...

Kaveh Fayyad always started his mornings with the newspaper.

He couldn't imagine a time when he hadn't sat down for breakfast, undid the crisp folding of the paper and caught up to everything that happened around the world whilst he was asleep.

This morning, however, his paper was trapped under his little sister who refused to budge. Azar swung her feet from the edge of the table and fed him her cereals one grain at a time. Kaveh didn't have the heart to move her - so he decided he could always read the news on his phone later and obediently opened his mouth every time she asked him to.

Yasmine entered the dining room and a smile graced her graced as she watched the scene laid out.

"Look at this! Even your baby sister missed you while you were gone," she said, placing more plates on the table.

"Mom, I'm already here," he said, rolling his eyes. "You can stop with the emotionally blackmail."

"All I'm saying is that we're all glad to have you here," she looked at him fondly.

"With you, and Azar." He paused to look at his sister adoringly. "Feeding me like this, I can't say I have much to complain."

Hearing her name, Azar let out a gleeful giggle.

Yasmine looked at her children fondly. Weekends on the Fayyad household were nothing special. True, they all stayed at home and ate all their meals together; but all the members of the family constantly remained busy with their own worlds.

However, that didn't matter to Yasmine, what mattered to her was that all her children were together. There is nothing that gave her more joy than the presence of all three of the kids in the house - specially of her son - and knowing that her entire family was under one roof.

Kaveh's other sister chose the moment to saunter into the room. Yasmine paused to make sure she was seeing right. Layla walked to the refrigerator and opened the door.

"Have I died and went to heaven?" she let out a cry. "Or has my eldest daughter blessed us with her presence whilst its still morning?"

Layla discreetly rolled her eyes. "Don't be dramatic, Mom," she said, still assessing her options inside the refrigerator.

Kaveh raised a brow subtly at his sister. Asking Yasmine not to be dramatic was like asking the sky to not be blue.

"Is there any special occasion or did you just randomly decide to wake up before noon?" the older woman placed a hand on her hip and asked.

Layla finally decided on orange juice and picked the bottle. Closing the door behind her she faced her mother. "Just trying to fix my sleep habit," she replied, casually raising her shoulders and dropping them. "And Dad's taking us grocery shopping." she announced cheerfully, placing a hand on her brother's shoulder.

Kaveh, who had finally gotten the chance to eat his actual breakfast, looked up again. "Us?" he repeated quizzically

"At this hour?" Yasmine queried.

"Yes, remember when he used to take Kaveh and me to the market to teach us to differentiate between the kinds of fishes and what not? We just realized we haven't done that in a while."

"By 'in a while' you mean over ten years," Kaveh retorted.

"Just get dressed." Layla batted a hand in the air. "Dad will be down in ten minutes."

Kaveh stared at his sister in astonishment, but at the same time, he felt a warmth in his chest. He couldn't recall the last time she had addressed him so easily, neither did she ever make plans to spend time with him voluntarily.

They've always had a tumultuous relationship, both due to the difference in their personalities and the cause - their parents stark difference in how they treated each. But it seemed like they were finally starting to accept the differences, and maybe, to some extent, give an effort to understand the other.

"Fine." He got up from his seat with a laboured breath, shaking off the thoughts, picking up Azar to hand over to his mother.

"I'll give you a list of some things I need," Yasmine said as she held her youngest daughter in her arms. "I haven't sent food to the Mahmoods in a while... don't leave without my list!"

By the time Kaveh walked down their stairs again, his sister and father were still in their respective rooms. As always, he was the first to get dressed. He searched his phone inside his pants' pocket and realized he had left it on the dining table.
When Kaveh went to pick it up, he saw he had a new email. He clicked it open.

Dear Kaveh,

It read.

I just wanted to take the time to tell you that I got your letter. I really appreciate you going out of your way to apologize to me.

Since you went to the trouble of explaining your actions, I thought I should do the same. That day, when I heard you say 'what will the neighbours think', it vexed me enough to say what I did. Growing up in a society where external image and family reputation are given higher status than internal peace and happiness - this sentence has become like a trigger to me.

I realize now how harsh I was. Instead of acting on emotions, I should have taken the time to assess the situation and handle it with better grace. For which, I apologize. Also wanted to take the time to ask your forgiveness for all the rude things I said and assumed about you since we met - with and without your knowledge.

I was raised to believe that a sign of a big heart is in how fast a person acts to fix a situation. I inspire to acquire a heart as big as you someday. Admitting my mistakes doesn't come easily to me - it is one of the many things in my long list of flaws that I'm working on.

I hope we can leave all these behind. Who knows, maybe when we run into each other in social gatherings we can even say hello to each other like everyone else does (within the permitted limitations, of course).

Dahlia Ahmad.

P.S: I kept Lily in CC as you know I prefer not to communicate with the opposite gender without supervision. Hope you understand. I have maintained confidentiality in all other aspects, I promise.

There was a smile on Kaveh's face as his eyes travelled towards the end. The last thing he had ever expected was to receive an apology from the youngest of the Ahmad sisters, and she had managed to convey regret, sincerity, and weave wit while setting her boundary all within the same text. Only this girl could do something so simple with so much brilliance, he thought with admiration.

"What're you smiling at?" His sister's disembodied voice reached his ears.

He looked up to see she had reentered the room and quickly put his phone in his pocket. "You wouldn't believe if I told you."

"C'mon." Layla grabbed his arm, choosing to change the topic for the moment. "Dad's waiting in the car."

They found Azar waddling to front of their main gate with them. "Let's go, Kaveh Bhai. Let's go," she cried, not bothering with the fact that she wasn't actually part of the initial plan.

Not having much of a choice, holding one sister's hand, and being dragged by the other, Kaveh left the house.

Farrah stared out the window of her car and wondered how fast the year had gone by. It seemed like yesterday she was on her bed in her aunt's apartment - dreading returning home to her parents and facing her childhood nemesis again. Now, she was living with her Mom who she had somehow managed to come to civil terms with, secured the job she had been preparing herself for the past five years, and was weeks away from marrying Salman. If someone had told Farrah how her year was going to play out, she never would have believed it.

Amidst it all, Summer had come and passed, the rain blessed and then flooded their crops, and the trees lost their color. But to Farrah, it seemed like she had blinked and it all happened. The cliff she was standing on the edge of and trembling in fear of getting pushed off, threw her out in the oblivion itself. A particular verse from the Quran was circulating her head - the one regarding how we may want something that is bad for us and reject something that is good.

Rani Hussain was on the phone besides her, talking to someone about something or the other regarding her upcoming wedding - no doubt. They were returning home from the bridal boutique to finalize some last minute alterations. The day before that, her mother was delivering the invitations to all their relatives personally.

They had arrived at their house. Rani had stomped down the car and was strolling inside, Farrah quietly followed behind.

"We need to plan how to accommodate all our relatives that would be visiting for the wedding," Rani was muttering.

"Just book a couple rooms at the Radisson," Farrah suggested.

The older woman shot her an annoyed look. "Don't be silly, Farrah. We can't make extended family stay at a hotel." She took a moment to think. "But maybe we can send your father to one though."

They had entered their house. Rani was heading towards her room when Farrah held her arm to halt her.

Rani whipped her head to face her daughter. "What?" she asked impatiently.

Farrah stared at her blankly. The months of tension and frustration rose to her throat like bile, choking her. Words were failing to form in her tongue, the unsaid pain pooled in her eyes in the form of tears.

Rani twisted her torso to face her daughter completely, a look of worry descending on her face. "What is it, sweetheart?" she repeated.

Farrah simply reached out and embraced her mother, shaking as sobs broke through her chest. "I can't do this. I can't go through this wedding."

Shock flashed on Rani's face. But she didn't say a word and quietly held her crying daughter in her arms.

***
Author at the moment:

I also just wanted to quickly address something:

When Kaveh sent Dahlia the letter and she did not immediately respond to it (and on top of that went to Faizan), there was a strong reaction against her from the readers. And I know you guys were mostly joking and I appreciate your humor and strong reactions, but I also wanted to clarify this:

If a guy confesses his feelings for you, you are not obligated to return it (especially if he has been as rude as Kaveh). Faizan was nice to her consistently and her connection with him was stronger. She owed it to herself to fix things with Faizan before she could cosider starting something else with another guy,

Kaven is my love, but we all need to remember Dahlia does not owe him anything. And if her response in this chapter seems lackluster in comparison to his... remember he had a lot to make up for, she didn't.

XO.