"I'm getting remarried." He deadpanned, looking right into her glassy eyes.

Immediately those three words left his lips, Maryam felt her heart ripping painfully into two. Momentarily, she felt her heart stopped beating. Her lips quivered. Her palm became ice cold in a moment and her fingers trembled violently. She didn't even realise the tears that prickled her eyes until she felt the hot liquid running down her cheeks. In a thousand years, she didn't expect Sa'eed to do something like that to her. He promised her she was the only one for him. Why was he suddenly breaking his promise now? So he had only be lying to her all those years. How could he?! Didn't he know how all these would affect her. She felt more tears running down her cheeks, but she didn't bother to wipe the tears away. In fact, she wanted him to see just how much he hurt her. She wanted him to look into her eyes and repeat what he just said - the words that had her world crashing down in a split second. Perhaps she heard wrong, otherwise her habibi would never do that to her. He loved her too much. "Wha...tt did you... Ju...st say?" She asked, stuttering. The words barely leaving her lips due to the huge lump that suddenly formed in her troat. She would never be able to digest such news. She'd die from heartache.

"I'm sorry." He simply said, with his head hanging low. He didn't dare look into her eyes this time around.

She let out a short, sudden intake of breath and her lips trembled as she spoke. "Why are... You sorry? You haven't done anything wrong." She wiped away her tears. "We should go back to the way we were before. I'm sorry, habibi. I should have listen to you, but it's okay, I can rectify my mis-"

"Habibty! Please stop." He pleaded. "My mind is already made up."

"Nooo... I-" she swallowed hard. "You can't possibly do this to me, habibi. I won't allow you." She sobbed. She couldn't even harbour the mere thought of some other woman inside her home as her husband's wife. WIFE! She couldn't bear the thought of sharing his love - sharing him with her. He wouldn't always be with her and he might just forget all about her - she'd never allow any of that to happen. She would do anything in her power to stop him. She didn't have the heart to see him bring in another woman as his bride. It'd completely shatter her - for this, she was ready to do anything he asked of her. She would quit working willingly if that was what it'd cost.

"I'm sorry." He said, curtly.

"STOP SAYING SORRY!" She hurled. You're not going through with it. I do not agree." Sa'eed remained unmoved by her actions. He wasn't her Sa'eed. He was someone else. Her Sa'eed wouldn't even try joking about getting remarried.

"You can't stop me as my mind has already been made up. There's no going back." He replied and turned to leave.

"Why?" She question with cracked voice. Wasn't she enough for him like he always said? Was it a lie? Was he faking his love as well? - more similar questions clouded her disturbed mind.

"I need a mother for Manal."

Those six words surged right into her heart like a dagger. He needed a mother for Manal? Then what was she? Sa'eed had intentionally and completely demoralized her with those words of his. He had made her seem like the worst person on the surface of the earth. Even to herself. "What am I to her then?" She asked the question in which she dreaded what the answer would be.

"You're just her mother by birth, not by heart since you can't sacrifice your happiness for hers." He replied, unsympathetically. He didn't even stop to think of her condition - how his words would affect her negatively. He had really changed a great deal.

"I want you to be sincere with me; do you still love me?" She asked as a lone tear escaped her eye. His attitude proved otherwise.

Sa'eed looked on, perplexed. He hadn't expected her to ask him that. "Of course." He replied. "I do. I'm not getting married because I don't love you anymore, I'm only doing this because I want a better family for our daughter. The both of us aren't doing our jobs as parents perfectly and our careers are the cause. The person I'm getting married to doesn't have any desire to work, so she's perfect."

He was doing all that because she wanted to go back to her job, right? He would change his mind once she speaks - she was confident. It was what he wanted after all. "You don't need to do that anymore. I will quit my job at the hospital permanently." As much as she didn't want to say those words, as much as she wanted to take the words back, she refrained herself. She had to remind herself why she was making that huge sacrifice - for the sake of her family. Allowing a strange woman into her home would be yet the biggest mistake of her life. If quitting her job willingly was all it'd take to make him change his decision, then she was note than willingly to do it in a heartbeat.

Sa'eed's brows furrowed. "You don't have to do that." He remarked. "I have accepted your decision. You can never really quit wholeheartedly-"

"But I want to try." She interjected. "Please." She added.

"If that's what you really want, but put this at the back of your mind - I'll still be getting married." He deadpanned.

"I have already said what you want to hear. What more do you need me to do to change your mind?" Maryam yelled, exasperatedly.

"Nothing. There's nothing you can do to change my mind." He heaved a sigh. "I want you to promise you'd be nice to her. I want you both to be like sisters."

"Sisters?" She bellowed, staring at him in disbelief. "Never! And that's if she dares to come into my home. You will regret your decision, Sa'eed." She said, warningly.

"Alright." He gave a small smile.

"Why? Why are you doing this to me? I have agreed to what you want. What more do you need from me? You're doing the wrong thing-" She remarked.

"Wrong? You are a learned, habibty. You should know it's not wrong. In fact, it's sunnah!" He interjected.

"Right! Sunnah. It's the only sunnah you men of nowadays know." She huffed. "I'm not going to agree and that's final." She said, mustering all the patience she had left. She wanted to break down and cry in front of him. Crawl and beg him if possible. She'd never be able to share him. She didn't have the heart. She knew he had to right to get married to not only one more wife, but three, but that knowledge didn't ease the uneasiness she was feeling at all.

"I think you're mistaken." He said. "I wasn't asking for your permission. I was informing you." He clarified.

Maryam's vision blurred with unshed tears and her chest tightened. It seemed he was very determined to get married and no matter how hard she tried to convince him, he wouldn't listen to her. She wiped the corner of her eyes before the tears could fall and walked closer to him. She lifted her hand and placed it on his right cheek, making sure their gazes were fixed. All she wanted was for him to discard the idea from his mind - she was ready to do anything for that to happen. "Habibi." She called softly and watched as he shut his eyes momentarily. He must also be having a hard time, then why couldn't he just let it go? - she wondered. "Please reconsider. I know it isn't wrong at all, but I can't bear to see you with someone else. It'd kill me. I love you so much. Please forgive me for all of my mistakes." She pleaded and immediately she shut her eyes as well, the tears escaped.

Sa'eed's eyes fluttered open and his own hand moved to her cheek, wiping the tears away. He caressed her soft, flawless cheek as he spoke; "I don't like seeing your tears. I hate it."

"Then don't go ahead with what you have in mind." She couldn't even bring herself to say the word 'marriage'. It sounded foreign to her. "If you do, it simply means you don't love me anymore." She finished.

"That isn't true, habibty. You know that. I can never stop loving you even if I want." He confessed. "But... But I just have to do this. I'm sorry."

"If not for me, then because of our baby." She took his hand and placed it above her abdomen. "Have you forgotten what the doctor said? I shouldn't be stressed for our baby's life would be in danger."

"In shaa Allah, you will be fine. I will never make you feel unloved." He promised. His eyes held nothing, but sincerity.

Maryam wasn't afraid of that for she knew Sa'eed wasn't capable of ignoring her, but the mere thought of him belonging to another as well shattered all types of rational thinking from her mind.

"You won't reconsider?" She asked for the umpteenth time.

"I'm sorry." Was the only reply he gave before planting a lingering kiss on her forehead. "Put in mind, I'm doing all these just for the sake of our family. I love you." He said, taking her hands in his.

Maryam couldn't grasp the kind of anger that suddenly overwhelmed her. Her nose flared and her demeanor contorted in fury. She yanked his hand away. "No you don't! I'll never be able to see you get married again. It'd be over my dead body."

"What are you insinuating?" Sa'eed asked in a calm voice.

"If you go ahead and get remarried, I will leave this house for the both of you. The decision is yours to make. I'd gladly leave you to her than to share you." Said Maryam. She didn't mean to give an ultimatum, but she had to do it as that was the only option that came to her. Now the decision was Sa'eed's. Will he go ahead with the marriage or let Maryam go?

~~~~~~

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What decision will Sa'eed take?

Will he divorce Maryam?

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