All For What!

63

Pacing around, Sa'eed kept on trying to call his wife's number, but it was not going through. He raked a hand through his head in frustration. Knowing the kind of a wife he had, he knew she could go to any extent to rectify her mistake. He knew she would do anything to bring back their daughter and make him forgive her for her mistake. He sighed heavily. "I hope she didn't do what I'm thinking."

Trying her number one more time, he sat down and buried his head between his hands. His heart was bleeding for his daughter who was kidnapped and now, his wife was nowhere to be found. He prayed to Allah to keep the both of them safe, for he could go insane without them. His family was his life. The amount of love he had for them couldn't be measured or weighed. For anything bad to befall them, he prayed to Allah to bring it unto him instead.

Exasperatedly, he shut his eyes tightly and his fist connected with the wall beside him. Why did he not control his anger? He was already used to doing it. What suddenly changed? Why did he have to send her away? Where was she? How far could she possibly have gone in her condition? - he questioned himself. "She's definitely out there, looking for Manal."

Not able to wait any longer for her return, he dashed out of the door in search of his wife. For all he knew, she might still be in the neighborhood.

~~~~~~~

Few hours later, Maryam still could not be found by Sa'eed or even the police officers - this made Sa'eed extremely worried and restless. If anything happened to his wife, he would never be able to forgive himself, for he was the cause of her disappearance. If only he did not let his anger outweigh his conscience. She was a mother and definitely, all mothers would have done exactly what Maryam did in hopes to find her daughter. If only he had realised this sooner, he would not have showed his anger and raised his voice at her. He would have consoled and assured her their daughter would be back with them safely in sha Allah. What suddenly happened to him? It was probably the shock of finding out his precious daughter had been kidnapped. Subconsciously, he felt a tear escape his eye. In spite of how hard he tried to be strong, he broke them. His heart bled for his little daughter whom he knew was in tough hands at the moment. Nafisa would stop at nothing to torture her. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed a lump in his throat. He couldn't wait for the police officers to get their hands on Nafisa. He would definitely make her pay for every single time she had made each of them shed a tear, all because of her.

Plopping down on the sofa, Sa'eed's other cellphone began to vibrate. Pulling it out of his pocket, he checked the caller ID and found out it was an unknown number calling. Within a split second, he tapped the answer button. It might be the kidnappers.

Putting the cellphone close to his ear, he anticipated the person at the other side of the line to speak up, but apparently, they wanted him to speak up first. "Who is this?" He asked, going straight to the point. There was absolutely no need to be verbose or waste the time of exchanging peasantries. The problem he had in front of him was enough to turn him into a grumpy man.

"Sa'eed." The person called all of a sudden.

Sa'eed's heart stopped beating for a nano second. He had to take the phone away from his ear and check the number again - not because he didn't know who just spoke, but because he wanted to be sure he was not hallucinating and there was no call at all. Amongst hundreds and thousands of voices, he could pick out the unique voice of his wife at any time of the day - Maryam! But something was odd by the tone of her voice. He did not fail to notice she called him by his name and how distant and emotionless her voice sounded. It was totally unlike her. "Habibty, where are you? Are you alright? You had me so worried ab-"

"I'm fine, Sa'eed." She cut him off. And there it was again. She did not call him by her endearment for him again - something she rarely did, even when angry. "You can stop worrying about me now."