Holding on and Letting go [Complete]

21) Life is brutal.

For a second, Zeliha didn't know what to say when finally she heaved a deep sigh and commenced, "I'm not gonna refrain you from asking me that because knowing everything is your right but digging up the past won't do us any good except for wasting our time so I'm only gonna tell you what needs to be told and nothing else."

"I don't care about the past anyway. Present is what matters." Her grip on the cup tightened.

"Masooma, Ahid's mother, is Ammar's wife...first wife basically and I'm his second," Zeliha divulged.

She wasn't sure if she was shocked or not because getting shocked had literally become constant in her life now.

"But Ahsan is my son in case you're thinking he's not."

With his name being brought up now, things suddenly clicked in her mind. She finally realized where she had seen him before. That day, outside the restaurant, with Ahid. Yes, that's where she'd seen him. Finally a few pieces of puzzle, if not all, were being put together. Things were making a lot more sense than they initially were but many thing were still unsolved.

"But that still doesn't explain why she wasn't at the wedding." After much caution, she asked.

"Because..." she faltered, "...she has schizophrenia."

"What?" Her eyes dilated to a certain degrees as she retorted, her voice hoarse.

So this was Ahid Khan's life. This was his huge mansion. His perfectly luxurious life. Never did she ever anticipate her imagination of him living a utopian life would shred into fragments in front of her just like this. How quick she was to form an opinion on him. Indeed, what we perceive of others is not always the reality.

It was just a house, not home.

"But how did she develop it. I mean what happened?"

"Like I said, digging up the past won't do us any good so let's just leave it here."

She was just about to get up and leave when after what seemed like a second thought, sat back. "Also, I don't want you anywhere near her and that's an order."

"Why?" She protested. "She's my hu...errr...I mean, she's Ahid's mother."

"But this is for your own safety. She gets really vile at times."

"But doesn't she have the right to know her daughter-in-law?" She asked rhetorically.

"Of course she has and she does, too."

"What do you mean?" Scrunching her brows together, she inquired.

"I told her this morning."

"And?" She arched a perfect eyebrow.

"Like I said, her condition keeps deteriorating so she pretty much didn't care so please for the love of God, stay away from her, I don't want anything bad happening to either you or her."

With that, she sprinted out of the room.

******

As hours rolled into days, a week passed just like that with her being busy in work but this time something was different but not new. After a lot of time, Ahid Khan was again occupying her mind. He was everywhere and as much as she wanted to talk to him she didn't know how to face him.

She would visit Sabeen after every day or two and lied to her that Ahid had to fly back to UK for work related thing and that everything was perfectly normal. But the weirdest thing that happened was when she told Irha about the entire situation, she didn't sound much shocked.

Since it was Sunday, she decided to spend time with Zeliha but then she got an important call and had to leave in an emergency for the office(giving her strict instructions not to go to Masooma's room). So she made up her mind to go to Sabeen. It was weird enough living in a house where you are not allowed to meet one resident, let alone spending an entire day in.