Of Broken Hearts and Tears

Chapter 31

"Trust me I am not here touch you in any way." Zayan said through gritted teeth as he entered the room and noticed Maya's eyes on himself.

Maya closed her eyes tightly and cursed herself in her brain. What had she done?

Zayan walked to the closet and snatched the first pair of sweat shirt and trousers he saw. The rest of the pile of clothes got unbalanced and fell at his feet on the floor. He cursed under his breath as he bent down to pick them up.

"Zayan?" Maya said tentatively hoping that he would listen to her at least.

It was way past lunch time when he had come home. She had finished cooking quite some time ago. She had been so worried when he wasn't coming back. All kinds of bad things kept coming to her kind and the guilt was eating her up. She had driven him out of his own house by her attitude. His mother was hoping she would make things better for him and she was just making everything worse. What if something bad had happened to him because of her?

"I'm sorry." She said in a small voice as the guilt gnawed her. "I shouldn't have said all of that."

He didn't even spare a glance towards her and her heart clenched. 

"I-I made kheer and biryani for you. At least eat that." She said thinking that he must be hungry as he hadn't even had his breakfast.

"I appreciate that but I am not hungry." he said curtly as he stuffed the fallen clothes back into the closet and made to leave the room. Maya quickly went to stop him and unconsciously held his arm preventing him from leaving.

Zayan stilled in his movement and looked at her with a strange look in his eyes. When she realized that she had been holding his arm she quickly let it go in embarrassment. So much for not touching each other.

He gritted his teeth and glared at her. Hadn't she been judgmental enough? What did she want from him now?

She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again. She didn't know why she wanted to stop him. Maybe it was the fear of him leaving her.

She had to make things right before everything got out of hand and her parents came to know.

"I...I'm sorry I misunderstood you. I just... I freaked out when I woke up. I was scared and I just blurted out everything that came to my mind. It was my fear speaking." She said all in one breath, trying to explain herself but he didn't say anything and continued to look at her with at unreadable expression. 

"That's exactly why I told you to think a billion times before you agreed to this but you didn't listen." She continued in a quivering tone, trying to make him understand. That was the last resort. it made her feel a little less bad. She had warned him, hadn't she? "How can you take it that your wife was touched by someone else in a wrong way. I know you don't care. But..."

She bit back a sob too overcome with emotions. Her eyes could see that day at the hospital and she didn't want to make herself look more weak in front of him as she blinked back the tears. Her brain was replaying everything in front of her eyes.

How he had kisses her lips and touched her in the most inappropriate places. How he had touched her. How he had threatened her. To this day she thanked Allah for sending Zayan her way and saved her. Had he not been there that day she didn't know what would have happened. With this thought her tears started falling more freely. How she had begged him to stay away from her but he was blinded by his desires.

She could not register Zayan's presence in the room anymore. She did try to control herself by closing her eyes tightly and clenching her fists but it wasn't working. Briny tears dribbled down her cheeks and fell onto her lips.