Imperious

Chapter 13

And do not walk upon the earth proudly. You will never tear the earth apart. And you will never reach the mountains in height. (Quran 17:37)

It had been over a fortnight since Sadia's death; the Jatoi Manor was returning to normality.

Mrs Kulachi had long left, Zubeda was beginning to pull herself together again and Farasat was ensuring that his daughters returned to school. Inaya's custody case ate away at their patience, but Farasat was unwilling to hand over his granddaughter and despite Sarwat Begum's reservations regarding the matter, she allowed him to handle the case as he pleased.

"This is the Jatoi Manor, not a brothel in which you wake by the night and sleep by the day," scolded Sarwat Begum as Mehrisa lay sprawled across the sofa.

"Mehru, come on," added Zubeda, "Come on, Daadi Maa is standing here. Get up."

"If you had been sterner, this would not have happened, Zubeda Bahu ."

"Amma," Mehrisa whimpered, burying her face into the cushion, "I only slept for three hours."

Sarwat Begum clenched her fists, "Get her up."

"Brothel," Mehrisa's eyes widened, her voice filled with curiosity. She sat up right and swung her legs off the side of the sofa, reaching out to stretch her arms.

Sarwat Begum swallowed, realising that she had said something severely amiss.

Zubeda ran a comb thrown Mehrisa's hair and hastily secured it into a high pony before raising her by the arm.

"Brothel," Mehrisa repeated, "Mrs Waseem's son went there and then his wife found out and divorced him. Modern people."

Zubeda's heart sank. Her attempt to distract Mehrisa had proved futile, "Mehru-"

"How... How do you know?"

"Well, yesterday I happened to bump into Shazia's mum. She and Ikram's mum were talking about Mr Jadgami and how his friend, Mr Mansour was getting his daughter married to Mrs Waseem's cousin's sister-in-law's brother's best-friend. And because the list of relations was so long, as you heard, everyone preferred to focus on Mrs Waseem instead because that was easier to do. Apparently, they had seen her come out of the gym and she was wearing leggings and a kurta and because she is overweight it did not suit her. They then began comparing Mrs Waseem to her daughter-in-law and commented on how good her figure was. And then they realized that Mrs Waseem's daughter-in-law is no longer her daughter-in-law because Mr Mansour is now getting her married to Mrs Waseem's cousin's sister-in-law's brother's best-friend. And so as a woman would, Ikram's mum asked Shazia's mum why the wedding broke off and then Waniya's mum came up and told them about it and because I was standing there I heard."

Sarwat Begum's eyes widened. How her granddaughter could process such vast amounts of conversational information, stunned her.

"So Mr Mansour's daughter was Mrs Waseem's daughter-in-law?" asked Sarwat Begum.

Mehrisa nodded.

Sarwat Begum shook her head, "Oh, you lure me with your vices! Why should I care, who's daughter is who! Get up and go to school you insolent child!"

Nafeesa had not been to school in over two weeks.

Court proceedings and funeral rites had engulfed most her time. In the earlier days of Sadia's death, she and her siblings were simply unable to function, and thus, decided against going school whilst Iqtidar's sons, Arham and Sahm continued. But since Zubeda had pulled herself together for the sake of Inaya, the girls felt that they should do the same.