The Criminal's Love

Chapter 30

A soft knock on the already open door made my attention drift to the doorway. Two women who seemed to have a huge age gap between them were standing there. The one who stepped in first was much older and seemed to be in her late fifties.

The second woman who trailed behind her seemed to be in her forties. She had the exact same hazel eyes as Asiya and I understood immediately she was her mother.

"I figured it's time to finally meet our bride." The older one spoke as I stood up from the edge of the bed. She stopped in front of me and inspected my face silently before smiling. "Just when I thought my nephew couldn't surprise me more...But, looking at you I understand why he did what he did. Mashallah.....I'm Sofia, Walid's aunt. This is Asli, my brother's wife as in Ariana and Asiya's mother."

Pushing away all the negative thoughts, I greeted them and they lead me to the sitting area where Asli sat beside me and Sofia took a seat across from us on the armchair.

I knew that the women in the family had no fault. All of them were probably as helpless as I was. Even though they were acting like there was nothing wrong with my situation, it didn't bother me. That was just their mentality and they were used to Walid doing things they couldn't question.

Time passed and we chatted for almost an hour. They had asked me about my family and my life and I told them what they wanted to hear.

Asli seemed to be very surprised and happy with me. I didn't know how she had expected me to be but I could clearly tell she was surprised in a good way.

The aunt Sofia on the other hand didn't show much emotions. It was hard to tell what she was feeling. I did get a slight feeling of her being a bit too composed because she wanted to show me who was in control...

But then again, I did find out she had lost her husband and son, which was enough reason for her wanting to be reserved. I genuinely felt bad for her. At this old age, she was back in her father's house without any kids or grandkids. I could only imagine how lonely she must've felt.

As we chatted away, I found out a bit about the family members who lived in the Aydin mansion. Walid's paternal family consisted of two siblings only. The eldest one being aunt Sofia. The second one was my supposed to be father-in-law who's name was Wahid.

I had tried to hide my amusement upon hearing the similar names both father and son had...

Aunt Sofia and Walid's father had lost three of their brothers in their youth. It was heartbreaking to hear that Asli was also a widow and Ariana and Asiya had grown up without their father.

The minutes flew by and we talked a bit more about random stuff until it was time for them to leave.

"Your mother-in-law, Zarina, wasn't feeling well so she's resting in her room. I'm sure you'll meet her soon. Wahid is out of country, hopefully he'll be back soon." Asli stood up.

"Okay aunty, thank you for coming here." I stood up and they moved towards the exit.

"Call me Ma, everyone calls me that."

"Okay, Ma." I smiled. I remembered Walid mentioning Ma a few times when he used to talk on the phone. I always thought he was talking about his own mother...

My eyes moved to Sofia. "Take care, bride." She said and gave me a smile. I returned her smile and they left the room.

I went back and took a seat on the sofa. It was only 11 in the morning and time was going really slow.

Earlier when Walid had left, I didn't do much. I didn't step out of the room but thankfully Sofia and Asli had arrived just in time to keep me company.