt him each time he comes back home from a failed interview. She laments over the fact that both of Saad's brothers, Abdul and Waleed are proper breadwinners of their families and are quite respected in society whereas Saad's career is nowhere close to theirs. He lacks a good degree like Abdul's and good business skills like Waleed's and has been unemployed for a pretty long time. She scolds him for the old car that they have and the shabby two storey house they live in while Abdul is living in a proper bungalow. "Well, she could have bought us a house and a car with the money she's earning now from the business, right?", Saad thought in his head. "But why should I care about her money. I'm supposed to be the breadwinner. She's already working and taking care of the house which is quite unfair. I should atleast be able to earn some money to take care of the house."

As Saad reaches his destination, he gets off the bus and goes walking towards the film agency's building where he is supposed to have his interview. As he went inside and asked the receptionist where his interview was gonna be, he was told to go back as they have already selected their candidate.
"But that's unfair", Saad said with agony. "How can they select someone like that? I have been told to come to the interview at this time and I'm like 15 minutes early. Please ask your boss to atleast see-"
"The interview's over and selection has been done. There's nothing more I can do", the receptionist said with an arrogant tone.
"Could you please let me talk to him? Please, I need this jo-"
"Don't you understand", the receptionist yelled back. "I told you SELECTION has been DONE. There's nothing more I can do. But if you want, I could ask boss if he needs more spot boys or-"
"No need. Thanks", Saad said, looking upset as he makes his way towards the door. He was dreading about going home and telling Noura about his yet another failed interview.

As Saad reached home, he called out Noura's name. No response.
"Nouuuraaa", Saad called out again. No response. He then remembered there was a deal she was closing her business partner and dad, Ishaq Shah. Since she would be home late tonight, he decided to prepare dinner as he didn't want another burden on his wife. He prepared 'khichdi' as that was the easiest to cook and fried some fish.

It was 9:30 PM now and Noura hasn't yet arrived. He called her but her phone was switched off. He thought she might be at her dad's place since that's were she mostly goes after business meetings with her dad. Her dad, Ishaq, is the actual mastermind behind all of Noura's businesses and whatever success came through the business were all Ishaq's credits. Although Saad had named everything in his possession under Noura's name, it is actually Ishaq who takes care of everything.
By now, Saad's stomach was growling so he decided to eat. He had his dinner and went to bed early after praying his night prayers.

Next morning, when he woke up, he didn't find Noura besides him. Nor was she in the washroom. He quickly freshened up and prayed, went downstairs but didn't find Noura. He went up to get his phone to call Noura when he sees a text message from her. It says, "Saad. When you wake up, just check under the mat outside our doorstep. I've left something for you." Saad goes down and stands at the entrance door with his keys dangling. He unlocked the door, opened and looked down at the mat. He pulled behind the mat and saw a file over there. He picked it up, opened it and was shocked to see what was there. Those were papers from the court.

Divorce papers.