Chapter 10

She ponders upon her life while inadvertently rolling the tip of pen into her mouth. Her eyes are set onto the white board where professor is attempting to demonstrate something to class via key. She was interested when the lecture began, but in middle, her attention slithered over the terrifying tenure of her life.

Does she deserve the way she is being treated? Accepting Arnav's love has shove her in the pit of shame. She is secreting her face, her existence from her dad and Dada Jaan. Though they are off the beam yet she has her head bowed low.

The character line of a girl character is resilient until it is not hit. Once, it is, the line turns as frail as the cookies.

Her heart heaves as she relives the agony she has gone through last night after eavesdropping the family conversation. They were signing happy songs about Owais, his success and charming persona. She has developed deep-rooted loathing for this mere name. She does not want to be called Khushi Owais at any cost.

To solace her heart, she childishly assumed that they may be taking her merciless exam on her sin of accepting the love of Arnav.

Her calming assumptions can never be true though.

Today, in night, the Tanveer family is certainly going to be at her doorstep for the final talk because last evening her family had went to see Owais, his home. They seem pleased with the alliance.

The time of hope is very bit left. Owais has a foreign job offer and his parents want to send him with his bride. Such caring parents!

Her confidence about her natural gender strengths and Islamic rights is suppressed under family pressure. She is incompetent to fight the trap she is locked in. She would never be confident enough to voice her denial for the proposal of Owais and risking the honor and reputation of the family which nurtured her with supreme affection.

Why did Arnav genuinely fill her mind pious woman's values? More than anyone else, he has been playing his role in her good brought up. She will always stay inept to pay him gratitude for not only shaping her as a virtuous lady but also as a good human being. He told her to not go fragile on the name of feminism. Resultantly, she has the reverent passion to fight for others but when the highlight is focused on herself, she has fallen pathetically weak.

From whom she would fight for her rights? From her parents who nurtured her with affection and tenderness? She is bound to her values. The vexed part of this situation is... would she able to breath if today she gets to wear the ring of Owais's name and given the gifts of Shagun.

Her loyal breaths will possibly cease.

"Khush..." Her friend jerks her out of lost state. "Your roll number is about to come." Tania tries to bring her in daylight, informing about the roll call. This professor marks absent if you don't answer your own roll call.

She meekly tells her present at her turn and quickly zips her file, register and pen in bag.

"I am tired and there is no class ahead. I would prefer to sleep." She jokes cheek-kissing her friends and departs from university at the start of midday to ignore the questions. Since morning, they are irritating her to the edge to tell the reason of fallen face and puffy eyes. She needs escape from their questions.

Igniting the engine of her Honda Accord, she aggressively hits the pedals and speeds the vehicle on road. The sun is blistering and shining exquisitely. So unlike her life.

Her wish is being crushed under the patriarchy. She does not understand why her family has this stupid tradition. What bad can happen if she marries Arnav? She wants to be his bride only.

She sighs deep and makes another wish in the nook of her heart. "Make me his or lurch my driving skills; let me meet a terrible accident."

She sniffs as she observes the distance from university to home getting shorten. Thankfully, her family has not put constrains upon attending university. It's not their leniency. They knew it will have stirred the wounded lioness. They are cunning.

Patting the dry cheeks, she takes reverse at the circular road sign and spends awhile on the roads – alone.

***

The sun of mid-November shies behind clouds, allowing chill glazes to blow at three of afternoon. But the temperature is balanced by the heat radiating from the brutally murdered dreams and bleeding souls.

Arnav halts the car with aggression in Hamdani's porch and steps outside in his neat pointed shoes.

"We need to stay calmer to win his heart." Raza Meer murmurs the lesson to him being given from past an hour. No one can expect composed behavior from a fanatic man whose love of years is getting distanced from his reach, from his authority.

"Welcome." Yasmeen's throat parches as she asks the Meers to have a seat in living room. Panicked, she tells the maid to bring juice for guests. Stuttering, she alters her statement and asks the maid to bring tea and coffee with other seasonal refreshments.

However, today, Meers are not interested in cherishing the hospitability of Hamdanis.

"Where is Yousaf?" Rahim Meer asks in his usual dominant voice.

"He is in study, Dada Ji. I call him." Yasmeen replies with dripping chivalry, holding her georgette-chiffon dupatta on head.

She notions the other servant to go and tell Yousaf about the arrival of Meers.

At the very instant Yousaf comes in the living room, Khushi also steps inside from the main door. She freezes to her spot seeing that Meers have come for second visit. She had given the car keys to driver to park the car in porch. So the three cars of Meers did not get into her notice. Once the initial shock subsides, her little heart hops hard in hope of miracle. They happen without prior set-time, right?

Kiran immediately stands up and so does everyone.

Khushi is numb to see the man she ridiculously yearned to admire. He is now here, at her home. Wish she could hug him to death!

Once men do awkward hugs, Kiran and Mrs. Rahim coo Khushi to come and sit with them.

The emotions are taking a hype in her heart. She shakes her head and wipes the wet corners of her eyes. She has grieved too much onto roads in three hours of contentious driving. Her plan was to give her exhausted muscles a break on her soft bed. The tired peripheral system, though, is excited to take glimpses of her man in three-piece grey Armani suit. Pastel grey with the maroon combination suits him too much.

"Beta..." Kiran comes towards him and Khushi immediately hugs her dearest Auntie for her happiness. Her wails echo around putting the heads of Hamdanis to bow with shame.

"It's okay, doll face." Unable to remain at her place, Aaeidah steps towards Khushi, joining her mother to console the wounded soul. "We have come. Only he will be your Husband. Only he will recite Surah Rahman for you in mornings."

Khushi looks at the lady with torn love. She chuckles at the remembrance of her wish. Being kids, they were go to Masjid together to learn Quran. Whole Quran is love but Surah Rahman is her favorite and she has always wished to get it recited for her by her husband – at first morning especially.

"You love his Qir'at, right?" Aaeidah caresses her wet cheek and she nods in agreement.

"and what about my son?" Kiran teases her, having not an inch of intimidation from the family rejecting her son's proposal.

Khushi shakes her head in denial and wails more against Kiran's chest, tightening her hold around her. She has been missing this motherly warmth from bunch of days. A daughter is sure to feel hurt when no one asks her will for marriage. Not even for namesake?

Kiran affectionately kisses on her to be daughter-in-law's forehead again and again to calm her down. She is bemoaning like a broken soul, callously hammering someone's heart with every tear.

"I should take her to room." Aaiedah suggests to her mothers in absolute tone and holds the feeble hands of Khushi. She needs the secure four walls of room to gather up herself.

Sighing, Kiran walks back to where whole family is gathered. "Yasmeen, you could at least protest for the inner peace of your daughter." She fumes at her friend.

"Girls are easily molded after marriage." Yasmeen retorts the most typical reason, pushing Arnav almost out of his patience line.

"Sameer, bud, what has happened?" Mr. Rahim looks up to Sameer Hamdani. "Yousaf makes decision in haste but you... you were supposed to tell others what is right and what is wrong." Now only words can persuade the Hamdani's. Otherwise, the silence of a daughter will eat their tranquil.

"We tried to do our best to be saved from this confrontation." Sameer Hamdani speaks after having a battle in mind upon the selection of appropriate words. "We cannot marry two girls in the same home."

"But why?" Rahim Meer questions despite knowing the cold one line. Every other mouth is sealed when the two elders are talking.

"In past, it created displeasure amongst relations, so we abhor it." Sameer Hamdani does not want to go back into the memory lane. The past where it hurts him the most.

"The past is past. People were not equipped with education. Now, the kids are sensible." Mrs. Rahim supports her husband.

"If Bhabhi had been alive, you might would not have done what you did." Rahim Meer hints about the late wife of Sameer Hamdani.

"Her absence pricks here, Rahim." Sameer Hamdani points to his heart. "It is extremely difficult to not only grow old alone but also live without your dear spouse." The old wounds are being scratched, causing him pain like hell. In adult span of life, people marry, have sex, make babies and when the real time of companionship comes, if one passes away, it certainly stings.

"If she had been alive, she would have seen the condition of the poor souls, whose hearts are attached now." Rahim replies, squeezing the hand of old man.

"My father loved my mother with all his being. He outrageously fought to marry her just like this kid Arnav." Dada Jaan addresses Arnav. "But see, I remained thirsty for mother love all my life." A life without a mother is a life spent naked on roads under 45 degrees Celsius. On top, destiny endowed him with the love of wife for only fifteen years. He was mere thirty-seven when his wife, Gul-e-Muqaddas, died, leaving the responsibility of three kids on his shoulders.

"She was prone to this marriage... Two sisters in same home. What happened? The result was her murder... out of jealousy... by her blood-sister." Sameer Hamdani unwraps the last page of his sorrow, causing every eye to fill with tears.

Aakifah out of all feels extraordinarily mortified. The arrowhead is towards her. Honestly, she has been jealous of her sister.

Rahim helps Sameer to relax after some moments of dismal.

"I understand all of your fears. But what about me?" Arnav decides to have serious and direct talk with his Sameer Dadu who is currently acting as Hitler. "Can I get to know my mistake in all of this?" He demands the rational reasoning of the agony being inflicted upon him.

"I have done saying what I wanted to... moreover, now a day's people do not know what love is. You will eventually forget her one day. She will too understand this after the marriage." Sameer Meer jerks his face towards right disgusting the lusty love of today's generation

"What? Means... you have the right to judge my feelings for her!?" Arnav replies with the same disgust and sighs deeply at the glare from Rahim Meer.

Her moaning sounds repeating in his head are knocking off his sanity. For her, he will do anything. Anything!

Standing up, he steps closer to Sameer Dadu and goes on his knees in front of him. His stone heart has to melt. It's the matter of heart and peace. How can they devoid him of his life – his Khushi!

"Why such coldness?" His patience quota is running out.

"I have illuminated." Sameer replies in icy tone which pricks his heart.

"How can you choose someone else over me, dadu?" Arnav asks making Sameer remember the affectionate relation they share.

"Beta, this is momentarily infatuation." Sameer Hamdani says, giving a big hit to Arnav's patience. His eyes go red in agony.

"Infatuation? Huh!? The moment I saw her for the first time, I fell in love with her. Since then, all I have done is adore her. She was eight back then. Today she is twenty-two. Count the seconds, Dada Ji. You are sharp in mathematics, aren't you?" He holds the wrinkled hands while his eyes go gravely moist with the attempt to act as a real man and not weep while fighting for his woman.

"Ask her if I have touched her inappropriately after she grew of twelve. No matters which game we played, I managed to be at appropriate distance from her. You allow or not, the day she took dupatta on head like a respectable woman, she had become my bride. She is my bride since then." He chuckles, reliving the moments when she properly started to take dupatta on head.

If the revealed past had misted the eyes, then his confession, for sure, is causing tears to drip.

"Don't test my patience. Do not test her dignity. What would people say if her this current alliance is called off? That the modern chirpy girl is in love with someone! Her character which I am shaping since childhood, her pious character will have fingers only because this decision of haste." Arnav vents about the zero result of his efforts of years.

"Her engagement is tonight." Sameer reveals the truth he already knows. Eerily, it makes him more panicked.

"She is a woman. An adult. In the dominancy, you forgot that her wish matters, how could you?" His tone is aggrieved now. Tears accumulate in his eyes as he imagines someone else smiling at her. Damn! Two drops fall and he composes himself immediately.

"I am a youth of today. I repudiate your decision. Wait, let me make myself clearer... I am ready to fight for the lady I have chosen for myself. She has my heart. Only she will have my name." Determined, Arnav gulps the lump formed in his throat. He gets up looking around, hoping Khushi has not listened that he loves her from how many years. He wanted to use the confessing lines at wedding night. Eeps.

He looks towards left and sees her broken on floor, behind the pillar, weeping at his confession.

"Khushi, see, your fireball is fighting for you. Would you not fight for us?" He calls loud for her, feeling no shame in talking to her. Once he achieved the age 16 and concept of sexual intercourse, the thoughts of him kissing Khushi kept clouding his mind. Such teasing thoughts eventually aired his irritation. One day, it resulted him bellowing on her. Unable to use the sharp tongue on her mentor, little Khushi gave him venomous nick name 'Fireball' who can never be sincere to closer people.

"You are doing, that's enough." She wails, having no fear of anyone except Allah in her heart.

"I will make pasta for you in breakfast daily, would you marry me?" He straight forwardly proposes her, looking in her direction.

"Woo Baba and Dadu, please." She sobs against her knees and every chest rises in pride for the respect she has for her father and grandfather.

However, the second visit like the one also gets down thumbs from the stone hearts of Hamdanis and Meers decide to take their leave with the aim of coming again.

"I won't go." Arnav announces with determination.

"Beta?" Kiran wants to empty the house for guests. It will cause the pretty girl humiliation.

"No, let me see whom they are selling her happiness." The truthful poison in his words pull the strings of hearts.

"Would you be able to see?" Yousaf Hamdani snarls.

"You have to see your enemy to finish him." As soon as his words resonates around, everyone gasps in fear.

"Now, you will become a murderer?" Yousaf mocks him.

"Yes, Baba has taught me to follow elders." He refers towards the Hamdani men who are hell bent on assassinating the happiness of their own daughter.

"ARNAV!" Yousaf roars at his tone.

"Sorry but not sorry." His blatant behavior is touching the apex of discourteousness. He is a businessman he knows the people like Sameer and Yousaf Hamdani will only realize his passion if he goes rude with them.

"Raza take him away otherwise I will slap him." Yousaf growls showing his attempts of controlling anger.

"I do not have a heart as bigger as yours. I cannot let my dear grandchild to die in despair." Rahim Raza is hurt. His heart is wounded listening to Arnav's confession. He wishes the kids to do court marriage and be saved from this mess of arrow words.

"I am sorry." Sameer Hamdani finally comes towards realization. He could have waited for few days. Guests are due to come after an hour. The alteration in plans will bring embarrassment not more than the wails of a pious and obedient daughter. "But nothing can be undone now." He grips his flowing emotions to take sage decision.

"OKAY, FINE. I AM HERE, TOO. I SEE WHO THE HELL OF A MAN MAKES HER WEAR THE RING!" Arnav yells frightening the old heart of Sameer Hamdani. He regrets to ignite the young blue blood.

"ARNAV!" To compete him, Sameer Dada raises his voice as well as hand on him. It stills in air though.

"You have right on me." Showing some obedience at the least, Arnav steps closer towards him.

"For the sake of this 'right' and chivalry, leave please. Do not put your desired woman in shame." Yousaf intervenes, giving a support to his father. If not his intrusion, Arnav and Sameer Hamdani would have been hugging by now.

"Go to your room, Khushi!" Yousaf unsympathetically orders Khushi and her throat dries while halting the stream of tears.

"I Love her. What is so hard to understand in this?" The wounded lion is in full mood.

Khushi gets up onto her feet, feeling the frightening storm bursting inside her. She does not want to be of anyone else except Arnav, the man who is carelessly fighting for her. She, though, will complain him to go extreme rude with his father and grandfather after their marriage. InShaAllah.

"GO INSIDE!" Yousaf growls and Khushi dares to pathetically look into her father's eyes for some mercy. She intertwines her fingers for begging. Seeing her act, Arnav shakes his head and Aeidah takes Khushi's trembling figure into her hold.

"Aapi..."

"Dollface, ask from Alalh."

"I am. Entire day and night!" She wails, hugging Aeidah. The hyper tension and the empty stomach does not proof as a good combination and so she closes her eyes for some rest.

"Khushi, Yousaf uncle is saying you something." She opens her eyes, breaking the hug from Aeidah and looks at Arnav with disbelief. As always, her Arnav has forced her to go chivalrous with elders.

"I hate you." She merely utters while gripping her tone before taking her leave with the motivation to do something fruitful to resist the engagement with Owais. She can hate Arnav for what he just did but would always want to be his wife.

His dominant order undoubtedly has a full match with the tone of a husband. This cute feeling though is buried under the sensitivity of the current issue.

***

I was off the track. Sorry for the Delay!