Chapter 53 33: B

"What will you have for me in return?" He asked and tenderly began to massage her feet while she smiled appreciatively at him. "What will I give you? You have everything you need, a beautiful one included, but sorry," she pouted her lips, "Her eyes doesn't work." She laughed at the expression he made because if anything, Fareeda knew he hated it when she made any comment about her eyes. "I've told you they re among the most beautiful things in your body. I've always loved your eyes. The first time I heard you told that nurse that you couldn t see without your glass I found it so hard to believe you until things kept happening that I had no choice but to believe what you ve said. But really, what I love the most in them is how they flash out your innocence, and of course, the honey color of your orbs." She smiled at him, it was times like this when she wished she had never done anything bad in her life, because getting Mujaheed as a husband was the biggest blessing of her life. She tiled her head and scrutinized his face for a moment, "I love a lot of things about you, but I won t say them out until right time comes. I'll make a list for you telling you why I love the thing and when its at it s most beautiful form." While massaging her feet with a smile, his hands grazed around her anklet, "How do you get this?" He asked, because it was the exact same anklet she had left by the gate the day she didn't sleep at home and Alhaji got a call from the hospital. She chuckled and nodded her head at him, "They re not up to a dozen, they re six. Mama made them for me when I was six years old, but sadly I've lost one of them. It s only five remaining now." "When did she give it to you?" He asked as he carefully placed down her feet on the bed and walked up to the locket he had kept the anklet, he took it with him and went back to the bed. "It was September 5th, that was on my birthday." Her eyes momentarily caught the anklet he was holding and she squealed, "Oh my god! That s my anklet, how did you get it?" She collected it from him and he chuckled while he watched her examined it, a wide grin on her lips. "You left it on that day," he said with an amused smile as the memories of that day rushed back to him. "Which day? The day I called myself a nuisance?" She ended her sentence as she burst into a peal of laughter and Mujaheed laughed along with her. "Yes, that day. There was once a time when you annoyed me to the extent that I kept crinkling it with the hope that you ll feel the ache on your ankle for real. I knew I was just being stupid, but at least it gladdened my heart to know that you might feel the pain." Fareeda threw her head and laughed unbelievably at him, "I've never thought you could be this silly, Mujaheed. Ya Allah." She took off the one on her ankle and put the one he just gave back to her, "Why are you doing that? Aren t they just the same?" She smiled genuinely at him while she moved her feet as she admired how it looked on her. "They re resizable as you see, but she put this one on me the first time she gave them to me. And also after that, it has been with you for months now, it s just the most valued one amongst them." He watched her walked to her bag and she slid the one she had taken off in the bag and Mujaheed pulled her to himself and he hugged her, smiling as he looked into her eyes while she wrapped her hands around his neck. They weren t kissing, but she loved the way they gazed into each other s eyes with nothing but smiles on their faces and feelings they were et to decipher. "What makes it so special because it has been with me for long?" He asked tenderly and she smiled innocently and tilted her chin in a thoughtful manner and he planted a smooch roughly on her lips. "Mujaheed," she whined and chuckled lightly. "I don t know, maybe because I'm sure there were times even before we got married you must ve held it in your hands and thought of me?" She giggled when he tickled her face. "How did you know that? Did you perhaps used to stalk me before, Fareeda?" She threw her head back and laughed. "No, how could I? I used to hate you, sooooo much." She dramatically drawled the word 'so and that made him stared at her with an emotion she had never seen in his eyes. Even though she looked exhausted, her eyes had bags under them, she looked as attractive as she had ever looked in her life. "How could you hate such a handsome man like myself?" He asked while he pulled her closer to his body and Fareeda chuckled lightly, holding his arms firmly without taking her eyes off his. She didn t know what was happening between them, but this was certainly something they didn t have a control over. She nonchalantly shrugged off her shoulders, "I don't know my main reason, but maybe because this handsome man annoys me more than anyone? You stirred emotions in me I didn t know existed." He planted a soft smooch on her bare neck and she lazily moaned, "And what about now? Do you still hate me, Fareeda?" "How could I hate you..." He was about to merge their lips when she quickly turned her face away from him, "I think I should take my bathe, Mujaheed, I want to take a nap before it s time for Maghreb." She was trying to slip away from his hold when eh pulled her back and laughed at how she was truing so hard to dodge the moment. "What are you trying to do, Fareeda? Aren't you aware that I won t let you go whenever I have my heart set on something?" He was trying to meet her eyes but all she was trying to do was get out of his hold. She looked up at him for a moment, "What have you set your heart into? I really need to take my bathe, Mujaheed. Can t you see? I smell of flour and mayonnaise." He shook his head and cupped her face into his hands, "That doesn t matter to me, you know it." Her shoulders slumped in defeat, "Fine, do what you want to do. I'll give you just five minutes." He chuckled, that deep husky chuckle that always rumbled with her insides. "Five minutes wouldn t be enough for me, my dear darling wife." ? Fareeda was in the kitchen when he came into the chamber yelling out her name, she came out with a small smile on her lips, thinking of what might have happened for Mujaheed to be calling her this loudly. "What is it, Mujaheed?" She asked while coming out, but seeing him in front of her while he furiously breathed as he seethed with rage, her shoulder heart sank down. "Mujaheed, what happened?" She tried to touch his hand but he quickly yanked himself away from her. "Don t you dare touch!" He roared and she took a step back as her heart lost a bit. What happened? That was the first question her wavering heart asked as she looked at him, she could feel the way her heart was beating wildly against her ribcage. "Mujaheed..." She quivered, not wanting to believe what was trying to happen before her eyes, didn t he left with a warm smile on his face, he planted a kiss on her forehead, was she mistaken? Or perhaps this was just a dream? "Mujaheed," she called out again, trying to steady her breathe. "What happened? What went wrong? You went out looking fine, Mujaheed." Her voice depicted her plea as she flicked back her tears, she wasn t going to show him her weakness yet. Maybe something shocking happened while he was outside and that made him acted the way he did, right? "The mustard you wore, Fareeda, the mustard you wore..." He palmed his face angrily, wanting to give her a rough smack that might make her lose her breath but he wasn t going to do that. She nodded her head vehemently, urging him to say what he wanted. "Yes, the mustard I wore, what about it? Did something happened, Mujaheed?" She asked as her heart thumped unsteadily in her chest. She dreaded anything bad to happen, she didn t have the strength to overcome any more difficulties now. She wanted life to keep on going like it was currently going on now. "You wore it for another man, Fareeda! What?!" He roared, as he flashed the screen of her phone toward her and it was a picture of her today. She was wearing a smile on her face and there was a man standing in front of her, she remembered meeting one of her secondary school mate and they exchanged pleasantries barely for three minutes. "What do you take me for, Fareeda?!" He clamored loudly and she flinched while she took a few steps away from him while shaking her head. "Mujaheed..." She began, but he cut her off before she was done. "I don t want to hear anything from you, this is enough for me. When will you ever stop doing this to me, Fareeda? When? Do you have an idea how it hurts like hell whenever I see things like this regarding you?! Do you know how many illicit images of you and Adam I've received but because it was your freaking past I tried to understand! But what of this, it happened today, Fareeda!" She was about to explain when he cut her off again, not wanting to hear anything from her. "Nothing you ll say or do will make me forgive you because of this, Fareeda. Don t you at least respect yourself? Don t you know that your body is a sacred place that not any man deserves to have an access to? Fareeda what are you trying to turn yourself into? You re married for the sake of Allah! What do you want to be referred to as? A married woman or a prostitute?!" At the mention of that, Fareeda didn't know when her shoulders gone weak and voluntarily went south. She slumped down on the floor with a loud thud as she fixed her eyes unbelievably staring at him with her tears agonizingly rolling down her cheeks unchecked. She was shaking her head, unable to form words in her mouth but a furious Mujaheed wasn t ready to understand what she meant by that gesture. "No matter how much I want to trust you, give you a chance to amend your mistakes and start afresh, you aren t ready for that, Fareeda! You're making it hard on me to trust you! I regret coming close to you this evening, had I known you gave your filthy body out to another guy just a few hours ago, I wouldn t have even held your hands!!!" That made her screamed at the pitch of her voice as she broke into agonizing tears, she couldn t feel her heart in her chest anymore. Nothing made sense, she felt empty, hollow even. All that circulated and echoed through her were the words Mujaheed threw at her which struck right into her heart and crushed all the walls she had built.