I never had it easy.
From watching my parents succumb to the horrors of a car accident to craving the healing presence of the man I love-my entire life-I had navigated through this messy maze I call my life with a shard of hope in my heart.
Every da...
Assalamualaikum everyone! I've decided that from now on, I'm cutting chapters in half because entire scenes sometimes cross 3k+ words, and because I want to post updates more frequently in'shaa'Allah.
Also, translations for any Urdu words or phrases are in comments. Enjoy <3
Chapter 27 | Little Monsters
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Bhai, it's almost three. And if I remember correctly, all of you were supposed to be here an hour ago," Maha spoke into the phone, a hand on her hips and a crease between her eyebrows.
Mubaraka watched her with an amused smile. The timings for the aqiqah ceremony were set to five in the evening right after Asr prayer, but since the Khalids had offered to assist in the preparations, they were due to arrive earlier.
"No, I don't care if Saboor still isn't home yet," Maha continued. "She has been incredibly rude and demeaning towards me for as long as I can remember, and I've had enough of being treated like you guys picked me up from a roadside curb. Like I'm not even a part of your family."
Mubaraka, her face barely masked of her surprise, looked up from the gift box she was packaging and towards Maha, eyes widened in alarm.
Maha put her phone down and switched the call to speaker, then directed her attention towards the ribbons she had been weaving into the basket.
"Maybe she's just stressed because of work, and letting it out on everyone around her?" Came Aaryan's voice through the phone, and Mubaraka's heart jolted in her chest. That voice, that voice that she had missed and replayed in her head countless times, had reached her ears after a year. She had been aching to hear it.
"If by everyone you mean me and me only, then you're absolutely correct," Maha cried, turning her eyes to the phone. "It's my fault I have to share a room with her and sleep next to her and hence endure all of her poisonous words."
Mubaraka watched as Maha roughly pulled the ribbon through the handles of the basket.
"Maha, don't be so harsh. Give her time. She'll come around."
"You know what Bhai, you need to step out of this bubble you've been living in that everyone is as nice as you, everyone will understand, everyone will compromise, nobody will take anything to heart. Because that is not the way things work. I, for one, am tired of enduring the daggers she throws at me and pretending they don't hurt, that they haven't pierced me at all. I am tired, and I am done."
