Chapter 47

                                    

                                          
Dawood 
I took a last look at the floral arrangement in my bedroom and closed the door behind me. I arrived at the Logan International Airport in Boston in the late morning. The first thing that I did after my arrival was to contact a florist and ask him to decorate the master bedroom.
I wanted to surprise her. That was why I didn't inform her about my arrival and had made all the decoration arrangements behind her back when she was at law school. The most tiring thing was to choose the flowers. I didn't have any knowledge about what kind of flowers she liked; hence I asked the florist to use all the flowers that he had at his shop. 
While they decorated the bedroom, I prepared everything for dinner. I wanted this night to be perfect like hers. Hoping that she would appreciate my efforts, I slipped the small box of the ring into my pocket, which had just arrived from the jeweler. I had ordered the ring a week before I left for Istanbul. It was a 6-carat radiant cut emerald set in white gold with diamonds circling its sides. The color of the emerald was the same as her eye color, which was very rare in occurrence and had cost a King's ransom. I was hoping she would like the ring. She had a ring that Dad had gotten for her on the day we got married, but I wanted to give her this ring because I had not gotten a chance to propose to her formally. 
For the first time in years, I was feeling nervous, and that too because of a girl. Not just some girl, my wife. Whom I despised until a few weeks ago, sometimes when I thought, I couldn't believe how far we both have come. If only she knew the intensity of my feelings for her, she might run for the hills. Was Babaanne right? Does she love me? 
Silence. 
Why couldn't I believe she was in love with me even after she confessed what she felt about me? Had my past damaged me to this extent that I might not be able to trust my wife even after she admitted my importance in her life? 
I would need to pay a visit to my shrink. I had never taken him seriously until now, even though Dr. Murdoch had tried everything in his hands to make me open up and come out of the shell. Dad had made sure in my childhood that I visited him regularly, but those visits had not proven beneficial because I had never let him help me. Even after the incident in college when Mike had told Dad about it, and he had been insisting I visit him, I had shut down myself and had found solace in sleeping around with whichever girl would be willing for it. 
Dad had never approved my whoring ways, and Babaanne and Dede had given me countless pep talks to not sleep around out of wedlock. They considered it the gravest sin possible, but I was helpless. It was my only coping mechanism for those events of my past. Now, when I think about it, I should have listened to Dad and my grandparents. There is a saying God tests you in life, and those tests might either bring you close to him or push you astray straight into the pits of hell. It only depends on the individual which path he chooses, the one of righteousness or the one of sin. 
I had chosen the latter, and still, the Almighty hadn't lifted his blessings upon me. He had gifted me with one of the best women in this world. The one who was pure and innocent until I had entered her life like a devil and corrupted her. I remember her inexperience when I first brought her to orgasm in the library. I had been obsessed with her since that moment, and it had only increased with time. 
I was happy that Allah had chosen me for her when he could have given her to anyone worthy of her. Looking at my track record, I was the least deserving. Still, I would never give her up. Not in a thousand lifetimes. She belonged to me since I kissed her in the kitchen at that party. 
When I reached the law school in the evening, most students had left. A few students were roaming around the campus here and there, I called her, but it went unanswered. It never happened because she always received my call after a few rings. I called again, and it remained unanswered. I was getting a sick feeling in it that something was wrong.