It was already the 4th event, Mayu, today and I was busy doing the final checkups, when a familiar person creeped up beside me.

"God! You're not even related to Haniya! How pretentious can you be, Zaira??" I heard Hafsa snicker behind me, but without paying her any heed, I continued to give instructions to the helpers who were decorating the stage with Marigolds.

"You may have fooled everyone with this act of yours but I know the truth. Also, your relationship with Rayyan—" She was still going on and I had made up my mind to ignore her as always, but she was just being too much.

I hadn't seen Hafsa, after that time, Alhumdulillah and initially, I thought that she didn't come to my wedding, despite being a direct relative of Rayyan, only because she hated me. However, Haniya told me later that her parents had grounded her after finding about her illicit affair with some guy. She did come up with claims that he was going to marry her and he ought to have seeing how far things had transpired between the two—But unfortunately, he completely vanished from the picture after their shenanigans were made known to everyone.

Haniya had went over an extra mile to make sure she didn't have to see Hafsa until the actual wedding started. Hence, her whining at being left out in this manner.

Releasing an exhausted sigh, I felt my head falling back from sheer exasperation, before I could manage to look at her with a fake smile plastered on my face.

"Right. Of course you do. But don't you always, Hafsa? And I honestly would've loved to hear your thoughts on it, if I didn't know you for a miserable, vile, lying creature—! So, why don't you take your heaps of wisdom and scram from my sight, before I have someone else do it for me? Now, you won't like that very much, would you?" I continued in a levelled tone, unfazed by her mouth hung open in shock and humiliation. With a roll of eyes and a scoff, I had turned to leave but she pulled me back to face her with a jerk. I caught from the corner of my eyes, her hand raised up, ready to make impact with it's victim. However, before she could, I was forcefully pulled away from her grasp.

"What do you think you're doing to my wife?" Rayyan didn't scream and he didn't need to—Just the harshness of his tone and the coldness of his voice, had rendered both of us frozen on our spots in shock.

He had said all this while coming to stand infront of me. His one hand going behind my back to hold me against him, protectively.

I watched Hafsa gape at him frightened; tears pooling in her eyes and cheeks reddening as she tried to get out a word but couldn't. The fact that it was Rayyan, whose mouth had uttered those words, had made this whole situation a lot more serious than it could've been.

"Take this as my final warning. Don't push me so far to use those letters against you." He exclaimed through constrained anger and before she could say anything in response he had turned away, pulling me beside him and not stopping until we had returned to our room.

"Are you okay?" He inquired in a worried voice, giving me a one over while holding me at an arm's length. I had to gulp to be able to get a breath in and shake my head at him in confirmation. At this, he exhaled a long sigh before slumping down on the bed; the tips of his fingers pressing against the socket of his eyes.

I felt so bad for this man, sitting infront of me. Really, how much more would he need to go through, because of this place and it's people.

"Rayyan?" I began in a small voice, crouching down on my knees infront of him on the floor, before trying to pull away his hands.

"I am okay. I swear—" He didn't let me finish and pulled me up to his lap to hug me against himself tightly. His face hidden in the crane of my neck.

"God—! I won't be able to get a moment's peace until we are here—!" He groaned against me and I brought my one hand to caress the back of his head.

For a few minutes it was quiet, until he broke the deafening silence in a small voice.

"—She used to send me these silly love letters. Always slipping them in through the space underneath my door—I read the first one and the writing was so bad that it gave me a headache, so I couldn't even finish it." He began, as if reading my thoughts.

It was scary how well Rayyan knew me. I knew, I was an open book but didn't imagine it could be this bad.

"I almost threw it out but then kept it, just in case, I might need to use it as an evidence. I still have them at Gramps and Nanna's place." He continued while releasing an exhausted breath. I unintentionally found myself smiling at his muted disgust.

"Simple rebuking had stopped working on her, so I had to threaten her. I told her that I'll tell everyone about her letters, if she didn't stop. For a short time period, she stopped; only to send a lot more, with your name as the sender—" He hadn't even finished when I pushed him away from myself. Barely paying any mind to the look of horror etched on my face, he released a long breath before pulling me against himself once more.

"Of course, I didn't believe it sweetheart. Unfortunately, I knew you hated me—Although, I have to admit that seeing your name on that envelope made me rush to read it, but to say I was disappointed, would be an understatement. I knew your writing—from 3 years ago. When you had given me that book—which was stamped with your sticky notes everywhere; definitions in your neat cursive handwriting. Plus, it would take an idiot to fall for such a pathetic trick. I swear Zai, I get curious sometimes, about what goes in the minds of stupid people—" He ended in a surprised tone and I would've rebuked him for the last part, if I didn't find myself agreeing with him.

"I guess—she had somehow slipped those letters to your Dad too—" He added in a small voice and I had to gulp down the horrifying memory that was burned in my mind like an ever living nightmare.

"—I am sorry, Zai—I shouldn't have believed that you were behind all those incidents—I knew better—but, I don't know how—" He began in a voice breaking with sadness and I had to gulp down my tears before pulling myself away from him.

"Shh—It's okay. It doesn't matter anymore, Rayyan—It's in the past. We are way past all that and I love you so so much, now—because we both have changed for the better, Alhumdulillah—" I murmured softly, taking his face in my hands and brushing a kiss against his forehead. He only smiled at this.

"But—Wow, Rayyan—! I mean, I shouldn't be surprised but I can't help being impressed—! How many poor girls' hearts have you broken? I am starting to see Hafsa in a whole different light, now. Poor girl just had a hopeless crush on you—" I giggled despite everything that had just happened and earned an eye roll alongwith a shake of head from him.

"Right. How could I forget about this irrational kindness of yours. Even during those days, you were ridiculously kind to everyone—everyone, except me—" He grumbled the last part with a pout and I could only watch him stupefied.

"Well—I—that's because you were a jerk—!" I exclaimed passionately and caught him pause, lost in thought. His mouth
hung open at a loss, for a moment before he shrugged carelessly in acceptance.

"Only because you never saw me—So, I had to resort to underhanded methods to make you notice me—" He added simply before hiding his face against my neck and dropping kisses down them. I tried to stifle my giggles before replying to that.

"Right—! Because that worked so well?" I teased and earned a mortified groan from him.

————————-

I kept watching the wooden Music box in my hands that continued to play the tune of "Can't help falling in love"; the same song that I had first danced on, with Rayyan during our Walima. He had got it made for me, as a gift and maybe had something to do with the fact that he had realised his feelings for me, after this dance.

Rayyan is such a hopeless romantic.

I thought with a smile, while eyeing him from my lying position on the bed; who was pacing around the room, in conversation with some client.

"You're spoiling me." I shot away as soon as he got off the phone.

"I am? And that's a bad thing?" He inquired amazed before coming to sit with me on the bed. I slowly shook my head at him, before closing the lid of the music box and sitting up.

"Because I am scared—that I'll shatter if you wake up one day and stop loving me—" I added in a small voice, with my eyes downcast. He didn't say anything for a moment and then tugged up my chin to look at him.

"Zai, That won't happen—Ever, InshaAllah." Instead of feeling reassured, I turned away with a sigh, until he took me in his arms.

"Zai—You shouldn't have these thoughts, please. I'll love you until my last breath, InshaAllah. The only one who can take away your love from my heart is the One who placed it there in the first place. And InshaAllah that won't happen ever." He continued in a soft voice.

"—We have had both good days and bad days—and will go on to have more of both. The only thing that we can do is try our best and leave the rest to Allah. He will take care of everything else, like He always has, InshaAllah." At his words, I felt myself melting against his embrace.

"Okay?" He inquired and I slowly nodded my head against his neck.

"Yes—InshaAllah."

———————

I was sitting with Rayyan, alongside others during the after hours of Mehndi event, as he fed me dinner. My mehndi was still not completely dry, so Rayyan had resorted to feeding me himself; before I could make up some excuse for not eating.

Just then Dad came out of nowhere and sat down with us before handing out a few currency notes to Rayyan, to give our sadqa.

"I am worried you both will get Nazar—Zaira go eat with your Mom—" Dad said to me and I could only watch him flabbergasted for a moment, before unconsciously snapping my gaze to Rayyan; who only nodded at this solemnly. I could only gulp at this, before getting up to leave.

'Really—How did we turn from the worst possible combination to a possibly envied couple. SubhanAllah. Only Allah knows His ways—'

And later that night, Rayyan went twice through the list of Dua's Grampa had given to him.

———————-

"Zai—Are you done?"

I heard Rayyan's voice behind me, as he entered our room, cladded in his tuxedo, looking dashing as ever.

"Yeah—just a sec—!" I had only now returned to my room to get something, after coming back from the parlour with the others. We both were ready to go down, if only I wasn't rendered frozen in my place by his penetrating gaze, that was stuck on me from the moment, I had turned to him.

He had that dumbstruck look on his face, while he gawked me speechless, before finally regaining his senses and closing the distance to me.

"You look heavenly—" He murmured breathlessly, cupping the side of my face in his hand. I gaped at him stunned unable to tear my gaze from the desire burning in his eyes, which were fixated on my lips.

"I've spent a lot of money on my makeup—" My voice came out raspy, with his lips hovering over mine.

"Yeah—" He gasped out finally, before I closed the minimal distance and crashed my lips onto his.

And this time, he did lock the door.

————————

The main event of Baraat had been organised in the courtyard of the Haveli, too.

I stood in my place near the stage, watching Haniya make an entrance, with Rayyan on her one arm and Harris bhai on the other; who was accompanied by the guard, like his plus one.

His eyes met mine across the courtyard; and stayed there the whole while, until they both handed over Haniya to Hammad, who was awaiting her on the stage.

Following this, he came over to me and discreetly took my hand in his before brushing a kiss on top of it.

While watching my hand in his tender grasp, I couldn't help but think about it all. How, in the end, I had finally realized that all I needed was to believe in Allah and become grateful to Him for his blessings. Not just the things He gave me—but also the things He withheld from me. I should've trusted Him, not just in good times when things were going my way but also in hard times—when it seemed like everything was going wrong. I hadn't realised it until much later, that what I thought to be The Wrong Wedding was really The Right Wedding, afterall—It's just that I was too dense too see it—And really, how negligible is our knowledge in comparison to what Allah knows. Without doubt, He is the best of Planners.

Feeling teary at the thought, I craned my neck to glance at him, which he caught right away. Immediately, a happy smile formed across his face as he dropped a soft lingering kiss on my temple.

"Oh—! If it isn't my most famous couple! One picture, please—!" The same photographer from our Walima was asked to cover this event and he had immediately recognised us.

Before Rayyan could tell him off, I pulled his face close to my own and gave a big sloppy kiss to his cheek. His eyes had widened in surprise and his mouth had broken into a big happy grin; both of which the photographer had effectively captured.

I pulled away from him still grinning when he turned to me smiling from ear to ear.

"I love you so much, Rayyan Huzaifa Abdullah. Forever and ever InshaAllah—' I murmured softly with a never ceasing smile.

Instead of saying anything, he picked me up by wrapping his arms around my waist; holding me above him, whilst I peered down at his face, with my arms thrown around his neck—a blissful laugh adorning both of our faces.

Later, that Photographer had gifted us an Album from the event coverage, as an apology for last time. The inscription under this, as a front picture read;

"RAYYAN KI ZAIRA."

And underneath it, read the hadith;

"When a husband and wife look at each other with love, Allah looks at them with mercy."

••••ENDINGS ARE ONLY NEW BEGINNINGS, INSHAALLAH••••

AUTHOR's NOTE
Assalamualaikum wa rehmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Hope you enjoyed reading, InshaAllah. Do share your thoughts and stay tuned for an epilogue InshaAllah ☺️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️