Like Chalk And Cheese [Completed]

A favor or a threat?

I was taken down to the living room where all the men sat around on the sofas and armchairs. With the red silk scarf covering my head, and eyes fixated on the floor, I was brought in front of Agha Jaan, who had risen to his feet on my sight.

I could see his leather slippers, his fawn coloured shalwar and his hand that reached mine, held it and then was brought to the man standing beside him.

He was wearing brown khaki pants, and I knew for sure that he was none other than Agha Hasan. I felt like I was being sold off. His skin burned mine, as he held my hand in his.

"In Allah's protection. Take her home, Hasan." Agha Jaan's old wavering voice echoed in my heart for several seconds, as I truly registered the meaning his words upheld.

"I'll send all the rest of her luggage by the morning, for now it's just one suitcase." Baba Jaan was saying. "Maheen, where's it?"

I saw with my head still bowed, the suitcase dragged in front of me. Baba Jaan pulled my free hand atop it, and I curled my fingers around the handle.

And then Agha Hasan was walking me away.

---

Hasan

I'm a fucking thirty one year old grown man, and this is the reality I live in - one where I wasn't even at the liberty to make my own decisions about my own freaking life.

As if the life I lead wasn't already a miserable one, I was thrown face front in another embodiment of despair, this time morphed as a wife a decade younger than me. Of course, I did not want to accept the new relationship practically tossed my way, but I seemingly I had no choice at all.

I knew something was up the moment the two men walked in my office - for the first time in all the five years I've spent working for the firm. I was bound to be startled out of my wits.

I found myself rising to my feet, sending the chair scraping backwards as they sauntered in, closing the glass door behind them.

Had I not known how to put up an expression of flat indifference, I'm sure my mouth would have been agape, eyes wide. But it wasn't the case, I knew how to compose myslef from the inner shock. Though, in all honesty, I knew not how to attend to them.

Agha Zaman, and Agha Jaan himself.

"By all means, Hasan, sit down." For some reason, Agha Jaan sounded grave, almost forlorn, as if he had spent the entire night lost in his thoughts, unable to sleep. I could not help but notice how thin he had reduced to, and how the skin on his face and neck had begun to hang low, wrinkles marrying every inch of his visible physique. What surprised me the most though, was his bent back, sagged shoulders, lowered chin, and the grim set to his mouth.

God forbid, I thought someone had died, and unconsciously had braced myslef for the news. The Jinnah cap sat proudly on his head, the sound of his stick against the floor echoed in the silent space of my office as he walked forth, with Agha Zaman tailing behind him.

I quietly sat down, trying to gauge the situation at hand. But I couldn't for the life of me understand why he thought to personally inform me of the demise of the person, why he could be bothered at all. Given he wanted nothing to do with me whatsoever for the last seven years.

Mentally chiding myself for not being the responsible host to my elders, I gestured them to have a seat on the chairs across, as I reached for the intercom on the right of the table.