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Two days after their wedding, Dahlia arrived at the Fayyads' ancestral home, nestled deep into her in-laws' village, with her husband and the rest of his family.
Layla had been teasing her for days that she was in for a surprise. Dahlia assumed Kaveh was secretly planning a honeymoon to Europe or something; only to find out honeymoon for the Fayyads translated to a family trip to the village.
They took two of their family cars, one for the parents and Azar, and the other for the siblings and the new bride, and started right after Fajr. Kaveh took turns at the steering wheel with the chauffeur to shoulder some of the exhaustion of the long path. The four year old Azar frequently shifted cars in between breaks, and refused to sit anywhere else but on Dahlia's lap for long periods of time.
By time their journey ended, Dahlia had dozed off. Kaveh usually stiffened at any sort of physical affection in public, but as Dahlia was gently shaken awake, she opened her eyes to find that he had let her rest her head on his shoulder.
She rubbed off her remaining sleep to find herself staring at the massive haveli with intricate architectural work. The Chowdhury Haveli, with its lake view, have been standing with all its glory since the British Raj. There were renovations needed to be done over the years to maintain it - and a massive rebuilding of the left wing after the damage done by '81's tornado - but the original skeleton of the house had remained.
The Chowdhurys', now the Fayyads', were descendants of the Zamindars whose bloodline could be traced back all way to the Mughal era.
Dahlia stole a glimpse at her husband, and the only word she could use to describe his expression was brooding. That's what he had been doing during the entire journey, nothing could improve his mood, and the frown on his face just worsened since they stepped out.
They were greeted with flower petals and sweets. Dahlia was starting to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the crowd gawking at them, and with the enthusiasm they were received.
The interior of the haveli had been fully polished and modernized, and bore none of the history of its siding. The rooms were air-conditioned and the bathrooms were fully furnished.
Dahlia, accompanied by Yasmine Fayyad, Layla and Azar, was immediately whisked away to the grandmother's room, after saying a brief goodbye to Kaveh - who was lead off to a different direction by his father and uncles.
Dahlia was made to change into a red attire and some of the jewelry she had worn to the wedding. Time trickled as the crowd moved slowly and one by one, nearly the entire village wanted to see the new bride.
This continued for the entirety of the morning. Dahlia had seen very little of their country outside of the city she lived in. She grew up with the hustle and bustle of the metropolis, and was a city girl through and through. Witnessing the differences in the clothes, mannerisms and customs - and hearing the dialect that almost seemed like a foreign language - were both astonishing and overwhelming to her.
