Chapter 68: Brotherhood

Saima opened her eyes clearly to stop the flow of her tears as she pulled her body from under the bed. She knew it was foolish of her to look for Maryam under the bed, but she had no other choice but to do that when she had checked every crevice and corner of the hospital room. Somehow, they had ended up sleeping in the room because Hafiz didn't send the help he had promised he will and it was getting too late. Maryam was even the one that slept first and now that she was awake, earlier than expected, Saima saw that Maryam was no where to be found.
She heard a knock came from the door and silently prayed that it was her, maybe she had gone to Na'im's room and she was back now. She immediately walked to the door and yanked it open, but when she saw that it wasn't who she was expecting, her disappointment was palpable on her face.
"Were you expecting someone else?" He asked while he walked into the room and turned to her, "It was off my mind to send for a driver yesterday, Alan Gubro spent the night with him but I was to keep guard by his door. Let's leave now before it's late." He asked, but the tears he had seen on her face told him a different story. He turned around the room and caught no glimpse of Maryam, "Is she in the toilet?" He asked, and Saima incessantly shook her head.
"She first fell asleep and I did that after almost two hours, so I'm certain she was asleep. But when I woke up, she wasn't here, I don't know what to do." Her body was trembling with the unknown. She could imagine herself telling Alan Gubro that Maryam was no where to be found. "Or maybe she was in Yarima Na'im's room? Can you please check? I don't want anyone to see me, I would've gone there myself."
Hafiz sighed and slumped on the sofa because this only said one thing, Maryam was missing and they didn't know whether she was abducted or she ran away herself. "I was by the door of his room for the whole night, and she's not there. And I just checked in the room before I come here, she's not there still."
Saima placed both hands on her head as a manner to show that she was in a dilemma she didn't know how to pull herself out of. "Innalillahi, I'm not ready for a fight with Alan Gubro or Yarima himself. No one will believe me, I know." She looked up at him with tears running unchecked on her cheeks, "I don't know if you'll trust me or not, but wallah I have no idea what's going on here. Neither my mother nor my brother spoke to me about her, I wouldn't cause her harm." She was shaking with her tears, thinking whether this was Umma's way of making her pay for all she did to her since when Maryam was brought to their chamber. Maybe they meant for everyone to hate her, Na'im and Maryam and now...his soldier friend.
He took a step towards her but the look on his face made her mistook his intentions and she walked back, crying as she shook her head. "Please, don't hurt me. I'll see if I can know what they're up to, I have no idea." He stayed where he was and stared at how she had clenched her eyes shut and she was crying so bad that it would be mistaken it was one of her parents that died.
"I'm not going to hurt you, Gimbiya. I was just walking towards you to see if there's way I could calm you down. Pardon my manners," he said and took a few steps back. Saima opened her eyes unbelievably at him and saw that he meant what he had said through his eyes.
"What can I do now? How do I help so we know where she is before he wakes up, we all know he's going to ask about her first." She had wanted her brother's love, so bad that she was willing to rebel against her own mother and brother but it seemed his ignorance of her was what she was destined for, all her life. Because even if his soldier friend had believed her, she was sure that Na'im would never believe she wasn't part of all this to abduct Maryam.
"Let's go to shehuri now, they're your family, we can know what's going on from there." She nodded her head and took the few things they came with and followed him out of the room. She was still crying even after she was seated in his car as she wondered in what kind of situation Maryam was. What had gone wrong with her? What was she going through her?
They travelled in silence, but she knew that Umma would never say a word and Sadeeq might even try to beat her, but she wasn't going to relent, she was going to keep pushing until she saved the innocent girl. "Here, wipe your tears and act as if nothing has happened. You wouldn't want to attack them while you're looking this miserable, do you?" He asked as he briskly stared at her tears strained face while she silently collected the handkerchief from him and nodded her head.
"I have to look confident, I know. The only thing that easily breaks Umma's walls is when you're confident of yourself and she will begin to wonder whether or not you know about her countless secrets..." Saima quickly stopped herself, she was just about to snitch on her mother and even though she knew it was her mother that was on the bad side and these people were the good ones, she just couldn't afford doing that to her.
He was silent, as if he didn't realize the way she had quickly stopped herself midsentence and she liked that about him. Hafiz dropped her off in front of Ya Gumsu's chamber and smiled when she sighed as though that wasn't the place she had lived all her life and the people in there weren't at all monsters to her.
"Go on, it's your mother you're going to face and nobody else, okay?" She nodded her head and walked out of the car after she had promised him that she would call him even if she wasn't opportuned to come out, or a message, anything to let him know about what was going on.
Saima walked into the chamber and walked directly to her room. She sat down on the sofa she thought deeply about what was going to happen. She was deep in her thoughts when the door got banged open and her mother walked into the room with fury in her eyes and hatred in the words she was about to utter.
"Where the hell did you spend the night, Saima? Am I some sort of joke to you?! What the hell is going on with you?!" She asked and before Saima had replied her, she was already taken off her feet by the belt Umma lashed on her body and she screamed at the pitch of her voice.
"Umma, you have to listen to me! I was at the hospital with Maryam, you know it!" She was crying so bad as her mother kept on beating her as mercilessly as she had never beaten her before. She knew she had beaten her once and that was when she forced her to promise that she was done with Na'im and she did. But now, Saima knew no matter how painful and scary this would look, she wasn't going to give up on Maryam, she had to keep on fighting.
"Are you telling me you slept out of the palace the whole night? Have you taken me as some sort of joke, Saima? You only do the things I've clearly told you not to!" Saima cried as she tried to run away from the painful lash of her mother but she didn't stop.
There was a knock on the door, but Umma was so furious to act like the royal goddess she wanted so hard to portray herself as. "Didn't I tell y'all not to come here until I'm done with her?!" She roared and instead of them to back up like Saima thought they were the maids, the doorknob was turned and her three other brothers walked in with fury in their eyes, even though they tried as much as they could to hide it.
The royal triplets, they had always been a fave. And her escape route whenever she wanted to get away from Umma. She wondered what had brought them here today, because they always met at the garden or some place around the palace, or better, when they all went to great Alan Gubro.
She cried and ran towards them and when Umma tried to hold her back with her head tie, Saima removed it as quickly as she could before she fell into the arms of one of them. She broke into tears, "Please, y'all should talk to her. I don't know what to do. Maryam has been abducted by her and Yarima Sadeeq, Yarima Na'im will kill me if he finds out. I just want her to be safe, I didn't stay anywhere yesterday at night, wallah I was in the hospital and she knows. But she's trying to make it seem as if I went somewhere at night." She was crying so hard and when she looked up, she found that she was in Amjad's arms and he was the one that had the worse temper between them. The way he was clutching her tightly was enough to tell her that he was raging within, but he dared not make any wrong move on Ya Gumsu.
"I think she has told you everything you need to know, Ya Gumsu, she's too fragile for you to use the army's belt on her skin, look..." Amjad lifted her from his body and showed her how bruised her arms had looked, "I think she's done here. And we all know Maryam has been taken to the hospital yesterday and she wasn't lying. If she were, then where's the girl now?"
Ya Gumsu turned to face them with an unbelievable expression, so these boys had grown up big enough to challenge her this way? Life was surely a game. "You, get the hell out of my sight before I call the royal guards and have y'all taken to the royal prison!" She was angry as she yelled at them, "And you, release your hold on her right now and get out of this room!"
"I bet you wouldn't want this to be taken to Alan Gubro, Ya Gumsu. The earlier Yarima Na'im's wife is released, safe and sound, the better it would be for us all." Areef spoke though gritted teeth. They all were glad that when Hafiz called them to check up on Saima, they were around their chamber and they just bumped in, only to hear the sound of her cries from the gate.
"It will only take a word to Alan Gubro for everything you're planning to demolish, Ya Gumsu, safe and sound because we all know Yarima Na'im isn't going to take it lightly with you." She threw her head back and laughed, clenching onto her belt as if she was going to beat them with it. Gone were the days when she had punished them severely and all their mothers had to do was cry their eyes out and begged for her mercy on their boys. But these boys were grown ups now and they could protect themselves and even the ones they loved, her daughter included.
"Let go of the girl and leave, I have nothing else to speak with you. And if it's Yarima himself that sent you here, go back and tell his dying self that I have no idea where his wife is, he should look for her somewhere else, and not here!"