#FewWords
Take care of your mental health.

Recap
It might be true that he loves me but I can't accept his love, I'm not worth it. He needs someone better and besides that, I'm scared that he might just be doing this to get me happy and might leave me broken after he has helped me pick the pieces.

"I don't love you, Nasir" I pick the cold cup coffee and gulped it content in a go before I stood up and took the door's direction.

Chapter Fifty One
Third Person's POV
Salma's case was the next for the hearing in the court. Everyone stood up when the judge walked in, followed by two guards holding staffs. Barrister Samir flashed a smile at Salma when he slightly turned to the back. The hearing began immediately with Barrister debating cluelessly.

"Salma Ahmad...your father died recently, right?" He asked Salma whom he asked to go to the witness box earlier.

"Yes...my dad died..." She looked down and stuttered, she couldn't quite grab what point he might try to make bringing up her father's death.

Nasir looked at her and smiled but she just turned her face to look at Barrister Samir.

"What happened? How did your dad die?" He asked her again.

"Well...my dad...hmmm" she tried to make a point without revealing the entire story but he jumped and said

"Reports from the city hospital revealed that your dad as a result of heart attack and an interview with your dad's wife who's your mother..." He stopped for a while and moved closer to the witness box before he continued

"...no...I want this court to know that the woman whom Salma spent a whopping 17 years turned out to be her step mother not her biological mother. This woman, Miss Ruqayyah told me during an interview that Salma caused the terrible death of her husband, Mr Ahmad who's Salma's biological father" he clasped his hands. Salma just dropped her head and blocked her ears as much as she could to get the ear piercing murmurs from the audience.

"That simply means that Salma must have a teen with terrible behaviors. Accusing strangers of raping her is something small for a girl that killed her fa..."

"Objection my Lord! Defense is mentally traumatizing!" Barrister George stood up and banged his hands on the table in front of him.

"Barrister Samir is trying to draft a history of Salma's personal matters... there's no way... absolutely no way how these two events can be related" he gritted his teeth and pointed to the rape case and her father's death

"Barrister Samir...do you want to tell this court that abusing a 17 year old is legal?" He asked

"Barrister George, do not mislead this...'

"Barrister Samir, do you have an evidence that she killed Mr Ahmad..." He dropped his hands on the table and asked. Barrister Samir just kept and barrister George repeated the question but didn't get an answer.

He raised his hands from the table and gesticulated.

"Sir, I think I'm making a point here" Barrister George said

"Mister Samir...do you have any evidence?" The judge asked

"Sir... this..."

"Proceed with your next witness please...if you have any" The judge waved him off.

"I don't have any witness... for now"

The judge permitted Mr George to ask Sadiq and his gang questions. He started by asking them questions about what they did a day to the day Salma she was raped. Barrister George did quite a good job because the judge nodded his head as he went on.

"Sadiq...do you recognize these?" Barrister George held a traveling passport in a sealed transparent bag that was presented to the police as one of the evidences. Sadiq looked at his associates then to his lawyer for a sign to answer but the defense lawyer must probably not know about what the prosection lawyer was trying to do.

"You probably do... right?" He stared at him for a second and Sadiq nodded then shook his head and nodded again. His actions got the entire people in the room confused.

"Answer, do not mislead this court!" barrister George gritted his teeth and his hands clenched.

"Well...how can I? This is just some passport..." He shrugged

"That's a clever answer for someone like you..." Barrister George walked to the witness box and looked at Sadiq before he continued

"Your name is Sadiq Jamal... right?"

"Objection! Barrister George is wasting this Court's time, how can he ask him such a question when we all know his name?"

"Mr George, you can proceed please..."the judge nodded his head waving off Barrister Samir lightly.

"This is a new passport...it belongs to you but with a different name" Barrister George handed the sealed bag to be passed on to the judge.

"Hmm..." the judge nodded his head at the series of questions barrister George asked Sadiq and the agent who agreed to be a witness and also testify that he was the one that was paid to get those passports.

"I want to tell this Court that..." The man stopped for a second and continued again.

"...I was handsomely paid by Miss Fatimah to..."

"Who's Miss Fatimah?" Barrister George asked, totally confused at what the man was pulling at, he didn't tell him anything about any woman when he was interrogated.

"... she's the woman who paid the fees for the passport"

"Sadiq, who's Fatimah?" Barrister George asked

"Well... I don't know her... I...hmmm" he stammered when one of his associates took permission to ask.

"May I say something please?"

"Of course!" He was permitted

"I'm tired of these various events and lies, I've given up and want to be turned in...Salma was kidnapped by us..."he pointed at Sadiq and the second man

"...and yes, she was raped but not by me... it was Sadiq who raped her on instructions from Miss Fatimah, the ex wife of the famous Mr Muhammad Shehu... CEO of Shehu Corporations..." He kept quiet because of gasps and murmurs.

"Go on please..." The judge instructed

"She was also the one who staged Mr Muhammad Shehu's accident a few weeks back..."

******

"Alhamdulillah..." Salma cried in Zainab's hands. Her body shook and she couldn't quite get a grab of how fast the last events happened. The medical result, the hospital, her clothes which had finger prints of the two men who raped her and was used as evidence. The third man who miraculously just gave in and confessed. Then back to Nasir who revealed he loved her and how he stopped her from leaving when she gulped down the cup of cold coffee.

Flashback
"What do you mean by that? That isn't true, right?" Nasir asked her.

"Hmm, well... I don't like you! Which part of what I'm saying isn't getting into your brain or is it caged in a strong skull that it can process such information."

"Salma...I know it's because..."

"It's nothing... I don't like you...not even a pinch of...of...salt..." She trailed off.

"Alright...if you look at me and say you don't like me then I'll leave and never disturb you..." He strengthened up and stood, slightly rested by the door with one of his hands in his pocket while the other brushed through his dark hair.

"Nasir... I don't hate you..."

"Then you like me?" He asked

"Listen... I'm scared..." She looked at her feet

"Time... you need time, right?"

She didn't say anything after that, just looked at him and was about to leave when he told her she has time to think about what he told her.

End of flashback
M

r Muhammad Shehh, Jalal, Zayn and Zainab had smiles that didn't reach the eyes, the lips were twitched into smiles but their eyes weren't. Hammad and Nasir just stood rooted to the ground, face void of any emotions. Salma who calmed down with words from her aunt looked at her feet not because they are the most beautiful thing at the moment but because she was trying to get a hold of how everyone in school will look at her and shout...

"that's the girl that was raped"

"I pity her!" Which is one of the phrases no girl will want to hear.

"She's a medical student! Poor girl"

"She must have initiated the rape, girls that wear hijab are green snakes in green grasses...I know them too well!" Ignorants will open their mouths and nod their heads like lizards. As her mind ran through the trauma she had installed, her eyes were filled with tears that trickled slowly and quietly, just a sachet of water that was pricked by a needle. She didn't sniffle or do something anything noisy, just looked down and the tears continued to trickle. Jalal noticed her but he didn't say anything, believed she needed to let the tears out of her system.

"Well done! George!!" Barrister Samir and Barrister George walked towards them walking very close to each other as if a bond has been created between them.

"Barrister Samir, We thank you so much!" Zainab put her hands together, quite strange because she wasn't thanking who she was supposed to thank.

"It's nothing Madam" he flashed a smile.

Hammad and Nasir looked at the elders and knew there was something behind the scenes.

"With what Judge Hassan came up with, there was absolutely no way this girl who won my mum's heart can't get justice..." Barrister Samir added and it was as if he placed a sheet of impenetrable glass over Hammad, Nasir and Salma who was also confused.

"The universe has it ways...Miss Fatimah and Mrs Ruqayyah will be arrested now and those two cowards will face the law" Barrister George and each of them nodded except Salma

"Come on... let's go outside..."

"There are journalists outside and there's no way we are getting Salma's face on the TV... again!" Zainab gritted her teeth. She has gone through one of the most traumatic phases in her life. Her brother's death, his daughter's rape which has been carved in her history. Wanting her to forget the sad experience is like writing SALMA with a knife at the surface of a stone and expecting water to wash it down... into an ocean or something. Her boy, Ahmad who had to be in Miss Mira's care even though she planned not to do anything but take care of him at this early age.

Zafeerah and Hamid who heard the news planned to get tickets to fly back but Zainab and Zayn begged them not to and they listened after Mr Hassan got into the case.

"I think we'll have to wait for them to leave before we do" Mr Muhammad said referring to the paparazzi.

They left the premises after Maghrib, Zayn and Zainab picked their baby and went to their apartment, Jalal travelled to the next state while the trio went home.... It's automatically a home to Salma now because having a roof over you head and leaving in a home are two different things. A home is a place you have people who care about you, people who will go to the extreme to help you with anything. A home is a place you can yell, scream and do the weirdest things but no one will care, a home's walls are the walls who have watched your tears evaporate through them.

Salma met a letter, new phone and one white rose on her table, she just sat down across the table and without guessing or anything felt it was Nasir, deep down. She picked the white rose and suddenly felt the urge to squeeze it and have it nectar dripping between her fingers if that's possible... but she didn't. Instead she picked the new phone and switched it on... it had the wallpaper of her favourite colour...blue with a scribbled text in white " A NEW BEGINNING". She felt her eyes sting and heart squeeze, but gently. She swiped up and checked each app, there was nothing on the phone...it was a good example of the words on the wallpaper. She just went straight to the Google Search and typed "meaning of a white rose..."  Results from different websites popped immediately but she didn't scroll or minimize the page... just stared at the first words in bold.

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End of Chapter 51, thank you so much for your reads and don't forget to vote, comment and share.

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