LOVE TRIALS

xviii

"Don't you think maybe they're the same thing, love and attention?"

-Greta Gerwig

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This is the end. 🥂

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Sabeeha jumped, coming out of the guest room when she heard another door slam in the house. A few seconds, later Hamza appeared with water dripping from his hair, a towel slung around his neck.

"Why are you standing there like that?" Hamza asked her when Sabeeha didn't move from her place by the door.

She pivoted, Hamza watched her open the door and then, close it, softly. She turned to him, "That's how normal people close the door. When will you learn?"

Hamza looked at her with indifference and threw his towel on the couch. He didn't tell her, he hadn't done that in a long time. It seemed she brought out the worst in him.

"I am going. Lock the door," He said as he walked past her. "And go back to wherever is it that you have come from."

Sabeeha stared at his back, tamping down the urge to ask him where he was going at the ungodly hour as he wore his jacket and exited the house.

Sabeeha pondered on informing Sophia but she refrained, it didn't concern her.

Hamza bit the inside of his cheeks when he reached Sophia's house, he was allowed inside without any reservations and it didn't surprise him in the least.

His mother in law greeted him in the corridor as he was on his way to his wife's room, her kind eyes reminded him of Sophia.

"Is this how you return the kindness that was extended to you, betay?" Habiba's harsh words halted Hamza in his steps.

Hamza moistened his lips.

"I am not sure what is going between the two of you but cease hurting her, Hamza," Habiba spoke, Hamza was stunned into silence. "Do not make us regret entrusting our daughter to you, betay. We married her to you because she claimed you to be her happiness. She was happy. You were her happiness but I have seen her shed more tears in the past several months than her entire life."

Hamza bowed his head with shame, he couldn't resent Habiba for telling him so.

"Do not take this lightly when I say if you persist, betay, I will bring her back and the separation won't be temporary. Rizwan and I are more than capable of doing that. Have I made myself clear?"

Their eyes met. For the first time in his life, he saw Sophia's mother stand against him than for him or beside him. Hamza was gripped with a sudden feeling of loss.

"And Hamza, don't ever- ever send her crying back to us. I will not forgive you, again. If you can't put a smile on her face, don't be the reason behind her tears, please."

It was a mother's plea.

"Ardashir?" Hamza asked, slowly.

"He's asleep in my room," Habiba told him. "It's best if you see him in the morning."