The Healer Of My Soul.

Chapter Ten

Everyone Has A Story.

A story can either have a happy ending or a bad beginning in their life.

Imran let his daughter spend the night but with Shyra's permission, he slept on the couch to keep an eye on them. He wanted to protect them even if it was from the horrors of the nightmares.

He lay on the couch with a blanket covering him, but sleep couldn't come as he couldn't help but think of what his daughter told Shyra about being worried.

Imran never knew that Ayra ever felt like this. He had never lied to her about who she was to him.

Maybe if I tell her about my story first and maybe she will tell me about hers?

His thoughts were interrupted by someone walking out of the bedroom and into the living room. This made him get up and switch on the light on his right side to see Shyra standing there wiping tears from her eyes.

"Are you alright?" He worriedly asked her.

"Will this end? The never-ending nightmares and the constant reminder of letting..."

"I think telling you my story would make it easy for you to tell me yours," Imran says taking a deep breath before starting. "You might want to sit down for this," he added.

Shyra took a seat and waited for him to explain his story.

"Ayra is my niece, her mother was my late older sister. Her name was Jasmina. She was the best sister that I could ever have in my life. But when she fell in love and wanted to get married Dad and I were happy for her even though we had our reservations about the man she was marrying. But we had to let it happen as we didn't want her to go into a haram relationship," Imran started explaining to her. "But what we didn't know was that we were signing her death sentence because the man she married was not only abusive but he...would rape her almost every day of her life. And that's how Ayra was born," he added wiping tears from his eyes.

Shyra was beyond shocked because of what Imran had been telling her.

"What happened to Ayra's mother?" She asked hoping to hear a positive answer.

"He killed her after a month she gave birth at the hospital when she was about to be discharged. But before that, Jasmina wrote a letter to me and our father explaining her situation to us. And telling us that we shouldn't let Ayra stay with someone like him. In that letter, she also sent a document that has his signature on it nullifying all the rights of him being Ayra's father," Imran explained ot her. "He was arrested a few days after my sister's burial when he tried forcefully to take Ayra with him," he added smiling sadly.

"Your sister is lucky to have a brother like you, and Ayra is lucky to have a father like you," Shyra says giving him a small smile. "Ayra said something about your father being a well-known doctor, what did she mean by that?" she asked.

"My father is a psychiatrist who tried to get my sister to talk to him whenever he would visit her but all he got from her was that she is fine. But in reality, Jasmina wasn't fine. He had threatened her that if she told us anything, he would kill her and us too," Imran explained to Shyra. "When Ayra was about six years old, she started asking questions about her mother and I couldn't tell her just yet. I asked my father for his help and we all sat down and told her bits and pieces of who her mother was. But we couldn't tell her the entire truth until she gets a bit older and then she would have understood a lot of things that have happened in her mother's life," he added while looking at Shyra who was wiping tears from her face.

"What happened to you and Ayra is more than what happened to me..."

"I don't think so, everyone has their own story. And dont say that your story doesnt matter, it does because you survived it. You got away from what was holding you back," Imran tells her. "The only person who can help you, is you and not me or even Ayra," he added.

"I was raped by someone I thought was family. He was my cousin. In the house, I was living in for almost a year. My parents died on my seventeenth birthday, they were run off the road and crashed into a tree killing them instantly," Shyra says while holding her emotions in. "After their funeral, I was told that I would be living with my uncle who was my dad's younger brother, and my aunt who was his wife with their son. A month later things changed drastically for me as he would peep through my window when I was out of the shower. He...even asked me to go to his room whenever I needed help with my homework, but I couldn't because I didnt trust him. He drank and smoked even though he would lie to his parents that the drugs weren't his but his friends," she added while trying not to throw up.

"Did he ever get arrested?" Imran asks her.

"By who? The police? How? When his parents would bail him out in seconds and then lie to the police about everything. That day was normal for me, I remembered that one of my best friends asked me if I wanted to spend the night at her house and I declined not knowing the danger I was walking into. I walked into the house, while he was waiting for me behind the door. He then cornered me..."

"You don't have to tell me if it will trigger you, Shyra. I understand how painful it must feel for you," Imran says cutting her off.

But Shyra shook her head, "I want to tell you because I want someone to help me get over this and for me to not let him win. I did fight but I lost because he was drunk and at the same time he was high. I managed to send my best friends a group message telling them that I needed them. In seconds, they rushed over and saw how I was. They took me to the hospital where one of my friend's mother was a doctor. She did every test and collected evidence from me. They wanted me to report him but I knew that he would be out in a matter of minutes. I returned to that house and changed the locks of the room. I took everything that was there to someone to keep them as evidence for me. I made a plan to leave my town and my sisters because I couldn't be there anymore. Alhamdullilah, my parents had made arrangements for me when I would need to join university so that I would be safe. My father entrusted one of his friends with everything about me. Before leaving, I heard my uncle, aunt, and him talking about that fateful night. I recorded the entire conversation where he admitted everything that he did to me," Shyra explained with a sad smile on her face. "Leaving was the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life because I needed to be strong enough to go and face him. To be the daughter that my parents always thought of me," she added looking at Imran.

"You are courageous more than you know. And thank you for telling me your story. Whenever you are ready, I will contact my father and set up an appointment with him for you," Imran says to her. "And Ayra was right when she said that we won't judge you because thats not who we are," he added smiling.

"Thank you for letting her stay with me. I didn't think that I would survive..."

"I think you would and will survive. Because you have alot of people waiting for you back home, right?" Imran asks reminding her about her best friends.

"That's true. Thank you for listening and thank you for telling me your story," Shyra says. "I think I will call it a night and try and get some sleep," she added getting up from her seat and walking inside her room where Ayra was lying in bed.

You are lucky to have a father like him, Ayra. May Allah bless you, him, and your papa for coming into my life.