A Little bit of Love

Chapter-7

"—And Hadeed beta? Are you taking proper care of my precious Hoor?" I sneaked a sideways glance at him whose whole attention was concentrated on Papa.

"I am trying my best Uncle—but I think Hoor is the one who can judge best." He returned politely with a small smile. My brows shot up at his amazing acting skills and I couldn't help but mentally laud him while sitting there on the stage.

"Very well said, son! You have never fell short of my expectations but always exceeded them. I knew, I was right about you—!" Papa exclaimed energetically and I turned away with an exhausted sigh and roll of eyes.

'I am the only idiot, then—who can see the real intentions behind those fake smiles—' I thought with a deepening frown while turning my gaze to the Hall in front of me and returning Raabi and Saani's teasing smirks with a shake of head.

"Well? What do you think?" I heard his voice besides me a while after Dad had left the stage. For a moment, I sat still in my place; caught off guard by that remark and even more so, the source behind it.

"About?" I slightly turned to him with a stunned expression and even without giving him a proper glance, I looked away immediately.

"Am I taking proper care of you?" His words were more than enough to shake the earth beneath my feet and I even turned to him with widening eyes, wondering if there was something wrong with my hearing, or did he really ask me what I think he did.

"Well, I do agree it is pretty soon to judge since it's barely been a day—" He continued, unfazed by my shocked expression but by now he had managed to capture my full attention.

"Excuse me? Are you for real? You are actually asking me this? Did you hit your head somewhere—?" I questioned dumbfounded at which he watched me blankly, but before I could get my answer, some friend of his had come up to congratulate us with his wife and kids.

"Why? What's wrong with my question?" He added innocently while we posed for the photographs with them. I gulped down my thoughts and tried to focus my energy on keeping up that smile for the camera.

"You—Have you lost your mind? Did you somehow forget the fact that I hate you?!" I whispered through clenched teeth and looked away from him to smile and greet some people coming up from his side of the family.

"You're still hung up on that? Hoor—look, let's try to be mature for a second. I know I have said and done some things in the past that went against this whole relationship but—that was the past. And there's no point to linger on it anymore—We can't continue fighting for the rest of our lives—" He continued softly and I pretended to listen until the guests left to cut him off.

"Excuse me—rest of OUR lives?! Whatever made you think that I am going to spend the rest of my life with a liar and cheat like you—!" I turned to exclaim through clenched teeth while keeping my tone and expressions in check, since we were under constant scrutiny at the moment. Yet, I felt myself freezing at the sudden coldness of his eyes.

"You have every right to mistrust me and my intentions but this is the last time that I listen to you calling me names which you've no proof of—" Even after trying very hard, I couldn't stop myself to not feel any fear by the threat in his voice—I gulped unintentionally, unable to release the breath that I was holding in. He looked away from me that moment but my eyes remained fixated on the muscles in his neck clenching and unclenching with restrained anger.

"—Whether you care to believe it or not but I didn't wish for things to happen this way, either—And if this is how you wish to proceed then go ahead, by all means—I was only going to try so much—" He ended sharply before getting up and stepping down from the stage. Leaving me to stare after him in merry conversation with his work friends.