The newest chapter has arrived! :)

Comment your favourite Surah, inshaAllah! Mine is Surah Ar-Rahman!! ❤💖✨

Hope you enjoy! Xx

....

"Sumayya. Sumayya." I heard my name being called along with knocks at my door. My head was pounding and I groaned as I rubbed my forehead to ease the pain.

"Can I come in?" Justin said and I got up off my bed, taking my hijab off the back of the chair and throwing it over my hair, wrapping it around to the back of my shoulders. "Come in." I called and the door opened wide, Justin standing there in his gym shorts and a singlet, a sweat patch on his shirt.

What the hell?

"Did you go for a run at this time?" I asked him as he studied my face with slightly narrowed eyes.

"I always go for a run at this time, Sumayya." He said, walking closer to me and sitting next to me on the bed as I released a yawn and stretched my arms above my head.

What?

Eyes wide I picked up my phone off my dresser with shaky fingers only to see that it had 7:58 written at the top.

"Ya Allah. How did I sleep through the whole night? Why didn't you's wake me up for dinner?" I asked him.

He stayed silent for a couple of seconds. "My mum said that you told her not to let anyone disturb you because you weren't feeling well." He said.

I turned around and released a breath as I got up, only now realising that I was still in my work uniform.

"You didn't say that, did you?" He guessed.

"No, I did say it. I just forgot." I mumbled with a small smile, knowing he didn't believe me from his loud sigh. "Where's Hamza and Hafsa?." I asked him.

"In my mum's room. They slept with Abdullah yesterday." He said. "Why are your eyes puffy?" He asked me, tilting his head to the side and raising an eyebrow.

I knew my eyes were puffy. I had cried myself to sleep for hours for God's sake, of course they were going to be puffy. "Justin, I need to get ready for work. Can you get out please?"

"Why are your eyes puffy?" He pressed.

"Justin, please. I'm late as it is." I said to him.

He sighed, nodding his head as he left my room and shut the door behind him while I quickly called Bella and put my phone on the sink on speaker as I washed my face and started to do my hijab.

"Yes, I'll cover for you, don't worry." She said as soon as she answered and I released a chuckle.

"Thanks so much, Bella, I owe you big time. I'll be there in half an hour max." I said and she told me that it was fine before hanging up.

Once my hijab was perfected, I put my phone, phone charger and purse in my handbag before jogging down the stairs to get an apple. As I ate my apple, I put a water bottle in my bag as well before walking to the door and taking my keys off the hook.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to even check on the kids but I was sure that they were fine with Jessica or my dad.

I sped my way through the city and arrived at the restaurant by 8:27.

As soon as I walked in, I took my notepad and pen, seeing Bella give me a small wink before I smiled and got stuck into work.

By the time it was 3:53, I was counting down the minutes left to clock off when I saw Justin's motorbike pull into the carpark outside.

What the hell was he doing?

I watched on as he took off his helmet and opened the bike compartment, putting his leather jacket in there as he brought out a duffle bag and put it over his shoulders, walking into the restaurant and taking a seat on the window corner.

I gave in the last of my orders to the chef before signing my name out at 4:03.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Don't tell me you forgot." He said, narrowing his eyes at me.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Our race? The bet, remember?" He said and my mouth fell agape as I remembered our bet of racing each other.

"Oh crap, I completely forgot. I don't even have any clothes though." I said with a side smile.

"I've come prepared." He said as he handed me the duffle bag, which was much heavier than it needed to be for a normal pair of sweatpants and a shirt.

He noticed the horrified look on my face and smiled at me sheepishly. "Yeah, I didn't know what you'd want to wear so I basically packed all of your sporty clothes in there so you could decide." He said, causing me to laugh and shake my head.

"I'll be back." I said, turning around towards the locker room to change, hearing him say 'sure thing, terminator' behind me.

I sifted through the bag, seeing a lot of my clothes in there. He really did bring all of my sports gear. I decided not to change my scarf even though he had brought some thinner ones. I changed my shoes for black and white Nike runners, wore my Nike leggings and then a long singlet to cover up to my knees. After wearing a very loose and thin light brown coloured sweater, I zipped up the bag and left the room, handing the bag to Justin for him to carry to the car.

We both decided not to take any of our cars or vehicles but instead walk to Central Park. It was a twenty minute walk anyway.

As we began walking, the questioning started. "So, are you going to explain to me why you were crying?" He asked.

"Crying? When was I crying?" I said, pretending not to know what he was talking about.

"Obviously yesterday. You said you slept through the whole night so your eyes definitely weren't puffy from sleeplessness."

"I was fine." I said simply.

"Sumayya. What happened?" He asked firmly.

"Can you please just not question it. I'm fine. I'm perfectly normal. Drop it." I said, my eyebrows narrowing. "Please." I added softly when I realised that I may have sounded a little too harsh. He was only being his usual protective self and I was giving him attitude.

"No, I'm not going to drop it!" He said, beginning to raise his voice as I inhaled and exhaled. "You're obviously really upset about something. You cried the whole night and I want to know what it is! I'm not dropping the subject until you tell me exactly what's going on!" He said, holding my arm and stopping me from walking.

I pulled my arm away and narrowed my eyes at him. "Justin, do you not understand that I don't want to talk about it!? All it's going to do is make me more upset! Why can't you just trust me when I say I'm fine?" I said to him, tears beginning to pool at my eyes.

He realised that I was beginning to get emotional and clenched his teeth, nodding his head. "You're not fine. That's why." He muttered but kept walking speedily anyway as I felt guilty and stayed rooted in my spot.

I watched his retreating and straightened back and breathed in and out deeply. "Justin!" I called. "Come on, don't be mad."

He didn't even turn around but rather kept walking. "Just..." I was cut off when someone grabbed my hand and pulled me back behind a wall.

I released about .5 seconds of a scream before a hand covered my mouth and I looked up, terrified, only to see the same blue eyes that I hadn't been seeing in four years. He mouthed for me to be quiet and I nodded my head as he took a step away, releasing his hand from my mouth. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" He said angrily, his jaw clenched and his eyes darker than their usual bright colour that matched Hamza's eyes.

"Me!?" I said, "What do you think you're doing!?" I replied, shoving at his chest to put distance between the two of us.

"I'm not the one going for walks with other girls!" He said looking mad. "Who the hell is Justin?" He said, saying Justin's name with absolute hatred.

My heart pounded against my chest and I was breathing heavily, trying to make it look like being this close to Zaid after so many years didn't have an enormous effect on me.

"Sumayya!?" I heard Justin call, his voice sounded panicked. "Sumayya!?"

I went to walk away from Zaid and back to Justin but he held my hand stopping me. "Zaid, leave me now." I said to him, trying to wriggle my hand out of his hold. "If he sees you, he'll get pissed."

"Does it look like I care?" He asked me, narrowing his eyes.

Zaid was always the jealous type. He hated it when a guy so much as looked my way and would always feel the need to hold my hand in public when we walked around.

"Leave me." I said once more before Justin cut me off. "Get the f**k away from her!" He yelled, his eyes dark and his fists clenched.

Zaid looked just as furious as he looked at Justin, but before anyone had any chance to say anything else, Justin swung his fist at Zaid, Zaid grunting in pain as blood flew onto the ground while his body fell slammed to the concrete. Justin took my newly freed hand and pulled me behind him, not paying attention to the shrill scream I let out as I felt like I had been hit myself.

I tried pulling him away but Justin wasn't budging as he stood over Zaid, punching him over and over again.

"Stop! Justin, enough!" I yelled as I tried pulling him away.

He continued to punch Zaid for another ten seconds before he finally stopped, turning around and looking at me with concern, his knuckles covered in blood as he roamed his eyes over my body. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" He asked as tears stained my cheeks.

"No!" I yelled as I pushed passed him, kneeling next to Zaid.

Yes. He had hurt me. He had hurt me more than anyone ever had, and probably ever could.

"Are you okay?" I asked Zaid, wiping away at the blood on his face.

He nodded his head, his eyes looking up at me as I ran my eyes over his features, making sure that nothing was out of place.

As I wiped away at his disheveled hair with my clean hand, his lips tugged upwards and he smiled. I looked up to meet with his eyes, his filled with adoration as mine were filled only with concern. "I've never been better." He said to me softly, raising his hand to hold my cheek.

I felt my face heat up and pulled his hand away as I quickly stood up, realising what I was doing. "I-Um." I swallowed, clearing my throat. "I n...We need to go." I said to Justin as I led him away with tears in my eyes after I dropped my bottle of water next to Zaid for him to use.

"Sumi, wait!" I heard Zaid call, followed by a grunt of pain.

"What's going on, Sumayya?" Justin asked me as he kept walking with me along the footpath. Eventually, Zaid's calls died down and I looked at Justin.

"You need to tell me what happened. Like right now, Sumayya." He said. "Who was that?"

I continued to look at him, wondering if I had enough courage to say the words out loud. I cleared my throat as he repeated the question. "Sumayya, who was he?"

"He...he's my husband." I said, looking down, not being able to look at the shock-filled expression on his face. "My ex-husband." I corrected myself after clearing my throat, swallowing the lump that had formed.

It was silent for a while after that. I saw a bench from the corner of my eye and walked over to it with slumped shoulders and sat down.

I looked up at him and saw that he was staring at the ground trying to figure out what was going on, before he glanced at me and also walked over to the bench taking a seat next to me. After sitting in silence for a minute or two, I took a deep breath and began explaining what had basically happened. "His family owns this mega business. One day he and his dad came to our school to give a speech about work ethic, business, effort hard work you know all that stuff to motivate the students. He saw me there and long story short asked my dad for my hand. It all happened within a month. We got married. We were very comfortable. We bought a house, had our own cars, I could buy anything I wanted. We were married for a year and then one day I woke up and...he was gone." I said, wiping the tears off my face with my fingertips.

"Did you have an argument or something?" He asked, looking at me.

"No. If we had an argument then I'd use that as a means of closure. We didn't have any argument. We were cuddling the night before. He told me he loved me and that he always will." I looked up at Justin. "Then he was gone. I called him, he didn't answer, I called his second workplace, they said that he quit. He used to work over time in a publishing company. His dad forced him into their company but he never gave up what he wanted to do so it was like a hobby for him to work there most days. He'd only be at his parents business when he was needed for a meeting. I called his parents but their phones were disconnected, I couldn't get through to him at all. I spent about three weeks in that house alone. Every night I would wake up, make breakfast, eat, clean, pray, cook dinner...you know? I just thought that maybe he'd come back. Three weeks later I packed a bag and went back to my parents house. That's when I caught them fighting and I stood outside the front door listening to them scream about divorce papers and what not. Basically after he left, my whole world started to fall apart. I knew that I couldn't stay at my parents so I went back to our house that same night. I stayed there for another two weeks before a letter came in the mail. He had transferred the house to my name and left me a heap of money in my bank account that could last me more than a lifetime. I left the house that day, leaving my bank card on the bed. I stayed at my cousins house for a couple of weeks then I found out that I was pregnant and decided to stay with my parents. They were living separate then and I wanted to live with my mum because I missed my old room and she could've I guess helped more with the pregnancy and whatnot. Jessica and my dad got married and when I found the job that was closer to your guys' house, I asked to stay with my dad. Now almost four years later, he decided to show up at my work place, trying to apologise and explain why he left."

"Wow and I had no clue whatsoever." He muttered, rubbing his forehead. "How did Abdullah let you get married at 18?" He asked, his eyes wide. "Abdullah made sure my mum and I never questioned you about Hafsa and Hamza so I assumed..." He trailed off, clearing his throat.

"That I was taken advantage of." I guessed and he nodded but I shook my head with a sigh.

Alhamdulillah it was nothing of that sort.

"He didn't make it hard for me. He asked if I was willing. I said okay after a week of thinking about it. My dad asked around about his character and whatnot. He found out that he prays and is religious, he comes from a good family and he had a well paying job as well, he said okay."

He nodded his head, inhaling and exhaling deeply.

"So let me get this straight. At 18, right after you finished school, you married that douche, 19 he left you, that year your mum and dad also got divorced, months later you had Hamza and Hafsa, a couple months after that your dad married my mum and we've been living together for three years now...right?" He asked.

I nodded my head, swallowing. "Yup. That's my life story basically." I said, shrugging my shoulders and rubbing away the last of the moisture from my cheeks and around my eyes.

"And why's he back now? Wait...are you even, well, divorced?" Justin asked, his leg that was bobbing up and down onto the concrete pavement in frustration stopping as he looked at me eyes wide.

I nodded. "The divorce papers came at the same time that I found out he transferred the house to my name. I signed them and sent them back to the return address. It said that papers were going to be delivered again once it was all done, but I never got them because I moved out of the house that day too. They're probably still in the mailbox." I scoffed.

He nodded his head. "Why did he come back now?" He asked.

"I don't know. He asked to explain why he left and he tried apologising." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"What a fu..."

"Justin. Come on, let's just go back home."

"Does he know about the kids?" He asked me and I scoffed.

"No. Even if I wanted to call him, I had no way to. His parents, aunts, uncles...all their numbers were changed, their houses empty." I released a humourless chuckle. "I guess they all just hated me so much and wanted nothing to do with me." I muttered dryly even though it still stung my heart. I had absolutely loved Zaid's family. They had quickly become apart of me in only one year, yet clearly I meant nothing to them.

"Maybe he found out about them and came back." He said softly.

I shook my head. "No way." I said.

I hope not anyway. He didn't deserve to see my babies.

He sighed and nodded his head. "Alright. Come on, then. Let's go."

We walked back towards the restaurant and I got into my car as he got onto the motorbike. I led the way home and he followed behind me. After a few kilometres, I glanced at my rear view mirror and couldn't see Justin's bike anywhere behind me. I arrived to the house and stood outside my car, waiting for him to arrive. He came about ten minutes later and although the weather was sort of cold, I didn't mind the fresh air and the silence that surrounded me.

"You seriously need to get your speeding under control." He said, shaking his head as he took his helmet off and locked his bike.

"I don't have the patience for that." I said, following him into the house. "Oh," I whispered, getting his attention before he could go inside. "Not a single word to my dad, okay? He'll go livid." I muttered.

Justin nodded with a sigh as we walked in.

"Abdullah, your daughter speeds like a maniac on the roads." Justin snitched on me as we both saw my dad sitting on the couch, flicking through news channels.

"My daughter is your sister. You tell her."

"I tell her everyday. You think she listens?"

"Habibti," My dad said as he turned around and smiled at me. "Listen to your brother."

I scoffed, hanging my keys on the key rack before sitting next to my dad as he wrapped his arm over my shoulders and pulled me into his side. "You both know damn well that I'm not going to stop." I muttered.

"You'll have no choice but to stop if you wrap around a tree trunk one day." Jessica said as she came down the stairs with the twins in her arms. My mouth fell open as I looked at her after what she had said. The kids screamed for me in excitement and she put them down at the bottom of the stairs as my dad spoke up.

"Jessica." He said with narrowed eyes that matched Justin's while he walked to the bathroom.

"Gosh, I didn't mean it in that way." She said, a forced looking smile on her face. If any other person were to see that smile, they'd genuinely believe that she said it with good intentions, her acting skills were very good, but I had adjusted to her enough to see through her fake smiles and fake laughs. "I said it as advice. You should really change your ways before you have an accident, God forbid."

I ignored her and opened my arms with a wide smile at my babies who raced to me and jumped into my arms. "My babies, I missed you both so much." I said pulling them into me as they wrapped their little arms around me while I kissed them both over and over again, inhaling their scents and sighing in content.

It had only been a full day since I last saw them properly and even so it felt like a whole week.

My dad chuckled, pulling my head towards him to give me a kiss on my temple.

"Come on, the little ones are hungry too." He said as he ruffled Hamza's hair and kissed Hafsa's in order not to wreck her little ponytail.

"Are you both hungry?" I asked them and they nodded their heads.

"We waited for mummy to come." Hafsa said with a smile as Hamza nodded his head excitedly, making me laugh and pull them into me once again.

"Come on, princess." Justin said as he took Hafsa out of my arms and walked to the dinner table to put her into her high chair while I put Hamza in his.

I walked past my dad who was already seated to bring out their juice and he held my arm softly, his eyes looking up at me in concern. "Are you okay? Jessica said you weren't feeling well last night. I got worried especially when she said you didn't want to eat. That's very unlike you." He said.

I looked at Jessica who had a slight look of fear painted across her features. Please, like she didn't know that I cover for her all the time. It's been three years for God's sake and I've never ratted her out. "Yeah I'm much better today. Just had a sore tummy." I said and he nodded as Jessica released a soft sigh.

After taking out Hamza and Hafsa's juices from the fridge, I walked back to the table and sat down.

I didn't like Jessica's cooking to be honest, even though I was grateful for it of course. It was white food. Basically, what I mean by that was that it was pretty tasteless, hence why I didn't really mind that she hardly ever cooked and left it up to me.

As Arabs, I was used to my mum putting all sorts of spices and herbs in our food, everything was always seasoned very well and packed with flavour.

Then I come to this household and all of the dinners that she prepares are all on the same wavelength. Steamed or roasted vegetables with some meat and rice and a soup for starters if we're lucky. The best thing on the table was probably the salad she always made.

If I didn't go out to the shop to buy spices for when I cooked, I swear she'd be completely fine with just salt and pepper.

Speaking of food, I missed my mum and her cooking. "I think we'll stay at mum's this week." I said as I played around with the chicken on my plate, separating the meat from the bone to give to the kids.

"Did something happen?" My dad asked me, studying my face closely from across the table. I looked down and shook my head no as I put a piece of chicken into my mouth. "Does something need to happen for me to want to go to my mum's house?" I asked him.

He shook his head no. "You know that's not what I meant, habibti." He said and I sighed nodding my head.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, baba. I've just been stressed lately. I'll get over it." I said and he gave me a small smile.

"If you need anything, you know I'm always here for you, yeah?" He said. I gulped, nodding my head.

"Yep, just leave out the step-son as per usual." Justin commented as he shoved a piece of broccoli into his mouth.

I laughed out loud as my dad smirked. "Oh be quiet, Justin. You know I'm always here for you too." My dad said, as Justin looked at me and smiled.

"There you are." He cooed as he watched me laugh. "No one likes a grumpy Sumayya." He said and I shook my head, staring down at my plate with a smile on my lips.

If only Justin and I were real brother and sister. It hurt that I couldn't hug him whenever I needed comfort, but Allah knows best and I was grateful that I even had someone like him as a step brother. For all I know, he could have been exactly like his mum and not given a crap about me. Alhamdulillah he was a very nice person and a pleasure to have as a step brother.

I looked up at him and gave him a smile, silently telling him thank you and he gave me a small nod with a smile playing on his lips as he started eating.

The table was quiet, everyone listening to the little adorable conversation between Hamza and Hafsa until everyone jumped slightly at Jessica's scream.

"What happened to you!?" She cried as she shot out of her seat. I watched her with wide eyes as she walked around to Justin and grasped his wrist, looking at his knuckles that were all cut up and bruised, looking swollen and red. "Who did this!?" She asked him with glazed over eyes as my dad also stood up and walked to him, grabbing his other wrist and inspecting his knuckles. "Justin," He said, his voice taught.

"Uncle J has a boo boo." Hamza said with wide eyes.

"Uncle J has lots of boo boos." Hafsa said right after while I bit my lip, praying that Justin would come up with a good answer without delay.

"It's nothing." He muttered as he shrugged both Jessica and my dad's hands off his own. "I caught someone playing around with my bike and then this happened." He muttered.

"Justin, why didn't you call me as soon as it happened?" My dad asked. "Where was it?"

Ever-the-policeman, my dad began his questioning.

"Near the school. It wasn't a big deal. I handled it." He said.

"When did it happen?" My dad asked.

Justin exhaled. "After school, Abdullah. Now can you drop it? Please?" He muttered, Jessica walking in with an ice pack and forcefully putting it over his right hand that was worse than the left.

"Mum, sit down, I'm fine." Justin said through his teeth and I slumped my shoulders, upset that he was lying to my dad and his mum because of me.

"Does uncle J's boo boos hurt?" Hafsa asked, looking up at Justin.

Justin's previous tense stance faded as he relaxed and smiled at Hafsa. "No, princess. Uncle J is strong."

"I'm stwong. My boo boos still hurt." Hamza said making all of us laugh.

"When you become as big as me, you're going to be even stronger than I am." Justin said and I smiled in content as I saw a happy smile take over Hamza's face as he looked at Hafsa who looked back at her brother with pride.

::::

"Mummy, can we watch Zaky, please?" Hamza said as I lay both of them on either side of me.

"But I thought we said it was sleep time?" I said to him as Hafsa snuggled closer to me, clinging to my T-shirt.

"Please, mummy! Just one!" He whined and I sighed, nodding my head as I leaned over and unlocked my phone, opening YouTube and clicking on one of the shortest videos I found.

We watched the video together and once it was finished I locked my phone.

"Okay. Now is it sleep time?" I asked and Hamza nodded with a smile as he wrapped his small arm over my waist.

I kissed their heads and made them recite the sleep dua.

As I was softly running my hands over both of their backs soothingly, thinking that they had both fallen asleep, Hamza spoke up.

"Mummy?" He said softly.

"Yes, baby?"

"Why doesn't uncle J call gwandpa baba?"

My breath caught in my throat as the question escaped his lips. Never ever had he said something like that before.

"Because grandpa is my baba, not Justin's. Jessy married grandpa after uncle J was a baby." I tried explaining to him.

"Is uncle J like me and Hafsa?" He asked slowly. I shut my eyes, praying that he wasn't talking about what I think he was. "Does uncle J only have a mummy like us?" He asked and I felt tears slide down my cheeks.

I licked my lips and hugged him closer to me. "Uncle J's baba is somewhere else." I replied slowly.

"Where's me and Hafsa's baba?" He asked, lifting his head and looking up at me innocently, his bright blue orbs twinkling in the dim light of the lamp.

I stayed silent, not knowing how to reply. I lowered my head and placed a long kiss on his forehead. "Baba left us to go work."

"I don't like my baba, mummy." He said.

I gave him a small smile as I sniffled and I wiped my cheeks. "Don't say that, baby. Baba loves you." I whispered, holding his hand as he wrapped his fingers around one of mine. I brought his hand up to my mouth and kissed it.

"If my baba comes back from work, will he give us pwesents?" He asked me.

I smiled. "How about we go shopping with grandma tomorrow and buy you presents?" I asked him and he widened his eyes in excitement, all previous conversations forgotten.

"Weally?!" He asked as I shushed him and pointed to a sleeping Hafsa.

"Yes, inshaAllah. But you have to sleep first." I said to him and he nodded with a smile, closing his eyes and snuggling into my side leaving me and my thoughts alone to go haywire about everything that had happened in the past two days.

My life had just turned around and I had no clue on whether or not I wanted to keep it this way and move forward from here or go back to how it was two days ago even though I thought the answer to that would be obvious.

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That's the end of the chapter :) I hope you enjoyed it inshaAllah!

As salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu! ❤