Besabriyan

26|TWENTY SIX

Her heart became so heavy that it was suffocating to be just sitting on the bed while waiting for him to walk through the door. Maheen stepped out of the room to look for him only to find that the entire family had retired for the night. An unfamiliar ache kept pinching her heart as she found her way out of the house to where the decors were placed in the lawn. The subtle peach and half white decorations had taken over the place and accentuated it by a hundred folds while the fairy lights were draped over the trees and the plants to lighten up the entire area at the moment of the ceremony.

A sign made of metals with Zaviyar and Noorul Ain's initials on it to be placed on the stage was kept carefully with the other things. Wind so cold brushed her skin making her wrap her arms around herself and give warmth. She didn't know where Zaviyar had gone after he left her off in the mansion, all that she heard was the revving of engine and the opening of front gates and she knew he was gone. Maheen had always disliked- hated- the third person in her parents' marriage, the one who her father had to take hands of and the one who took her mother's place in his life. The disliking or the hatred wasn't intentional but it was natural to come to her as she grew up watching her mother juggle through life after divorce and hear people talk about her and so when she came to know that he had a fiancee, her first instinct was to run from him and not become someone who came between two people.

Things were a lot different then since he didn't have a day finalized to marry his fiancee and things were a lot different because he was willing to call off his engagement if that would get him to where she was. He was eager. He was excited. He was fighting himself to come out of the loop because he was so in love. Though the love was still there in his eyes, the lights around him, that he had hesitantly drapped, were dimmed and as if it wasn't the same anymore. She knew- Maheen, of all people, knew it would take a lot to win his trust back. She would have wounds that bled, she would have scars to speak for her love in the future, she would have battled a war to get through everything and find a way back to her husband. Even though he was only a few steps away.

Daniyal was right when he told her about the world supported patriarchy and favoured men. He had walked out on her on their wedding night- took his car and drove away from home but it would bother nobody. He could as he willed and his position of being one of the renowned politician's son and the president of a company would only add to the list of his favors. He wasn't at loss when she rejected him but she was. She definitely was.

"Agar tumhe lagta hai na ke tum dono ka barabar ka nuqsan hua hai toh tumhe ghalat lagta hai, Mahi," Daniyal stared dead at her, his eyes were a straight giveaway that he had come a long way from teasing her, "Woh mard hai aur mard zaat ko duniya ne apni marzi se jeene ka haq diya hua hai par baat jab aurat ki aati hai toh uski marzi baghair uske mard ke nahi chalti."

And how true that was. She had always lived under her mamu jaan's shadow even though the old man had only ever taught her to grow wings and spread them out on the sky. She had a mother in the house but she was known as Abul Kashem Ahmed's niece mostly amongst the neighbors. She wouldn't do anything to change it but she would also never have the identity of her own the way she wanted it, unlike her mother who had spent all her life as the divorced wife of Kamran sahb. She was known as a man's daughter, a man's niece, a man's cousin and now a man's wife.

Seconds turned into minutes and minutes, into a half an hour. She was lost in the train of her own thoughts until another gust of cold air touched her skin making her wither in coldness and she gained her rationality back when she decided to walk inside the house and to get some sleep, a wink of it at least if that was even possible. The door to his room creaked as she pushed it open and an involuntary gasp took her by shock- her mind registering the scene unravelled in front of her. There he was; the love of her life and her newly wedded husband- dozed off on the bed with his head rested against the wall, legs crossed at the ankles, his arms crossed over his chest and his snore soft. For someone who wouldn't willingly fall asleep, he looked so much at ease.