Hiraeth

12

"WOULD YOU LEND ME THAT FILE?" Her worry filled tone engulfed the halls of the hospital's waiting room.

"I'm alright, Sitara." Mrs. Azhar closed her eyes, taking in a sharp breath as she began to massage her arms in agony.

Her blood pressure had shot up by a very concerning rate this morning. For a woman of her age, it was a rather dangerous sign considering her already delicate health.

"Don't inform him please. He's already very stressed."

Sitara pressed her lips in a thin line, slowly nodding but she knew that she couldn't be obeying her mother in law this time. It was unfair.

"I'll have a word with the doctor?" She softly asked her, adjusting her dupatta that carelessly hung on her left shoulder. She had rushed to the hospital in whatever she was wearing that morning.

Her steps got heavier with each moment as she walked into those glum corridors, with her mind involuntarily recalling her mother's death.

"You're nothing but a bad omen. Wherever you'd go, despair will follow."

Her breath almost got stuck in her throat as those words stung her repeatedly. They had left her disturbed for nights when she had first heard them from Asad's aunt but they somehow ripped her insides apart when she saw them coming to life.

Her hands were shaking as she unlocked her phone, attempting to call and inform him about his mother but she somehow couldn't.

Her heart broke when she had signed those papers, allocating her NGO under Sitara's name, declaring her the sole incharge of everything she had built up all her life. She obviously knew that there was a very slim chance of her surviving but she never brought that on her lips.

He was in London for a business trip. Everyone knew that no matter how much he'd rush, he could never make it on time and somehow his mother wasn't ready to see him either.

Sitara didn't know where she stood between the complexity surfacing from both ends.

-

Her eyelids felt excessively heavy as she tried to keep her gaze fixated on the hospital bed while her mother in law slept.

"No, sir. We're all here. You don't have to worry regarding her. "

Her entire body flinched hearing the commotion. Every ounce of sleep vanished from her eyes when she looked at the doctors and nurses gathering near their door in distress.

"I'll sue this place shut if anything happens again." His anger laced voice over the call made its way into her ears too, making her shudder.

Tears brimmed up in his mother's eyes as she now lay awoke, clutching onto Sitara's gentle hands very tightly.

"Rehaan." She breathed out, slowly trying to sit upright as the realisation of hiding things from him sank deeper in her heart.

"I'm fine, son. What would happen to me? Just come home soon."

Sitara held her by her shoulders, rubbing her back as she tried to prevent herself from breaking down into sobs as she spoke to him. The burden in her chest grew heavier with each passing moment.

Sitara's heart faintly recalled her own wedding day. The woman now lying almost lifelessly on the hospital bed had once offered her a shoulder. She had been her sole source of comfort in a place that was nearly foreign.

She dejectedly heard their conversation and felt terrible for keeping the news of his mother's declining health away from him.

She saw the doctor trying to convince him that they had the situation in control but he wouldn't listen.