CHAPTER | TWELVE | ALIZA | POV

 The only thought that was running through my head right now, was what are we getting ourselves into? The voice still hadn't come out of the shadows and Isa's stance still hadn't relaxed, even when I out my hand on his shoulder to try and get him to calm down, he just pushed me behind him as if protecting me from the voice. 

"What's happening?" I seemed to be asking that question a lot tonight and I couldn't help but feel that I had a right to know the answers. While I waited for an answer from either of them, I got none. Was this someone who Isa went school with in Venice or was he part of the Mafia that Isa's friend was in? 

The questions ran through my head and even though I had half a thought to ask them out loud, I knew it would be pushing it. They couldn't even answer my simple question, so I don't expect them to answer those ones either. The silence didn't last very long though as the heavy foot steps of people coming could be heard and even the flick of the main light switch which I'm guessing one of the people who were coming turned on.

 Finally being able to see past the shadows and to the voices face, my heart welled. Scars ran through his face and his nose was slightly crooked which showed that he had obviously been in a lot of fights before. He didn't look much older than us, in fact probably about Isa's age.

The fact that he was smirking at us made me believe that he had some kind of grudge against one of us and it wasn't for a very good reason either. Soon the footsteps died out and about two other men came to stand beside him. 

"Well I could say its nice seeing you man, but that would be a lie, wouldn't it?" The voice started off and began coming closer to us. Isa had now blocked me entirely and I couldn't even see past him that was happening. 

"The feelings mutual." Isa sneered at him and that was something new which I've never seen before. He was usually so calm and collective, even when he was angry he would never loose his cool. But now? 

"Ahh so I see. And why do you hide someone so beautiful as her?" Isa grip on my hand tighten and it was starting to become uncomfortable. I didn't say anything though because I could tell he was angry at what the voice had just said to him; I would have probably felt the same if I was in his place. 

"Shes mine to see. Go look at one of your whore's Alex." So I'm guessing his name is Alex. There was a chuckle coming from in front of Isa at the sound of 'whore's'. I nearly laughed too if I wasn't half scared. I was starting to feel less afraid now as the seconds grew longer.

"Now, now don't be so rude." Alex teased and from what I could hear, there was a smile on his face to show he wasn't the least offended with what Isa had said. 

"Yeah well if you don't mind, we have to get going." At last Isa had said what I've been wanting to for a long time. The fear might be slowly creeping away but that didn't mean I want to stay here in this creepy building which really needs a coat of paint. Beige Perhaps. 

"Why in such a rush? Let us see your wife you're hiding; we heard she's one hell of a sight." And that's when I officially lost it. With all the strength that I had I pushed Isa to the side and showed my face to the rest of the men. I was beyond angry at what they had just described me as. 

"Listen you here you scar faced monster, I'm not some kind of object to which you can say that to! Have you ever heard not to mess with a pregnant woman?! Well you really shouldn't because you've just pissed this one off!" I was now panting and the ridiculous smirks these men were wearing were completely knocked off and it now resembled something along the lines of realisation of what they had just done. Well, a little too late for that now. 

"I don't want you looking at me like that. Now I don't know who you are and unless you have food on you I will think twice about making sure neither of you have the slightest chance of being a father in the future." I know I shouldn't have lashed out like that but as Alex said that, something just clicked in me and it was no where near good. I felt a hand rest on my shoulder but knowing that it was Isa, I let it calm me down from the outburst. 

"Habibti are you okay?" He sounded worries and I don't blame him.  Right now I looked like the splitting image of my Mom when she would shout at us. Not taking my eyes off the men, I nodded at him. No one spoke, even me. The only sound that could be heard was my loud breaths to calm myself down. 

"What's going on here?" A new voice came from the end of the hallway and finally taking my eyes off the men, I looked to see who the new comer was. I must say though, the voice sounded really familiar. 

In seconds the new comer had reached us and left my mouth ajar. Zack? What was he doing there. The person in front of me couldn't have been him and rubbing my eyes to see if I was correct it turned out it really was Zack. 

"Aliza what are you doing here in the night?" I didn't know what to say to him. Alex looked at me as if trying to figure out how I knew Zack but my face was emotion less and the surprise had vanished. Suddenly the smirk returned to Alex's face and I had a feeling he was up to something. 

"Little brother, I didn't know you knew Arab Hulk over here." Little brother? Hulk? Oh no he didn't. This boy was really looking for a death wish right and it didn't matter how intimidating he looked because all my head was telling me to do was scratch his face off.  My heart however said not to because I knew I would seriously regret it later on, so staying still I only glared at him. 

"Err yeah, we went school together." He seemed as confused as I was at the beginning and to be honest I still am. With no idea who this Alex person is and how he knows Isa is beyond me, but one thing for sure; we weren't leaving till I got answers. 

"Listen, I don't know who you are or what you want but you're going to be answering that. Now." My voice was still sounded beyond angry and Zack looked at me in a new light; admiration? What ever it was, it was foreign and maybe due to the fact I was angry and he always saw me as a calm and friendly person. 

"Ali, pleas-" I cut Isa off with a death glare and he knew better to object or else he would have probably gotten told off too. 

"Lets go inside then." Again we went back into Isa's place and me and Isa found ourselves back against the wall with Alex and Zack standing in front of us. The other two remained outside. I didn't know whether to say anything or wait for Alex to start speaking and answer my questions.

This by far had to be one of my most productive nights ever considering what I had just been told and that I'm in the most dangerous side of town known to man kind. Though I must say that even though I've heard bad things about this place, nothing so far has caught my attention of not wanting to come here. I could be wrong.

"Hmm well you see, me and Isa go way back don't we?" In his slight pause I looked over at Isa to see that his head was still held high with confidence and in a way that said it won't be rubbing off anytime soon. "The friend he happened to be talking about was also me."

At that moment I felt like lashing out all over again because of what his Dad and him made Isa do in the past, but I didn't because I shouldn't judge nor hold a grudge but this was the test of true patience to see if I could last through this conversation or not.

"Now if I'm correct I'm pretty sure he left something out. And I think it was what he did to my sister." The smirk was still evident on his face while Zack turned away from the sound of the word 'sister'.

"That was not my fault and you know it Alex. If I could take back time I would have stopped her, but I can't." Again the calmness in his voice but the gritting of his teeth made sure to tell me that he was in fact angry right now. Maybe more.

Alex didn't look satisfied with his answer and his face was back to stone hard. I had no idea what they were talking about and no one seemed to be telling me of anything that has happened with their sister. 

A thought came in to my mind but I was disgusted with it. Isa didn't kill their sister did he? The loving part of me that loved Isa with all my heart told me that I was foolish to be thinking this but the logical part of me was forcing me to believe this.

"I don't care what you have to say. You watched her kill herself and it was all because of you! It's because of you we don't have a sister anymore; just let that sink in." This was all Isa's fault? Well now I know that he didn't exactly kill her.

"What did you want me to do Alex? Kill myself along with her? She was already dying by the time I got there and you should know that because you were there with me!" The shouting had now started and I didn't know what to do.

The surroundings around started to become blurry and I could only hear the faint shouts being thrown at each other until finally my senses couldn't take it anymore. Nor my legs as they buckled to the ground and along with me. Darkness began greeting me with open arms. I happily accepted the invitation.

***

"Habibti please wake up." The voice beside me could be heard and I heard him for days but couldn't get myself to comply to his wishes. It was now getting more and more desperate as time ticked on but yet again there was nothing I could do.

Darkness was all there was left for me to see and even though these new voices could be heard, I felt isolated in a way that no one was here with me to experience the darkness that surrounded me.

I had no idea how long I had been here or how I ended up in this place. The last thing I remember before fainting was the shouting happening in the apartment and Isa trying to justify himself with no absolute luck. I remember everything but that had no use to me when I couldn't even move my eyes.

The thought just made me even more anxious to open my eyes now and with all my strength I tried. I could hear the groan that was released from my throat and I knew that I was making progress.

"Ali was that you?!" Again the voice spoke up and again some kind of sound was made from me that meant it really was me trying to waken myself up and see the lights and be away from the darkness.

Noises of scraping chairs could be heard from beside me as my left eye along with my right began to see spots of clear vision. The light was blinding me but I kept on opening my eyes anyway. The feeling was just too exhilirating for me to stop trying.

Finally the spots that could only be seen was now the whole room of the hospital room. Looking to my right, a relieved and happy looking Isa was standing, almost hovering over me with a tear that made its way down his cheek.

Immediately I wiped it away with my hand when I had the strength to even raise it up. Being able to see what was happening around me was all so strange to me again. I didn't think I would ever miss my sight so much but Alhamdulilah I got it back.

"You scared me so much, you know that." I was pulled into a hug by Isa and I hugged back almost holding for dear life, afraid that I would slip away again far from everyone. 

I let out a sob and didn't care whether anyone walked in here and saw what was happening or not. The feeling I had when hugging Isa comforted me more than anything and I was glad he was here for me.

"I'm so sorry Isa. If I hadn't been stupid and gone out then this would never have happened in the first place!" I felt guilty of what happened that night because I was the one with the great idea to go outside and get ice cream which eventually lead us to the wrong side of the town talking to the wrong people.

"Aliza please shut up. It's never been your fault and don't think that. I'm just glad your safe and back in my arms." He said and that honestly put a big smile on my face.

It was time. Letting go of him, I looked him in the eyes and said, "I love you Isa." The words flowed out of my mouth like it was the easiest thing that anyone could ever say to someone else.

In all honesty it wasn't easy for me to say that at all. Those three words that holds up the emotion you have for someone is not so easy to let go of and let the other person know how you really feel about them.

This isn't like saying it to your parents, relatives or friends even. They are people you can trust to say it back to you but the struggle to say it to a boy who has captured your heart in a way that no one else could is hard.

How would they react to you? Would they feel the same or brush the feelings off like you hadn't said a thing? The worst one though is them saying it back with no feeling whatsoever.

Right now I had no idea in which category we fit into because all I could see in Isa's face was blankness. It took a lot to say that to him but all I got back was an expression which I couldn't read and make out what the meaning behind it is.

"Oh my you've finally woken up! Nurse please come in." A new voice came in, distracting me of Isa altogether and as I looked behind Isa, an old doctor was standing there with a smile on his face, very much like a father figure.

"Yes." Was the only word that came out of my mouth.

Letting go of Isa and his warm touch I laid back down on the hospital bed, very aware that Isa was watching me intensly. Also I had just realised that my hijab was still on my head, hence the uncomfortable position my head was in.

The doctor came over to my side and began noting things down on a clipboard from looking at the heart monitor beside me as a nurse walked in with brunette hair cascading down her back. Hmm, I wonder if anyone's found a peice of hair in their food recently...?

"Well it seems that you have recovered from your coma ma'am." Coma? "You've been in there for about a month and a half and this young man here wouldn't leave until you've woken up."

There was something in my head that said he cared and I knew he did, but that just wasn't enough for me. I suppose though I was feeling a little selfish in a way that I should respect that he isn't ready to say that to me yet.

"Yeah well I certainly feel better." Lie. "When exactly can I go home doctor?" It's not that I was repulsed by a hospital, I just wanted to get away from here because of what had just happened.

"Tomorrow I would say since we need to keep you in over night to run some tests and make sure nothing's wrong with you." With a small smile he exited the room with the other two nurses which made me question why they were in here in the first place anyway.

I began to look anywhere that was no facing Isa's direction and my gaze fell upon my phone that was lying on the table. Surely there would be a lot of unanswered messages on there since I was asleep for about a month and a half, but I didn't bother looking through them; just continued to stare at the table.

"Aliza." He called out to me but I didn't say anything back to him in reply, instead I looked up at him with a raised eyebrow to dare him to say anything else. He ignored it and carried on anyway.

"I-" He was interrupted by the sudden bang of the door opening and slamming back into the wall and probably leaving a mark of the sweet memory.

Mama stood by the door with tears running down her face along with my brothers that were behind her and baba who had just came into the scene in front of me.

I sat there not knowing what to do until mama came and embraced me into a motherly hug and began frantically crying on my shoulder. I didn't care how wet this gown got, I hugged her back and began saying caring words in her ear to try and get her to stop crying.

Everyone else was now surrounding my bed and also trying to get mama to calm down. Luckily she did and now that I was broken from the hug, the kisses began coming in on my face as mama tried to kiss every single inch of it.

"Mama please, I'm okay." My attempt to get her to stop was small but nonetheless it worked and she stopped planting kisses on me. 

"Habibti you had me so worried. Don't you ever do that again!" Her voice croaked and made me realise just how sad I had gotten everyone even if it was unintentional from my side.

All the crying and hugging finally stopped about three hours later when visiting times were over but even then Isa had not budged from the room and no one decided to say anything about it either.

My hands moved down to my stomach and to my surprise the baby bump had grown a lot since the last time I had seen it. I am such a bad mother that I didn't even ask how my child was.

The tears which I had thought were finally gone, came back and this time I let them roll down my face not caring about anything. My first priority should have been to ask about my baby that was growing inside of me, yet I hadn't.

"Ali please shush, tell me what's wrong." Isa was by my side in an instant and for the moment I let the fact go that I had told him how I felt and he was oblivious to it. I held on to him like I depended on it and cried on his shoulder.

A few minutes passed and I finally stopped crying and looked up at him. "How's the baby? I can't believe I didn't ask before." The tears were on the verge of coming back but I held them back knowing that this day had already gotten enough dosage of tears to last a week.

He sighed out in relief and smiled down at me. I must have scared him bad. "The baby's fine Alhamdulilah, in fact the baby scan is in two days to find out if it's a boy or girl." 

The smile on my face couldn't be resisted by me and I prayed to Allah thanking him for saving my child and not letting anything happen to him/ her.

"Another thing. I love you too."

***

Asalaamalikum, I'm really proud of myself that I'm updating earlier and tell me what you thought of this chapter. There was something about Alex's and Zack's sister but I didn't expand on it because I think it's too soon for your pretty little minds! I will probably be starting to update soon now anyway Insha'Allah!

Dedicated to @cullenbieber13 for her awesome comments/ feedbacks. Follow her!

Have a Good Day and May God Bless You All!