Distanced By Fate, Mended With LOVE..

3. The Confusing Past

Not edited.

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"A red heart again."

Nazia pulled out the big old worn out boxes, cluttered with the unused things once belonged to her. Cleaning them up, she found nostalgia hit her until she grabbed a dairy only to find more than a dozen dried and flattened roses between its pages. Her nostrils filled with a pleasant smell, a combo of dried roses and sweet petrichor like scent oozing out of the pages of the diary. She instantly liked it.

She had no idea how these roses ended up in her stuff. She was also astonished by finding all the cute teddies, rich-scented perfume bottles, heart shaped red tiny boxes, and the chocolate boxes she never knew she had. The name Naaz etched on each box made her heart swell up in pride . A smile evident on her lips as she examined each gift and found a tiny red heart on each of them.

Oh God did she have a boyfriend!

For a moment she froze at the same spot at the thought of receiving them from a man or a lover to be precise.

Brushing her thoughts away, she looked back in her past and as much as she could remember she found herself as an obedient kind of daughter who had always maintained at least a one-arm distance from people belonging to the opposite gender, exactly how her mother had asked her to. This was surely not her. She pondered.

With the nightmares she'd been getting lately and the thoughts of that particular man, then the uncanny discoveries she made inside her room just a night ago had stirred her whole world upside down. Not giving her even a second of peace. All she knew was to get to the depth of it. She couldn't leave every single page of her book unread. She needed answers and to seek them her mother had to be kept unaware.

She couldn't also imagine her mother going through any of the stuff she had found and so after locking away all the gifts inside her wardrobe she called her best friend to her home.

"You do know you've dated a few guys here and there all throughout your graduation, right?"

To Nazia, all that her friend spoke only seemed like allegations and she dismissed them without giving a single thought.

"What rubbish!"

"Ouch! Did you just crush these four guys hearts in one go....and oh so violently?"

"Four? Excuse me? Me?" Are you sure you're talking about me?"

"Yep, yup! It's you I'm talking about." And that sheepish smile formed on Nicky's lips gave her away.

"Shut up you, Nicky Mickey! A liar as always." With that Nazia finally took a sigh of relief and there a pillow slammed right at Nicky's head.

Nazia and Nicky had been friends since grade one and their friendship unfazed and still strong even after they've turned thirty. To Nazia, Nicky was like a sibling she never had, her confidant, the only one whom she could've ever trusted on. And in all terms Nicky had always safeguarded her friend's trust.

"Please help me, Nicky." Nazia, helpless and desperate beseeched her friend.

Nicky stood engrossed and silent, as she saw Nazia gathering all the stuff and then placing them before her. She had no idea how and what to answer. But Nazia's green eyes that shined with so much of hope like if she blinked them even for a milli second she'd miss the word, Nicky could not help but lie.

"The---These gifts are mine."

"Don't take me as a fool!" What Nicky didn't know before lying was that each gift had Nazia's name etched on it.

"Actually yes, I am a fool! A very big idiot to actually expect any truth from any of you!"

Why couldn't anybody understand her ordeal?

She was already half way through the road of insanity. Her thoughts, the nightmares, everything tormented her more, as if there was a bug instilled inside her brain, eating away an inch of it by every passing day. The only thing needed to calm her down was the answers that she was deliberately kept away from and if everything remained the same, it wouldn't be too long before she succumbed to it. And ironically, all of her "well wishers" thought otherwise.

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It was not easy for Yousuf either knowing that his wife was back into the city and yet not by his side. He felt he had no strength left in him to spend any more days and nights in loneliness, but what choice did he have otherwise?

Only he knew how hard it was to resist himself from going to her, and declaring her as his wife, and that he craved for her presence through the day and night. That it was enough now and he was done bearing the distance. But always the concern for her health hindered his desires and all he could do was to lock away all his feelings.

Every single day he began, there was always a new hope brooding up, that somehow Nazia would remember everything she was missing from her memories, and would come to him to complain, and to fight. He was willing to be held guilty for his deeds if it helped in bringing her back.

Taking in her condition, he even spoke to the therapist Dr. Mirza who treated her until recently, who asked him to take things one at a time and not rush. And then it would just be a matter of time until his wife was back home. He counted on it.

"I know already."

His mother spoke already aware of Nazia being back into the city and what her son was intending on. She had always maintained a cordial relationship with her therapist, to ensure everything was fine with her daughter-in-law, and in turn it ended up with the doctor losing her job.

Elegant and poised were the words one would use to describe Sharmeen Khan as. Even in her early fifties she appeared of much younger age with so clear skin. And as she stood with a gloomy face, she still exhibited grace, for she was born as the Sahebzaadi.

Belonging to the royal family of Nawabs she sure was privileged in all aspects of her life but love. Marital bliss as it's said, unfortunately she never got to witness it. All of her youth was wasted on an unworthy man with her marriage with him as short and wretched. And not long after she was single handedly mothering her two beautiful children.

Her open mindedness and liberal nature did cost her marriage but it sure did help raise her children up, without ever controlling or dictating their lives. She never had imposed any restrictions but was always clear with the values she put forward.

She always was a very present kind of a parent for them to rely on when needed. But for once when she did make decisions on their behalf, her son's life broke apart, his marriage battered the same as hers and she failed to put everything right.

Her son Yousuf Khan and daughter Maira Khan meant the whole world, and it was disheartening for her to see any of them hurt and lost. She did have a mighty heart to wake up daily only to witness her son's wrecked life and just worry about it and do nothing.

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Hello!!

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Amreen.