Clearing up the supper table Sarah placed the dishes in the sink, but just as she opened the tap Hina's voice made her turn.
"Arey main dho lun gi, betay!"
Shaking her head softly Sarah waved a hand and turned back to the sink, "It's fine, koi baat nhi. Let me do it. Aap ko waisay bhi itnaa kaam karna hota."
Hina felt her lips quirk up at the side hearing the reply and she blinked in surprise. She had prayed to get on talking terms with her husband's favourite daughter one day, hoped and prayed that Sarah would stop hating her and understand her- but never had she imagined in her wildest dreams that one day the girl would be ready to support her like this.
Hina had picked up on the subtle changes, like how Sarah had started to call her Hina Aunty and how she tried to help her with her chores so Hina would have more time for the kitchen and how she was getting involved with Samar and Aliya too, trying hard to make her place not just in this house, but also in their hearts.
It was endearing to watch her listen to the two while she worked around the kitchen and put in her replies where needed. Samar and Aliya too, had become incredibly chatty these days much to Hina's surprise and delight.
Hina didn't know much about the reason behind Sarah's decision to come live with her father, only that things between her and her fiancé ended badly and the wedding that the family was so looking forward to attending that winter holidays wasn't taking place anymore. But nothing more than that, and neither did she try to find out. She believed it wasn't her place to pry.
She was just happy to see the girl trying to find herself after the evident heartbreak and was proud of how Sarah carried herself with pride despite hearing things from people back home that were enough to send a person spiraling into depression. She had seen her sitting for hours curled up on the arm chair in Aliya's room, sometimes crying sometimes quiet, but she was trying her best now to move forward and do better.
Sarah was strong. It wasn't easy to face everything the girl was facing alone. She was only 24, she was allowed to make mistakes and fall and feel lost.
But it seemed like she thought she was supposed to have everything under control. That her life was going to be picture perfect, from her education to her career to her wedding.
Hina hadn't lived with her for long but she saw it in Sarah's behaviour, from wanting to get the perfect brownie in her first attempt to every trivial little thing, the girl had trouble in dealing with failures and she wanted -needed, everything to go perfectly, not even consciously. It was like this was her character flaw and no matter how hard she tried to fight it, the fear of failing made her hands cold and her knees tremble. But Hina also saw Sarah visibly struggling with herself as she tried to change her attitude, like how she proudly took her brownies to Nadia's when Hina suggested it, though Hina could tell it was the last thing she wanted to do. She was scared of how they'd like them.. but she took them nevertheless.
And right now she was trying her best to be someone she had never been before, someone empathetic, someone who did things out of the pure goodness of their heart without waiting for any rewards. She helped around the house so Hina could rest before she ultimately had to come into the kitchen. Sarah may not know, but she wasn't as horrible of a person as she thought herself to be. Misguided, stuck in the wrong toxic social circle for too long, perhaps even selfish, but not evil, never that, and Hina hoped things turns out well for her, because beneath all that toughness Sarah Ghani was a lonely child who yearned to find her people, yearned to find peace and happiness..... perhaps even love.
