THE CONTRACT MARRIAGE

32-ASHES

OMNISCIENT

"I can see that your body has changed. Should I be expecting any fruitful news?" His ominous smile made her face turn beet red, her chest heaving rapidly.

"The doctor says there's still time before the birth," Her aloof voice was heard, those grey orbs unblinking. The lie tasted bitter on her tongue, but it was all she could come up with.

"I might not know much about giving birth, but I know for sure that a baby spends nine months in the womb. And the reports tell me that you're already seven months along. Don't you think this is the perfect time to get my plan in action?"

The engineer leaned his potent upper body and then placed his two elbows on the huge mahogany table that contained many books and maps, all neatly stacked. The study was dimly lit, with a large electric heater blasting from one side to keep it warm.

His serpentine eyes scrutinized his impenetrable daughter who was clad in an oversized black abaya that prevented him from accessing the situation in her belly. Even though there were little to no changes on her face, save for the pregnancy glow, he knew from those rock-hard orbs that she was anything but fine, anything but sane.

"Is that why you called me here?" She swiftly evaded the question and gulped, watching as his smile widened.

"In actuality, there is a plethora of reasons I summoned you here today but this one's the most important, so let's finish discussing it," He lifted his elbows from the table and folded his arms then leaned back on the posh leather office chair.

"How do you think he'll react when I break such news in that way? He knows I'm pregnant already, and as it is, he doesn't trust me—" She was cut off by a full-blown laughter that made her eyes narrow.

"My daughter, once timid, is now a girl of many words. Love has made you stupid, truly stupid. You breached the contract for a man who'll abandon you, even after I warned you against falling. You're lucky the gender is a boy, the foetus would've long been dead and he would've left you," He stood up and rounded the table, stopping just beside her.

Sumaira's breath quickened and she pressed her palms together, struggling to stay composed in his foreboding presence.

"I granted you small freedom, and you trashed it by making that single mistake. Emotions make you slow, they make you mortal, utterly preposterous. He'll leave you, and when he does, you'll come to me and beg for another chance, another chance to prove that you're still below me and will forever be,"

His words held such certainty that elicited fear from the depths of her soul, a fear she thought she had gotten over. It gripped her hard, choked her and taunted her until she found it hard to stay conscious.

"Maheer will never abandon me," She found herself saying, the words vapid, even to her ears.

Days, and weeks that slowly transitioned to four months passed by since Tahira's visit to her during their prom. Ever since then, nothing had ever been the same between them. She confronted him, and he didn't deny it.

So what if you hid it from me? I swore to take it to my grave if you were to hide it from me forever. You have your reasons, and I'll never judge you for them.

I'll destroy anything that comes between us, anything that'll make my trust in you falter even for a bit.

That day, the man she met with seemed so different from her sweet husband, so different, so full of venom that she got scared, scared of ever being around him, but not of him, never of him. Her heart ached as she desperately begged for those vengeful words to stop tumbling out of his mouth but to no avail.