Of Broken Hearts and Tears

Chapter 5

Maya was trying to call Daniyal on that unknown number but it kept ringing and no one picked up. Hope against hope she tried one more time, her fingers crossed that someone picked up her call.

Before she could cut the call,  the rings stopped and instead of the usual dial tone she heard a voice. She thanked Allah and said a hello.

"Hey princess. Missed me already?" Maya cringed at Daniyal's cocky voice.

"I want you to delete those pictures." She said through gritted teeth.

"Straight to the point are we?" He said in a teasing tone.

"Look this is my last warning to you-" she started through gritted teeth but was cut off by a voice behind her.

"Maya?" She turned to see her brother standing at the doorway of her room. She had been so worked up that she hadn't even noticed him enter.

She paled at the thought of him having heard her and cut the call discreetly.

With this Daniyal found another weakness of hers: her family. She was scared of what her family would do in his words.

But in reality she wasn't scared of what her family would do. Rather she was scared of making them think that she broke their trust. In all honesty even if they did believe her, her reputation would be tarnished forever.

"Who were you threatening on the phone?" Fawad asked his sister frowning.

"N-nothing. No one." She stuttered unable to meet his eye.

"Maya sweetheart what's wrong?" He asked her softly."Is there something troubling you?"

"No." She said still not looking at him on the eye. How could she? It would instantly be confirmed that there was something worrying her. He knew her like the back of his hand.

"Come here." He said and pulled her into a hug. Maya basked in the warmth and security of her brother's embrace. Unknowingly a few tears escaped her eyes and she quickly rubbed them away. Even if she told him he would be disgusted by her and why would he believe her anyway when there was solid proof against her.

She had tightened her arms around him unconsciously.

"Are you trying to choke me?" Fawad asked his sister playfully.

"No. I just missed you." She admitted quietly and loosened her hold on him.

"Maya you can always talk to me about anything, you know that right?" He said to his sister still worried about her silent demeanor.

"I know bhai." She muttered.

"Fawad you were supposed to call her for dinner, not stay here yourself." Areesha said as she entered the room. Both the siblings turned towards her and gave her a guilty look.

"I am not hungry. You guys go and eat." She muttered as she got out of her brother's embrace and sat on her bed.

"Come on Maya. Its your favorite lemon chicken today." Areesha said.

"I'll eat it later."

"No you are coming and thats it." Areesha said finality in her voice.

"Maya you don't want me to die in hunger because of you right?" Fawad said this time. How could Maya even digest a morsel of food when her honor was at stake.

"Cut it out you two." She snapped at them losing her calm. "I dont want to eat means I don't want to eat."

Any normal person would have been offended at this. But her family knew this wasn't her.

"Maya what's gotten into you? You can't starve yourself. You can share it with me." Areesha said calmly.

"Nothing. Its just pressure from the hospital. One patient is not getting better at all so -so I am just worried." She fibbed.

"May Allah help him then."

May Allah help me, she thought.

"You can't starve now can you? You're eating with us and that's it." Fawad said to her and before she knew he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the dining table with their parents looking at them in surprise.

"Whats going on here kids?" Their mother asked in surprise as Areesha pulled out a chair and Fawad made Maya sit in it.

"Ma she wasn't coming to eat. So we had to use force." Fawad replied cheekily.

"I remember when you used to feed her when she was a baby and she refused to eat from my hand." Their mother reminisced fondly.

"Oh yeah and you always used to bite my finger whenever I fed you." Fawad said narrowing his eyes at Maya.

Maya let out a chuckle at that. She had heard enough stories from Fawad how she was the mean little sister and he was the nice older brother.

"I am not going to put bites in your mouth now so help yourself." He said to her when he noticed that Maya wasn't eating at all.

Maya put a bite in her mouth and swallowed it without even feeling the taste of it. Her mind went back to those pictures and how she had to call Daniyal again.

"Do you like it?"

 Maya looked to to see Areesha looking at her expectantly.

"Sorry you said something? I wasn't listening." She said

"I asked that if you liked it?" Areesha repeated puzzled at her behavior.

"Yes. Its very good." Maya lied.

"See! She likes it." Areesha said to Fawad cheerfully and Maya looked confused between them.

"I made it for the first time and Fawad kept on teasing me that this isn't any good and we made a deal that if you liked it he would treat us with ice cream. Ha in your face!"  She smirked at Fawad. "I love you Maya."

Maya let out a light chuckle at Fawad's dejected face while their parents just looked at them amused.

"You don't want to go out with me?" Areesha narrowed her eyes at her husband.

"No don't start." Fawad said alarmed. He didn't want to hear another speech of 'i know you don't like me anymore.'

"I wasn't going to." She said narrowing her eyes at him.

"Good. Get ready after dinner then. Maya, Ma, baba does any one of you want to come along?"  

"Na you kids go." Their mother said.

"Fawad bring those medicines on your way." Her father said to him.

"Yeah just give me the prescription." He told his father.

"I don't want to come either. You guys go." Maya said.

"What? Are my ears working? Maya and refusing ice cream?" He said putting his fingers in his ears to check if they were clean.

"Disgusting bhai. You are eating." Maya said wrinkling her nose.

"We will get ice-cream for you. Which flavour?" Areesha said.

"Vanilla for her of course." Fawad said knowingly.

"No. I want strawberry." Maya said she said cheekily.

"What? Last time you hated strawberry! You're saying that just to spite me." He said knowingly.

Fawad knew her so well. But would he even believe her when solid proof came in front of him? That thought disturbed the peace of her mind and she closed up again.

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