Bowled Over By The Broken

Chapter 40: One Step Ahead, Ten Steps Back

28th April, 2018

...Because encouraging votes and comments makes the writer want to update faster ;)

"Do not kill yourself. Allah is Merciful unto you."

(Surat al-Nisaa' 4:29)

Chapter 40:

One step ahead, ten steps back

"Oh so you even remember you have a mother-in-law? Wow I'm impressed."

Frowning, Anabya replied, "It's not like that, Mummy, I called you yesterday but your phone was engaged."

"You could have called again then..."

"I tried after ten minutes too but it was still busy."

"Alright, leave these excuses; tell me how have you been? Are you taking good care of my son?"

'Oh so now when it's your turn to accept the mistake, I'm making excuses?' She thought.

Sighing internally at the question, she answered briefly, "Alhamdulilah. How's everyone at home, I hope the boutique is running well."

"Oh things are going very well."

"Ma sha Allah," she verbalized. "Allahumma barik. How are the kids, Mummy? Aafia was telling me she wanted to come to Mumbai, has she started her holidays?"

"No, no, not yet. Achcha, tell me Anabya, are you doing any cooking at home or do you'll always eat out?"

Yet again frowning at her tone, she replied, "No Mummy, it's not like that, we don't always eat from outside, I do cook at home too."

"You're not lying, right? I keep seeing Shamaaz post food pictures as his story updates so I was wondering if you even cook anything at all, now that you have house help, you must have a lot of time, so don't waste money on outside food."

"Yes, Mummy, I'll keep that in mind," she replied politely, when all she really wanted to do was bang her head at her words.

"Alright, I must get going now. If you get some free time, remember your mother in law also..."

"Assalamu alaimuk, Mummy," she greeted, wanting nothing to do with this conversation as she quickly ended the call after her reply, not giving her the slightest chance to say anything further.

A kiddish husband and a taunting MIL. Holding her head in her hands, she groaned and mentally counseled herself to cool down and not tell this to Shamaaz, only to hear him talk in her support and tell her how she was misjudging his angelic mother.

Honestly, it was so hard to not turn bitter towards your husband because of your MIL. Anabya wasn't saying it was right, but she would confess that when his mother did something, a part of her would automatically drag him into it. However, remembering all of her sisters' advices, she decided no matter how annoyed she was, she wouldn't misplace her anger. The past week had been much better than those before and she would be wrong to mess it, and most certainly not on the blessed day of Friday when it wasn't even his fault.

Mentally patting her back for such a mature decision, Anabya walked back to the bedroom and carefully ironed the crease of her Abaya. She dared to steal a tiny look at Shamaaz as he filled the room with the aura of his expensive cologne after coming out of the bathroom, freshly showered while he wore a white thobe. It was the first time she was seeing him in a thobe but her thoughts stayed at the tip of her tongue, unable to verbalize into a compliment.