In the Heart of Darkness

Chapter 32: Wounds Beyond Healing

The tension between them was suffocating. Ibrahim stood, cold and rigid, his eyes distant as if Zara's words hadn't just pierced him. Zara's tear-filled gaze searched his face for a reaction, for something, anything that showed he still had a heart. But his stoic expression only deepened her heartbreak.

Her voice trembled, but she pushed forward, her soul aching with each word she uttered. "What if I'm already pregnant with your child, Ibrahim?" she asked, her voice fragile, like she was on the verge of shattering. She waited, holding her breath, hoping for a glimmer of warmth or concern in his eyes. But there was nothing.

Ibrahim remained silent, his expression unchanged. His refusal to speak, to even acknowledge her pain, felt like a blade twisting in her heart.

Zara’s chest clenched as if the weight of the world was pressing down on her. Her heart pounded in agony, and her breath came out in broken fragments. She stepped closer to him, her legs trembling, her voice barely more than a whisper—but it trembled with raw pain.

"Would you want me to abort my child?"

The words escaped her like shattered glass, cutting through the silence. Her eyes locked onto his, glistening with tears that trembled on her lashes, threatening to fall but holding on—just like she was.

"Would you really ask me to erase the only piece of us… the only proof that we ever belonged to each other… before it even had a chance to breathe?"

For a moment, Ibrahim's gaze flickered, but then his face returned to that same cold mask. Zara's tears began to fall freely, her voice now laced with both desperation and anger. "Do I mean so little to you? Does the thought of me as the mother of your child repulse you that much?"

He let out a deep, weary sigh, his silence now deafening in the space between them. She could feel the emotional distance growing, and it suffocated her. Just when she thought he might leave her question hanging in the air forever, Ibrahim finally spoke, his voice heavy with a kind of finality that chilled her.

"It's not possible."

Zara blinked, her brow furrowing in confusion. "What do you mean?" she whispered, her heart beginning to race.

"Zara, just let it go," he said, his voice tight, almost pleading. But she couldn't. Not now. Not after everything. She stepped closer, her hands trembling as she gripped his arm.

"No, I won't let it go!" she shouted, her voice rising with the panic building inside her. "Tell me what you mean, Ibrahim! Why isn't it possible? What are you hiding from me?"

Ibrahim closed his eyes for a long moment, as if the words he was about to say were too heavy to bear. "I've been careful," he finally said, his voice flat and void of emotion. "I never completed inside you."

Zara's world tilted, and she felt her legs weaken beneath her. Her breath came in short, shallow gasps as the weight of his words sank in. "What?" she whispered, her heart pounding in her chest. "What are you saying?"

"I've been careful," he repeated, each word like a hammer to her heart. "It's... biology. You were never meant to..." His voice trailed off, but the damage was done.

Zara's entire body trembled with shock and disbelief. She felt like she was about to collapse. Her mind raced, and she suddenly realized the awful truth: she had never been anything more to him than a physical need. She had given herself to him, body and soul, and in return, she had only been used.

Tears streamed down her face as her voice broke, her words barely coherent through her sobs. "So that's it? That's all I've ever been to you? Just a way to satisfy your needs?"