chapter 31

Three days have passed since Fahad and Farida had forgiven each other and became good friends. Jasmine found out about fahad's feelings for Farida and decided to talk with Seema about it. Seema was happy at the suggestion. After speaking with Ali, they called Fahad and Farida to talk about hooking them up. Surprisingly to Fahad and everyone else, Farida agreed to give Fahad a chance. She knew she could never find a better person. Fahad was overjoyed about it. They spent more time together and got to know each other better.

Although Fahad still had not occupied the space in her heart, she was willing to give it to him but gradually. If only she knew that the space was meant for someone else.

Maryam told Afaan, who also told his brother. Sudais was heart broken and started to lose hope. He knew that he was losing and there was nothing he could do about it. Brain trauma could be very dangerous if the patient is mentally and physically stressed out. Farida could have regained her memories if it weren't for her work.

After the good/bad news, sudais would sit down alone and cry for hours. Him and Afaan planned to ask for the children's custody when she gets cured of her trauma. After the news, sudais only stayed there on the beach to play with his children. Seema had caught him playing with them several times but was afraid that the children and Farida will figure out the truth if she scolded him. She also feared that if she messed with him, he could take the children and leave her daughter in trauma again.

Meanwhile, Afaan and Maryam had agreed to arrange for her a wali (marriage guardian). They wanted to get married without telling his parents. His mother would create problems for everyone and ruin everything. Maryam's brother agreed to meet them in Florida and give his consent for the marriage.

Maryam Radwan became Maryam Afaan sagir. And the couple booked their own suit separately which sudais paid for and had their honeymoon there. It was just a simple nikah and a little celebration between the family.

The vacation was going to end in one week. After that, the sagir brothers will go back to Dubai and Farida and her family will return home in London and plan for the  marriage.

One day, Farida and the twins visited Maryam and Afaan at their place at mid noon.  Sudais visited as well, all through the visit, his whole attention was on her. He wished he could think of some good reasons to stop her marriage with Fahad.

Farida and Maryam cleaned the dishes together after lunch. They made some chit chat and laughed together when Farida received a message from an unknown number. She was going to ignore her phone and go on with her story but Maryam reminded her that she had a message, so she read it and frowned.

"What happened?" Maryam asked when she saw the uncomfortable look on her face.

"It's an unknown number, telling me to meet them on dames point bridge. Its important." She read out loud.

" No, I don't think you should go. It's risky." Maryam said.

" You are right, I will not go. I'll just ignore it." Farida said and kept the phone.

Soon, Farida went back to their suit. When she unlocked her phone, she saw another message from the same number.

" Your husband is not dead. If you want to know the whole truth, come to that address. I'm waiting."

" What?" Farida said to herself. She debated for a while and then decided to take the kids to her mother and go there. She went there without telling anyone, she knew that they'll try to stop her.

She took a taxi and said the location. It took them about thirty minutes to get there.

She didn't know where to drop, so she messaged the number for the actual location and she was asked to drop at the middle. When they got there, she payed the taxi man and got out of the car. Another message was sent, the person had spotted her and raised a hand to get her attention. She saw a person in a blue sweater and black hood, the face could not be seen from afar.

Farida proceeded and when she got close, she recognized the face, although she had only seen it once.

"You?" She asked surprisingly.

"Hello, we meet again." Zaynerb said.

"What do you mean by your message." Farida asked impatiently.

"Calm down, will you. It's not a discussion that can be done in a haste." Zaynerb said.

"Just get on with it." Farida said, glaring up at her.

" As you wish. Here." Zaynerb said and gave an envelope to Farida.

Farida tore the envelope and took the pictures out and stared at them, wide eyed. It was a picture of herself and sudais on their marriage day, sudais smiled brightly but Farida was clearly upset.

Another one was a picture of the two of them one a yatch, sudais pulled her close and kissed her forehead.

"This...this is impossible." She said and her hands began to shake. Zaynerb smiled wickedly.

"This is a lie!" Farida exclaimed as tears fell.

"Don't lie to yourself darling, they've been hiding it from you. He forced you to marry him and then threw you out of the house because of a misunderstanding." Zaynerb said to her.

"What misunderstanding?" Farida asked.

"You cheated on him with your school mate."

By now, farida's head had started to spin. She pressed her hand on her forehead to stop the pain but it got even worst.

"Your parents lied to them. They told your in-laws that you were dead." Zaynerb said as she watched farida cringe in pain.

Meanwhile, Seema noticed that farida wasn't at home. She searched everywhere but could not find her. After about an hour, she worried and called Maryam to ask if she had gone back there but Maryam said no. Maryam informed Afaan and sudais that farida was Missing. As they searched for her, Maryam recalled that a message was sent to Farida earlier to meet at the dames point bridge, she told her husband about it and he informed sudais who was worried sick.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go." Sudais said urgently, they got into his car and drove off. Afaan didn't let sudais do the driving because he knew that sudais could get them all killed in an accident.

The drive to the bridge seemed like forever, the looked at the sidewalk slabs if they would see her. Sudais silently prayed that she did not enter the person's car because that would be stupid.

Sudais was the first to notice her emerald green Shayla and black maxi dress.

"There she is!" Sudais almost yelled.

Their car could not go further because they bridge was crowded with cars, so they went on foot. Zaynerb spotted them and frowned.

"Farida!" The three of them called her name.

Farida let the overflown water in her eyes free and rolled on her cheeks when she saw sudais running towards her.

Zaynerb did not want her plan to fail. She could not think of anything else, so she did what a crazy lunatic would do. When she saw that farida's attention was on sudais, she pushed her off the bridge and down she went.

Sudais screamed her name and Maryam started to cry. Even the by passers had gotten out of their cars as they witnessed the event. Sudais ran faster and pushed zaynerb aside, he jumped off the bridge as well without thinking twice. Echoes of her scream could be heard until it vanished.

Her body fell deeply under the ocean. Her eyes closed and she recalled everything. Her childhood, her schooling. The time of her marriage and all the beautiful moments she had with sudais up till the day he gave her a talak( divorce). She remembers drowning herself in the pool, the feeling of being suffocated as you here your own heartbeat stop. Her eyes closed and she saw darkness.

Sudais struggled to catch her hand, there was a wave in the ocean, pushing her further away from his reach. He pushed harder and successfully grabbed her hand and took her lifeless body out of the water.

***