A walk on thorns

Chapter 58| Teaching A Lesson!

Sabrina's POV

It took me a few agonizing minutes to orient myself, to understand where I was, to piece together the fragments of reality that felt sharper than broken glass. The air was heavy, suffocating, and my chest ached as though it had been hollowed out. I was lying in a room, and a woman sat next to me, her presence unfamiliar yet comforting in the most fragile way.

The fog in my mind cleared just enough for the weight of my thoughts to crash back in.

Abdul Majeed.

I bolted upright, my breath catching in my throat. A visceral wave of hope gripped me—a desperate, irrational belief that this was all some sick, twisted nightmare. Maybe I had fainted after the ordeal of my abduction, and now I was safe. Maybe Abdul Majeed wasn’t gone. Maybe everything was still intact.

Before I could speak, her voice broke through my spiraling thoughts.

“Sabrina, are you awake?” Aunty Zee asked, her tone soft, almost pleading, as she reached out to steady me.

“Aunty Zee…” My voice cracked, trembling with the weight of unspoken fear. “Is it true? Was he gone?”

I searched her face for a shred of mercy, for something that would pull me back from the edge of despair. But the slight, pained nod she gave was more devastating than any words she could have spoken. Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears, but her attempt to hold them back shattered the last fragment of hope I had clung to.

My throat tightened. My hands began to tremble.

No. Ya Rabb, no.

The door creaked open, and Mommy Malika entered the room. Her composure was a mask of resilience, but I could see the cracks. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her shoulders slightly slumped under the invisible weight of grief.

“Sabrina…” she began, her voice carrying both relief and sorrow. “Alhamdulillah, you’ve woken up.”

“What of Farhana?” Aunty Zee’s voice broke the fragile silence.

“She woke up some time ago,” Mommy Malika replied before sitting beside me, her hand brushing lightly against my arm. “It is okay, my daughter,” she said gently, though her words carried a gravity that pinned me in place. “It will be fine. Be strong and pray for him. That is all we can do now.”

Her words hit me like a storm. My heart cracked anew, the pieces already fractured beyond repair. It wasn’t a dream. The reality clawed at my chest like a living thing, suffocating, relentless.

“In Sha Allah… I will,” I murmured, though my voice sounded foreign to me—weak, hollow, barely audible. Tears, fresh and hot, spilled down my cheeks in endless streams.

I swallowed hard, trying to steady myself. “Thank you so much… for your love and care. You are his mom, and yet you are the strongest one among all of us. No wonder he was so proud of you.” My voice cracked, and I turned away slightly, unable to bear the raw emotion on her face. “I need to go back home. It’s already dark.”

Mommy Malika’s gaze softened, though a shadow of worry passed over her features. “Can you drive, Sabrina? You should call home and tell them you’ll stay here tonight. This is your home too, my daughter.”

Her kindness only deepened the ache in my chest, but I couldn’t allow myself to stay. Not now. Not when I felt the walls closing in on me, suffocating me with memories of him.

“Don’t worry, Mommy Malika,” I said, attempting to mask my shattered soul with an illusion of composure. “I’ll be fine. It’s not far from here. I’ll come back in the morning, In Sha Allah.”