Warmth seeped through every cell of my body.All the fibers in my body coming to life as I stepped inside my home.My husband moved past me and into the apartment whilst I stood smiling widely.

But the smile soon disappeared as I saw the man pick up the empty juice cartons and wrappers from all over the floor.Closing the door behind me, I walked further inside, seeing dirty dishes on the counter.

I glanced at the large man as he hid the wrappers behind his back.He smiled sheepishly making me pass him a small smile.

" Woh actually-"He began but I cut him off softly.

" Its okay."I said because he didn't need to say anything.His face relaxed as he put the trash away.

" I am gonna change first.Then-"He scratched the back of his head looking nervous and added,

" then I'll help you clean up."I nodded my head keeping my bag and coat away.

" Yes please."I said seeing the man grin before he walked inside the bedroom.

I laughed lightly seeing the man walk away.But why was the house so disoriented , because I remember the first time I walked through this door to a very very clean house.Shaking my head I made my way inside the bedroom seeing his dirty clothes lined on the floor.

Pulling the black dupatta against my shoulder, I picked the clothes up before putting them into the laundry basket.Thankfully the bed was made as I sat on it.

A deep sigh left my lips as I heard the shower running.Aunty Shahana's words from this morning rang in my ears,

" Amal, if you were hungry why didn't you eat at the dinner table last night?"Aunty asked making my hands still as I packed my bag.

" No, I wasn't hungry.In fact I didn't eat anything last night."I said but I couldn't hide the hesitancy in my words.

Aunty hummed as she took the prayer beads in her hand.

" Then it must be a cat to whom you were feeding."The old woman stated meaningfully making my eyes widened.

" No.No-"After that I changed the topic to horrified that she had guessed.

Heat floated from my neck to my cheeks.Burning my skin.If someone had told me some years before that Amal Dawood would feed her husband food in a secret way than maybe I would have laughed.Or that, Amal would be married again to a total stranger on the basis of sympathy and protection and then would feel something for that man then maybe I would have denied.

But now there was nothing to deny.Everything was crystal clear.I didn't need to run from anything now.Infact something was running away from me.I would have never expected the stunt I pulled last night at Aunty's place but it happened.

I was well aware that I was changing.There was a weird feeling in my heart.In my bones.As if the black peel covering my heart was wearing off letting the red to take over.

I did care for the man with all myself and I wanted to remain faithful to him.I wanted to gain all the respect in his eyes.Because he mattered.Everything he said mattered and everything he did mattered.

But I was confused and excited at the same time.I wanted to embrace the feeling but I was too insecure.I wanted to forget everything but it wasn't this possible.I sure had made it clear that I didn't want any relationship with him and he said the same.

So would this all change.Would he change.Will our relation change?

The bathroom door opened and I jolted awake from my reverie.The man glanced at me as he dried his hair.I gulped seeing his charcoal eyes look at me questioning.

Letting out a small puff of air I stood up,

" I'll heat the dinner up."Saying that I walked into the kitchen too afraid that Arsalan read me like an open book.

Setting the dining table, I put the warm food as we both ate quietly.Too absorbed in our own thoughts.In our own worlds.As I washed the dishes later that night, the man came out from the bedroom.

I could feel his moves as he opened the fridge before pulling something out.Pushing himself up he sat on the counter just besides the sink.I glanced at him as he dried a dish before putting it away.

I smiled as he dried another plate and then all the dishes.Drying my wet hands, I turned to the man as he drank directly from the juice carton.Shaking my head at his childishness, I placed a cup in front of him.The man rose an eyebrow at my gesture.

" What? I like drinking this way."He said making me shrug my shoulders.

" I was thinking that what if we have turns in making food."He spoke gaining my attention as I faced my husband.

His dark blue shirt standing against the light counter top.Dressed in a full sleeve shirt, he wore bermuda shorts.

what an odd combination-I thought.

" Really?You would cook?"I asked not at all surprised.Sure he knew how to make food after all he had lived alone for years.

But how many years?

" Ouch, you just hurt my ego"He said dramatically placing his fist on his chest where his heart was.I laughed lightly shaking my head seeing the man grin widely now.His wild dark strands falling all over his forehead.

" I would really appreciate, but cooking is fine with me.I can do it all by myself."I said cleaning the counter top.

" Oh no, no.You sound just like Zarah now."Arsalan said smiling.

I turned my back to him, placing the glasses and cups away.

" You should have really missed your family, living here in London."I stated hearing the silence from his side.

Turning to face him, I leaned against the counter.His charcoal eyes were fixed on the floor.Yet a small smile played on his face.He looked so worry free.So relax that I couldn't help but pray for all the worries to always stay away from him.

" I do miss them.And I miss them alot.But Amal sometime you have to work a little harder for someone.For their hard efforts you have to spend your time keeping them happy.Abbo wanted me to have a life like this.He wanted all this for me."He sighed deeply making drinking from the carton again.

I smiled suddenly feeling a wave of nostalgia hit me.How common were we.Aunty and Marwa wanted me to have this life.

" But believe me when you're gonna meet Zarah, you two would be friends instantly."He said his eyes shining.

" Really, I am not that all good."I said in a small voice seeing the man huff loudly.

" Uff .. Believe me.She always likes what I like."He said bluntly making my eyes go wide just as the words registered in my mind.

" Jee ?"I asked.His face morphed into absolute shook as he rubbed his head nervously.

" No-nothing."He managed to say as I shifted on my feet.As his bare foot touched the floor, my breathing picked up.It seemed as if the kitchen was contracting.Closing up on us.My nervous hands fidgeted together as I moved a step back as Arsalan took a step closer.

Attempting to turn around my dupatta clashed with the glass and in a split second the shards were on the ground.We both halted in our steps as the broken glass remained between us.

But right now, not only the glass was broken.Something inside me had broken too.A bundle of buried memories.The living flashbacks as they roamed in my mind.Through the haziness I could feel the large man crouch down to the floor to pick the shards but I couldn't hear any words from him.His lips moved as he kept saying something, his morphing into a small smile.Perhaps to assure me that it was okay and it was only a glass but it wasn't just a glass.

I was in my room because it was another night of Jalal's friends drinking night.All the man were in the drawing room probably drinking so I thought to stay only in my room because it was safe this way.

A knock sounded on the door amking me keep the book aside as I permitted the person to enter.Gulshan's kind face came into my view as she entered.

" Master wants you to bring him water."She said with hesitancy in her voice.

My heart beats died in my ribcage as I remained stoned on my place.Fear consuming all fibers of my body.

I shook my head at Gulshan.

" Please , I don't want to go."I said standing up from my bed.

" I know.But he has demanded you."I placed my hands in hers.

" Gulshan, I don't want to go."I said as tears brimmed my eyes.I was already bearing Jalal and his friends were the nicest persons on earth.They were far worst.

" I tried to make an excuse for you but he got angry and said to call you instantly."Her features worried as she looked sympathetically at me.

I wetted my dry lips before following the woman down the spiral stairs.She handed me a tray with glasses and a jug filled with water before I secured my dupatta over my head.

With trembling feet, I walked to the drawing room.Knocking softly on the door, Gulshan waited for a permission.When Jalal permitted to come inside, she opened the door to hell for me.

The smell of cigar wafted past my nostrils first thing.I glanced up seeing the men sit with their cigars latched to their mouths as they drank alcohol whilst laughed manically.

Jalal Khan sat in the centre of the room among his friends like a king.A ruthless king as he assessed me take small steps.

" Come beautiful Amal." He announced loudly gaining all the attention before it was directed towards me.

My breaths came in short pants as my heart thudded loudly.Chills ran down my spine as I glanced down at the floor feeling the dirty heated gazes locked on me.

With a spinning mind, I walked forward where Jalal sat.My trembling hands tightened their hold on the silverware of the tray.I gulped with all the silence in the room now.

Reaching where he sat, I placed the jug on the table but to my bad luck, my shaking fingers couldn't hold the trembling glass as it came crashing on the floor.My mouth gasped loudly at my deathly mistake.

With teary eyes, I glanced up from the broken pieces to Jalal's very angry face.His jaw was clicked shut as he glared at me.The intensity of his glare could bury me deep inside the earth.I shook on my place as he moved forward.

His friends only watched the show like an entertaining drama.I feared Jalal's next moved as he strived towards me like a predator.

I waited for a slap or a punch but the utterly worst happened with me.Jalal harshly pulled the dupatta off my head and body and threw it somewhere in the room.My horrified mouth couldn't help the loud cry that left me in protest.

Jalal laughed loudly and then his friends joined him.I stood frozen on ky place as goosebumps crawled dangerously up my skin.To horrified to focus on anything, I wrapped my arms around my self.Trying to hide myself from the hungry gazes.

Dread washed over me as I wished for the earth to open and swallow me whole.My hair were on show as they hung in a loose braid on my back but as I stood in a room full of hungry men I felt bare.

" Get out."Jalal roared and only then did my brain function as I moved towards the door that had lead me inside.

The walk from the centre to the other end of the room felt like kilometers.Neverending.And it only seemed that the door was running away from me.Without the dupatta I felt like my soul was ripped from my body.

And what was my mistake_

that I had broken a glass mistakenly.

Banging the door shut, I sat against the bedroom door as tears freely rolled down my cheek like a crazy waterfall.I could hear Arsalan calling out my name but I couldn't answer him just now.My mind was already tortured I wasn't sure if I could take any more.

" Amal-"He called out knocking.I didn't answer as sobs racked through my body.His knocks were patient and soft, two things I was beginning to hate at the moment.

" Just listen me out.I didn't mean to hurt you."He said from the other side.

" Did I say something wrong?"He asked.I could feel him place his forehead against the door.

" Amal, please let me in."He said but a lava was bursting inside my body as I screamed.

" Go away please.Leave me alone."I cried.

" Dammit Amal, stop being so hard everytime."He said loudly banging his fist against the door.

I moved away from the door as I gulped down my parched throat.After a second the door opened and he walked inside.I wiped my tears harshly as he stood before me.His eyes looking at my grey ones.

" What is it tell me?"He asked clenching his jaw.I was too afraid and so I shook my head.

" No."I said.

" Amal.Tell me."He demanded.

" Its nothing."I fought.

" Your crying hysterically and you're saying its nothing."He said as his eyes glared at me.

I dared at take a step closer and said screaming,

" You really want to know.Then know this, that I broke a glass 14 months before and he did this-"

I pulled the long black dupatta away from my body and threw it away.His eyes grew large with shock as he stared at me.

" With a room full of lustful gazes and hungry men he did this to me.Amd made me walk back with a dupatta.They all saw me just because I broke a damn glass."I screamed in his face as he kept standing taking in my words.

My fists clenched around his collar as I pulled him forward.

" You cannot even imagine something like this for Zarah."I didn't want to say it but it was too late.His eyes blazed with more anger as he yelled.

" Amal."But it didn't made me scared as I had endured more than it.

" Why me Arsalan?"I asked helplessly.Crying all over again, I moved away from him before sliding on the floor.

" Why me?"I said again.Leaning against the foot of the bed, I cried placing my head over my knees.The man shifted around me before I felt the dupatta cover me.

I glanced up, through my blurry eyes I saw him sit besides me.

" I can't seem to forget him.I am wasting all your hard work.I am so hopeless to try over."I said softly disappointed by my own self.

He shook his head.His once smiling face now filling with pain making me guilty.

" Oh Amal."He only said but his whisper did wonders on me.As I leaned forward and embraced him tightly.Was he the only one in the whole wide world that understood me.That was always there for me.

He didn't waste a second before wrapping his arms tightly against my body.I cried more harder now.Crying in his cocoon.Nuzzling my face against the curve of his neck, I relaxed.I wasn't afraid now that he was here.Now that Arsalan was with me.

" Amal, you're not in this alone.We will fight this together.I won't let you alone."He said rubbing my back.

Minutes later when my stressful state had calmed down, I said softly answering all my unanswered questions from this morning.

" We are just not there but Arsalan, we are just on our way to reach there."