With Love, Zayn✅

5.

Simply because we're at 1k reads already! 😩🎉🎉🎉🎉

"So you met my sister in the rehab center?"

Hayra nodded.

Zayn blinked. He couldn't wrap his head around what she just said. She did say she and Kulsum were just acquaintances, but she knows what happened between Kulsum and Aasim, right? How could she still marry the man? "You still married her ex-husband?" He didn't mean to sound rude or cold, but he couldn't help it.

He had no control over his emotions. The little he feels that is. He wasn't supposed to have them to begin with.

Hayra looked down for a brief second, her warm smile morphing into a sad one. "Zayn..." She exhaled lowly, "Whatever problem you have between you and Aasim, that is something that concerns you, not me. And same goes for his relationship with Kulsum"

Zayn wanted to scoff at her words. Couldn't she see how wrong the situation was? "People don't just change, Hayra" If he guessed correctly, she had to be around his age. So, he had no problem addressing her with her first name.

"They don't, overnight" She nodded in agreement. "But people do change eventually. If they want to, that is"

Zayn had so many questions he wanted to ask. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to voice them out. Does she really know what exactly happened between Aasim and Kulsum for her to say this? If she does, how could she stand Aasim and even married him? What's wrong with her?

Noticing the turmoil behind his demeanor, she spoke. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions..." Her eyebrows drew in, as an empathetic frown took over her features. "...but I can't answer them now. I'm sure we'll meet again the future, let's talk then"

He nodded and stepped away the door, giving her the space to go in. Without another glance at her direction or that of the house, he headed over to his car and got in; massaging his temples the minute he closed the door.

The dinner wasn't as disastrous as he expected. But, it certainly wasn't the peace he hoped either. Shaking his head off those thought, he turned the car on and drove out of the house without another look back.

~*~

"Zayn, I've been trying to call you but I couldn't get a hold of you"

Zayn sighed, resisting the urge to massage his temples again. It wasn't like she couldn't get a hold of him unintentionally, he had been avoiding her. Hence, why he left America without seeing her or letting her know.

But he couldn't avoid her for long—for his sake. So, he called her now. And as expected, she wouldn't let him off the hook without a string of questions.

"Sorry" He breathed out. "I had to return back home"

"Home?" Dr. Asma, his therapist; a nice African-American old woman in her mid-fifties, asked. She had known him for over five years now. And aside from being his therapist, she did consider him like a child to her.

She and her husband do not have a child together, much to her displeasure. But, she considered Zayn a child of hers since she started being his therapist. Amongst all the people she had met before, he was amongst the most complex of them all. The fact that he considers his family as people he simply shares blood with rather than a family, made her pity him more. So, she had been treating him not just a patient, but as her son too.

She needed a son, and Zayn looked like he needed a parent; or a relative at least. She could see past his façade. He needed someone to be there for him.