Chapter 57

———————Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

—————————————9:00pm, Khalid's Condo.

" Here, I went to the grocery store and super market, got us a few cups and dishes and I bought some groceries, I cooked Assam laksa" Mother said as she gave me a plate of food I couldn't recognize. " what's Assam Laksa?" I asked as I used my fork to play with the onion rings that topped the plate. " It's rice noodles in sour tamarind broth I peppered with mackerel and there you'll see the vegetable garnishing. It tastes better than it smells or looks" Mother said as she poured me a cup of water. " Alright" I answered and dug into my food. It was spicy and delicious.

" It's nice right?" She asked and I nodded my head as I ate more. " it's delicious Mother" I answered. " I knew you'll like it, my best friend taught me how to prepare it when we were still in school, she knows how to prepare it well" Mother said as she ate more of her food.

" Have you found her?" I asked and she nodded. " Yes I have, I got her address and phone number, I'm going to message her soon, I honestly can't wait to see her, she's going to be so happy" Mother squealed as she ate her food. " I'm glad you're happy, have you called Sophia?" I asked as I drank the water that was beside me. " Yes I called her and she's fine, she tried going to the mansion to see Brandon but he shut her out. He honestly can't continue like this" I had changed her mood. " He'll be fine eventually, I mean he can't kill himself"

" that's what he's trying to do, I called Anna and she told me he hasn't been eating properly, I don't want to see him like that"

" You should have stayed and tried talking to him then"

" No, he needs space now" She answered and I sighed. " Everything is hopefully going to be normal again" I said and held her hand in mine on the table.

" How's Faryah?" She asked and my heart sobered up again. " You saw her today right?" She asked and I dropped my fork in my plate. " I did, I saw Najmah as well" I replied.

" oh my, how're they?, are they doing fine?"

" They're more than fine Mother, you should have seen how beautiful my wife and daughter are, my daughter looks exactly like me, her smile is so cute" I said as I remembered how beautiful she was. " Aww, I'll really like to see the both of them" she replied as she ate more from her plate.

" Faryah has moved on mother" I blurted out and heard her drop her fork. " moved on?"

" She really loves this Khalifa guy" I added and sighed out loud. " I don't want to lose my wife Mother" I said and pouted out. I really didn't want to, she was happy with someone that wasn't me. She was my happiness, I couldn't bear to see her with someone else. Why?.

" If she really wants to be with him Khalid, you should give them what they want" I wasn't expecting that. " she was mine first"

"But she doesn't love you anymore"

" I know she still feels something for me Mother, I saw how she stared at me at the park when I saw her, she thinks she's in love with this Khalifa guy cause she was away from me, her heart wanted attention but that's not the attention it needs, it needs me" I said as I got up from where I sat.

" Khalid, you know you can't force someone to love you, you're going to eventually have to accept things"

" What are you saying Mother?, you want her back with us don't you?, then why do you want me to give up on her just like that?"

" Cause it's going to be best for you, you need to move on Khalid, if she doesn't love you, you cannot force her. We can not force her Khalid"

" I'm not giving up on her"

" Khalid the earlier you accept that you've lost Faryah, the better for you, do you know how guilty I feel when I see you like this?, If I had acted as calmly as possible that day things wouldn't have been how they are now, Khalid all we need is her forgiveness and to be on good terms with her, it's what we all need to move on. If we can't get her back we just can't force her, you can't blame her, she wouldn't want to take any chances of what happened to happen to her again" Mother answered as she followed me to where I stood. " But it's definitely never going to happen again, we have a daughter together Mother, even if she doesn't love me she should at least consider the fact that her daughter needs a complete family with her biological parents"

" You want your daughter to live in a home where peace is scarce, where love isn't around?" Mother snapped at me.

" But my love is enough"

" it is not Khalid, do you want what happened to your father and I to happen to you and Faryah?"

" Don't compare my situation with that of you and Fathers" I was getting angry. She knew I didn't like talking about my father, talk less of being compared with him.

" I'm not comparing the both of you Khalid, I thought my love for your father was enough to keep us going even when he kept on maltreating me"

" I'm never going to touch her again Mother" I was honestly almost crying. I really couldn't take it anymore. " Khalid you hit her once, even if you assure your self that you can never assure her that. She has lost trust in you completely, you can't live happily in a home where trust doesn't exist" She answered calmly and placed her palms on my cheeks. I felt loved.

" It's hard to accept that I've lost her Mother" I said as I slammed myself on the couch. " You'll eventually get over it" she answered as she went to take our plates from the kitchen and handed mine to me. " Here, I can't let you go hungry" Mother said and I smiled as I collected my plate from her. " I got a teddy bear for her, Najmah, it was so cute, purple and small and very soft, Zarah helped me get it" I answered as I dropped my plate on the centre table. " you'd better pick that plate up and eat boy" Mother said and I laughed a little at her threat and took my plate of food into my hands.

I ate slowly as I remembered what Zahra told me before leaving me alone at the park. Her mother killed her father. She must've lived a lonely life. " Mother, after I met up with Faryah, I kind of hung out with Zahra and we had a little fun before I asked who she really was"

" Why'll you want to ask her that?" She asked as she ate her meal. " I'm just curious Mother" I answered as I ate a bit from my food. " Don't ask her about her personal life, Isn't she just your secretary?"

" It's not bad knowing where my secretary comes from, is it?"

" It's not, but if she doesn't want you to know then don't ask"

" But Mother, I already asked and she kind of told me some stuff before running away" I replied as I remembered how she quickly got up and left me alone to sit on the bare grass. " What did she say?"

" Her mother was released from prison today" I answered and watched her mood change. " oh no, is she okay?"

" She seems to be okay, she's trying to hold up a huge barrier so all the pain she's feeling inside won't show outside, but part of me feels it's eating her up" I answered. " That's sad, I wonder what happened"

" She told me, unconsciously, her mother killed her father in front of her eyes, when she was just 7 years old" She probably grew up all alone in an Orphanage home.

" oh my goodness, how cruel, but we can't judge any of them, she grew up without her parents, that's so sad" Mother said and dropped her plate on the Centre table. " you'd better pick that up Mother" I said and watched her laugh a bit.

" Maybe she grew up with her cousins or relatives" I was honestly enjoying my meal. " I feel bad for her, she has talked to her mother now?"

" No, her mother hasn't looked for her"

" Oh no" Mother said and sighed. " I really feel bad for her" she added. " You know that's like you without me, what would have happened to you if I killed your father from all the abuse and I was taken to prison, you would have been all alone in an Orphanage home" Luckily I wasn't. " Just put yourself in her shoes" Mother added.

" I'm luckily not in her shoes" I said and she smiled a bit. " Allah is indeed merciful you know, just look at somewhere we would have been if he hadn't helped us" She was the last person I wanted to argue this with. " can we not talk about that?"

" why can't we talk about it?"

" cause I don't want us to disagree on anything" I answered and watched her sigh. " I should take my bath and rest" I added as I got up from where I sat. "Who is going to finish up meal?" She asked and I took my plate and sat back down. " Good boy" she said and I laughed a little as she laughed with me.

I loved my mother so much.

————————Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

———————————RuMa Hotels, Saturday Morning, 11:00am.

I got up from my bed as I heard my door bell ring, I wasn't expecting anyone and I had no appointments to accompany Mr Olyster with so I was free. I had nothing to do, but sleep or maybe I could go try out my new camera. Site seeing.

Maybe it was the hotel management or something that were at the door. " Who is it?" I called as I walked towards the door. " It's Mrs Olyster" I heard her nice motherly voice call. What was she doing here?. A big surprise.

" Ma'am" I called as I opened the door and found her smiling widely at me. " Hey, Good morning, can I come in?" She asked and I nodded. Pretty weird.

" Sure come on in" I answered as she smiled and walked in. " you're pretty much surprised, I know" she said as she came in and I closed the door. " I sure am ma'am, how may I help you?, I have some juice and brownies in the fridge do you want some?" I asked and she shook her head. " That's so nice of you but No, I'm fine" She answered and I smiled a little as I led her to the small living room the hotel had.

" the hotel is nice" I was honestly tired of wondering why she came over. Did Mr Olyster want to fire me and he couldn't cause he's a mummy's boy so he sent his mother over. Eh too childish.

" Khalid told me about you on Tuesday, about your encounter at the park" I should've thought of that. " oh" I said as I sat beside her on the couch.

" how're you?"

" I'm fine" I answered. I honestly didn't want to be rude but she was invading my privacy.

" sure?"

" I am"

" Do you want a hug?" Oh no. " Ma'am I'm sorry but I'm not comfortable with this" I said, almost raising my voice. " I know you're not, even I feel awkward, but I've been thinking of how to approach you but then, I couldn't get anything"

" There's no need for that ma'am"

" don't be angry please, look he told me you watched your mother kill your father back then" I really didn't want to remember all that now. Trying to hold in my anger was hard. " Look, I know you don't want to talk about it, but I really feel you should. I experienced something similar to that with Khalid and his father" now this was getting interesting. " What happened?" I asked as I calmed myself down. I never thought anyone went through what I went through. It was a horrible phase to be honest.

" You see, I'm Turkish, My parents were Jewish, so I came to study medicine here and then I found Aleeyah and she became my best friend and she influenced me to the right path and I became a Muslim. You know my conversion caused the death of my father, I blamed myself for a little while but then I realized it had to happen and it happened and I couldn't change the past or anything, my mother also died few months after she lost her husband, I guess she couldn't bear the pain, I was an only child so you see, I killed my parents" That was sick. She got to the right path and she had to sacrifice her parents for it. "'I'm so sorry ma'am"

" Don't apologize, It's fine I have already moved on" she looked sad. " It always makes me sad when I think about it but what has happened has happened, and I am not at fault for anything, it was their time to leave this world and who am I to stop them" She was right. " yeah"

" So after I lost my parents, I found Khalid’s father, David. He was a non practicing Christian, So I believed I could do you know, Change him and make him see Islam the way I did. We got married in a court, and then we moved to Turkey and he converted to a Muslim and he also changed his name to Salman, I honestly thought everything was going perfectly for me back then, but few months after I had Khalid, everything changed, he beat me up, he always gave me Scars and bruises every single night for six years, To be honest I always thought he was going to kill me eventually, I was always scared to leave Khalid behind, Alone with his father, I lost contact with Aleeyah so I couldn't ask for help, But then the day before I fled, Wallahi, I almost killed him, I went insane, But I had Khalid in my mind, I didn't want him to be alone, an orphan, So I ran away and I found Mr Olyster and we got married, a church wedding, that's how I became a Christian and I've been like that for years now, I always tried to make my husband see reason in Islam but he always, always changed the topic, deep down I know what's right and I always pray to Allah to forgive me, but I had to look out for my son's future" Well revealing that to someone she had no clue about was a big risk but that was safe with me. " I'm so sorry ma'am" I consoled but she smiled at me.

" It's fine, Khalid grew up to hate his father" well of course. " and he lost faith and trust in Allah, convicting him will be hard" No wonder.

" The thing is I still managed to be strong and letting all this out, every time helps me, the immense pain I felt back then is gone now, I'm stronger than I was before and I know that definitely with Allah's help I'm going to overcome all the hurdles I'm going to face, Zarah to be honest letting it all out is the best thing you can do" I understood her. Someone finally made me understand and feel comfortable to talk with. " I knew growing up in an Orphanage is hard..." I cut her off as he gently held my hand in hers. I honestly felt loved.

" I didn't grow up in an Orphanage" I was trying to avoid her gaze. " oh where then?"

" My mother became a lunatic when I lost my younger brother Ishaq, I felt horrible cause yes I know she lost a son but what about me, her own daughter, her very own flesh and blood, she abandoned me and left me in my dad's care, my father took her to the psychiatric hospital but she always found a way to escape, we just didn't know how, but she always escaped, the last time she escaped she killed my father, he was the only one I had and I swore not to ever forgive her for that, I watched her stab him right in the chest" I was breaking down. This is everything I wanted to avoid about my past.

" Hey, you can tell me, Everything you say is safe with me" she said nicely and I nodded as she cleaned my eyes.

" She was taken to a psychiatric hospital and was held under tight security, but the police wanted to take me to an Orphanage home but I ran away. I didn't want to be around people, I didn't like socializing, I ran away and I got hit by a car that took me to Columbia" I continued as I told her everything that happened.

" Hey, you're safe now" She tried consoling. " I'm not, I'm not safe, I'm sure Pa Alejo is watching my every move, he's just waiting for the right time to strike"

" then prepare yourself for that, since you don't want to talk to the police, I cannot force you, no one can force you" Yeah. True.

" you'll be fine okay?" She asked as she opened her arms out and I embraced her. She made me remember my father and I felt so safe in her arms. So very safe. In a very long while.

I honestly felt better after letting all that out. I didn't know that I was going to feel so at ease after sharing all this with someone else. " I can trust you right?"

" Of course you can, I'll always be here for you, I'm glad you came into our lives so I could help you out"

" I'm glad I did too" I said as I let go of her hug and clean my eyes.

" a beautiful and charming girl like you doesn't deserve all this pain and heartache, but I know you know that Allah knows best and you found him after going astray, he'll always protect his loyal servants Zarah" She made me smile genuinely. " Now I also came to take you out for some lady time, you need it and oh I'm not taking no for an answer" I wasn't planning on saying no from the start. " Yes ma'am"

" good and stop calling me Ma'am, call me Mama Zainab" I could try I guess. " Yes ma'.. Mama Zainab" I said and we both smiled. " Thank you very much Mama Zainab, I honestly really appreciate everything"

" Anything for a fellow cute lady in need" she said and tapped my hands. " Now go get ready and let's go okay?"

She said as we got up from our confession couch.

I was honestly happy I finally let it all out and I was more than grateful to Allah for sending her my way.

Alhamdulillah.