Loving a Princess

Epilogue.

Ten years later.

"Raiyhaan! Come here!" I called my nine-year-old son.

"Yes, mummy?" Raiyhaan replied, coming in front of me, and giving me one of those cheeky grins that showed his dimples.

I glared at him. "Are you the one responsible for this?" I asked, pointing at my other crying six-year-old son.

"No, mum. It wasn't me, it was Aminah," he said, throwing the blame on his youngest sister.

"Raiyhaan!" I scolded. "You're lying to me! And what kind of pathetic excuse are you giving me? Aminah is two years old, she can't do this. Can you own up?"

"Okay, but because it's you, mum. I was playing with my toy cars, and Amir came and snatched it, so I hit him!" Raiyhaan said, and giving me another dimpled grin just in case.

"Raiyhaan!" I gasped. "You are not allowed to hit him! How would you like it if I hit you right now because you hit him?"

"I wouldn't like it," Raiyhaan mumbled, guiltily, all his cheekiness gone.

"Will you do it again?" I asked.

"No, mummy," Raiyhaan replied.

"What will you say to Amir?" I asked.

"I'm sorry Amir," Raiyhaan told Amir, walking to his brother and wiping away the tears off Amir's face.

I smiled at them. They were so adorable.

I could hardly believe that I was a mother of three. Raiyhaan, named after Farshad's late father, was my first-born, followed by Amir, who was named after my own late brother, and lastly was Aminah, my youngest daughter and a daddy's girl, who was named after my late older sister. Farshad and I had decided that we didn't want to name our children any new names, but just the names of the people dear to us who had passed away, which was why we had decided that if the little baby who was currently developing in my womb - who would be my fourth born - were a boy, then we'd name him Adil, the name of my other deceased brother, and if it were a girl, then we'd name her Sumaiyyah, after Farshad's late grandmother.

As for my siblings, Asif and Arif were happily married to Samiha and Samaah, the two daughters of Naila Ashraf, my mother's best friend, and Asiyah was married to their brother Saamih. I was the only one from my siblings who wasn't married to an Ashraf sibling. Asif had two daughters and a one-month old baby boy, while Arif also had two daughters and another baby on its way. Asiyah had two sons.

My parents were very happy for us. Even though they lived with Asif and Arif's children, who were doubtlessly mum's favourites, they would see mine twice every year because we made it a point to go visit them once a year and they came over to visit me once every year. Little Aminah was dad's pet, not only because her name was that of his oldest daughter, but also because she looked completely like me and I looked like dad, so she basically looked just like her grandfather.

I can't believe how time had flown. It had been ten years! Farshad and I had lived as husband and wife, standing by each other's side through thick and thin, for ten whole years. These ten years brought us happiness, tears, joy, difficulties, laughter but most of all, over these ten years, I had grown to love this man who was my husband more with each passing day, I had grown to love him so much that I couldn't imagine a life without him. And the best rewards I had over these ten years were my three children that I had with him, and one more little one who was going to be coming into this world in a matter of five months.