The Marriage Demands (#Wattys2017)

Chapter 27

ZAKRIYA ISLAM

           

I stared at her peaceful face as she slept. My mind kept recalling the incident that happened a couple of hours ago. And instead of taking care of it, she fainted. It's been three or four hours since she's been asleep and now that I'm sure she won't be waking up anytime soon, I carefully crawled out of bed and went to the bathroom for gusl.

As soon as u was done, I carefully went outside the room with my keys. With one last glance at Amber, I slowly and quietly closed the door and with the key, locked it twice.

I was going to get to the bottom of this. I've been surprised and disappointed enough. I will search her study as well as the whole house and get rid of the drugs or narcotics that she's been using.

I went to her study and started there. It's been almost a year since I've been in this apartment and I've never been in this room once. I suppose I thought this room to be Amber's private room and hence I never entered here. I started with her desk and opened all the drawers. The top of the desk was lined up neatly with her books and laptop set in place. I figured since she's a neat freak and loves to keep everything in order. I sat on the leather chair and inspected the top of the desk: everything seemed to look like in place except for a bank card that was lying on a spot near the laptop. I picked it up and instantly my body became alert when I saw residual dust of white powder at the corners of the card. My heart almost skipped a beat at this revelation.

Now I was absolutely pissed. My mind had thought of so many possibilities so without any regard, I trashed the drawers. I searched every nook and cranny of the desk. I hated prying into her stuff but I had no choice. I came across many small diaries as well as small notes pads and some letters.

I was at the bottom drawer, I saw a lock on it. Yes, this is the one.

I bed back to the bedroom. She was still sleeping thankfully. I knew where she kept her keys so I went to the closet and grabbed her purse. Locking the bedroom again, I got to the study and spilled all the contents of her purse on the desk. Grabbing the keys, I crouched near the bottom drawer and inserted the small key in the lock. It clicked open.

With a pounding heart, I slowly opened the drawer. There were many things in it but what caught my attention most was a small rectangular mirror piece placed at the top of the things. I removed it and as expected, it was dusted and somewhat coated with the same white powder. I placed the mirror on the top of the desk and went back to inspecting the content of the drawer.

My breath got held in my throat when I found a small plastic pouch of that white powder.

Oh God, please don't let it if be what I'm thinking. With a racing heart, I opened the pouch and lightly dusted the tip of my finger with the powder. With a sigh, I tasted the powder with the tip of my tongue: I felt a tingling sensation there until the tip of my tongue went numb.

I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my teeth in anger as my fist pounded on the floor.

"God dammit!" I shouted.

Cocaine! She's been using Cocaine!

Oh my God, why didn't I realize it earlier. All the signs were there. Why didn't I recognize them? The ecstatic behavior, the aroused sexual tension, anxiety, restlessness, irritation, the insomnia and so much more. I should've recognized it from the start but I didn't. I was reckless.

Damn!

I fell to the chair and exhaled in frustration. Oh God!I should've known, I blame myself. I knew what a junkie looks like and how they act but I could've never known that my own wife would be an addict too—I knew all the signs and symptoms yet I couldn't tell.