CHAPTER | TWENTY | EIGHT | UMAYMAH | POV

The darkness that I had slipped in was slowly fading away as I could hear my name being called out repeatedly - it was almost a desperate plea for me to come back. I had been hearing it for hours, or even longer, but my eyes stayed shut despite me wanting them to open.

Now after what seemed like eternity, I felt my eyelids starts to peel open ever so slightly, and light within the room clouding my vision. The light, although not much of it, burned my eyes but I carried on fighting against that feeling just to have a glimpse of whoever was calling out to me. Beside me my fingers started to twitch as well. It was a sudden movement, yet I was surprised that someone had seen it at all.

"Quick, she just moved her fingers!" A scream erupted from beside me and the sound made me cringe for I wasn't used to it after being knocked out.

By now my eyes had already opened completely and I could see that the person beside me was none other than Jasmine who made no effort in hiding the tears that cascaded down her face. I knew that the tears were because of me and so I offered her a small smile on my behalf, though what she did next caught me by surprise. She hugged me.

I visibly stiffened by the contact and at the moment Shoaib had stormed into the room looking wilder than I had seen him before. He stayed where he was, watching the two of us as if he felt he was going to interrupt this little moment of ours. Although I took the time to eye his appearance and by the looks of it, he hadn't slept for a long time and his hair looked so untidy, as if he ran a hand through it every second.

My arms finally moved so that they were hugging Jasmine back and this definitely felt good. "I'm so sorry." I whispered in her ears and she immediately pulled back, wearing a frown on her face.

"What on earth are you apologising for? This was never your fault and as sappy as this is, I'm so glad that you're back." I chuckled at my sister as she pecked my cheek and left the room, which I recognised to be Shoaib and I's bedroom.

As the door closed it seemed that Shoaib finally deemed himself to move closer to me, and it was only a few seconds after she left that Shoaib had me in his arms. His face was in the crook of my neck, which I realised he did when he needed to calm down, and he was hugging me just like Jasmine was doing.

"Never, and I mean never, do that to me again." He said as he pulled away from me to sit in front of me. "When you passed out, I got so worried and immediately had to get you back home. It took a whole plane journey to get back and luckily the doctors said it was due to stress and this was nothing serious. But honestly, if it was, I'd probably go back and not spare that bastards life like you had asked."

His face twisted in anger for a split second before it turned back to worry. After I had listened to what he had to say, all that I could think about was that he had let Ross go just like I told him to. There was no murder on his hands and for that I was grateful - my health didn't even matter to me at this point.

"You actually listened to me." I breathed out. My voice was still a bit croaky from the lack of water I've for the past many days.

Shoaib however seemed to think this was irrelevant and rolled his eyes before he pulled me close to him and kissed me. I was shocked for a start, but after a while I gave in to him. He seemed urgent meanwhile it took all of my strength to just sit upright.

It was a long time before he pulled away, yet our foreheads stayed touching. A boyish grin was plastered on his face as if he had just been given a toy that he wanted for months on end. Meanwhile I was out of breath and a little flustered as to what just happened.

"You know, while you were still unconscious, Mr Colton said something to me." He started suddenly and I raised a brow at him as I backed away, my back resting on the headboard.

For a moment I thought that he was talking about Mr Coltons confession about Jasmine and him reverting, though I doubt that was it.

"And what did he say?" I asked with a small smile playing on my lips.

Shoaibs hand outstretched to mine, and he interlaced our fingers together. "He said that you were shocked to hear that I love you." His words definitely took my off guard while his smile was replaced with an all knowing smirk. What he had just said made my heart beat thunderously and I knew that this boy was no good for my health.

With a shaky breath I replied back to him. "Well I was surprised. You've never said it to me after all." I pointed out thinking that his smirk would fall, though it remained plastered on.

I saw him lean closer to me, as if to kiss me again, but he went to my ear to whisper to me.

"I love you."

I was in a whirlwind of emotions at the moment since it was then that my whole family decided to barge in my room. Mom and dad with tears running down their faces and my brothers all rushed inside behind them looking very worried indeed.

My heart was hammering due to Shoaibs words and I was also flustered to have my whole family seizing my hands, placing kisses on my face and saying how worried they were. Shoaib however stood behind them all with his hands folded across his chest with a smile at the sight.

"Guys please, I'm fine. No need to fuss over me." I said, trying to assure them that I was fine. My family interrupting our moment was quite disappointing, and if I could convince them that I was okay, they could leave soon enough for me to talk to Shoaib.

Just then my mother, being not so gentle, smacked me upside the head making my brothers chuckle and me frown. I rubbed the sore spot and somehow my frown deepened as I saw Shoaib chuckling alongside my brothers.

"What do you mean you're fine?! One, you never see us anymore. Two, you get yourself kidnapped. Three, you faint and say you're fine?! Never had I thought my child would be this ungrateful!" My mother huffed out annoyingly as my dad tried calming her down as best as he could.

"Dear she needs to rest, and you can't just hit her in front of her husband." I smiled at my dad and took his hand in mine. Ever since I got married, I hadn't spoken to my dad properly, but I was glad that he's here.

At the mention of my husband, my mother broke out into tears and turned to grab Shoaib in a bone crushing hug. From where I sat, I could see Shoaib was startled but nonetheless hugged my mother back and began to soothingly rub her back for she had started to sob uncontrollably now.

"Thank you so much for saving my little girl! She may give me a lot of headaches and never washes her plates or cleans her room, but I don't know what I would do if she never came back." Despite all the negative things my mother had just said about me, I couldn't help but feel touched at her words.

"I don't know what I would do if she never came back either." Shoaib said to my still tearful mother.

And at that moment as he made eye contact with me, I mouthed the words that I'd been wanting to say for a long time now.

'I love you too.'

* * *

Staring at myself in the mirror, I took a quick picture and sent it to Assia who had been annoying me to know what I was wearing for graduation today. It wasn't much, but the lacy abaya looked classy along with my heels and it was perfect for today.

"Don't you look nice?" I felt a strong pair of arms wrap around my waist from behind and instantly I began smiling like a fool.

It had been 5 months since the incident and safe to say that I was glad for it all to be over. Shoaib and I confessed our love to each other and even though we rarely say it to each other, we know that it's true since the past events proved that. Now as we tried to put it all behind us, we began acting like a proper family which included Laila, and today was truly a day for celebration.

Shoaib and I along with most of the senior year were graduating. All the hard work and pestering Shoaib to study was finally going to be paid off today - no one expected Shoaib to graduate and the look of surprise on everyone's faces at school was enough to heighten his ego.

"I always look good. What are you trying to say?" I asked with a slight smirk. I loved teasing him.

"Nothing but if you're finally ready, we need to go." He said and I offered him a little pout as he moved away from me; I was getting quite fond with having him near me. Shoaib chuckled and shook his head at my childishness.

We both descended down the stairs where he grabbed his car keys and we both made our way into the car. Once inside he started the engine and drove off in the direction of the school. On instinct, my hand found its way on top of Shoaibs and I could see the cheeky grin on his face.

"What?" I asked.

He said nothing and instead removed my hand from the top of his and looked on ahead of the road. The simple action was enough for me to feel a little hurt and stare out the window all the way to school.

As he parked the car at school, I hurriedly got out, wanting to avoid Shoaib though it didn't seem like he minded because I didn't hear him come after me. Not that I wanted him to.

"Umaymah! Where were you? We are so late!" I had only just registered the fact that Assia was talking to me before I felt myself being pulled to where rows and rows of senior and their families sat, in front of a stage.

None of us had the time to talk to each other as she accompanied me to my designated seat, which was unfortunately next to Shoaib as we have the same last name, before she hurried off to her own seat. I couldn't see my family from where I was since there was separate seating arrangements for them, though I did notice Shoaib take a seat next to me.

By now the ceremony had started, but luckily no one gave us any attention as we took our seats, although I did spot a few girls staring at Shoaib longer than necessary. I decided to just leave them to it; if he was going to brush me off then I would childishly do the same.

"Hey." I heard Shoaib whisper to me, but I faked my concentration at the stage where people had already began going up. Since our last names started with 'A' it would be our turn soon.

He must have noticed that I was ignoring him as now started to poke my sides which made me squirm a little. I shifted in my seat so that he could see the glare I was giving him; he opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by my name being called out.

I abruptly stood up with a smile and walked towards the stage. Behind me cheers and applauds could be heard along with my brothers all shouting out my name. The sound was encouraging and so I took my diploma and shook hands with the head teacher and walked off stage with the same goofy smile on my face.

"Oh my god! You finally graduated!" Abdallah shouted in my ear just as Zakariya and Mohammed did.

My mother had tears in her eyes as my dad tried calming her down and Jasmine took the opportunity to hug me once the boys had let go. From behind me I could Shoaibs name being called on stage and more cheering could be hear, in which I joined in.

"Umaymah." I heard my name and turned around to see my in laws smiling at me with Laila practically jumping in my father - in - law's arms. I smiled just as I found myself in a hug from my mother - in - law.

"We wanted to congratulate you and also thank you for making this day possible for Shoaib as well." My father - in - law spoke just as Laila jumped into my own arms and hugged me tight.

"Oh no, you have to give some credit to the boy too. It wasn't just me." I said, feeling very proud of him even if he did brush me off moments ago.

"Well here he comes now." I turned around with Laila still in my arms to see my mother just letting go of Shoaib and his own mother and father rushing to pull him in a hug.

If I wasn't mistaken, I would have said that a slight blush could be seen on his cheeks because he was embarrassed of all the affection he was receiving. Me on the other hand found it quite heart warming to see.

"You wanna go meet daddy?" I whispered into Laila's eat and she energetically nodded her head, making the people around her laugh as she ran the short distance to Shoaib.

The crowd around us 'aw'ed' at the sight of Shoaib picking Laila up and spinning her around before finally putting her down with a kiss on her cheek. It was great to see just how much of a bond these two already shared with one another that sometime it made me sad to know that we weren't biologically her parents.

After everyone had congratulated us, leaving no time for Shoaib to talk to me, I left Laila with my mother and walked over to a corner of the school where there was shade and a bit of quiet from all the noise. It had been a hectic day, though quite enjoyable too, but all I wanted for a spilt second was some space from all the congratulations and happy tears.

"There you are. I had a feeling that you went home without me." I didn't need to turn around to recognise my husbands voice, though I carried on looking ahead, only offering him a short nod on my behalf.

"I just came for some quiet." I admitted and finally turned around.

The sight in front me however was very shocking. Maryam stood beside Shoaib with some distance and was looking down on the floor while playing with her fingers. She looked quite vulnerable and nervous.

Finally her head shot up to meet my gaze and she offered a small smile. "I want to start off by saying that I may not have any rights to say this anymore, but I'm extremely sorry. For bothering you, making you lie to my parents just to show that I was a good person, and worst of all for trying to make a move on Shoaib even though you two are married." She sucked in a deep breath. "You may not even want to forgive me because truth is, even though I knew what I was doing was wrong, I still carried on. I guess I was just jealous that you always got the best out of everything."

Again she offered me a small smile while I remained speechless after her little confession and apology. She noticed that too and before walking away, gave me a light hug when left me even more in a state of shock than I was in before. Cautiously my head turned towards Shoaib as soon as she walked off and I saw he was looking at me intently while holding something at the back of his hands.

"Did you put her up to this?"

"Just made her realise her mistakes, that's all." He said with a shrug and moved closer to me.

I eyed him suspiciously until he stopped walking and pulled out a bunch of pink roses from behind his back. An unknown smile made it ways on my face as I tore my gaze away from the flower and to him.

"Getting you flowers doesn't seem to do justice for all that you've down for me this past year. A good wife, mother and friend. You've supported me in ways that none has done before and because of that I was able to graduate today and make my parents proud. You've made me feel things towards a person that I never have before which in turn made me aware that I love you. You've also tamed this monster in me which makes me want to surrender myself to you and not do a single thing that you wouldn't approve of. Like I said, flowers just doesn't do justice for all these things."

Do not cry Umaymah. Do not cry. A small voice at the back of my head changed though I couldn't comprehend because now the tears were flowing down my face from happiness.

My arms instantly captured him in an embrace and I sobbed quietly in his shirt while he held me in place. I felt foolish for crying at this moment because of all the sweet things he said, but I was speechless.

"I love you so much." I muttered as I pulled away from him and wiped my face clean of tears. "I never knew that all my years of mocking people who were in love and acted all mushy would catch up to me. Right now I feel like the luckiest person alive."

He gazed down at me with a smile and it was that moment I knew that no matter what we had gone through, no matter what we were going to go through, I would always have him by my side to feel loved.

Truth is, if nearly a year ago I wouldn't have barged into his life, I wouldn't be seeing this day. If nearly a year ago I hadn't made a pledge to fix this boy, I wouldn't have ultimately changed his ways.

* * *
OHMYGOD THIS IS IT! The last chapter before the epilogue and I desperately hope that you are all happy with it! I will leave all the mushy stuff for the epilogue because that truly will be the end 😭 But I still want to say thank you for everyone who has showed me support through all of this.
Another notice, Jasmine & Mr Coltons story has been uploaded - it's called Understanding You. Give it a read if you want 😊