More To It

Chapter 2- Feelings Spilled

Aaleyah

"Aaleyah",Fawaz calls.

"Aaleyah. Come to bed. You've been praying for hours now",he groans lowly.

"Babe".

"Aaleyah",he takes the rosary beads out of my hand and sighs.

"Fawaz. Let me pray. Let me pray. It's not for me, I don't want anything to happen to you or my kids. Let me pray",I beg him and try to take the rosary beads out of his hand but he places it on the shelf then picks me up from the prayer mat, folds it and places me on our bed.

"You need some sleep. Nothing will happen to us by Grace and Mercy of Allah. You need to calm down".

"How can I calm down? Your business is decreasing in its sales, our marriage has been rocky for a while now. All because of HER curses. I have to pray to avert it from us" I tell him.

"What you need to do is talk to her. She's a mother. She hasn't seen her son before he was taken from her. You need to speak to her as her best friend. Talk to her, from a mothers point of view if you have to. She's a mother that's hurt. No matter what you do here, her curse won't be averted from us if she's still in pain",he explains to me.

"I don't know what to do. I tried",I whisper then just burst into tears.

"Talk to her again. As an understanding friend",he hugs me and kisses my forehead.

"Am sorry",I tell him.

"For?".

"How I've been acting. Am just angry. Life is so unfair. 5 hears Fawaz. 5 years. The person who made daddy this way was never found. Justice WS never served. And no matter what surgery he went through. None of it worked. He's still there. It just hurts so much because I know how broken he must feel. But despite how I was feeling. I shouldn't have converted the anger to you. Am sorry for disrespecting you. Please, if you can, forgive me",I beg him.

He smiles then tightens his hold on me.

"We just need to pray. Nothing is impossible for Allah (SWT). Nothing at all. We just need to keep on praying".

"Maybe you can tell the elders to arrange to talk to Zaynab? So I can come over and talk to her? She won't come if she knows am the one that called for her",I tell him.

"Sure. I'll tell mom",he smiles.

"Thank you".

"Now let's go to bed". I smile and nod. I rest my head on his chest and close my eyes slowly.

***

"Zaynab is in the living room with the rest. You can go in now",Basha tells me.

"Does she look angry? Or?"

"I don't know. She's just emotionless",she shrugs.

Sighing, I make my way out of the kitchen and into the living room.
All the elders, my parents, her parents, Fawaz and the twins parents are all seated on separate couches while Zaynab is seated on the large couch along with Khalid, Aamanee, Fawaz and Aayan.

Zaynab looks up and her eyes land on mine then she stands up with anger instantly replacing her initial emotionless one.

"What is she doing here?",she asks.

"Zaynab. I just want to talk",I tell her.

"Talk? Talk about what? Unless you've found my son, I don't know what you want to talk to me about".

"PLEASE. Just listen!",I raise my voice out of impatience but it looked like it just angered her even more.

"Am sorry. Just, just listen. Please",I rephrase.