LIMITLESS

Chapter VII

“I’m sorry, abo.” Rayan said as he sat at the foot of her bed. She was laying down, happy to finally be back in her bed. “I messed up and I’m really sorry. I hope you can forgive me.”

“I’m really disappointed in you.” he said. “But I’m relieved that you came back home. I was really scared, Rayan. thought that I was going to lose you forever.”

Rayan genuinely felt guilty about her actions. She loved her father and the last thing she wanted to do was hurt him.

“Do you want to know why I ran away?” she asked as she sat up.

“I already know why.” he shrugged. “You wanted to run off with that white guy.”

“No, that’s not what it was at all. I actually haven’t talked to him since that night. I left because I heard you telling Omar that you were going to marry me off.”

“We’ll talk about that in the morning.” he said and stood up.

“So it’s true?” she asked. Without answering her, he proceeded to leave the room. He might have left that in that moment but he made sure to check up on her throughout the night. Just to make sure that she was still there.

                                …

“Can we talk about this?” Rayan asked her father and brother in the morning. “I want to set the record straight right now.”

“What are you talking about?” Omar asked. He was still upset at her for running away. He couldn’t believe all of the trouble that his little sister had been causing lately. He was fed up.

“I’m not getting married.” Rayan said as she sat on the couch, cross-armed. Omar and her father were sitting across from her.

“Yes you are.” her father said. “It’s what you need.”

“You’re talking like we’re in the sixties.” Rayan said to her father. “You can’t just marry me off when I do something you don’t like.”

“You’re talking like you’re an American.” he said. “I know who you are now. If I don’t tie you down, you’re going to run wild until nobody will want you.”

“He’s right, Rayan. I know girls who acted like you in high school and now they’re searching for husbands but nobody wants them.”

Rayan couldn’t care less. In reality, the last thing she worried about was who would and wouldn’t want to marry her. But she pretended like she did in hopes that they would change their minds.

“What if I change my behavior?” she asked. “I think that there are other ways around this besides marriage.”

“I don’t believe you.” her father said. “I have no trust in you at all.”

“I can change, abo. I promise.”

“Nope. You’ve showed me who you really want to be. I’ve already made up my mind.”

“You might think that he’s joking but he’s really not.” Omar said seriously. “We’ve already picked a guy and everything. We were just waiting for you to come back until we actually moved forward with all of this.”

“And if you think about leaving again to get out of this, it’s on you.” her father shrugged. “Your relationship with Omar and I is gone.”

“You’re not serious.” Rayan said.

“Wallahi billahi I am, Rayan. Good luck finding another family.”

Rayan could tell that her father wasn’t bluffing this time. A shiver of fear ran down her spine.