Lamia Shah didn't have the light in her life.
Being told that her father was no more and spending her childhood in pain from her abusive mother was enough to shatter any hopes for a better life. The sudden marriage of her mother to a man unknown to...
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The chilly wind clawed at his skin as he stood in the middle of no where, eyes gazing above at the pitch dark night sky that had blessed them yet another time.
The man held her closer to him as he placed his hand behind her head, soothing her to just sleep for once.
Just once.
"Shh," he whispered softly for maybe the hundredth time that night. "so jao, meri pyari Hoorain."
Did he whisper that out because of a whimper ringing in his ears? Or was he just too tired due to the lack of sleep these days that maybe he only imagined the sound?
No no, he wasn't imagining any of it, and he had just gotten the proof of that by the shaking of her body in his arms as they tightened around her, her meek cries and sniffles as clear as the full moon in the night sky.
He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that something bad was going to happen tonight.
He pushed the thought away immediately.
"Hoorain," he held the baby in front of him, his eyes glazed with a love he knew he only had for his little girl.
The baby girl's eyes watered, her tiny hands in fists as her body kept thrashing around, her attempts to find any form of comfort in this bone-chilling night being futile.
He had finally noticed, for he went and sat on the nearest bench, placing her on his lap as her cries became even louder.
"Just a second," he slipped off his coat and held her as he wrapped it tightly around her fragile frame, her painful sounds slowly dying down as she only sniffled now, her eyes on her Baba.
Maybe all that layering of her blankets didn't do that much justice to the temperature of that night. Even the man could feel the frosty air nipping at his skin, but of course, daughter comes first.
He held her in front of him, his eyes lined with a glassy layer of water as he stared at his beautiful angel.
He bit his lip before releasing it, bringing her even closer, so close that he had to whisper, and the words he uttered had stopped her sniffling as soon as he said them.
"Baba ko bohat dukh hota hai jab tum roti ho, Hoorain," he choked at his words, his throat constricting as he closed his eyes painfully, pressing his lids as tightly as possible.
It was true. She was a baby, and her job for the next couple of years was to just cry and have her Baba do anything to stop it, but every sob, every tear of hers left a dent in his heart which could only be fixed by her calming down and smiling afterwards.
He kissed her, her cheek being squished with the way he gave her his love as he only felt her soft breathing underneath him, her chest rising and falling with every breath of hers.
