CHAPTER | NINETEEN | ALIZA | POV

“Ali, it’s time to wake up.” I felt myself being shaken by someone and with a groan; I whacked the person’s hand away. Sleep was something I looked forward to and being woken from it was something not appreciated by me.

Before I even had time to anticipate what happened next, ice cold water was being poured over my head, earning a shriek from me. It was bad enough that it was winter and we were in England, but pouring ice cold water on me just topped the cherry on the bad cake.

“ISA YOU BETTER RUN!” My lungs felt dry as soon as the threat came out but I didn’t care since the only thing I could see right now was red.

Ripping the comforter off me I began my journey to finding Isa. I had no idea where he had gotten to since I told him to run. A part of me was saying that I was stupid to have shouted at him just for waking me up but the other, madder, side kept telling me to find him and drop an ounce of cold water on him too, to see how he liked it. Then again thinking with a temper got no one anywhere, so I decided to just find him and see what he needed.

My clothes were now successfully sticking to me like a second skin which my teeth clatter together. The fact that it was cold too didn’t make the situation at all better. One of my knitted jumpers was lying on the floor and in a swift movement I had it on, trying to get away from the cold that was now surrounding my entire body. It helped to an extent that it covered my wet body, but the coldness was still there and my teeth refused to stop making noises, which annoyed me. 

Changing my clothes was probably the more reasonable thing to do here before going to find Isa, but I could do that later too seeing he was in a rush to wake me up. I opened the door to the bedroom which we were sleeping in and got out the room and scanned the living room to see if Isa was there. He wasn’t. My feet began moving towards the bathroom to see if he was in there, and sure enough he wasn’t in there either; though the bucket he used to pour water on me was there, just rooted to ground as if it was oh so innocent.

Heading out the bathroom I made sure to check the kitchen, behind the couches and even went back in the bedroom to see if he had been hiding in there. None of the places I checked though was where he was and I began to get agitated when thinking how good he must have been when playing hide and seek. Alhamdulilah, I thought when realising I had never played the game with him. But where could he have gone though? It was unusual for him to even hide in the first place, though I did tell him to run.

Then again, run and hide are completely two different things. Sucking in a deep breath I began shouting his name again, “Isa? I’m not mad anymore, where are you?” I asked out but got no response back.

He couldn’t have gone far; maybe out of the apartment for something so shrugging it off I decided to take a shower to pry the sticky clothes off of me. It didn’t look like we were going to going out today, so I settled with a pair of sweats and one of the many maternity tops that I now owned. It was nothing special, just black and white stripes going across the top.

After the shower I felt more relaxed and sure enough when opening the door to the bathroom I had heard some sizzling coming from the pan. That was all it took to get a smile on my face because for definite now, Isa had to be back. No one else could have just walked in here and decided to make something for them to eat, right?

“Will you hurt me?” Was the first thing I was questioned with as I got out of the bathroom with wet hair and a towel hanging off my arm.

I looked at him in question with my eyebrow raised but didn’t say anything. Instead, I went back to the room and got out the blow dryer before my hair decided to have frost bites hanging on the bottom. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk to Isa but a few minutes of the silent treatment wouldn’t kill him right?

My hair wasn’t something to go crazy over, no matter what Isa said, but right now I’m pretty sure I would end up crazy if my hair wouldn’t dry quicker. Standing here for fifteen minutes just to dry ones hair seemed stupid, yet here I was doing exactly that. Sighing I finally turned the blow dryer off content with my hair after trying to get it dry after twenty minutes and pulled it up in a ponytail before going out to see Isa sitting one of the couches eating his omelette.

“There you are. I made you some food.” He said and got up to get me the plate that was resting on the kitchen top with an omelette just like his plate was. 

Rolling my eyes at him I walked past him and to the kitchen to fend for myself. Even though the food on the plat looked and smelt delicious, I wasn’t giving into him and if that meant not eating his food then so be it.

“Are you seriously telling me that you don’t want to eat it?” Again I ignored him and after seeing that there was hardly anything in the fridge, I went over to the couch and picked up the hotel phone to order some room service.

“Hi. Can I please have some pancakes with syrup, a pack of skittles, a muffin, some tea and toast up to room 202?” I asked sweetly and with an agreement from the other end of the line, I put the phone down and switched the TV on.

“What’s the point of room service when I just made breakfast?” Isa asked, taking a seat down on the couch next to me.

“What’s the point of pouring ice cold water on me when you could have shaken me again?” I shot back at him with my eyes still lingering on the TV.

“Touché.” He said with a chuckle before digging back into his breakfast.

There was nothing interesting playing until I switched to the kids section and let out a girly scream. One of my favourite shows was on and I didn’t waste any time before clicking on the show, waiting to watch it. Looking over at Isa I saw he had his hand clutching his heart and staring at me like I had gone mad or something.

“What? SpongeBob’s on.” I said innocently with a shrug off my shoulders.

It’s true when I say that SpongeBob was one of my favourite cartoons, but honestly even that couldn’t beat the times me and the boys fell on the floor laughing at Will Smith on ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’. But SpongeBob was a close run and it still made my heart warm up every time I watched the show; it kind of showed how innocent one can be sometimes.

“You didn’t have to scream.” I heard him mutter under his breath, but just as I was about to say anything, else there was a knock at the door indicating my food was here.

I happily got off the couch ignoring his profanities and went over to open the door. But before I did, I slipped on my hijab so whoever it was didn’t see my hair. Even though the door was closed, I could smell the aroma of the food just wafting around in the air.

It didn’t take me long to open the door seeing as I was really hungry right now. The tray of food was the first thing I saw when opening the door and the person that brought it in here completely slipped out of my attention until their voice rang in my ears. “Well, if it isn’t Arab Hulk eh?” The voice wasn’t what made me realise who it was; it was the unnecessary nickname that rang the bells of who the person was.

Slowly my head shot up to see the one and only Alex staring down at me, but before I even had a chance to say anything Isa stood in front of me, blocking my view of Alex completely. It was just like the first night where Isa protected me from Alex and his other two men, though they did nothing. Come to think about it, I had no idea what even happened after I had so smartly passed out in Isa’s old apartment. The question was though: did I even want to know?

“Aliza go back inside.” I knew he was serious since he used my full name instead of saying ‘Ali’ like he usually would do.

I know it was useless to even begin questioning him so I obediently went inside the apartment, but my eyes still rested on the two boys in front of me. Soon enough though both of them walked inside the apartment; Alex looking around and taking in the appearance of the room while Isa had his eyes on Alex, shooting daggers at him with his eyes.

I on the other hand kept glancing between the two boys in the room, wondering what they were going to do. If Isa looked the least happy before, then I’m sure it all vanished as soon Alex appeared at the door.

“What do you want Alex?” Isa questioned Alex as he closed the door behind him.

To say that I was calm right now had to be an understatement. My heart was hammering rapidly in my chest and there was nothing I could do to calm it down. One thing’s for sure though, I know Alex couldn’t have just stopped by to make idle chit chat, he wanted answers and if this is where everything was to end then so be it.

"Oh you know why I'm here. But I must say though, this isn't the best of places to sort things out." I gulped as he said that, fearing what he was going to say next. "You know the old warehouse just outside town, be there tonight at ten and we'll...discuss."

His simple answer got me thinking of more questions and none of them were any good questions that one would ask. My eyes had widened when I saw Isa agree to him with a nod of his head and finally Alex walked out.

My back was now pressed against the counter, trying to decipher what had just happened between the two in front of me. Things were going to get sorted out tonight though, I doubt I would be there to witness it. Two arms encirlced my waist and I looked up to stare at Isa's face in front of me. 

"I'm guessing you're not going to let me come right?" His eyes widened at my stupid question and he rested his forehead against mine.

"There's no way I would ever let you come with me. And that's final." I respected his decision not to let me come, but it still made me uncertain and surprised at myself that I agreed to him without a fight.

Normally, the fact that I couldn't go somewhere would have got me mad and resulting in me going anyway, but this time it was different because I could see the fear in his face that he held and it wasn't just for me, it was for himself. I wanted to comfort him and so I embraced him in a hug, mentally saying that it would be okay.

Of course I had no idea what tonight held and the fact that I had to stay in this hotel room waiting for my husband to come home when there's a chance he could be injured scared me. Scratch that, it petrified me!

"Be safe." I whispered while we still held each other. His face was buried in my hair and I could feel him nod to my question though I knew better; when you got Isa angry, there was no turning back and you truly had to be special to him if you could calm him back down again.

I broke the hug and gave him a somewhat comforting smile before remembering something I wanted to give to Isa. "I'll be right back, don't move." I said and went into the bedroom where my bag lay.

My purse was in there and when opening it, I had placed our wedding picture in there along with the baby picture from the ultrasound which I wanted Isa to have right now. These two pictures was special to me and I know by giving the one of baby Shoaib to him, he'll be thinking of us throughout the night.

"This is for you." I handed him the picture and if I wasn't wrong, a single tear dropped down his face but he was quick to wipe it off. Even when it was something serious, they still didn't want to be caught crying.

As I watched his retreating figure, an idea popped into my head. There was no way I was letting him do this by himself; he needed me and more importantly, we needed him.

***

Asalaamalikum, wow an early update for you guys because you've helped me reach 1000+ votes on this book and I couldn't be much happier about it! 

This chapter is dedicated to @SarahMousti, I don't know if she still logs on to Wattpad anymore, but still go over to her page and give her book maximum votes and show lots of love on her book 'Misunderstanding'!

Have a Good Day and May God Bless You All.