A walk on thorns

Chapter 64| Trouble In Paradise

Sabrina's POV

The room felt suffocating, weighed down by the tension that had grown unbearable. Aunt Haseena’s bitterness was a dagger, aimed with precision, while Aunt Saudah’s venom only deepened the wounds. Anisha’s tears flowed freely now, each drop a testament to the torment she had endured.

"Please, one of you should at least make sense more than this girl. Tell me why I wouldn’t prefer being raised by her!" Anisha snapped, her voice cracking under the weight of her pain. Her eyes, red and swollen, bore into Aunt Haseena as if challenging her to refute her truth. "Aunt Haseena, I, Anisha Taheer Ribado, have no reason, absolutely none, to go back to that marriage. I have given the benefit of the doubt, I have tolerated, endured, and done far more than your imagination can fathom. There’s more to things than what meets the eye, but it’s not everything I’ll parade in the streets for you to believe me. The points I’ve shared should be enough reason for you to let me be!"

Her voice rose with each word, her emotions spiraling. "I tried! I lost my religion for him. I lost myself for him. I gave up my talents, my identity, my sanity, all for him! Aunty Haseena, what more do you want me to lose? My life? Because that’s the only thing left, and I don’t even know what to do with it anymore!" She broke into bitter sobs, her shoulders shaking violently. The lump in my throat felt like a stone, almost choking me as I tried to hold back my own tears.

But Aunt Haseena, unmoved and unyielding, leaned forward, her face twisted with mock sympathy and disdain. "That’s the point, Anisha. You don’t know what to do with your life because the only purpose you’ve ever had is your marriage. And believe me, it’s better to face trouble in paradise than trouble in hell!" Her voice was sharp, dripping with condescension. "Your marriage is the veil over all your flaws. No matter how you exaggerate what your husband has done, who would even look at you and think you’re suffering? Is this the way you were sent to his house, Anisha? You’ve seen with your own eyes what stubbornness has done to your sister; that should be lesson enough. Mark my words, you will regret this decision soon!"

She turned to Mama for support, her voice growing louder. "Your father has already called Uncle Hafeez to come. You know how fiery he can be. My advice, Anisha? Get up and go back to where you came from!" Her tone was final, her eyes blazing with righteous indignation.

But Anisha was past caring. She wiped her tears with trembling hands and straightened her posture, her defiance blazing through the despair. "Let him call the chief of army staff if he likes, but I am not going back, Aunt Haseena!" she declared, her voice firm despite the quiver of emotion. "I am tired, tired of being manipulated, played, and deceived. Enough is enough. Five years is not five hours, five days, or five months. It is a lifetime when you live in fear and threats of what tomorrow holds. I am the one who lived through it, and no one, absolutely no one, has the right to tell me how to feel or react."

She turned to Aunt Saudah, her gaze searing. "Yesterday, this man took a knife and threatened me, told me to undress so he could beat me. For goodness' sake, if it were your husband, would you comply? Would you stand there and let him treat you like that?"

Aunt Saudah shot up from her seat, her face contorted with anger. "Ke! Don’t you dare ask us this kind of rubbish question! Who do you think you are? What’s wrong with your head?!" she yelled, her voice shrill and biting.

Anisha’s laugh was bitter, hollow. "Oh, so now it’s rubbish? Now it’s painful to even hear? But when it happened to me, I was expected to endure it, right? Stay silent, stay patient? Do you see the double standard now? You, all of you, have destroyed my life more than Mukhtar ever could because you were the ones who pushed me into this! And I foolishly followed, thinking you had my best interests at heart. But I was wrong. Woefully, disdainfully wrong. Listening to you was the biggest mistake of my life, but it’s not too late for me to make things right!"