Chapter 60

                                    

                                          
Emma
I turned around to return to the bedroom but froze when I saw Dad standing in the hallway. How long had he been here? Did he listen to Dawood and my conversation? In my effort to stop Dawood, I didn't even pay attention if someone was in the hallway. 
What if Dad heard us? We weren't careful enough to keep our voices low. The expression on his face was an indication that he heard us. What would he think about Dawood and me? How was I going to explain it to him? 
"Emma, what's going on?" He inquired, stepping towards me. 
A lump formed in my throat, and fresh tears flooded my eyes. I had no idea what took over me because I covered the distance between him and me and buried my face in his chest, and broke down. 
"Nothing is well, Dad," tears rushed out of my eyes with such intensity as if a dam had broken inside. 
I was exhausted. I couldn't keep the pain inside me anymore. It was getting unbearable for me. I wanted someone to assure me everything was going to be alright. That Dawood would come around. He would bury his past and stop looking at all the women in life with the same lens. 
Dawood's distrust of me had cut through my heart worse than a knife could. I was unable to figure out a way in which I could convince him that no one mattered to me more than him. I had tried everything in the past months, but we were still at square one. Dawood still didn't trust me despite all my efforts. 
"What do you mean, Emma?" Dad stroked my hair. 
"I don't know how to make him trust me again?" I sobbed. 
"What??" Dad pulled me away and looked into my eyes, "Dawood, don't trust you?" 
"He did, but..... but then Hamza..... he..... he ruined everything," I said between sobs. 
The intensity of my tears only increased. The pain only worsened as everything that happened after Hamza came to law school came back to me. I had tried to look past that incident for my sake and Dawood's. Instead of hating Dawood and getting mad at him, I drowned myself in guilt and did everything to make our marriage work. I made all efforts to make Dawood trust me again, but I was tired. I had no idea what to do if Dawood asked me to get rid of our child. I would never kill my child, no matter the consequences. I wouldn't submit to Dawood in that regard. 
"Emma, sweetie, stop crying and tell me what happened. Who is this Hamza, and what did he do?" Dad dragged me into the guest room Dawood and I were staying and settled on the bed with me. 
I wiped my tears with the back of my hands and then started telling everything from the start to Dad. He listened to me without interruption until I poured my heart to him. 
"Emma, how can you let them treat you like that?" Dad asked after I went silent. 
I stared at him teary-eyed. 
"Whatever happened isn't your fault alone. Hamza and Dawood are equally responsible. Hamza should have approached your father with the proposal if he intended to marry you, and Dawood has no right to suspect you because of his past. I agree that what happened to him is heart-wrenching, but he can't punish you," Dad continued, gently stroking my hair.  
"I only want everything between me and Dawood to return to what was earlier," I murmured. 
"It is only possible when Dawood rests his past and moves on. As long as he holds onto it, he can never live a peaceful life," Dad asserted. 
"How can it be possible?" I questioned in puzzlement. 
"When he forgives his mother," Dad replied, "Only forgiveness can heal the scars inflicted on the soul. As long as Dawood nurses a grudge against his mother, he will never be able to get past his trauma."