"Do I look okay?" She asked him as he parked his car in his parent's garage.

"You look fine," he mumbled, barely even glancing at her through the corner of his eye.

She scratched at the top of her head, still unused to the fact that it only ran till past her shoulders before she nervously tied it back. Perhaps her aunty hadn't straightened it out as well as it could have been and she didn't want to sit under his mother's scrutiny with crooked hair.

"About my aunties," he turned to face her, unable to make out her fidgety behaviour in the darkness of the garage.

"Yes?" She sounded hesitant. Mikaeel's father's family seemed okay but for some reason, the idea of meeting all of his mother's sisters at the same time left her feeling more nervous and out of sorts than she had ever been. Her mother-in-law scared her, in all honesty, and could her sisters really be that different from her?

"They think we didn't invite them to the wedding because they aren't... rich." He searched his mind for a euphemism, but all had escaped him at the thought of his aunties and their petty bullshit. They hadn't believed them when they were told that his father's family wasn't invited either. Frustratingly enough, it just gave them an even bigger reason to start their mind-fucking games.

"Oh." She didn't like the sound of that at all.

"Also, they think I got you pregnant before the wedding. That's why it all happened as quickly as it did."

He could only hear her quick intake of breath, but that was it. He supposed he had stumped her with that specific revelation but she had to know.  Perhaps he could used a little more tact but then again, his aunties had less tact and no filters and she might as well walk in prepared.

"Ya, it's shit. I know."

"Ya..." She agreed, still speechless from what he had said. Was that really the impression they already had of her? They thought she was seeing him and sleeping with him before marriage when that was the furthest thing away from the truth that she could imagine. "But there's no baby so they don't still..."

His pointed silence said it all; they still thought she was sleeping with him before they got married.

Shit.

"So," he sighed. He was not in the mood to step into that house, "Ready?"

"I guess so."

Not really.

But what could she do? She couldn't hide in the car forever, could she?

He stepped out of the car, walking around to the boot to take out her walker and their over-night bag before he stepped up to her door to open it.

Yet she stayed glued to her seat. She was so out of her depth with this one. "You sure I look okay?" She smoothed down the material of her black full length skirt before she took his proffered hand and allowed him to help her up.

"You look fine." He gave her a quick look-over in the barely lit garage.

" Okay," She hesitantly put her hand over the bars of her walker before she followed him out of the garage and into the house...

...

"Is this Hooriya?" A plump older lady stood before her, appraising her from head to toe as if she were a piece in an art gallery. She surveyed her outfit carefully, her eyes lingering on Hoori's flats peeking out from under the bottom of her skirt before she glanced back up to look at her face. She cocked her eyebrow quizzically as she looked back down again.

"Yes." She tried to smile politely though she was sure her smile began to slip at the woman's unflinching gaze.

"Oh." She looked amused as she took in Hoori's walker before she shook her head and walked away.

"Welcome to the family," Mikaeel's lips turned up into a cynical smile as he muttered unmentionable expletives under his breath. "That was Aunty Safeenah. My mother's youngest sister."

She was sure she heard him call her a bitch under his breath.

Had that really just happened or did she imagine it? She had never felt so uncomfortable before someone nor as inadequate as she just did. This woman had reduced her to the size of a mouse in what must have been 10 seconds and she had barely even stepped into the house.

What did she just get herself into?

"Come on."

For once, she didn't mind feeling his hand on the small of her back as he helped her along because at that moment he seemed to be the nicest person in the house and that had to be saying something. Right?

She walked slowly into the kitchen and just about walked back out as all talking immediately ceased as soon as they caught sight of her.

"You're late." Her mother-in-law said as way of greeting.

"There was traffic. Sorry," Mikaeel mumbled before he bent down to hug his mother- pretences had to be made in front of his aunties. And he had to pretend as if hugging his mother was the most natural thing in the world to him.

"How are you, Hooriya?" Aunty Saadia asked as she stretched up on her toes to plant a soft kiss on her cheek.

"I'm well thanks and you, Aunty Saadia?" She smiled down at her, noticing the barely-there look of approval on her mother-in-law's face as she took in her outfit.

"Good." She looked back at Mikaeel, her eyes turning to slits as she glared at him. "Greet your aunties." He knew it was a warning. He had better behave lest he incurred her wrath and she run to his father.

His lips turned up into a smile, though he was sure they could see that it was a blatantly fake one as he walked around the kitchen, stooping to kiss each Aunt on the cheek before moving to the next one.

"Let me introduce you to your aunties." Aunty Saadia said brightly as she turned around to face her sisters before winding her arm around Hoori's waist. "Everyody, this is my daughter-in-law Hooriya." She beamed up at her as if she was her most favourite person in the world before she pointed at each of her sisters and nieces in turn.

Hoori wanted to be anywhere else but there. She almost wished she could have joined Mikaeel in the lounge with the men because she was sure they would be a thousand times less intimidating than the women before her. 

There were a few smiles but for the most part, her mother-in-law's sisters seemed only too keen on dissecting Hoori from top to toe. "This is Safeena, Sakeena, my oldest sister Saajidah..."

And none of them smiled at her.

It was going to be a very, very, very long night.

...

"Howsit boy?" Nazeer asked his son as soon as Mikaeel walked into the lounge.

"Good and you dad?"

"Good, good." Mikaeel walked over, giving his father a one armed hug before he sat down next to him on the couch. He didn't mind his uncles as much as he minded his aunties. They would rather let their wives have it out while they drank coffee and played tannie in the next room knowing well enough not to come between the sisters lest they get dragged into the war as well. 

"How's work going?" His Uncle Talha asked him.

"It's going well, thanks."

"And your honours?"

"Alright. I have one more major exam in a few months and I'll be done."

"Good, good." He said, genuinely proud of Mikaeel for coming as far as he did.

"Hey Mickey Mouse?" Zameer called from across the lounge.

"Ya?"

"How was your birthday?"

Fucking Zameer, fucker.

"Good." He smiled tightly at him.

The fucker would know...

He hated Zameer. He was such a smug shit even though he had no reason to be. The fucker was a high-school dropout who made his money working in his cousin's factory before he snorted it all up his fucking nose.

And his mother was an even bigger bitch. No wonder she spawned such a shit like him. As if she had any right to make his wife feel small. What the fuck did she even know? She was so fucking high in denial that she kept firing maid after maid for stealing her shit when she caught her own fucking son red-handed with his hands in her jewellery box.

Bitch.

He tuned back into the conversation when he heard his father fuss over Imaad's toy car.

"No you can't drive in it! You'll break it!" Imaad cried out, outraged at such a suggestion.

"You think I bought my license, huh? I can drive anything." Nazeer continued to spoke at his grandson, knowing how easy it was to ruffle his feathers.

"Just tell him Uncle Mickey!" His voice started shrieking out as his arms started swinging about wildly. "He's too big to drive my toy car!" He gestured madly to the little toy truck sitting at his feet.

Mikaeel just shook his head, frustrating Imaad even further.

"Daddy!" he started whining, climbing onto his father's lap. "Just look at them troubling me."

"You're such a little sucker, my boy." Shaheen ruffled his hair affectionately. "You should have told your grandfather to drive it right in front of you and then see what he would have done."

...

"Shame, you two make a cute match ne." Aunty Saajidah said as she dished out the food onto her plate.

Mikaeel wanted to die. It was only a half an hour into supper and he was already tired of his aunties.

"I'm sure you looked lovely on your wedding day."

"She looked beautiful!" Ilhaam piped in, only too happy to goad her aunty.

"Ya?" Aunty Saajidah seemed to deflate for some reason. "What did you wear?" She asked Hoori.

"Uhm, it was a dress..."

"Do you want to see pictures?" Ilhaam asked, popping out of her seat to kneel down next to her aunty before she took out her phone. If they could go on about it, so could she.

"Oh, you do look lovely!" She gushed as Ilhaam swiped through her gallery.

"Thank you." Hoori smiled genuinely up at her before she looked back down at her food.

She looked at Mikaeel through the corner of her eyes. He seemed more agitated than her and his jaw was clenched so tightly, she was sure his teeth would break as Zameer kept trying to talk to him from across the table.

"And look at how serious Mikaeel looks in this picture." Aunty Saajidah laughed as Ilhaam swiped through 3 more of his pictures; each worse than the last.

"Didn't want to get married, Mikaeel?" Aunty Safeenah teased, hitting him lightly on his shoulder before  she leaned back over her sister's lap to look at the pictures.

He just crooked his lips at her, choosing not to reply.

"Why? What happened?" She asked as she sat back up in her seat. "Hmm?"

She just wouldn't let up, would she?

"I just couldn't wait for my wedding night Aunty Safeenah, that's all. I'm sure Uncle Hamza knows all about that. " He whispered in her ear- laughing softly into his glass as she began to blush bright red at her nephew's impertinence.

He hadn't realised that Hoori had overheard him and had blushed a bright red too.

...

"So where are you from Hooriya?" Saadia's younger sister peered at her through her black rimmed glasses.

"I'm from here," she replied as she scooped out a tiny spoonful of ice cream from her bowl.

She tried not to get up from her place at all.

She still felt too shy using her walker in front of Aunty Safeenah. She would get this really... patronising, almost self-satisfying smirk on her face every time Hoori walked past her and she wasn't sure how much more of it she could handle. In any case, Mikaeel had already told her to just sit where she was after supper. He assumed there were enough ladies there and they could handle the clearing up without her and she happily obliged.

"Oh? Sorry, I don't know much about you hey." Aunty Naseema said slyly. "You know, you were kept very tightly under wraps before you got married."

"Oh?" Hoori asked, careful not to say too much.

"Ya. You know we only heard about you the week before your wedding."

"I'm sorry?" What could she possibly say to that.

"Why are you apologising?" Aunty Sakeenah asked, looking pointedly at her sister Saadia.

"I'm sorry Sakeenah. But you know it was a small wedding." Saadia shook her head at them- They just would never let it go.

"Hmm, and that's why you only told us a week before. It would be impossible to make it down here in a week's notice."

"Enough Sakeenah..." Taahira, Saadia's youngest sister, sighed. Her sisters were getting on her nerves. She couldn't wait to go home.

"Sorry Taahira." She muttered before busying herself with her ice cream.

"What about your parents Hooriya? What do they do?" Aunty Taahira asked, trying to keep the conversation clean. She knew exactly what it felt like to get the third degree from her sisters and she didn't envy the child one bit.

"They own a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant."

"Oh?" Aunty Naseema sounded marginally impressed at the revelation.

"Ya."

"For how long have they been doing this?"

"About 30 years or so." Hoori replied softly, wishing they would direct the conversation towards someone else. She felt as if she was a specimen in the zoo as they all peered at her, sizing her up to see if she was okay or not.

"So it's well established then." Aunty Naseemah really did sound impressed that time. "Nice."

"So," Safeenah's voice piped in, "you really didn't marry Mikaeel for his money then."

Hoori was sure she could hear a pin drop as everyone stared at the woman, agape.

Hoori just wanted to die.

Did all those women around her think that too?

"Safeenah!" Taahira chastised her.

"We all thought she fell pregnant so he would marry her." She shrugged her shoulders, refusing to shoulder all the blame.

Oh God, they really thought that.

She was sure she was going to cry just then. She didn't need Mikaeel's money and she had never in her life considered herself to be as conniving and devious as they imagined her to be. And what made it worst was that they had never even met her before. They just came up with their own assumptions based on their hurt pride at not being invited to their wedding.

"But still you can't say that." Saajidah bit out, affronted at her sister's bluntness.

"You were all thinking it..." Safeenah shrugged.

"But you can't just talk to the poor child like that!" Taahira felt flummoxed at the situation. What would Hoori think of them?

"I'm just saying. Besides, we all know Mikaeel isn't exactly innocent."

"Excuse me? Saadia cut in.

"Don't act as if you don't know. We all know about the clubbing and the girls. He's not the shining star you want us to think he is."

"Leave my son out of it."

"Why? You like pretending you have the perfect life, don't you? You want us to think Mikaeel is an angel and Ilhaam and Imti are your God-sends and that your husband is just the doting husband and wonderful father." She smiled at Saadia, but it was a sickly sweet smile that left her feeling sick to her stomach. "It's not working is it? Your husband is still f.."

"Enough!" Her mother-in-law stood up from her seat, slamming her palms onto the table loud enough for one of the little ones to wake up in their mother's lap. "You keep your mouth shut, you sly little bitch!"

"What did you just call me?" Safeenah stood up, bracing herself against the table as she glared at her older sister.

"You are just a sly little bitch who finished up my father's money with all your shit. You're just trash and no matter how much you try to hide it, you're trash and you'll always be trash."

"Who the hell do you think you are huh?"

"I am your sister and this is my house and you won't talk about my family that way."

"You just love flinging your house and your wealth in my face, don't you? You're just a fucking snake who thinks she's better than me."

"I am better than you, Safeenah." Saadiah's lips twisted up into a wry grin.

"Screw you Saadia! You aren't better than us. You only got all this because you fucked a man and got him trapped with your fucking baby! Otherwise you would have been just like us!"

The dining room was quiet.

No one knew what to say or how to say it.

They could only stare in shock as the two sisters faced off against each other. Their chests heaved as their anger seemed to sap all energy from them. Adrenalin gave way to silent vibrations that wracked through both their bodies as their words were wrenched out from deep within them. It was words that lay dormant for too long, festering and growing into an ugly blinded rage that caused them both to spew it out painfully.

"Shut up." Saadia's voice had become ice as she stared at her sister. Her knuckles had become white as she grasped tightly onto the edge of the table.

"Don't deny it, Saadia. You're just like us."

"Get out of my house." She seethed, unable to speak loudly as her breaths began to escape her.

"Gladly." Safeenah pushed back her chair, the legs scraping loudly against the wooden floor, before she walked out of the dining room- leaving them gaping at her words in complete silence.