The Marriage Demands (#Wattys2017)

Chapter 28

ZAKRIYA ISLAM

One month later

"Here you are bhai," Haleema said in a low voice and carefully placed the mug of hot steaming tea by my side. I sighed and took it, the warmth coming from the hot liquid gave me some ease.

"I've given her another dose, she won't be coming to for a couple of hours so you'll have enough time to change the IV again into a fresh one." She said in a low voice and stopped to take a sip of her tea. I nodded in agreement and did the same.

"I still can't believe that this happened. How are you holding up bhai?" She asked, her tone laced with sympathy.

Where do I start? I can never forget how this time passed; from the denial to the outburst and then the violence, I witnessed every stage of her torment and agony throughout this month.

The house is almost completely trashed, the air saturated with the putrid smell of vomit and the walls have absorbed her screams. I can still hear them;

'Zac, please, need some coke!'

'I hate you, I can't take this pain!'

'I'm in so much pain, why can't you help me?'

Her screams were still resonant in my mind. I squeezed my eyes shut to silent them for a while. "It's tough but I've gotten through to her. At first she wasn't admitting that she has a problem but when her cravings got to her, she finally broke, after that week, she's been detoxing."

"I still can't believe this; when you told me at first, it was so hard for me to come to grips with this, and now that I've seen it with my own eyes, I've no choice but to believe you."

"Thank you Haleema, if you weren't here to help me out then it was would've been so hard for me to deal with this situation."

She smiled warmly and nodded. "If it became known that she's a drug addict then her licence would've been revoked and the last thing I want for her is to lose her licence." She said sincerely.

I sighed. When I had told Haleema about my plan and requested her to come up with a suitable excuse for Amber to be granted leave from work for a little while but I didn't know that it would take so long."

"She's detoxing bhai, obviously it'll take time for her to clear her system of the drugs. Normally, we would've taken her for gastric lavage but knowing her, she refused to admit that she has a problem and now, she's suffering so much because of it." She sighed.

I shook my head in dismay. "Please get some rest now bhai,"

"No," I said under my breath and took another sip of my now cold tea. "I need to get to work, she's finally asleep now and I didn't finish and submit my last assignment in time too so I need to get it done." I exclaimed. "You know bhai that Amber is very rich. You don't need to work, you can be use that money."

My breathing accelerated at that suggestion; I felt offended. "No, Haleema, I'm the man of this house. She's my wife hence my responsibility and I will not have it any other way." I said strictly. She flinched at my remarks. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you." She mumbled.

"It's okay,"

She began to stare at me that it made me uncomfortable.

"What?"

"Have you seen yourself in the mirror lately bhai?" She inquired. I shrugged. "Because you look like a mess. You haven't slept at all because the terrible bags under your eyes bear testament to this; you've committed yourself so much towards Amber's rehabilitation that you aren't paying any attention towards yourself." She sighed, her eyes gazing at me with so much concern.