Twice His Age

2: Police Case

'Finally, maybe someone will be able to save her from all this.'

Those were the words that kept ringing in Zaid's mind as they drove her to the hospital while she cried and begged them to take her back home, she couldn't afford for him to come back and not see her at home. They ignored that, of course, but with each whimper of her tears of physical pain and agony, Zaid wanted to lay his eyes on that rascal she called her husband and give him an earful.

They arrived at the hospital and she was taken to the ER instantly while they waited in the lobby. Anas turned to him after he had heaved a sigh out of exasperation and hissed softly. "What do you suggest we do, Zaid?"

He looked into his eyes for more than a minute. The pain was there, as raw as he had ever seen Anas's expression of pain as he ducked his head down. "I don't know about what you can do and what you cannot, but there's no way I'm going to let that man go. Didn't you hear what their neighbors were saying? This is a usual for her, Anas."

"I know, that's why I want to bring an end to all this. What should I do?"

"I'll make a few calls and have him arrested." He didn't even wait for Anas to approve of his plan or not, because he knew whatever the case, he wasn't going to let this woman continue to live with him, whoever he was.

He came back a few minutes and when he didn't find Anas there, he asked the nurse there and she told him the room number she had been taken to. With each step he took towards the room, his chest tightened and anger kept clouding his vision. He didn't know why he was immensely feeling her pain, but he was.

He was about to turn the doorknob when he heard the way she was crying while she narrated everything to Anas, and by Allah, he swore his heart dripped along with her tears. She didn't even have to voice a word out for one to know that she had been in so much agony and still lived in one, just the way she was hopelessly crying was enough.

"He wants me to sign Waleed's adoption papers, Anas. How can I do that? I know we've been married for five years now, but there was never a day he looked at Waleed with even a slight of fatherly softness. How could I? I was never treated right by him..." She stopped midway and Zaid imagined it was to collect herself.

He didn't want to interrupt them, so he just stood by the door and listened to her. While his heart ached for her, reason unknown to him.

"You know, whenever we have an argument with him..." She chuckled, the kind of chuckle that was mirthless and showed how much one had gone through. "I mean, there was never a day in those five years that we had lived peacefully, I've tried all I could, but he never appreciated or even acknowledged it. He beat us both on days he felt as though I were a burden on him. I can't even begin to talk about all that I've gone through in his hands. But you see, I have to provide a home for Waleed. A home where he could have both a father and a mother living with him. And I can't be divorced twice, I can't face the society that way, Anas."

It took her some minutes while she cried, and from the way it was sounding, Zaid needn't be told it was coming directly from her heart. His heart burnt for what she had gone through and was going through.

"That's not even what's bothering me now, because I know he'd never divorce me and that, at least, is a relief to me. But I can't bear seeing Waleed getting maltreated by him. The occasional beatings of us is normal, but this? Wallah I can't live witnessing this. And now he has taken him away, claiming that he wouldn't bring him back until I sign the adoption papers for him. And I can't, Anas, because I'm sure he has a hidden motive for this, he'd never do that without a motive."

He heard the breath Anas had taken and waited to see if he would likely speak some senses into her. Where was the self love he thought all women had? The selfishness that he thought had filled every woman's heart. Who was this woman and why was she thinking so low of herself, her entire being and that of her son? Relieved that he wouldn't divorce her? What sort of mediocre mentality is this?