Chapter 40: Chapter 40

As the tsunami struck an ocean, the thunder shook the sky, that's how he felt when she closed her eyes and turned her face at him. It told him many things, a lot of things he wished were not true. Rejection. The word rang through his ears like the chime of his morning alarm, he felt weak and cold. Ihsan shouldn't act like this towards him. He knew he did something bad, so bad it almost looked unforgiving, but he didn't expect that from her. She's his wife, his Vardah.

"Vardah," he called softly, yet again. And the intensity she turned her face to him, he was sure she wanted to scream at him at the pitch of her voice, if only she could speak. Instead of the thunderstorm of her anger, he saw her tears.

For the first time she looked vulnerable. She began crying with soft yet painful tears, but as she took her time staring at him and he did nothing but stared back at her, her tears intensified, and her body began shaking with the timbre of her sobs. Her breath began seizing, for a split second, she thought she would burst out from suffocation.

She was still laying down on the bed, with her left part still not functioning, she wasn't feeling even the pores of her left part, but the irony is that her heart was beating and painning her more than it ever did.

Sadeeq knew he had to do something, he could see she was at the verge of bursting due to the suffocation of her tears because she was unable to vent her anger out. He stood up and helped her sat upright, she didn't bulged because she needed the posture like never before.

She cried to her satisfaction and closed her eyes, laying her head back on the bed head. He looked at how her chest was rhyming slowly and painfully, and he wished he could pluck out her heart, cleanse it off and replace it back. He hated seeing her like this, he hated it much more than he hated what he did to her yesterday night.

"I'm sorry, Vardah." He cried, silently but she heard the drop of his tears on his cheeks. But she still didn't spared him a glance.

"I know what I did wasn't forgivable, but you misunderstood the whole thing and you weren't calm enough for me to explain it. Noor isn't my girlfriend or anything of that sort, I have a wife that's more beautiful than the sky and all it entails, what more do I need? She's into an unrequited love, and she happened to saw her lover or is it her crush with another lady, and she had a mental break down. I had no choice but to bring her over to our house, I tried consoling her without having any physical contact but she had an asthma and I couldn't help any way except the way I did. You didn't see the inhaler, but it was in my right hand when you barged into the living room. I wasn't making out with her, I'm not having an affair with her, trust me, Vardah."

She had her eyes opened by now, the tears she saw flowing freely on his cheeks squeezed her heart, but she wasn't going to back out. What he did wasn't excusable, and this wasn't reasonable enough for what he did. The words he uttered to her, they were more painful than the slap he landed on both cheeks of hers. She knew they had the agreement, she knew she made it clear to him that they were just partners but never spouses, that one year gap isn't enough for him to call her his wife. He told her to refer to him as her brother and her, the sister. But where is the respect? They can act like strangers for all she cared, but deep down they knew the truth, they all knew they were married months ago. And what Sadeeq did to her was nothing like something a husband would do to his wife, a sick one for that matter. But her, even though she had told him she didn't love him and didn't cared for him, her attitude was understandable. She was his wife for god sake.

"What I said..." she cut him off by shaking her head sideways before he could even start apologising for that, she wasn't going to forgive him for that, never.

"Vardah," he called again, and she had to close her eyes so tight and scrunched up her face. She wished she could scream at him 'Stop calling me that!' But she couldn't, all she could move was her head.

He noticed how exhausted she was and helped her lay back on the bed. They had an eye contact as she placed down her head on the soft pillow and Sadeeq was hovering over her, her face to be precise. She dared him to do what he was thinking of by making a slit of her eyes, and before she took a grasp of her situation, Sadeeq's lips were already merged with hers.

But Sadeeq underestimated this Ihsan, she wasn't the Vardah he nicknamed. She pulled in her lips and shoved his lips of her mouth. She clenched her eyes shut and faced the other side of the bed. She left him cold and pain beaten.

He moved back to the chair and felt the urge to be at home, he wanted to be alone, to figure out these mixed feelings he's having in his heart. "I'm going home, I'll be back after subh." He hushed but audible enough for her. The nurses were there, he had nothing to worry about.

She squinted her eyes at him and he saw it, the uncertainty in her eyes. She thought he wasn't going home, because she didn't believe all he said earlier on. She didn't trust him, she thought he was going to meet his brown haired ogle. She was the one that created the rule of getting a divorce and marrying the one they loved right? He was fast at doing that then.

Her tears fell down on her cheeks when she heard the clicking sound the door made behind him. She didn't know what she was feeling about him, but it was surely something different she had ever felt for anyone in her life. She wanted him to stay with her so bad, but she wasn't ready to break the shell of the promise she made to herself.

Sadeeq drove to their home as silently as he ever did. He entered his room directly and his eyes fell to her handbag and a ring from it came through. He opened it and it was a call from Dr.Aashif, he grimaced and slide the answer button.

"Assalamu Alaikum," a melodic Arabian accented voice greeted.

"Waalaikumus salam," Sadeeq answered weakly, his knees going south. If this was the voice Ihsan always heard every day, nothing could make her not to fall in love with this man.

"Who is this please and where is Ihsan?" Even the way he said Ihsan was full of tajweed and had a soft tone on it. Sadeeq pondered his first question, who is he? He'll surely tell him that today. He was tired of him in Vardah's life.

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The nurses helped Ihsan had her bathe before they changed the hospital wear for her, she was laid back on the bed before the door creaked ajar. She heard when Sadeeq came after subh, but she couldn't open her eyes to see him, it was the most disgusting sight she forbade herself of.

And now that it was some minutes to 8am, she wondered who it was. Because he made it clear to her that he had lectures today and won't be there until after noon. Her eyes began roaming on the uncovered shoes he had on his feet, and the fair skin she saw, the veins and frail blood circulating in them; she knew who it was without his face even appearing. It was her prince. Her royalty. The mighty prince of Bahrain.

The nurses excused themselves and Aashif entered into the room completely. When his eyes fell into hers, he staggered back and his eyes bulged out like a saucers. He looked shocked, pained and distraught.

"Subhanallah, Ihsan!" He exclaimed and rushed towards the bed, but she was smiling, happy that she saw him. How he knew of her being sick, the hospital she was in and even the room number was never what she cared for, all that mattered was he was there. To her, for her and with her.

"Ya Rabb! It's too bad, Ihsan." He whimpered, sadly looking at her frail body, he didn't knew she was a sickler until yesterday. He was told she couldn't speak, so he didn't wait for an answer from her.

"Why didn't you told me? You wouldn't have taken that ice, Ihsan. I'm to be blamed, Ya Allah!"

She felt the urge to speak to him, to tell him he should calm down it wasn't his fault, and as painful and heavy as she felt, she opened her lips and spoke "P...r..in..ce.." and it wasn't even 48 hours yet. She was sure this word came from her heart.