HONEYDEW (A murder mystery)

~EPILOGUE~

Salaam readers,

Phew.

It has come to an end and I'm unable to express my emotions. It has been a wonderful journey with awesome readers. Thank you so much.

I feel so emotional.

This chapter is so very close to my heart as I have exposed a part of my soul in it and a real-life experience has been sprinkled into it.

I hope to see all my readers in my next novel and there will be some of these characters in my other book too.

Fee amanillah <3

The bright sunlight poured across the interior of the house adding a touch of orange as the soft rays weaved their path through the huge bungalow.

The colourful flowers of the garden played with the morning breeze and small drops of honeydew danced on the leaves.

I marvelled at the sight in front of me and bent to inhale the scent of fresh blossoms of tiny red roses.

Almost a year had passed.

It was time for new hopes.

A new beginning...

For the past three months, it had been just the two of us, without any worse scenarios to spoil the serenity. We had developed a new stronger bond as the days had passed, there was only tenderness and rekindling of passion and desire.

But most importantly there was always that interminable understanding that I had needed during those early days.

I shuddered as I thought about that dreadful night, they had taken me to the hospital in no time, sirens blazing and light flashing all through the journey.

Aahil had been beside me, his strong hand holding mine and repeating the mantra over and over again that everything was going to be alright.

Only it wasn't.

Emotion squeezed out from between my closed lids as I blinked back the memory.

The next few weeks had been the hardest battle of my entire life, but Aahil's unflinching love and support had kept me going.

Initially, he had blamed himself for what had happened, as he considered that he had failed miserably in protecting me. But, the doctors had assured us that it would have happened anyway, that there had been other factors involved which would have prevented me from carrying my baby to its full term.

Sunlight spilt across the floor as I opened the door to the nursery. I had been here for long spells at a time in the past few months, cuddling the soft tiny toys, fingering the small delicate baby clothes and the bedding in the unused cot.

Everyone had been very sympathetic towards me and though I was glad to have them around, I had chosen to stay away during the initial months.

But now it was time to put the past aside and bury the traumatic memories forever.

'Well, honeybunch...Are you ready?'

I turned around swiftly as Aahil came up behind me. He was casually dressed in a dark padded jacket and jeans, waiting for me, a discerning movement of his lips, as he noted where my interest lay, he shook his head and assured me that he understood.

But did he? Could a man ever really know a mother's fierce love for her baby that I had almost lost in the initial weeks, and then my hopes had rekindled when they had assured me that the baby would be fine as long as I took complete rest, and relentlessly I agreed to their every command, had obeyed to every rule set by the doctor's, taking every possible precaution to avoid further risks to the precious life of my little one ---- anguish filled me as I thought about the desperation that had filled me when it had all started to go wrong and the hollow that filled me when the baby couldn't make it to the full term.