The Size of our hearts

18

It had been two hours and I had gone through all the negative emotions, but right now I was just confused, I had so many questions to ask. There was a knock at my door, I opened the door and the man that showed Hamid to his room stood with his head bowed in front of me. "Princess Aasir, the king calls for dinner and asks of you to wear this" He pulled out a long white dress and a matching headscarf. "Thank you and please do not call me princess, I'm not one" I sighed as I grabbed the dress and closed the door. 

I threw the dress on the bed and looked at it, the thought of not wearing it crossed my mind but I didn't want any trouble, I took off my shirt and shorts and stepped into the dress. I pulled it up with force to get it past my hips and finally put my hands through the sleeves. I looked down as I realized how long the dress was. I didn't bother asking for shoes as my feet couldn't even be seen so I kept my sandals on. 

I opened the door as the man informed me that he will show me the dining room. We walked down the long hallway and took a left. He walked ahead of me and opened the door. I looked at his name tag and whispered "Thank you, Mr. Abdul" He smiled and looked down at the floor. There was a door stopper so I had to lift up my dress and step over it, I got my first leg over but tripped as I tried to get my other leg over. The door closed and my dress got stuck in the doorway. I looked up as the entire royal family looked back at me. Hamid stood up from his chair and walked briskly towards me. He opened the door and got the rest of my dress in, then lifted me up. 

He had his right hand on my waist and his left hand was on my left arm. He pulled me up and winked at me. He smiled and I smiled back. Then we made our way over to the table.  "Should I greet them or something." I asked nervously. 

"Um.. no don't worry about it" He said in a low tone as we got closer to the table. 

I straightened my back and walked over to the seat opposite Hamid's. I sat down and everyone's eyes slowly drifted to me then back to their food. I realized I didn't feel like eating as I stared down at my plate.

The king cleared his throat and everyone looked up. I dropped my laced fingers unto my laps and looked up at the king. "Bring her in" He said while staring at me. I looked at him then averted my gaze towards the door that had just been opened.

Mr. Abdul stepped in with a woman that had her head bowed behind him. She stepped in and raised her head. "Mom?" I said as she stared back at me. She quickly looked at the king. "Why is my daughter here, what do you want with her" She yelled as the other women at the table began to gossip. One of the men sitting next to the king slowly turned around and looked at her.

"Would you still like to stand up for yourself and rejoice in your feminism" He said slyly as he let the word 'feminism' roll slowly off his lips. My mom looked at him in disgust then looked back at me. Her expression softened.

"Or shall I enlighten your daughter of our history" The man said. My mom's anger quickly became anxiety as her eyebrows knitted together. "Mrs. Aasir." The man said as he turned to face me.

I kept quiet as he raised his eyebrows at me. "Um I don't understand" I said nervously as I looked at my mom then back at him. "You will" He said.

He had big brown eyes and a Grecian nose and thin lips. He was average size for a man and had only one dimple. "Neveah, your mom slept with two men.." He began before my mom interrupted him. "Ibrahim I will tell her myself"

"I did not ask you to speak!" He said angrily with out taking his eyes off me. "As I was saying, your mom slept with two men, me and your father." I could feel my heart beating faster in my chest, then I could feel it in my throat. I opened my mouth a little wider to let more air in.

"and she gave birth to two girls, Rashida and yourself" My eyes quickly shifted to my mom but I didn't move my head, she had tears in her eyes, I looked back at the man speaking. "When your mom had you, she left your father and got custody of you, you were three months old at the time"

"Your mom moved back here to stay with her sister and met me at a club, we slept together and your mom got pregnant, eight months later she had Rashida so we made her live here at Saud with the rest of the royal family."

"Obviously your mom didn't like this, she took you and left one year later as Rashida was with her sister and she didn't want you to be raised by us 'devils', she wanted to come back for Rashida but couldn't as she knew if she was seen here, her punishment would be great"

I slowly turned my head and looked at my mom. Tears where pouring out of her eyes and her cheeks were red. I looked back at the man. "So what do you plan on doing to my mother" I said as I pushed back my tears.

"She is my daughter's mother, I will cause her no harm, but she will be imprisoned until I say she is free, you on the other hand, your free to go back to Nigeria, we brought you here because we thought you had a hand in Hamid escaping."

I stood up from my seat "I'd like to see my mother" I said "Privately" I added quickly.

"Mr. Abdul you heard her, take her mother back to her cell and stay there. If they say or do anything out of the ordinary, report back to me, is that understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty" Mr. Abdul bowed and escorted my mom out. I walked after them quietly.

We reached the prison cell and as I was about to speak to my mom I heard deep coughing.

I spun around and stared at the boy inside the cell behind me,

"Jafaar?" I said quietly as my eyes widened.