Mujaheed walked back into the chamber silently praying that Nana had left because he knew if she didn't, there would be fire on the mountain. She would have to do all it took to force him to do what he didn't intend to do. His eyes scanned the room and he found only Fareeda seated on the carpet with her back resting on the sofa and her knees brought up to her chest. As he looked harder, she had dozed off, resting her head on her knees.

He stared at the nylon on his hand and internally cursed himself. His eyes caught her foot and he was certain she didn't even try to clean it today. She might be infected if he let her stay this way and so he went over to where she sat and pulled the leg to himself. She immediately opened her eyes and was about to speak when he looked up, which turned her words back into her chest. She tried to take her leg away from him and he looked up at her again.

"You have to stay still," he said and she knew better than to keep on being stubborn. With eyes keen on his face, Fareeda watched as he unwrapped the bandage and he began to clean the wound.

She screamed as the first droplet of the spirit hit her raw wounded flesh and when he looked up at her, she pulled back all that she wanted to say and tears began to spill out of her eyes. She had always been a lachrymose, especially in moment where her heart hurt the most. He ignored her whimpers and cleaned the wound before he bandaged it again and unwrapped two pills from the pills he had brought. He poured her some water from the jug on the table and handed them to her.

"I'm okay..."she managed to utter. How in the world would she tell this man that she hated medicines and the only way to make her take them was if she was certain about dying if she hadn't. And right now, she knew her wound would never kill her. She might get infected, for sure, but there was no way she would die over such a wound. If she hadn't died because of the pain in her heart, she knew she wouldn't die because of this.

"I don't have the time to waste here, it's either you take it or I'll force it down your throat, okay?" He said firmly and her hands shook as she collected it from him. She wasted almost five minutes before she was able to gulp them down to her throat and she immediately stood up to run to the kitchen but he held her wrist and threw her on the sofa.

"What do you think you're doing? Trying to go over the basin and throw everything out? Sit here, take more water until you've fully taken those pills." His eyes were cold that when she looked into his eyes, she shivered a bit due to the coldness that had surged through her entire body.

She collected the cup of water he was handing her while more tears pooled the brink of her eyes and gulped more of the water until like he wanted, she swallowed the water together. She looked up at him with tears running down her cheeks unchecked and slightly opened her mouth, "I've swallowed them." She quivered, and Mujaheed took his eyes off her before he left for the room.

She didn't know how she was sleepy, but she wanted to sleep. There were times when it became all messy in her life, all she wanted to do was sleep and run away from reality. You could call her a coward if you wanted, but that was the kind of person she was. Afraid of reality that had nothing to offer to her but an unbearable pain that she didn't what she would do with her life anymore.

Shortly after, he came out holding a pillow with his blanket and something struck into her heart. She knew she didn't want him to sleep on the bed because she wanted anything to happen between them, but from the perception she looked at things, he was disgusted of her. Maybe he felt she was too dirty for him to sleep on the same bed as her. She gulped back her tears and acted as if she hand't realized what that meant.

"Get in and sleep. And from now, I don't have to be telling you what you have to do because you're not a child, and even if you are one, I wouldn't care less." Can she please have someone to tell her that he or she cared? She knew Nana did, but that wasn't the acceptance she wanted. Because somehow, Fareeda felt that Nana was still a young girl that was why she could't realize the kind of person she was, and if she came to age and understood everything, she would have to hate her as well.

She stood up and limped to the room, not wanting to make any wrong move that will make him utter something to her that will force her to stay awake for the rest of the night. She had thrown away her phone, she would have called Dr Aisha and spoke with her. She had never told her anything about her life or her father, but Fareeda believed that she would have told her about what she did and how Mujaheed was treating her.

She didn't disregard his choice of punishment for her, she understood him. Whatever he did was justifiable because if she hadn't made the mistake of trusting the most heartbreaking person in her life, she wouldn't have gotten herself into the puddle of this mess that she didn't know how to get herself cleaned. She cried, but for a moment before she felt asleep on the edge of the bed with her glasses on and her hijab, she kept shivering due to the coldness of the AC without having her body covered with a duvet.

Mujaheed walked into the room to check what she was doing since she hadn't turn the lights off yet, and when he saw her curled into a fetus position on the edge of the bed with her hijab on and body bare to the cold, he hissed. She would never be responsible even for once. She might think that she was hated by her father and had a very rough life, but all he could see here is a spoilt brat that couldn't even take care of herself.

He carried her into his arms and laid her properly on the bed, took her hijab off and reduced the temperature of the AC when his hands brushed her neck and he felt her temperature had risen. He took off her glass before covering her with a duvet, turned the lights off and walked back to the living room. Sleep had deserted him, he couldn't believe Fareeda was back but he couldn't suppress his hatred for her as well.

He wanted to hurt her so bad that she would have to beg for his mercy. He knew that when he said he wanted to stay with her as a wife, it was solely because he wanted to punish her. He hadn't cried when she left because he knew where she was and who she was together with, but at some point he wished he had cried because of how his heart ached. Whenever he remembered that she was there, together with Adam doing only god knew what, he felt a painful squirm in his heart.

'I'll tell you one secret, don't use protection on her, she's tasteless even when it raw-' Mujaheed knew he had heard words that crumbled his whole life at the moment but this right here, nothing could be said to him that will crumble him the way it did. It crushed and broke his heart to the greatest intensity and whenever he looked at Fareeda, the only thing he could remember amongst all the things that Adam said was this. How could she have trusted that bunch of idiocy? How could she have given him such power, such access to her body and soul to the point that he could disrespect her to this order?

He wished he had killed him that day if not for those that saved him, he might be taken to the jail afterward but that would be the only way to take off his anger. Or castrate the fool, Mujaheed mused and palmed his face, roaming his fingers through his hair to massage his scalp. She must've been in pain now, but he knew it was only because of the betrayal she had had to come through. He wanted her to feel so much pain that she would have nothing to do in the 24 hours of everyday but cry and beg Allah to heal her. It might also be hard on him to hurt her to that extent, he knew which was so hard for him to believe. But he would have to hurt her even if that meant hurting himself on the process.

✥

He knew he had knocked the door on his way to the mosque and had tapped on her shoulder twice. How much he had thought yesterday had made him realized talking to her might something push him into telling her the words he would regret later in life. When he came back and noticed that the lights were still off, he walked into the room and found her still sleeping while she cuddled herself warmly to the duvet. He hissed and walked to the bed and tapped her shoulder.

"You need to wake up and pray, Fareeda!" He roughly shook her head and when she turned without knowing she did, Mujaheed's hand fell on her neck and he noticed her temperature had risen and she had a fever. Whatever the cause of the fever, he knew it was the pain in her heart and also the wound on her foot.

She lazily took her glass from the bedside drawer and put it on before she opened her eyes a bit. Seeing the way he was deadly staring at her, Fareeda immediately sat upright but groaned outwardly when her head thudded and she palmed her forehead.

"You're sick, pray, take your bathe and we'll go to the hospital." He said briskly and stood up. She wanted to argue with him and tell him that she was alright, but Fareeda knew for a fact that she couldn't do that. She had to do what he wanted at the end and there was no point in arguing.

She pulled her feet down and grunted when she stood on her wounded foot, Mujaheed watched her as she meticulously limped to the bathroom and he left the room. When he waited for too long in the living room, he walked to the room to check what she was up to and he realized she was already asleep on the praying mat while slightly shivering. He turned the air conditioner first before he carried her back on the bed, covered her and left the chamber.

He wanted to free his head from her thoughts and all that was happening around him lately. He walked out of the house to take a walk before she woke up and while he did that, all he thought of was the conversation they had with Fareeda. He sat on a bench and just stared at cars as they drove fast him and he thought for a moment about his life.

He would have doubted if someone would tell him that this will would be the life he was going to live. He hadn't thought about how he will survive if that happened, that was why he didn't know what he was supposed to do now that it was all messy for him. Looking back at how he grew up, more hatred filled his life. He knew he might've hated on Fareeda since from the start. Well, maybe not actually hated her, but they fought a lot. But he didn't want her to be among the list of people he was going to hate for the rest of his life.

He sat there, seeing his life moving as a slideshow through his heart as though a movie and he wanted all this to end. What he had run away from to change so everything will be back to normal and what surprised him more was how he was certain that even if he would be given the chance to change his past, he would still like to meet Fareeda and get married to her.

His phone's ringtone pulled him out of his trance and he stared at the caller ID before he immediately stood up. He had totally forgotten that he had this appointment. Looking back at the path that would lead him back to the mansion, his mind thought about the situation Fareeda was in, but he knew Nana would be there to take care of her before he went back.

He immediately picked the call before it ended and spoke, "Hello. I'll be there in a few minutes, might be late a bit."

✥

He came back into the mansion with his heart shrunken from being overloaded with nothing but agony. He saw the family doctor walking out of his chamber and after they had exchanged a few pleasantries, he left. Mujaheed rushed there thinking of what might have happened. He met Nana in the kitchen arranging the warmers.

"Nana, what happened? I just saw Dr Haris coming out of this chamber. What happened? Is everything alright?" He asked, feeling a little bit foolish for not outwardly asking her if Fareeda was alright, because they both know that he was referring to her.

Nana smiled at him, "You wouldn't die if you ask if she's alright, Ya Mujaheed. I found her unconscious when I came here to bring her breakfast, so I went to Abba and he called..." Mujaheed didn't wait for her to finish when he rushed into the room and Nana followed his gaze with an amused smile. He might've not noticed it himself, but he cared so much about Fareeda.

He entered the room and found her sleeping peacefully with an IV attached to her left hand. She had her glass on and he wondered why she couldn't take it off and not even the doctor would ask her to take it off. Was he the only one that hated it whenever she slept with her glass on? And it wasn't because she might break it, it was because her sleep will be inconvenienced.

He took it off and sat down beside her on the bed. She was sleeping and he noticed the rise and fall of her chest from the way she squirmed and scrunched up her face even while asleep, Mujaheed knew she was having a bad dream. Sweats began to form on her forehead while her movements became more prominent as she shook her head vigorously. He didn't intend to, but he felt his hand as it took hers and he covered it with his other palm.

"Take it easy on yourself, Fareeda, I'm right here beside you." He spoke softly even though he knew she wouldn't hear him. For a moment after that, with his gaze intently fixed on her face, he watched as her heavy breathing subsided and he cleared the bead of sweat on her forehead.

He slowly let go of her hand and walked out to the living room where he met Nana eating while she watched the tv that was turned to the lowest volume. He sat down and Nana turned to him with a smile on her lips, "Ya Mujaheed, should I bring your breakfast for you or you're going to wait for her until she wakes up?"

Mujaheed flashed her a hard glare, "Nana, I've noticed you've been wanting to get into my bad records lately. Do you want me to smack your head off until you forget about your whole existence."

She threw her head back and laughed, "Ya Mujaheed, I only asked you a question." She stood up and placed down her plate on the side table, "I'll go and serve you now, I'm sure she won't even like to eat this when she wakes up."

"What will she like to eat?" He asked when she handed him the plate and placed the mug beside him on the table.

She sat down on the sofa opposite him and began to munch on her food. "I don't know, but she usually takes gruel whenever she's sick, groundnut gruel. No one knows how to make it here, sometimes she has to go days without eating until she starts to feel better and makes it herself."

He wanted to smack himself for thinking about the possibility of making it for her, "She has never taught you how to do it?" Nana sadly shook her head.

"I think it's the only thing she knows how to make, she learnt it from her mother. No, Ummah doesn't allow me to go to the kitchen whenever she makes it because she knows if she fell sick again I'll make it for her."

"I know how to make it, where do we find the grounded groundnut?"

"We have it, she makes sure she has it in stock incase she falls sick. I'll go and get it for you after you're done eating your breakfast. But how do you learn how to do it?"

"Nana, what does curiosity does to the cat?" He asked coldly and she threw her head back and laughed.

"It kills the cat, but you aren't going to kill me, are you?" He glared at her and she laughed. She loved how stubborn and hard headed the two of them were, and despite being so soft toward each other, they wanted to act as though they were the greatest enemies to ever live on earth. She was the only one able to see their soft sides and she took a promise to herself to reveal that softness to each of them.