Affianced By Force

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - Are You Still Mad?

Faisal arrived home at 10:45pm. He wasn't expecting Umamah and the girl to be awake, so wasn't shocked to find them deeply asleep in his bed. Umamah had an arm around the girl who was curled into a ball. It was a complete position of trust. Had they really grown this close in less than a day? Everything in the room was neatly placed. Just as he had remembered them. He smiled. The presence of a child or not, Umamah Sulaym was always an organized woman. Mayeesha gasped and mumbled something in her sleep. Instinctively, Umamah’s hands tightened around her while she relaxed. He felt like the vicious being who didn’t see the need for a family in the little girl. Cut that! He couldn’t even bring himself to call her his daughter yet. She was a total stranger to him and though the resemblance was undeniable, he just didn’t feel that connect.

He gently pulled out of his clothes and decided to use the restroom in the next room. He didn’t want to wake the two sleeping beauties. When he returned, he bent over Mayeesha to pick her up and move her to the room next door, but she began mumbling something again. This time, he paid close attention and he heard her. “Mom. I will make you proud. I promise. Don’t take me away.”

Faisal’s heart was in disarray. Instinctively, he reached out to unwind her from Umamah’s embrace. The girl smuggled into his arm. “Dad? Don’t separate from mom again. I finally found you. I will not let you go. Please don’t let us go.”

Faisal didn’t know what to do. He remembered when Umamah used to talk in her sleep as well. She hasn’t done that in a long time, but it used to disturb him a lot. He had thought only she had that effect on him. But this little girl, whom he hadn’t even known existed until a few days ago was reaching the corner of his heart quite tucked away. He felt some tenderness for her edge up his spine.

He came off the bed slowly so as not to wake the heavily asleep Umamah and lifted Mayeesha to his chest. In the other room, he tucked her beneath the cover and sat there beside her, Just staring at her.  She had the curved chin he inherited from his father. That stubborn edge isn’t something even he would mistake. She was pretty girl. No. He corrected. A beautiful girl. Dark long lashes fanned her cheek as she mumbled again.

“We will all be happy. I will not be laughed at anymore. Mom will be happy too. She will not get angry all the time again. One happy family. One happy family like Hameedah’s.”

Faisal felt like the monster that had come to separate daughter and mother. While his daughter craved a happy family with he and her mother in it, he craved one with Umamah and her kids in it… well… and now she also. Until now, he didn’t understand why Umamah had been so drawn to the little girl from the moment they had met. It was her charm. Mayeesha drew whoever cared enough close like magnet.

He found himself reaching out to touch the girl by the cheek, but pulled back almost immediately. He had scheduled a DNA test for this week and was going through with it. Despite the resemblance and despite the way she was already tugging at his heart, he was going to have the test and only then, would he be sure she was his daughter.

Until Umamah, Faisal had always been a pragmatic being. He let rationality take lead of emotions. That was the way the business world had groomed him. But now, he found himself, changing all for this gender.

He came to his feet and without looking back anymore, exited the room quietly.

Umamah was still asleep when he got to their room. She was safe. He wondered if he wasn’t being paranoid. She wasn’t doing anything he didn’t tell her not to. Yet, he feared for her. He never knew it was possible, but she was the reason he found happiness in the smallest of things. It wasn’t easy to find something that precious and it was only natural that he tried his best to protect it, right?