All For What!

26

Days and weeks passed with Nafisa's behavior only worsening. Whenever Saeed and Maryam are out for work, she maltreated Manal; she made her do some household chores and starved her whenever she didn't get satisfied with her work. She even went to the extent of hitting her sometimes. Her parents were oblivious to all these. They failed to notice the change in Manal. She was not as happy as she used to be and her confidence was slowly crushing down.

Nafisa's plan to extort money from Mukthar worked tremendously. She jumped at the opportunity when he asked her to be his girlfriend and ever since, he had been spoiling her with different types of gifts; money, jewelries, clothes, et cetera. He even got her a new Nokia 3 cellphone. Nafisa accepted his gifts happily, not worried about where he always got the money from. He wasn't a worker, so where did he get his money from? - it was a question Nafisa never entertained in her mind. Whenever such thoughts came to her, she always spurned them as quickly as possible. In such a short period of time, she became very popular amongst her friends and school as well for she spends extravagantly. She even started skipping school to go on dates with her boyfriend. Every morning, she'd leave the house with her uniform on and divert her way to Mukthar's house.

• • •

On a Friday, Maryam returned home to Nafisa relaxing on the sofa in the living room. She was watching a TV show and was oblivious to her entrance. She was so relaxed that one would say she was in her home. "As salamu'alaikum." She said, but to her dismay, Nafisa ignored her. "Nafisa?" She called, but got same still motionless reaction from her. "Nafisaa." She called once more in a high pitched voice and this time, she got a reaction from her. Nafisa flinched and quickly pulled out the earpiece from her ears swiftly. She quickly hid her Nokia 3 cellphone behind her before Maryam could see it.

"You're... You're back..." She stuttered, springing up from her seat.

"Obviously. I have been here for almost ten minutes now calling you and you chose to ignore me," Maryam said, raising a brow. She was very surprised at Nafisa's uneasiness. She was definitely hiding something!

Nafisa gasped. "Wallahi, I didn't hear you. I was..." She trailed off, not knowing the right excuse to give.

"You were?" Maryam asked and when she got no reply, she asked spoke again; "I'm listening."

"I was thinking about my... My late brother," Nafisa replied and instantly began to shed fake tears. She sniffed and wiped her tears away with the back of her palm. "I remembered all the good times we spent together with him. I really wish to see him even once again." She finished and more tears escaped uncontrollably like a loose faucet.

Maryam instantly took pity on her. She knew it was not easy to lose a loved one. She understood her pain. "He is in a better place, in sha Allah." Maryam smiled.

"Thank you, aunty." Nafisa said, wiping tears away from her eyes.

"It's nothing. Where is Manal?"

"She's in her room, doing her homework."

"Alright. What did you prepare?"

Nafisa's eyes widened at the question. She had totally forgotten to cook anything. What would she say in her defense now? "I haven't-"

"You haven't prepared anything?" Maryam questioned. "What did Manal eat?"

"She... I prepared indomie for her." Nafisa replied.