Hiraeth

39

IF at all she had seen him come to life in that otherwise soulless relationship of theirs, it was when he had gotten promoted to a decent enough position in the party. She remembered how those eyes had glinted and had a sudden rush of kindness in them for the very first time. Life went like a breeze for a couple of months. It was like a fairytale that had come down to a sense of reality for her. 

She could only wonder how he would've been now. Even though there were no traces of his presence lingering anywhere near her, she could feel things. She remember the whiff of his breath and the linger of his gaze, she was familiar to how his skin seeped in when he smiled with his heart out like that. It was the biggest day of his life today. 

With each passing day, he was getting stronger. Defeating him in the court even though her case was quite straightforward and one sided, was hard. The recent targeting and attacks pointed her way through either him or his party was only scaring her. She didn't want to go back to Delhi. 

"Ohh where were you?" She almost flinched, feeling a pair of cold hands tightly press themselves against her eyes and it didn't take more than a moment for her to realise that it was her son. 

"Mumma." Ayla's giddy voice rang in her ears as she too came in through the door, carrying something in her hand which was gift wrapped. 

"We went to Hamleys and Papa got us these." 

She glanced behind the two, noticing the chauffeur carrying the bags and boxes. She was nothing short of appalled at the amount of toys that were being slowly cluttered in the room. They had barely touched the ones that her grandmother got for them in the morning. 

"Abeer, come here." She sighed, pulling him in to have a look at his nose but he would never allow her to touch his face or hair the slightest. She didn't want to burst out on the children even though she found it ridiculous, with every passing day the only fear that she had in her mind was of them becoming spoilt and difficult with how easily they got everything they wanted without a blink. 

She wanted to talk about this to Rehaan but by now, she was sure that he had a different take on that entire situation. He didn't think twice before spending a hefty amount on things like these and it irked her. She couldn't begin to think how careless this was as a parent. 

"You know Ayla, there are so many children who have no toys. They rely on hand me downs or sometimes, their mothers try to make something for them on their own as they can't afford to buy one." She softly began, realising that slowly her attention was diverting towards her and her words but not completely, as a part of her was still engrossed in tearing the wrapping paper away from the box with her brother. 

"No toys?" She asked, slightly bemused and it made Sitara smile. The face that she had made when expressing her shock was quite endearing. It was like she had imagined the worst possible scenario for herself. 

"No and look here, both of you get whatever you like even though most of these would never be looked at for the second time."

Sounds of Abeer's cries interrupted them and Sitara rushed to her son, finding him stuck inside one of those box. She didn't even have the slightest hint of him trying to fit himself there in all this while even for once. 

"Who asked you to go there?" She asked sternly, holding his arms in order to pull him out from there as he sobbed in helplessness. 

She felt as if her head was about to implode. She couldn't put her finger on a single thing that was going right. Everybody had sworn upon testing her much tamed patience and calm today. 

"Achha bas." She rubbed his arms, resting him against her chest while she walked around the room showing him things, in order to calm him down. It was evident that this incident had left him nothing short of terrified.