Chapter Twenty Five – Unexpected attack

“Saba!”

Zayaan called out as he saw Saba panicking out of the blue in unconsciousness.

“Saba…. Saba are you alright?!” he said, holding her shoulders tight as she shook her head in restlessness. Just then, she opened her eyes suddenly. She looked at him in shock for a moment. He held her face with one hand and one of her hands with the other.

“Are you alright?” Zayaan felt compelled to ask as he caressed her cheek with his thumb. At that moment, he saw her eyes filling up with tears. She began to cry, and the sound of her sobs echoed in the room.

Zayaan let her cry, for what felt like forever. He couldn’t bring himself to move or say anything to console her because of what he knew about her grief. He had called Sameer and let him know what had happened. Sameer waited in the hospital until nightfall in hope of seeing Saba gain consciousness. Sameer had filled Zayaan’s ears. Zayaan heard everything about Saba’s painful past. About how her brothers had turned evil and how her mother had died. About how she had blamed herself for so long for her mother’s death.

Zayaan couldn’t fathom how Saba must have survived such a trauma. While he felt sympathy for her, he still wondered about who could have reminded her of that past. To the extent that she would want to take her own life. He had to find out. At any cost.

“It’s not your fault.” Zayaan finally said, while still holding onto Saba. His words stopped Saba’s crying and she calmed down.

“As hard as this maybe for you to believe right now, it’s seriously not your fault. Even Allah doesn’t hold us accountable for the mistakes we do without knowing. So, who are we to hold onto the guilt from those mistakes?” Zayaan asked.

Zayaan felt Saba tightening the grip she had on his shirt and she moved away from him to make eye contact.

“How did you know? When did you find out?” Saba asked in terror, beginning to sweat.

“Dad told me all about it. Seriously Saba…. why didn’t you tell me bef-“

“I’m a terrible person, aren’t I? You hate me now, don’t you?” Saba said, her eyes filling with tears again.

“No, never! I didn’t think of you any less for even a second.”

“I know it, I’m just a bad person. Allah would not have decreed for me to make such a mistake if I weren’t.”

“You are not thinking straight right now, Saba. We don’t complain about the decree of Allah and you know this. What we can do is accept it and at the same time know that our past mistakes don’t define us.”

“But I made a huge….” Saba continually began to say and she started to cry again when Zayaan stopped her by putting one hand on her mouth.

“Just…don’t say anything Saba. And try not to think either. All you need is some help right now and this feeling will pass as soon as you get it In Sha Allah. Please realize this. And don’t do anything that will take you away from me.” Zayaan said, tears building up in his eyes as he remembered that dreadful moment where he had almost lost her.

Saba looked at him, with tears falling down her cheeks though she wasn’t crying. Zayaan wiped those tears for her and asked what she wanted to eat. Saba immediately refused but Zayaan didn’t give in. Saba eventually said what she wanted and Zayaan smiled, before leaving the room to get the food for her.

Zayaan was dialing Sameer’s number as he left the room. As he searched for the number while walking down the corridor, he had to stop as he heard a familiar sound of steps. He was taken aback when he looked up.

“Mom?!” Zayaan said in shock. It was none other than Zeenath, who was dressed up with a knee length dress and jeans. Her ironed hair and face full of make-up made it look like she just came out of a saloon for an event.

“Hi Zayaan, how is our daughter-in-law?” Zeenath asked, without an ounce of worry on her face. She seemed as though she would already know Saba’s state.

“I thought you said you weren’t coming.” Zayaan said with the frustration of his mother’s lack of sincerity towards Saba. He had a feeling that she wouldn’t care about Saba’s state anyway. Yet he took the time to send her a text. She had clearly refused to visit Saba, saying that she was in an important meeting.

“Well let’s just say I had a change of mind. Which room is she in?” Zeenath asked, trying to look beyond Zayaan.

“Room 405. Just…. please don’t say anything much to her. She isn’t in a state to hear harsh…anything but kind words.” Zayaan tried his best to frame his sentence in a respectful manner.

He said that he will be back in a little while before making his way through the corridor again. For a split second he wanted to look back and stay with Saba as he heard his mother’s footsteps going in the other direction. But he didn’t, in hope his mother would be good to Saba. In hope his mother would prove him wrong and for once and he will start having good assumptions about her.

But he was wrong. He was utterly wrong. He didn’t realize that not turning back and walking away from Saba that night would be the biggest regret of his life.

Zayaan was dialing Sameer even as he reached the main door of the hospital. Sameer wasn’t picking up the phone from the other end, so he had to keep dialing.

Zayaan had placed his phone on the ear as he reached the streets. He had stopped near a zebra cross where the traffic light was green, and the vehicles were passing by the street. There were only a few people on the street at that time of the night along with Zayaan.

As the light changed colour, the vehicles stopped and one of them was a big white truck. Just then, Zayaan heard Sameer’s voice from the other end.

“H..ell..o Z..an” Zayaan heard an unclear voice from the other end due to a network error.

“Hello….hello Dad can you hear me?” Zayaan said as he began to walk a little bit behind from the other people in the street.

The voice from the other end was still unclear and thus Zayaan was giving his full attention to it. He didn’t realize when he reached right in front of the white truck that was unusually making a ‘vroom’ sound though there were still a few seconds left for the traffic light to change colour.

“Uncle Sameer I just called to tell you that Saba-…” those were the last words Zayaan could say before the truck began moving towards him abruptly and its light blinded up. Within a few seconds, Zayaan was rolling on the street and when he came to a stop, he was unconscious, with blood oozing from the back of his head.