Dear Laura 2

Chapter 15

"So, Mia, are your parents married?" Mrs Karim shot the question during dinner and my eyes widened in shock.

"Mom! You cannot ask our guest such questions." Tia said through her teeth. I could hear her from where I was sitting. Mrs Karim's question made the table awkward.

It hurt my heart a little to hear that it was Tia, whom I had met four hours earlier, who was defending me and not my boyfriend.

"Yes, my parents are still together Mrs Karim. Happily married for twenty-four years now."

"That's beautiful. But twenty-four? I thought you said your brother is twenty-seven. Does that mean he was had out of wed lock?" The difficulty level of that conversation was increasing with every question she asked. It felt more like an interrogation, but I was trying my hardest to understand that she was trying to get to know the woman Abdul was planning to marry.

The conversation started with things like where I was from, why I moved to Africa, what I was doing with my life, my family. I was guessing that the next thing she was going to ask was my age. Which I was also guessing she would not be pleased with. Things were tense at the table as nobody else was interrogating me. The conversation was anything but casual, and that made me nervous. My stomach was rumbling from the nervousness she was causing.

Lira tried to keep things casual every now and the by telling us about college. Her parents were traditional, but they did believe in education. Hence, Mrs Karim made sure that I was planning on studying one day.

"Yes, they had Malik three years before they got married ma'am."

"So, does that mean you believe in having kids before marriage?" She shot another one before I even had the chance to digest the previous one.

"Mom, come on. You're making the whole table awkward." Lira said to her mother.

"I apologise for my wife's behaviour Mia. Abdul has never brought such a young girl home and—how old are you again? Seventeen?" I really thought he was going to make it better, but the two lovers were made for each other. Clearly.

"Uhm... I'm nineteen sir."

"Same thing." Mrs Karim muttered under her breath, but I could hear it.

I swallowed the lump in my throat but barely. My eyes grew glossy, but I tried to keep it together. It was not just what they said to me that hurt, I was mostly hurt by Abdul who was sitting quietly next to me despite his family talking down at me.

"Do you have a job?" The dad asked. I could not catch a break.

"Yes. I'm an assistant for Abdul's partner."

"Assistant?" Him and his wife exchanged looks of judgment.

"Mr Karim, is there something you want to ask me?"

"No." He said through his teeth but I could tell there was a lot he was holding back. I got up to say a speech, or whatever that is.

"You want to know if I'm here for the money because Abdul's last girlfriend was rich and I'm not. But I can assure you, I love your son with my whole heart, and I don't want his money. I love him. There's nothing I would not do for him, and he knows it too. I really dont appreciate you—."

"What are you doing? Sit down. You're embarrassing me." He whispered while nudging my side.

Was he kidding me? A lone tear escaped my eye, and I wiped it before anyone could notice. Why was I shocked that he would do that to me in front of his family? I sat back down as per his command.

The dinner went on and I sat quietly while they were having chit chat. Fortunately, the subject had moved away from me. Their voices were faint as I locked myself in a dark hole in my brain, trying not to be an embarrassment any further than I apparently was. Abdul and I were not allowed to sleep in the same room but before I could go to Lira's room, I asked to talk to him in private.

"I am an embarrassment? Really? You fly me out to Dubai to say that?" I could not stop the stream of tears making their way down my face. My voice started breaking as I spoke.

"Standing up to do what you did in the middle of dinner is disrespectful and not a good look. They have to give me their blessings Mia and as you have seen, they are strict. You were supposed to take whatever judgment they threw at you like a boss for the greater cause. That's all you had to do, not go and create a revolution." He flailed his hands in the air as he yelled at me.

"You did not prepare me for any of this when we spoke about this trip. You could have warned me."

"I did not know what exactly they were going to ask. You cannot disrespect my parents then come to me crying about it like you're the victim here." My chest tightened as I listened to him yell at me. Everything hurt. It was like every hurtful thing he had ever said to me impaled me all at once, breaking me from inside out. As powerless as I felt, I managed to yell back.

"Excuse me? After the way they made me uncomfortable, and you did not even stand up for me. What kind of a boyfriend are you? Your own sisters stood up for me you coward! Are you so scared of them that you cannot tell them that they were making me uncomfortable?"

"I did not see you were uncomfortable." He lowered his tone, but the aggressiveness could be heard.

"You chose not to because you are a coward." I yelled and instantly, his hand met my cheek.

"Stop insulting me, we talked about this."

"I'm getting on the first plane out of here in the morning. You will not slap me like its normal. I will not stand for it. We are done." I managed to speak through my breaking voice.

I opened the door and exited the room only to find the mom and dad outside. I did not even want to question if they heard him slap me and why they did not come in to reprimand. What did I expect from people that birthed him, really. I guess the poisoned apple did not fall far from the tree. When I was walking out, they pretended to be speaking and not listening in but I was not a fool. I guess they were too busy pretending to see that I was crying.