Chapter 49

                                    

                                          
*
"Are you the patient's husband?," the doctor said, eyeing Adnan warily.
                          
"No," he replied with a solemn look in his eyes. "I'm her brother in-law." 
                          
"That would be me," Ibrahim stepped forward, his eyes dark and withdrawn. Afrah glanced up at him through her tears, noting how unhinged he appeared. 
                          
"Please come with me," she said, directing him towards the hallway behind her. "Her family can join us as well."
                          
Amir was the first to shoot out of his seat, striding towards the hallway right behind Ibrahim. 
                          
"Go ahead," Adnan said, turning to face Afrah. He took her hand in his, giving it a quick squeeze when he saw the tears. He hadn't intended for her to show up here, but she refused to be left behind while the rest of her family came to the hospital. 
                          
Afrah turned to look at him, her eyes void of any emotion but grief. He hated seeing her like this, and he desperately wanted to make her smile again. He wished he could do something, and the helplessness dug into his soul, clawing at his heart painfully. 
                          
He watched as she stood silently, heading towards the hallway with her parents beside her. Afrah's mother wrapped her arms around her shoulder, and Adnan guessed she did it to comfort both of them rather than just Afrah. 
                          
Sighing, he leaned back against the wall. He was sitting in the waiting room, his feet sprawled out before him. Nafisa sat across from him, talking quietly with their mother. Beside them was aunt Safiya, and a daughter of hers who he didn't know. Most of Afrah's aunts littered the remainder of the room, looking disheveled and out of place. 
                          
Adnan felt exhausted, the events of the evening playing out in his mind in slow motion. This time however, it wasn't Amina he saw lying on the floor. It was Afrah. 
                          
Who could be so cruel and heartless as to do that to someone? A pregnant woman at that. He shuddered to think about what the family must be going through right now. 
                          
What if it had been Afrah? 
                          
He couldn't bring himself to imagine what he would have done then. He remembered the madness which seized him as he helped to lift Amina into the back of his car. He remembered the seconds which felt like an eternity as he desperately searched for a pulse in her wrist, and the painful relief which lasted only a split second as he felt her blood pulsing weakly through her veins. He remembered the way Ibrahim had rushed to his side with a terrified expression in his eyes, reaching for her with his hands trembling. 
                          
Mostly however, he remembered the look on Afrah's face when she saw her sister in that state. He remembered her scream, and the image haunted him even now. 
                          
Nafisa came to sit beside him, her eyes stained with tears. 
                          
"Hey," she whispered, "are you okay?" 
                          
Adnan sighed, staring down at his hands. 
                          
"I'm fine," he said, in a tone which scream the exact opposite. 
                          
"You did a good thing, Adnan," she said. "If you hadn't rushed her here..." 
                          
"What was the point?" he asked. "I did what I was supposed to do. So why do I still feel empty?" 
                          
"Don't beat yourself up over it," she said, placing her hand on his shoulder. "Afrah is in shock. That's why she's acting this way. Give her time." 
                          
"What if..." 
                          
No. 
                          
He couldn't bring himself to voice his fear. 
                          
"It wasn't her, Adnan," she said. "You should try to relax. Even if it had been, you would still have rushed her here, wouldn't you?"