"If you really were," he said again with a heavy sigh, then paused, his brow furrowing in contemplation. "Wait! Let's even entertain the notion that I'm naive enough to buy into your concocted tales of a blissful time with some mystery man you claim not to know, Jadu!" He retrieved his phone and navigated to Instagram, swiftly typing her sister's name and peering at her story.

"Who the hell is this?!" He erupted, his voice a thunderous roar as he loomed over her, causing Jadwa to instinctively shrink back against the door.

"He's Ya Ahmad's friend! Ya Imran" She shot back, her voice matching his intensity.

"That's why he's wining and dining you, while your sister flaunts it to the world?" His tone dripped with accusation.

Jadwa sighed, listening to his suspicions.

"I should have seen it the first day I laid eyes on you both at your brother's house! You were playing me, and I, the fool trusted you!" A bitter laugh escaped him.

"What are you insinuating, babe? If you'd only let me explain..." Her voice wavered, desperation creeping in.

"Do you have any idea the lengths I've gone to convince my family to accept you?" His frustration was palpable.

"Abdul," she began, but he rudely interjected.

"I should have known better! What a crafty deception to fabricate the story of an arranged marriage by year's end because of me! These images they've seen, they're not ours, are they?" He demanded, his eyes boring into hers, searching for any sign of deceit.

"Are they?!" His accusation reverberated through the room, leaving Jadwa reeling.

"Abdul, please..." Her voice trembled, tears threatening to spill.

"Yes! And I'm relieved I uncovered your deceit before falling victim to it. You sicken me, Jadu. I held you in high regard, but clearly, not all that glitters is gold."

"Fine, stand by your words, Abdul. May Allah grant you a woman more deserving than I if that's what you want. I'll talk to you later" she said not wanting to continue the fight.

"He did, and what did I do? I went against my family and her! For what? For you!" At this point, Jadwa was bewildered by his relentless onslaught, but Abdulhakeem persisted, his words a cruel lash.

"So, there was another woman?" Jadwa's heart sank at his words her eyes imploring him to retract his words. When he remained silent, she spoke again, desperation creeping into her tone. "Abdul, please, you can't..."

"Shut up, Jadu! I loved you, and all you did was manipulate and deceive me."

"Who is she—" She attempted to interject, but he forcefully swatted her hand away, cutting her off once again, his disbelief palpable.

Even the person she loved the most silenced her, refusing to believe her.

"Answer me! There is another woman, right?" She asked while he avoided the question again.

"I held you in high regard, Jadu, I truly..." His voice trailed off, but Jadwa couldn't bear to hear more, his silence to the question was enough answer, She cut him off this time.

"You're dead to me, Abdulhakeem."

Once he started screaming at her again, she unlocked the car door and went down shutting the door quietly.
Tears blurred Jadwa's eyes were red but she couldn't let them flow, the only thing on her mind was the mention of another girl but as soon as they flowed she cleaned it up aggressively and started walking home.

The eight minutes walk were the most heavy steps she had ever taken, every step drained and broke a part of her when she heard his engine roar and drive past her.
She was too angry, as soon as she reached her brother's house she went straight to the room and entered her blanket.

She sat in there for hours her sister in law and brother came in but she pretended to sleep, the tears just keep rolling down but Jadwa didn't try to stop them.
At this point it was like she had a million wounds on her body and didn't know which to cater to first.
Was it the threats or was it Abdulhakeem or now that her whole life seems to me going down the drain.
She slept off in her tears, and slept off the pain and the confusion.

Jadwa woke up to hannan tapping her legs.
She closed her eyes as soon as she opened them and hannan breached forward to touch her body.

"Subhanallah! Jadwa you are literally burning with fever" she exclaimed as Jadwa tried to sit up.

She closed opened her eyes, hannan's words were only silence to her ears as she recalled the events of yesterday.
She picked her phone immediately and kept dialing his number. She called and called again blocking out all the calls Hannan tried to give her.
As she was trying to call Abdulhakeem again, the messages started coming in again and Jadwa's heart dropped in her stomach so violently but still kept calling Abdul.

When hannan shook her shoulder to ask her what happened "Leave me alone!" In a moment of desperation, she screamed at Hannan the weight of her heart breaking unbearable.

She threw the phone flying across the room and the only thing she heard was the sounds of her painful sobs that came after the crashing of her phone on the floor.

When she kept crying, Hannan didn't know what to do anymore she ran down stairs to call Ahmad while Jadwa cried profusely.
When Ahmad and Ameerah came in the room went silent and they just watched her cry, she needed to let it out.
"What did Abdulhakeem do?" Hannan asked while Jadwa cleaned her tears.

She narrated what happened while Ahmad watched with his fist tight.
Hannan and Ameerah calmed her down and helped her wash her face.

Ahmad handed her the phone and the screen, it was still working fine but the glass was broken badly.

"I am so sorry, I am so sorry" she apologized while looking at her phone but the least her family cared about was the phone.

Ahmad sat her down on the bed while he stood over her.

"Why were you calling him? To apologize? To beg or to prove him your worth belongs in his hands?" He asked and Jadwa stayed quiet.

"You must be kidding me! You broke your phone and cried like that over that bastard?" He asked and Jadwa still remained quiet.

"So what if he had met someone else? So what if his family want to accept you or he doesn't want to believe you or whatever lies he used as excuses to leave you?" He asked angrily while Jadwa nodded her head negatively.

Seeing Jadwa had no intentions of listening to anyone or helping her self, he snatched her phone and walked out.

*****

For the next two weeks, Ahmad saw the persistent messages on the phone and the next one week that was how it was.

Meanwhile, jadwa had stopped going to school, she had stopped eating properly or functioning as usual, Ahmad had seized her phone and she was just by herself all the time and even when Ameerah and Hannan would try, she would consistently block them out or leave the room for them to have her own space.
She was like dead person living, depressed and tired.

Jadwa was reading a book when Ahmad entered the room.
He had a tired look on his face, The police were not helping, they didn't have the technology or anything that could help this case. At this point they were at the dead end and he wouldn't give up.

"Jadu, get up!" He said and she boringly looked at him.

"Look at this" he showed the two phones both his and hers with the set of new threats.

The blackmailer had sent the pictures to all the siblings and warned the parents were next.
Jadwa pushed the phone aside, laid down on the bed and looked at her brother.

"The police can't do anything, they have already sent it to you, Zara and Hanan so what's next? Let them do their worst. I am seriously over it and I swear I don't want to hear a word about this" she said sincerely.

"Are you crazy? Do you know what Baba will do if he finds out." He asked.

"That's my Qadr, that's Allah's plan for me and others have it worse Ya Ahmad please let this be and stop stressing yourself" she pleaded making her brother look at her with shock.

"I want my phone back I need to talk to Abdulhakeem" she said softly.

Ahmad didn't say anything, Hanan, Zara and Ameerah walked into the room seeing the staring contest happening.

"Listen to me carefully, I never ever want to see or hear about him in this house, if I do, I swear by Allah nothing will stop me from doing what see I fit with you" he said and she looked back at him angrily.

"Ya Ahmad! I need to talk to him, I need to apologize, I need to explain everything he has every right to misunderstand this! Ya Ahmad you would do the same too!" She raised her voice.

"Ameerah when you are done, meet me downstairs I  will call Ya Imran about this, this is close to his line of work since we have no other option now" Ahmad said.

"Why would you bring him in my business? There's nothing we can do about this! Just let it be for Allah's sake don't you think you are only making it worse?" She asked raising her hands to demonstrate unbelievably.

"You better watch your mouth Jadu!" He roared.

"And you all better warn your foolish sister and get her out of this obsession with an Unfaithful man." He pointed to the girls before bringing out his phone and walking out and banging the door.

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