Heartbroken [COMPLETED]

Chapter 11 | Amal

Author's Note

Assalaamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatu hu everyone!

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It had been three days since the incident with Yasir and his parents. And it seemed like Yasir was almost avoiding me. His parents had left early the next morning. I could tell by the looks that Yasir was not best pleased with either of them.

I was headed home from work on the bus. I was saving up to buy a new car so I didn't have to travel on bus all the time. But I had little savings left over from university. Sitting there, I looked at my phone. Yasir had left me 3 missed calls and 7 messages. I wasn't usually this late and on the off days that I was, I was bombarded with calls and texts. It got irritating at times but I knew it was just because lately he had been getting worried. What with all the attacks on Muslims, he did get anxious. Which I thought was sweet.

As I unlocked the front door, I could hear laughing and voices. A woman's. I couldn't recognize it though. Why was Yasir with another woman?

"Amal, why are you standing there?" Yasir had suddenly appeared in front of me. I shook my head and  he raised his eye.

"I want you to meet someone." He gestured for me to come into the living room. On the sofa there was a woman sitting with a cup of tea in her hands. She looked up at me with a warm smile. She put the mug down and got up.

"This is my sister, Yasmin. Yasmin, my wife, Amal."

"It's nice to finally meet you." She opened her arms to embrace me. The perfume that she had on reminded me of my stepmother. We both sat back down and she started speaking to me, 

"So Yasir speaks very highly of you. I didn't think my brother would ever settle down. But you've certainly changed him." 

Yasir rolled his eyes and left the room. We started talking about work. I was tempted to ask about the argument but I felt like I had no right to. Instead I blurted out another question.

"Why didn't you come to our wedding?"

"I wasn't invited."

She was very quick to reply. As soon as she answered, the room felt very cold. How could she not have been invited? She was Yasir's sister. I hesitated before I asked another question.

"Why...why weren't you invited?" At this point, Yasir walked back in. Yasmin looked up at me almost for approval to continue speaking. He sat down next me and nodded to Yasmin. 

"They don't consider me their daughter." She said it with such a normal voice that initially I thought I misheard her. I heard about these stories in Indian dramas but I had never actually felt like they were real. 

"I married the wrong person and my marriage kind of failed. My parents weren't too happy," she continued.

"So they cut you out of their life for that?" 

How could someone cut their own daughter out of their life? How was that possible? My parents would never do that to me. Would they? I scolded myself. Of course they wouldn't. Yasmin stopped speaking and Yasir started to speak, 

"Look, my family is messed-up. There is no need for you to get involved. You know more than enough."

I was still very confused. I was sure there was more to this story than they were telling me. But it didn't feel right to keep pushing for answers. Over the past few months, I had come to learn that there were many problems within Yasir's family. And after I had learnt that nobody was really fond of me in his family, I kept my distance. It hurt me a lot to find out that people I didn't even know loathed me. 

I left Yasir and Yasmin to talk whilst I went to change out of my work clothes. They weren't very comfortable. As I was changing, I realised that Yasir had forgot to take the trash out again. He was so forgetful. I was going to leave him post-it notes to remind him now, I decided. I took the rubbish and went into the garden to throw it away.

As I was heading back inside, the front door of the neighbour's house was opened. Yasir and I had been invited there a couple of months ago for dinner. It had been really enjoyable and the family had been very welcoming. 

Out of the front door stepped out the teenage girl. She had been really polite and kind. Seemed to be very mature for her age. She saw me and I thought I saw a flash - of fear maybe? - in her eyes. What reason did she have to be scared of me though?

"Assalaamu alaikum."

"Wa alaikum as salaam, Malaikah. How are you?" 

She told me that she was headed to the pharmacy but she seemed to be very quiet. Normally she wouldn't stop talking. And it was very evident that she was avoiding eye contact with me. I was confused to say the least. 

"Why are you standing out here?" Yasir was standing in the doorway. He noticed Malaikah and smiled. Malaikah looked at Yasir and mumbled something incoherent in reply.  

"I have to go." Malaikah said suddenly and walked off.

What was wrong with her? Had we done something wrong? And I was sure the pharmacy was in the other direction...