CHAPTER | THIRTEEN | ALIZA | POV

Being pregnant and wanting to pee numerous times a day was really difficult, especially if you had an appointment to go to. Yesterday was another huge Arab gathering where mama cooked and people came to see me and tell me how happy they were I was out of the coma and Mashallah very healthy. 

Today though was the day to have my ultra sound and find out the sex of the baby. Isa patiently waited for me to finish in the bathroom for what was already the fourth time in ten minutes. 

Being pregnant definitely wasn't easy but I still loved every moment of experiencing my little baby growing inside of me. Both of us actually were really excited to find out if it was a boy or girl and neither did we mind which one because we would still love it equally. 

Washing my hands in the sink and doing a final check to see if my hijab was okay, I opened the door to the bathroom and got out. Isa was already waiting downstairs so slowly I made my way down and smiled at him. 

"Done. I hope." I hoped this was the last time I needed to pee or else I would be frustrated out of my mind. 

"Finally. Lets go." I held onto his hand and he closed the door behind us. We were taking the car since its way too cold to be walking to the hospital in this weather. 

"I'm kind of nervous." I admitted out loud more to myself than Isa but obviously with him being there he heard me. 

"Don't be, whatever its going to be its still gonna be our little baby." I found myself relaxing more with the comfort of his words and realised just how much he knew what to say to make things better for me Alhamdulilah. The day was a cold yet sunny day which was still beautiful to me. 

Looking out the window I could see kids playing outside just enjoying their weekends and it made me smile how innocent they looked and were. "Nearly there." Isa informed me. 

It was a quick ride to the hospital and I was more than glad that we were already there. It wasn't a sort of situation where I just wanted to get this done and out of the way, but more of excitement of wanting to see the little child growing inside my stomach. It was just something I guess that made me more excited to becoming a mother. 

The parking lot wasn't exactly full when we reached there and when I got out it felt like I could breathe again. Recently I had started to hate taking the car because it felt as if I was suffocating in there but since the weather is getting bad I don't want to risk it. 

"Come on then fatty." Isa joked with me and took my hand in his. He started calling me fatty yesterday when I got home because of how big my stomach had gotten since the last time I saw it. 

"Just because you'll never be able to pull it off." I stuck my tongue out at him and he began laughing at me. Some people inside began staring at the laughing husband beside me while others smiled at us. 

"Isa this time let others that were here before us go first okay?" I said to him. It was wrong that last time we came we had gotten to go in before anyone else just because 'he was known'. 

"Don't worry, we will. Now sit down and I'll get the forms signed." I found it really strange that every time we came to the hospital we had to fill out a form and such but it had to be done. 

As I sat there on a red plastic chair, I began looking around at the posters. Most of them were about bacteria and to get the flu jab because winter was just around the corner. It was then the realisation hit me that I had completely missed Autumn. Well most of it anyway since it wasn't completely over. But I remember that every year in early Autumn me and the boys always used to play on the fallen leaves and make a big pile only to be thrown on top of it. None of that happened this year I suppose. 

The line was a little long so it was taking Isa a bit of time to get to the front and the frustration was clear in his face. His eyebrows were knotted together and his Converse were just tapping on the floor like nobody's business; I could have laughed at how little patience he actually had. 

Snuggling a little back on the chair I made myself a but more comfortable considering we might be here for a while. There was a peaceful silence around the waiting area and I felt my eyes dropping slightly as in to show how tired I was feeling when I actually wasn't. That was a bad idea though.

My eye lids flew upon just as quick as it was closing. The memory of Alex's face and what he was saying rang clear in my head and even though me and Isa hadn't talked about it, it was still vivid in my memory. That was something I both wanted and didn't want to talk about with Isa because I have a right to know considering I've been told the other half of the story. 

If only I hadn't fainted, I probably would have known what the two were arguing about. The doctors did tell me though that the cause of me fainting was stress and I couldn't handle it. 

"Hey what you thinking about?" Isa asked taking a seat next to me. 

"Nothing. Just looking at the posters." I lied, even though I didn't want to. I knew that if I told him what I really was thinking he might have had a fit or something considering he hates Alex and the topic altogether. Maybe another I would ask him when we're alone, today I intended on keeping it happy for the sake of our baby. 

"So germs are just that exciting to look at than me huh?" I chuckled at him and gave a short nod before pretending to give my full attention to Mr Snot on the poster in front of me which looked like a lump of mud with eyes covered in snot. It was rather disgusting actually, so I turned my focus into another poster, still not looking at Isa. This one was just a male doctor holding an injection and all sorts so I decided to just give in to Isa who was now poking my sides. Lucky I'm not ticklish. 

"Yes?" I asked looking straight at him. His eyes were glistening like he was excited about something but I wasn't sure what. 

"Its our turn." Sitting here really made the time go quick but oh well. We both stood up and he lead me to the same room as we had come before when I first threw up. He opened the door and left it wide open for me to go through inside. This wasn't something to be scared about but still I was and I have no idea why. 

"Hello there. Ready for your scan today?" The doctor asked and I nodded my head at her while taking at seat just beside her desk. "Come on then, hop on the bed." She chuckled as she said that and went over to get her equipment as I 'hopped' onto the bed. 

"Before we start, a lot of parents like keeping the sex of the baby unknown, how about you?" I had a feeling she would ask ne that. Isa didn't say anything as it was my choice but I knew that he was dying to find out what it was; so was I really. 

"We'd like to know what it is." I replied back confidently. She smiled and took the gel out that was going to be spread on my belly. 

"Remember what I said about the gel?" I felt like a kid being asked that question right now. 

"Its cold." Me and Isa replied and unison and I chuckled at how cliché that was. She began spreading the gel over my stomach and Isa's hand on my mine made sure that I didn't gasp. It was really cold, colder than I remember. Both of our attention wasn't on the doctor anymore, it was on the screen. 

Again nothing could be seen at first but as the seconds grew it started to form something much like a very tiny baby. This time I did gasp and I felt a tear making its way down my cheek but it was soon gone as Isa rubbed it away. 

"Congratulations, looks like its a boy. I'll give you two some time alone." The doctor walked out after cleaning up the gel that was on my stomach with a paper towel. Instantly I felt Isa's arms wrap around me for a hug and shifting myself I hugged him back with my had resting on his shoulder. 

"Its a boy." I said out him with a proud voice. As I said that I kept wondering if he would look anything like Isa or me. Or would he look like both of us? 

"Yeah, I'm really happy." And he really was. It had been five minutes we had stayed like this and I realised the doctor needed to come back in, so I hesitantly let go of him. 

"Call her back in." I said to him and with a groan he went to comply to what I had said. All was well when and we were free to go back home but I decided to go somewhere else first. 

"Isa I was wondering if I could go to Farahs house?" I haven't seen my best friend in ages and yesterday didn't count as much as there was about another dozen people that had come to see me. 

"Yeah sure. Lets go." I loved the fact that Isa let me have that freedom of letting me go where I want and that he was always understanding about everything. We got in the car and made idle conversation, mostly about the baby and how we needed to tell our families soon that it was a boy. 

"Can I tell Farah though?" I asked as he parked the car just outside her house. He looked thoughtful for a minute before answering. 

"Can't it wait?" I thought about it too and realised he was probably saying it because it would have been unfair if I told Farah and not our family first. 

"I suppose so. I'll see you later." Getting out of the car I waved him bye for the last time and began walking up to their front door. I knew Farah had to be home right now; she was just too lazy to even step out the house but she had to anyway because of college. 

Luckily she had got into the one in this town so she doesn't have to live in another state from us. As I reached the house door, I didn't bother knocking as I was always welcome in their house and vice versa. 

"FARAH!" I shouted at the top of my voice and instantly something hit against my side and I realised it was Farah herself. 

"OMG, I can't believe you're here! How was the doctor appointment? Are you okay? Do you want to eat or drink anything? OMG, come sit down!" I didn't even have a chance to say anything hence the reason I am being dragged upstairs to her room. 

"Farah I'm okay, calm down." Having her as a best friend was something I loved and it was mainly because of how crazy she actually is. She continued to drag me to her room, completely oblivious to what I had just said to her. Opening the door of her room, we both got in and she closed the door behind her and I went over to sit on her bed making myself comfortable. 

"I missed your bed so much." I said dreamily to her and seeing her pout made me laugh a little. 

"Are you trying to say that you only came her because you missed my bed?" She asked, taking to be hurt while putting her hand against her heart. I nodded at her to confirm what she had said and as a joke she let out a sob and fell onto the bed beside me while I laughed my head off. This girl was just so dramatic that sometimes I wonder if she should be in a drama instead of school. 

"Aww, I'm joking! I obviously missed you!" I crashes her into a hug and we both began laughing because we couldn't even hug properly as my baby bump was there. 

"Mashallah you're getting so big now." She commented after we had calmed down from our laughing fit. I was now taking my hijab off since I never did wear my hijab when I was alone with Farah, only when her family was around. 

"Yeah, times going by so fast. But anyway tell me, what's been happening with you?" It had been ages since I've asked anyone that question and it felt weird to be awake and saying it again. 

"Alhamdulilah, you know the usual..." She trailed off and began looking everywhere but my direction and I knew something was up. Farah had always been a terrible liar and everyone knew it. 

"Tell me now!" The excitement had come to me and I wanted to know what exactly she was hiding from me because she usually never did. 

She took a deep breath and started, "Noah is staying over." In an instant her mood went from cheerful to glum. Noah and Farah never got along even they were close cousins. She had always told me how much them two fought and the pranks they've pulled on one another. 

She's even painted his car pink once to get back at him for dying her hair orange. A little glitter was also sprinkled on top just to make it a little more girly. The memory made me want to laugh but she would probably think I'm mad at laughing when she's sad right now. 

"Don't worry about Fars. What's he staying here for anyway?" I was curious to know why he was staying since both parents knew better then to keep them in the same house for a couple of days. 

"I don't know myself. Whenever I try to ask my parents, they always brush me off! Like seriously, I do have a right to know what's going on in this house!" It was funny when Farah became defensive about situations and she knew it made me laugh; so it was no surprise when I actually did start laughing again. 

She was about to say something when my phone rang from the bed. "Hello?" I asked into the phone. 

"Ali, I forgot to ask what time I should come and get you." It was Isa on the other line and it was then I realised I didn't even tell him that. 

"Sorry, errmm come and get me in about an hour?" It came out more of a question as I looked  at Farah and she nodded at me to say that was fine. 

"Cool, have fun and tell Farah I said hi." We said bye and I told Farah he had said hello to which she obviously had to reply 'astaghfirullah!'. Nonetheless she told me to tell him 'salaam'.

The time was ticking by with every idle thing we said to each other and just before I was about to leave, Farah's household had come back home; including Noah himself and I was curious to know what them two will do to each other now.

"Let's get this over with." Fars said as she got up and put her hijab loosely around her head as I did the same with mine but more secure. Wouldn't want my hijab flying all over the place in front of her family.

"Fars, just don't kill him okay?" I said jokingly and opened the door to her room and waited for her to follow me.

She came out with a glare towards me which made me laugh. The glare soon turned towards the bottom of the stairs to which when I saw, Noah was standing there smiling up at Farah as if to say bring it on.

Rolling my eyes at their childishness I made my down the stairs taking Farah alonng with me because I knew she would have probably just stayed there and kept on glaring at him. It could happen.

"Salaam, how are you?" I asked Fars parents when I reached them down the stairs. They looked good as always Mashallah.

"Alhamdulilah we're okay, how are you? Why don't you tell Isa to come inside for a cup of tea." Fars mom suggested but I knew he probably was tired or something so I shook my head politely and turned to Farah. The glare was still stuck in place.

"Salaam Noah, hows you?" I tried breaking the staring competition that they were having between one another and it worked as Noah broke away and smiled at me.

"Walaikumasalaam, I'm good alhamdulilah. And congratulations by the way on getting married." Me and Noah never really had a problem of getting alonng with one another, it was always him and Farah that were having those constant arguments.

"Thanks." I smiled at him but Farah seemed to be sending me death glares as to why I always spoke nicely with everyone; especially her cousin.

"No problem, do you mind if I talk to you?" I was a bit surprised to his request and agreed politely whereas Fars kept telling me no but I went with him anyway. It could be important.

We went into the kitchen where Farah's younger sister was playing a jigsaw puzzle with her older brother. I guess he didn't mind them knowing about what he had to say. Either that or they already knew.

"Do you know why I'm staying over Ali?" He started off and I begann thinking about it but couldnn't make out as if to why he would ever want to stay over here when there's a possibility he might be sleeping in his bed one night and in the morning on a ship back to Egypt or something. So I once again shook my head at him.

"I'm going to ask for Farah's hand in marriage soon. I've been wanting to for quite some time and mine and her parents already approve." A big smile was plastered on my face as soon as he finished what he said.

I couldn't believe my best friend was about to get married and even though there's a possibility to her saying 'no' I know she wouldn't do that. Whenever she talked about him there was always something she was hiding and in a way I knew that she too liked him back.

"That's great! Insha'Allah she'll say yes to you!" I really meant it when I said that and he could see that too. 

My phone beeped and it was a text from Isa saying that he was waiting for me outise in the car. Rushing out the kitchen I said bye to everyone and gave Farah an extra big hug telling her to keep strong while Noah was staying over.

It was chilly as I stepped out but I didn't bother running because it was never my thing to run anyway. The car was parked right in front of me and even though it was dark out, I could still see Isa texting someone on his phone.

"Salaam." I said to him as I got inn the car and the voices of One Direction from the radio nearly made me laugh. Who knew he listened to a boy band like them.

"Walaikumasalaam and before you say anything, I don't control the radio!" He defended himself but now I really did laugh at him. He was pouting slightly which made him look more cuter than usual. Damn, these hormones.

The laughter from me died down but I still found it a bit funny. Definitely keeping this memory for future purposes. Looking over at him, he had a concentrated look on his face which told he me was thinking about something that probably was important.

"Are you okay?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow, we were already home now anyway and I've wanted to ask him the question before but didn't. 

"Yeah I'm good. Let's go, I ordered pizza for us." He said in a rush and got out the car and silently I followed behind and wondered what the sudden change of mood was all about. I could understand why that would happen to me, but him not so much.

The lights in the house were on when I got inside and I could hear him finding something upstairs so again I followed up the stairs to see what was happening. I found it strange that he was even acting like this to begin with.

"Isa what are you doing?" I asked from the door frame of our room to see that he was looking for something in the amidst of papers and all in all it was a complete mess to what it had looked like earlier when we left for the doctors.

"I have to find the letter she wrote!" His voice begged and he was now sitting on the bed with his hands covering his face. I didn't know what to do in this situation but I still went over to him and hugged his side.

"What does this letter look like? And who wrote it?" If this was important to him then I wasn't going to just sit there and see him freak out about it when I could be helping him and ease his stress away. 

"It's in a blue envelope and it's from Zoey, Alex's sister." He sounded hesitant when he was telling me who it was from but nonetheless he did and I found it weird as to why he would have a letter from her. She was dead.

Maybe it was something she wrote before she died, but why was he looking for it now? I didn't question him because he must have his reasons so I stood up and scanned the messy room that was scattered with papers.

It can't be that hard to find a blue envelope in the amidst of white and brown one's; it had to stand out. Walking around the room, something blue caught my eye and in excitement I bent down to fetch the parchment.

Getting back up a gasp left my mouth and the amount of pain from my side brought me back down to the floor with the envelope still in my hands. I closed my eyes and felt both a pair of arms lift me up to the bed and tears rolling down my cheek.

It felt horrible but as soon as the pain came, it had also left. Opening my eyes I saw Isa hovering over me with fear written clearly on his face. The tears were still on my face and I could feel them drying out.

"Isa don't worry I'm okay." I said in a weak voice but tried to make myself sound convincing so that he would believe me.

I really did feel okay now and the pain felt like it hadn't even happened. It was gone but I had a feeling there might be more to come in the near future.

"Yeah well from now on you're not getting out of this bed. And thanks for your help." I gave him an 'are you kidding look' but he simply raised his eyebrows to say that he was sure with his decision.

"Urghh fine, but if you find pee on this bed then it's your fault." I slightly joked and his killer smile appeared on his face, completely forgetting what had happened a few minutes ago.

He was still hovering over me and with a slight push, he fell back next to me with an 'oomph' coming from his mouth. His arm found its way over my stomach and I was close to snuggling in with him when I remembered how much of a mess the room was in.

"Isa we need to tidy up." I declared to him but his eyes were already closed and he moaned saying that we would do it tomorrow morning.

I let it go but before falling back down to my pillow, I took my hijab off and set it on the floor. Then I remembered the letter and how that one letter cause all of this to happen in just a mater of five minutes.

"Hey what do you need the letter for?" I asked him softly. I wanted to know really badly what the letter held inside of it and what the importance of the letter actually held.

"It's what's going to free me from Alex for good. Insha'Allah." His simple answer made me think of a thousand possibilities of what the outcome of this letter will bring. None of them ended nicely.

***

Asalaamalikum guys, hope you've enjoyed this chapter and a lot of things happened in this one but I think the most important is about the letter. I'm hoping to get writing the next chapter soon so look out for it! Also check out the video on the side, I was kind of late seeing this but nevertheless I found it powerful and hope you guys will like it too!

Dedicated to @BritishHolic for being awesome and I love her book so check it out!

Have a Good Day and May God Bless You All.