The Muslim Cinderella

Chapter 10

Ammi walks into the living room. She looked confused. She showed me a picture on her phone. A picture of the party. Loads of people were in the shot, including Imraan and I.

" Isn't that blue dress the one you have in your room?" Ammi asked.

I was speechless. How did Ammi find out? Well of course she saw it on Instagram, but how? I was officially caught.

" One of my friends tagged me, in a comment saying that she would never let her child go to this party. I wouldn't have either. But you apparently went." Ammi was very angry with me.

I didn't bother lying. She knew now. I purposely fell off my couch, and sat before Ammi's feet. I held out my hands to her. I ignored the stabbing pain in my knee, and wrist.

" Ammi!" I begged. " Please forgive me!! I'm so so so sorry! MICHELLE begged me to! Astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah!!"

"Iqra, you disobeyed your religion." Ammi frowned. "And you disappointed me. This isn't something like you forgot to pray for a day! This is a PARTY we are talking about! A place with drinking, boys! VERY HARAM!"

" Ammi, I just want to live a happy life!!! I want to marry Faseeh! I accept his proposal!" I grabbed Ammi's hand, which she immediately yanked away from me.

"You are not getting married, for a few more years!" Ammi said coldly.

" No! I really like him, Ammi! Please let me marry him!" Tears cascaded down my face. They dropped on my clothing, leaving a damp stain.

" Isn't there someone else in mind? Who's that boy in the picture? It seems like you're having a grand old time, dancing with him, getting close, with IMRAAN?!"

"I promise! I didn't do anything haram! Imraan was flirting with me! I kept trying to get away from him! That's why he's pulling my hand towards him! You have to trust me, Ammi!"

"Iqra!"  Ammi yelled. " Why would I trust YOU?! I thought you the perfect child! Hajra had lots of attitude, and she argued a lot, so I thought I could depend on YOU to make my mood better! But now, you're doing haram things, getting close to boys, I can't trust you anymore! You broke my trust!!!"

" I swear, I didn't--" I said before Ammi interrupted.

" Oh, so now you SWEAR?! What happened to you, Iqra!?"

Before I could respond, Ammi grabbed me by my shoulders, and lifted me up. She dragged me to a room, and threw me inside. I don't want to call Ammi the bad guy, but I didn't think she would be so violent with her own daughter.

" I knew you liked Faseeh. I knew you wanted to marry him now. That's why I called him, over here, to propose to you again! But I'm not letting you out of this room! You are not going to marry him!" Ammi slammed the door, and I heard keys jiggling into the lock.

" No!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. I crawled to the corner of the wall, and cried. I wiped my tears with my hijab, that was hanging loosely around my neck. I examined the interior of the room.

There was a small bed, in the opposite corner, where guests used to sleep, but when Hajra got married, and moved away, we made her room the guest room. There was a red and gold rug in the center, taking up most space.   Attached to the wall, was a mirror, table, and chair. Used for make up, or just a dresser. Then there was just a bunch of junk set along the wall, in large clumps.

This is was the unused room. Where we put things that take up space. I stood up, and limped to the windows. With my uninjured hand, I pulled the curtains back, exposing sunlight to this dark room. I didn't have energy to walk back to the corner, so I just sat by the window, across from the wall of junk.