LOST IDENTITY

Chapter Eight

TASNEEM

Maryam told me about how a few months after her dad brought her step mom into their house things started changing from good to  bad then to worse. Her father criticizes everything her mom does and don't even look her way,  whenever she went to him he will shout at her and chase her out. Then one day she woke up to find her mom missing and that was the beginning of the battery and hunger. She has no one to do her assignments,  no one to wash her clothes or make her hair and whenever her dad is back her aunt  will tell him that she is misbehaving and he  will beat her like he will fight his own mate.

Her step mom   will not give her food for days but their maid who knows everything that is happening in the house will share her food with her and then she started washing her clothes and taking care of her .

" It became unbearable for me Tasneem,  I didn't see my mother for two years and I haven't heard anything from Mamma's side. I was so used to being loved and pampered to the extent that I thought I will die without it but by then I've started hating my dad and I fear him so much that I pee in my pants by the mere sight of him" she had said with a faraway look on her face.

Seeing that the beatings won't stop and she is always locked up in her room after  getting the beating of her life,  Maryam started pretending to faint whenever her dad is beating her  until the maid got tired and informed Mamma who finally came for her .

" He wasn't even bothered. I can remember him telling Mamma to take me with her, that he doesn't care because he hate the sight of me, his only daughter and child till date but he said it to my face that he hated the sight of me" she sobbed out .

After  Mamma took her home she found her mother in a terrible state of insanity. Nana couldn't even recognise her daughter and that breaks the remaining unbroken pieces of her heart. From then on she never heard of her father until he was appointed as a minister to which she didn't care at all. She lived with Mamma , Nana and uncle Ahmad from then on  getting all the love and care in the world.

" He came back after three years saying that he is sorry blah blah blah ! That he wasn't in the right state of mind. That he loves me and Nana   more than anything in this  world. I couldn't even look him in the eye. Nana forgave him and they left me behind with Mamma. I refused to follow him to Abuja and never accept anything from him until one day Mamma explained what happened to him and Nana to me. I  will greet him whenever he comes visiting and that's pretty much it, accept his expensive gifts that means nothing to me and move on with my life like he never existed.

Nana decided that I should come here because she is an alumni and since Adda Nabeela who is a daughter to dad's brother is here, I wrote the entrance exams and came here. I don't even know the person that told everyone that I'm a minister's daughter because I don't even care about it to let anyone know. I have more than enough  pocket money with me and my guardian. I didn't make any friend because of the rumor but I've always noticed you from last term and my heart kept telling me to befriend you and here we are ! Three weeks after meeting you I'm telling you the story of my life which I hope I will not live to regret " she finished off with a long dramatic sight wiping a stray tear.

" I am sorry you have to go through all you went through Maryam. Consider it as qadr from Allah and be grateful that it has passed leaving you with bits and pieces of memories that will be etched in your  heart forever .

You should not hate your dad because he was  not in his right state of mind when he assaulted you and told you he hates you. We are too young to fully understand the concept of being charmed but our mu'allim in  school says it happens in reality and even the noble prophet was once afflicted ". I said stroking her hair. The hostel is eerily quite because it's already past 11pm.