Heartbroken [COMPLETED]

Chapter 15 | Amal

Author's Note

Assalaamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatu hu everyone!

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Umar had been found but I didn't understand what had happened. Umar refused to come home and nobody had any idea why. I was on my way back to see my parents and the rest of my family. I was planning to stay for the week as that's how long I had got off from work.

I reached home - well I'm not sure if it was technically my home anymore - but yeah. I still owned a house key and unlocked the door. As soon as I opened the door, I was hit with the smell of biryani. My mouth started watering even though I had already ate a sandwich on the train. One thing I had realised is that even though I could cook the food never seemed to taste the same as when my stepmother cooked it.

Just as I had suspected I found my stepmother in the kitchen at the stove. I tapped on the door and she jumped.

"Amal, darling. I didn't expect you to be here so early. I would have started making the food earlier"

I moved forward to embrace my stepmother and smiled.

"I missed you. I come to see you and dad. You didn't have to make me food."

As we were standing there, the doorbell rang. My stepmother frowned,

"Your Dad isn't going to be back until later in he evening. Who could that be?"

I shrugged my shoulders and opened the door. I was taken aback by a figure hugging me.

"You're back!"

I started laughing as soon as I recognised the voice. Wardah. I I dragged her inside where she gave her salaam to my stepmother. I told my stepmother to go sit down in the living room whilst we made tea.

"So, how's everything going?" I turned to Wardah as soon as I left. She shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know how I feel. I just...can't understand why Umar would run away from us. Like I just can't. It's been more than a month and he hasn't bothered to talk to mum and dad, the people who raised him. Forget me, but my parents are the reason he even exists. How could he even do that to them?"

I didn't know what to say in response. I was confused myself. Umar was nothing like the typical Pakistani boys with their gangster attitude and street act. He was a simple guy. Wardah and I used to tease him and call him a nerd. His head was always stuck in the books and he was our encyclopaedia of knowledge. He was sweet though and he was like the little brother I never had. Umar running away just didn't fit in his description. 

I could tell Wardah was avoiding telling me something but I couldn't tell what it was. I raised my eyebrow, 

"What's wrong?" 

"Nothing..." She shook her head and I looked at her. She sighed.

"You know, I was so angry at Umar. So so angry. Like how could he do that? Like how dare he run away? I was fuming. My parents have not gone into his room because they keep thinking he's going to come back. But the other day, I went there and I was just sat there. And I don't know why but I stared searching through his drawers. I don't know what I expected to find but the thing is Amal, going through his things...I realised one thing...He's not the type of person we thought he was."

"What do you mean?"

Wardah was not making any sense and she was confusing me.

"My beloved brother was a drug addict. A severe drug addict." She said it so seriously. But I wanted to laugh. I couldn't imagine my cousin getting high at all. A smirk must have appeared on my lips because she told me it wasn't funny then.

"And how exactly did you come to this conclusion, Sherlock Holmes?" 

Wardah then went on to explain what she had found. In the drawer she had found a phone. It was a cheap phone but nonetheless a phone it was. It had a password on it. But it wasn't exactly the most protected phone and she managed to enter the phone by simply entering in a email. It must have been a rubbish phone. 

On the phone she had found calls and texts to several numbers and it didn't take a genius to figure out what the conversations were about. It made sense though in terms of where his money went. The kid had had a part time job for over two years but he always used to complain about never having money. This would provide an explanation as to where his money went but I just couldn't believe it. But Wardah was adamant that she was right. And I had no choice but to believe her. I mean why would she lie?

"Do you think this has something to do with why he run away?" I asked Wardah. I knew of many people in my year at school that had been influenced so much by the life of drugs and had lost their way in life. People that I had grown up with, that had aspirations to be lawyers, doctors, bankers, had end up being involved in drugs and ended up so deep that they couldn't get out. It scared me to think that Umar might be involved and we had had no clue. What kind of family were we? If we didn't even know what was going on his life. 

"We need to find Umar." Wardah shook her head.

"It's not possible. My parents have asked the police. They won't tell us where he is due to child protection. It's so annoying. Like they're making out like my parents are criminals that abused him."

"We can find him. He's a kid, come on. He isn't a secret spy working for MI6 now is he?"

She sighed and nodded her head in agreement. At that moment, my stepmother walked in. 

"I thought you were meant to be making my tea."

Oops.