Dare You To Love Me

«8» thoughts of you

The invitation weighed heavily against Yaseerah's palms, resurfacing old feelings she thought were long buried.

Her name, along with Fou'ad's, stared glaringly at her, the gold cursives mocking her.

Her heart twisted with the pain brought about by her lack of choice in the matter.

It still frustrated her that her father could make her cry after all this time. The pain and confusion about his treatment of her still stole her breath away and brought her to her knees.

She should be stronger than this; she knew it. But he was also her father, the man half responsible for bringing her into the world.

No matter how much she detested his actions, she couldn't truly detest him.

If only he had asked her once what she thought about being betrothed at a young age, and that too, to someone she hadn't known or met before. Then maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't feel like the rug had been pulled from under her feet, or like she was free-falling from the sky with no parachute or safety net to catch her.

Maybe, if he had asked her opinion just once, then he would know how she truly felt about this sham of a marriage he was roping her into.

But she had learned not to wish for things to be different. Once, he had been a father every daughter would wish to have had, but now? Now, he was every daughter's worst nightmare.

She had no idea what wife number three had done to trigger such a drastic change in him, but wonder as she did, there was nothing that she could think of.

She choked back a sob that threatened to spill out of her lips as she answered the call that had just come through her cell.

There was no room for ignoring the call; her phone would incessantly ring until she picked it up.

Annoyance should have been her reaction, but as time went on, his insistence on checking up on her warmed her heart.

She didn't speak, and neither did he, until he sighed, breaking the silence.

“I take it you saw the invitation?” he asked, his voice cautious, as it always was when he talked to her.

“I'm staring at it,” she laughed, but it was a hollow one.

“And how do you feel about it?” he asked tentatively, unsure whether it was the right question to be asking her in this moment.

“How do you think I feel about it?” she questioned back, suddenly feeling tired of the whole situation.

“Yas...” he began, but she cut him off before he could get a word in.

“I knew it was only a matter of time before it came, I just wasn't expecting it today of all days,” she sighed, pressing her knuckles over her eyes. "It doesn't matter anyway. I guess I just thought..."

“Don't fault yourself for thinking that things could be different, Yaseerah. I know I wish the same for you, and in shaa Allah, this is for the best.”

Yaseerah didn't reply to him, refusing to think or even acknowledge his statement. At this point, she had no idea if breathing was even best for her.

“Has he seen them?” she asked, changing the topic, something they had never truly acknowledged during their conversations for the past two years since they'd known each other.

Though he had told her everything there was to know about the Farrajs, his information about her betrothed was limited at best.

Whether Abbad had kept quiet about that for her benefit or his brother’s, she had no idea, but she had been grateful for that.