Affianced By Force

CHAPTER FIFTY - What Was the Truth?

“ALL SET!” Umamah announced as she zipped her last box.

Faisal looked from his pile of documents to his wife. “And the bed rest?”

“I don’t need it. I am not a kid.” She replied, just as Mayeesha ran into the room with a parcel. “Mummy, here. Don’t open until you get to Harvard, okay?”

She had started to call Umamah Mummy of her own volition after the book launch a week ago. Umamah wasn't sure Faisal noticed, though. Every time, it sounded even stranger to Umamah.

With Rasheedah now in a psychiatry in the United States, Mayeesha had been relatively safe these days. “I promise dear.

Now, I wonder what’s in it.” Umamah said turning the red parcel in over. It had been properly sealed.

“You promised.” The girl reminded as she turned to leave and realized her father was at the beside reading table with his head buried in documents. “Oh. Daddy, I didn’t see you there.

Assalaam’alaykum.” And she rushed out of the room.

It was a Saturday. Umamah was rushing to pack up, so that she could go to the garden. It was her final physical class with her Mu’allims for the next one year. She didn’t want to miss it for anything. She had already handed over at the office the week of Mayeesha’s book launch. Now that she was all packed, she donned her hijab and rushed out of the room.

After she left, Faisal looked up from the papers he had been feigning concentration on. It was already a week since Abdulhameed had sent those messages to Umamah. When was she planning on telling him about them? he truly wanted to check the surveillance camera of the hotel in Egypt to know all that happened while he was away, but again, he felt it was part of not trusting his wife. Umamah always had her reasons when she acted or didn’t act. He had to trust her.

But it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold it all in. and he didn’t want her to travel tomorrow without this being settled. He had some answers and he could find out the rest for himself, but he wanted to hear them from her. He was just going to have to ask her.

After twenty minutes of her leaving, she returned in a sad mood. “They are so late; I don’t think they are coming.” She plunged herself onto the couch.

Finally, Faisal thought. They would be alone. Of course, he had known her teachers were not coming today. He had cancelled it, but hadn’t told her. Only when she found she didn’t have anything to do would she be settled. That was his Ummie.

He rose from his seat, went to the door and locked it. And then, he took his seat beside her.

As expected, she placed her head on his shoulder and began to say something, but his own words stopped her. “How long do you plan on keeping things from me, Ummie? When did you plan on telling me about Abdul?”

Umamah’s heart began to pound in her chest as she slowly raised her head from his shoulder. His tone was calm, but she could feel he was restraining all the emotions in him. Umamah suddenly recalled the time when Faisal had been so jealous of Abdul that he had almost hurt her and sub consciously moved away from him.

“I… I… don’t know what you mean.” It was not completely a lie, for she didn’t know what he meant exactly. Was it about Egypt or the text messages? Had he seen them as well? To answer her inner questions, Faisal said,

“Why is he still in contact with you?”

Any hope of misunderstanding his words, plummeted to the earth. She came to her feet and nervously wriggled her hands in her hijab. She had not taken it off yet. “Abdul… I don’t know, either. I was just going to keep ignoring him.”