"the biggest communication problem is we don't listen to understand. we listen to reply - sarah."
Sulaaymaan didn't mean to show signs of being an intruder in his own house except that he didn't know how else to see what was going on in the kitchen .
Basmah remained unaware to a major part of the secrets that he had made sure to lay buried . If at all his mother knew , he didn't know what sort of heated arguments they would have or precautions she would take . In short , things could get pretty nasty if she found out about it . He could very easily pass for the most stupidest person to have walked the face of this planet award .
Afra didn't know .
She didn't know that she could not tell Basmah of whatever was happening and for the true reasons she had been brought . If any how she exposed the news , everything would be lost . Nothing would work out and nothing would would work out forever .
And he couldn't risk it .
He had his ear glued to the cold metal door and as minutes ticked by , his ear grew numb while his legs ached stuck at the same place . Though the voices were muffled greatly , he could still make out the conversations they were having . He was being naughty just because he wanted to hear her talk . And most importantly , he wanted to hear her opinions regarding him .
He was starting to get tired with their ceaseless conversations . It was true that his sisters were very troublesome but when it came to ladies , he thought his sisters looked like innocent dolls asking for attention . He hopped from a feet to another , still keeping his attention focused on the low muffled voices.
He heard her speak of him when Basmah mentioned him . It seemed like she said she would try . Unfortunately , he couldn't pay heed to the context .Then again , that one 'I will try' was more successful than a start that he had calculated . However , he didn't try to get his hopes high . For all he knew , it could turn out that she just said it to keep the queen's heart .
But his heart would be broken .
Pushing his thoughts away he concentrated on the voices inside . Everything seemed silent except the clicking of the utensils and cups . Truth be told , he had his hands wrapped together by a thick woollen cloth . By the triplets of course . He didn't trust himself and knew that he would easily loose his coolness over his genuine desires and end up breaking down the door just so he could catch a glimpse of her eyes .
Forgetting his mother's fury .
They hardly had any guests , after the unfortunate incident . People abandoned them to be safe and happy in their lives . However , certain times some important government officials or Basmah's old school friends would drop by . The policy she had kept was that if he stepped foot inside the room they occupied , he'd be grounded for three months .
That's how he ended up getting grounded until a few days back . Unfortunately for him , the triplets had outsmarted and overpowered him . He was one and they were three . Yet very surprisingly , he didn't consider himself a perfectly moulded adult since a bunch of kids got him grounded .
It all started off with him declining their offer to play 'Find the Fella' . Normally , he would just get it over with to avoid the torment of three little monsters . Regardless of how , he was unusually frustrated . Grabbing the opportunity and not taking his 'no' professionally , the girls had him wrapped up in pink ribbons all over with a little mascara or that black substance on his lips and a red sticky think over his eyes.
On the count of one and a half , well because two and three were too far away according to them , he was banged into the door . He fell to the ground face first as the doors vigorously swung back and forth until they came to a stop with Basmah and her friends looking at him confoundly .
Of course , he was punished . With some housework and a broken nose , that took longer than expected to get hooked up .
Now as he heard them shuffle and mutter their goodbyes , he relaxed his legs a bit before dashing out for the other hallway at the end that stopped with a door .
He came to a stop , holding the door with his leg and carefully peeping into the other end to find her come out with a slight bow of her head .
Could anyone look so mesmerising in black ?
All covered up ?
He slowly started to close the door before the shaitaan took over his sanity . The figure of this girl started to diminish along the dark lines of the door .
Until all he remembered was her figure in his mind .
Afra swiftly walked out the door and swung it back shut . By some means , the talk had moved along from good to uncomfortable within a span of a few seconds .
Not that she didn't like spending some time with Basmah , but it was weird to think about Sulaaymaan as her son . Clearly he had taken after his father . True that Basmah was a little uncomfortable to be with since she had practically taken Afra as Sulaaymaan's bride , but that was the only wrong thing about her .
Unlike Sulaaymaan .
Who had kidnapped her .
And thinking about that , she had completely forgotten to ask Basmah about the reason why she had been brought here . Sulaaymaan had repeatedly told her that it was something that could not be disclosed on such sensitive situations , but that didn't mean he had banned her from questioning the Queen about it .
Infact , the Queen would be all the more aware about it .
She mentally slapped herself for being so utterly stupid and nervous at that time . The Queen was a carefree and a free thinking woman . Except for the taking her as a bride of course . She could have casually asked and extracted even a little clue at the least .
Now that she pondered upon every little detail , a lot of things ended up as huge question marks .
From what she recalled , Basmah had told her that Sulaaymaan never informed her about the fact that he was he was planning on getting Afra . It puzzled her to an extent as she further figured that maybe or maybe not , she was not aware of the lingering danger Afra was in .
So she was most probably kept hidden to this .
Most probably .
But what chose to intrigue her more was why ? Why would he not tell his own mother that he was bringing a girl to keep her protected from some major trouble ? Was there something else going on ?
No wonder she considered Sulaaymaan as very secretive , inexplicable and a little uncanny to a certain point . The moment she laid her eyes on him , she knew something was off . He was not honest with Basmah herself , so what else could she possibly expect from him ?
She didn't like him right from the moment they had met .
But for now , she decided to take things slowly and pounce into action after a few days where she'd be left to herself . While that was one thing that left her bewildered , she could make out other tiny details that made her feel insecure and uncomfortable as well .
She had seen so many portraits and pictures of all of his family members as she had guessed , but none were seen or mentioned . Not that she had expected them all to be there , but somehow it felt like those people never really had visited Basmah and Sulaaymaan much . Why would they do that though ?
Then again , she could not leave the small doubt regarding his father causing a ruckus in her head . It had been four hours now that she arrived at the royal palace . But for some reason , no one mentioned him or anything related to him . While it wasn't her business and she should not bother , it still made it difficult to see that no one even accidentally brought him up .
She wondered where the King was !
This family was getting peculiar second by second and everytime she pondered a little deeper over them , a new detail popped up that seemed to arouse her curiosity more and more . She had been preoccupied by their thoughts a lot more than she had anticipated .
She only wished she got out from here soon .
As she walked back and forth down the hallways , she dialed Elsa's number and waited .
"Hello ? Afra , sweetie !" She heard her mother yell into the phone .
"Mom , hi . Can you please - "
"Oh My God ! Afra ! Gurl , how are you ? Why didn't you call us earlier ?!"
"Sarah ?" She frowned , rubbing a thumb and her index over her temples . "Sarah , can you please -"
"Good lord ! Afra ? Are you okay ? What the heck ?! You got time to call us after four hours . Like four hours !!! What made you think you could torture us like this ?!"
"Samantha ! Can you not - "
"Afra ? Gurl , it's me ! Hafsa . Why do you even carry a phone ? We've been trying to reach out to you for hours . And you only remember us now ."
"Hafsa ! Please , just let me - "
"Afra ! How are you ? Oh God ! Please don't tell me he kidnapped you ! I knew he was problematic right from the start . If only people here could understand ."
Afra sighed loudly , slipping down to the floor . She didn't have the energy to shout into the phone and make them all stop ."Gabriel , please just hand the phone - "
"Hey cousin . How are you ! People here have been worried sick . And by people I mean everyone including me ."
"Derek . Please ! Hand the phone over to - "
"Assalaamualaikum Habibti ."
Afra sat up straighter , finally hearing the words of a sane lady .
"Walaikumusslaaam Anna ! Please hear me first . I'm really very sorry I couldn't get in touch with you all . It took us two hours to get here to the palace and I spent some time with the princesses here and the Queen as well . Somehow the time ticked away until I realized it was too late ! And I dialled you guys up as soon as I noticed my phone flooded with fifty missed calls and thirty two messages ." She finished , panting hard .
"Um , alright . I'll tell that to everyone ."
That voice sounded like Alexander's .
She palmed her forehead .
Maybe she had spent too much time with her own family to not realize that they themselves were in urgent need of medical attention .
"Dad ?" She asked into the phone , before a loud thud followed by a heated argument was heard . She waited a second to hear if anybody would care that she was still on line . When nothing happened and things progressed from mere snickering to yelling , Afra disconnected the call .
She made a mental note to get her family checked up for any mental illnesses .
Now that she had already talked to them and made it evident that she was alright , she checked the time and discerned that she had only an hour left before time for Asr would be up .
She had to find the Queen to help her get settled .
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