The Wedding

Chapter 22

Friday

8 days to the wedding

"Why didn't you tell me all of this when I called the other day?" Yusuf asked in a soft voice making Laila feel guiltier for what she was doing. It picked at her conscience not telling him all of what had happened. She only fed him the senseless story of her fallout with Ya Zainab.

"I didn't want to disturb you with such a petty issue"

"You should have told me" he insisted.

"I know" she admitted yet still made no move to tell the man who was going to become her partner in a little above a week about how bad things really were. Sure she could tell him she and her sister were fighting, but there was no way she was going to tell Yusuf that his in laws were on the brink of divorce and though unsaid; were only waiting to separate after their marriage because they were sure it will send Yusuf's family into reconsidering the whole alliance. She felt sad because she knew for a fact that the second news of her parents' separation got out; her in laws would judge her then felt even sadder because she wasn't sure Yusuf wouldn't either. It's the way the society works and she knew, of course she also knew it was very wrong but she had never really given it much thought on how bad the stigma felt until now; when she was undoubtedly going to be tainted with it too.

"Let's just get it out there; you need to understand you can tell me anything" he said as though reading her mind.

"I know" but that was just it... she didn't know

"Alright then I'm just settling in the office. I should go but I'll call you later we're going to talk about this"

They exchanged Friday greetings before the call was ended. She sat there; going over all that had happened, her options and knew for certain that not doing anything was not an option. She loved both her sisters dearly and as elder sisters; they had the right to chastise her when she did something wrong. Them yelling at her she could endure, but having them not talking to her... well it's been established she can't really tolerate being ignored by anyone. She decided to talk to her father the minute she got back with Yaseer

XXX

"You did this" Yaseer hissed accusatorily. He had unsuspectingly driven his car into his house just to see two others parked in the lot. He knew very well who they belonged to and there was no plan made about having his uncle and brothers present. It would just end up blowing up into a worse fight than what he came to apologize for which no need to be said; defeats the whole apology. He honestly doubted he'd even be able to get to the apologizing because the second one of his brothers made a snide remark or his uncle tried to get him to move back he would inevitably snap. So to avoid upsetting his grandmother which he'd done enough of; he tried to steer the car around and drive out of the house when Laila gripped the steering wheel and that was when he got to see the look on her face; an answer to how it happened

"There's no use. You should just get it over with" she said

"You don't know my brothers. One of them is going to 'nicely' ask how my business is coming along and the other will even more 'politely' ask how much money I've made"

"And knowing you that means you'll insult one of them back"

"Do you know what it feels like for your siblings to-"

"Hate you?" she cut off "Yes. I believe I do. I'm going through it right now"

He shook his head and a forced smile came on his face. "That's not it. For your siblings to make it clear to you that you're wasting their father's legacy; your inheritance?" he looked ahead and stared at one of the car's parked in front of him as though willing it to explode. "Making it abundantly clear that I'm nothing and I won't be anything without them"