LOVE TRIALS

THE END | xx

Grief is the price we pay for love.

-Queen Elizabeth.

🥀

Present

Sophia Jr, lovingly called Sophie by her grandfather gazed at Hamza's grave with tears soaking her eyes.

Finally, he was laid to rest beside his late wife, Sophia Rizwan, her grandmother she had never known yet loved, deeply. Hamza only ever spoke of Sophia with Sophie.

I lament living, tiresomely long without her.

She watched her father, Ardashir Rizwan, owner of glassy eyes and cold heart as he turned away from his father's grave in death as he had done so with him when he had lived. Sophie feared for her father.

Even in his last moments, Hamza hadn't cared for his son, he hadn't allowed him the simple pleasure of his departing company.

"Baba," Ardashir spoke, lowly. His father had asked him to leave.

"Go home. Take a bath. Sleep for a few hours," Hamza croaked. "Don't fight with me. Your wife, your child will be waiting for you."

"Close the blinds, I will sleep," Hamza said, turning on his side so his back faced his forlorn son, patiently waiting for his son to leave him so he may depart from the world in peace.

"Please, don't let me break, Amal," Sophia heard her father as her mother wrapped him in her arms. Sophia took a step back lest she was caught peeping into her parents' room.

Come morning, Hamza didn't wake up to see another sunrise.

"Look after my family," Those had been Hamza's last words to Adam Hassan Omer. Hamza hadn't allowed him to come close, he had stared at Adam across the room and didn't speak to anyone else but his brother who had deemed best to remain behind when Ardashir had left at his father's unbending will, Adam wouldn't. He had no obligation to obey Hamza, unlike Ardashir.

Ardashir swallowed the lump in his throat when Adam's arms came around him, squeezing him into a side hug and Yahya Firas pressed a hand to his shoulder, he was acutely aware of his loss.

His father's words echoed in Ardashir's ears, Ardashir was sure Hamza hadn't been lucid under the influence of medicinal drugs when he had spoken them to him one night in the hospital room. He had nearly ignored Hamza's rambling, he would have regretted it until the end of time had Hamza allowed him to do that.

"Come closer," Hamza spoke, again and Ardashir realized he hadn't imagined it the first time.

Ardashir rubbed his eyes and bent over, pushing his ear closer to his father's mouth, his heart thrashed beneath his chest.

"There's a very thin line between love and hate. I have traversed it longer than any man should have. I have been nothing but wrong in doing so.

I didn't love her, I lived my life with only one purpose after her death, I sought to destroy her and everyone associated with her, that is anything but love.

Whom I loved, I never told. Whom I loved, I didn't let her live. Whom I loved, I killed."

Hamza breathed, "Sophia."

Ardashir crushed his teeth at his father's admission and drew away, leaning back against the wall.

Hamza Hassan Omer had spent most of his life fighting his fate and everything that was decreed for him.

He had fought to bring Sabeeha in his life when he should have walked away, he had fought endlessly against the desires of his own heart to keep away from Sophia- to be for her what he was to her when he should have known better than to chase what was never meant to him for everything that was written for him, he had once held in his hands.

He had fought to remain irredeemable in everyone's eyes until his last breath except Sophie's, he was untainted in his granddaughter's eyes and worthy of all the love in the world.

He wasn't patient, he was never content. He was ungrateful and vindictive, time and again. Greedy. He didn't accept, he never accepted his circumstances, not truly and he didn't concede.

Sometimes, he wanted more. Other times, he wanted less but never exactly what he was given.

Had he given up only once?

If he had only hated her less and loved her more. If he had only been more forgiving and less vengeful. If only...

Things would have been very different.

Ardashir took a shuddering breath and blinked, removing himself from Adam's warmth.

He once again faced his father, his teary eyes settled on the tombstone.

"I am my mother's son, baba. I refuse to hold on to this cruel anger unlike you. In time, I will forgive you."

Don't make the same mistakes as I did. Choose your battles, wisely. Not everything in life warrants a fight, sometimes it is worth taking a deep breath and treasuring life as it is.

And In there was the very last lesson his father taught him, the only lesson Ardashir would hold dear and cherish for as long as he would live.

🥀

I don't know how this turned out to be but it's what it is.
I may come around to change this.

Hamza and Sophia's story was never supposed to be written. It just came to be. Naturally, nothing was ever planned with them including the miserable end except that they have always been doomed from the beginning.

They were never supposed to end, any differently.

Yes, Sophia died. I am not going to explain her death, I may come around to write Ardashir's story and give a different spin to it, one day. Who knows? With how the events unfolded, it's a possibility but for now, I'll mark 'love trials' complete.

On a happier note,

1) No, I don't intend to write another tragic endgame.

2) Happy Ramadan! May this be a blessed month for all of us. ✨

3) Do check 'Deception.'