Page 96 of The Love Match
I know she did it for me. I know she’s always done things for me, misguided or otherwise. I can’t even be angry at her this time, because I hid Harun from her. For too long, our relationship has been tainted by secrets and scheming.
So I say, “There’s something I have to tell you.”
For the first time in a long time, Amma listens to my every word. Really and truly. Her eyes widen in shock when I reveal the truth of my fake dating plan with Harun. How we accidentally fell for each other along the way. What he told me on the bridge before her arrival.
“Everything I did, I did for you, too, Amma,” I whisper. “For you and our family.” I pause and reflect on my conversation with Harun. “I should accept Nayim’s proposal, shouldn’t I? Despite everything, his heart is in the right place. Maybe someday, I will want to be with him too, if I give him a chance, right?”
Like my grandmother before me, I could learn to love him and live with everything expected of me. She and my mother raised me to be strong enough for that.
“Oh, shuna…”
I hold my breath. I need to hear it. I need her assurance that this is the path of least resistance, the yellow brick road leading to our entire family’s prosperity and happiness.
Instead her lips press into my hair, and she murmurs against my scalp, “I took a chance on your father. Although hardship followed, if I could go back and do it again, I would choose him every single time.”
I gawk at her, chin quivering, lips parted but unable to form any words except a feeble, gossamer, “You would?”
“Very much so,” she replies. “I’ve been thinking a lot about him recently. More than I’ve let myself since he died. He would be disappointed in me.”
“Amma, no!” I shake my head. “He’d know howhardyou worked to make sure we all—”
“Hush,” she interrupts. “I put too much pressure on you, Zahra. As your mother, I never should have made you feel like it was up to you to save our family. You’ve worked too hard as it is….”
“I always wanted to help,” I insist. “You never forced me.”
She strokes my cheek again. “I know that, shuna. But I needyouto know that we will be fine if you choose your heart. No more matches or meddling.”
“Hassa ni, Amma?” I ask. I look into her eyes, andinstead of my mother, I just see a woman. A person. A girl with her own hopes and dreams. “Do you mean it?”
“Hassa,” she promises, eyes twinkling. “I’ve never meant anything more.”
I collapse into her comforting arms. And as she holds me, I believe her.
“Mm,” I say, burying my face in her neck. “How’d you find me, anyway?” She looks down sheepishly at her phone sitting at the top of her purse. For the first time all evening, I laugh. “Oh. The Auntie Network. Duh.”
Her chuckles join mine, growing louder and louder. We feed off each other’s laughter, and I realize I had all the love I needed right here all along.
THE AUNTIE NETWORK
Sharmila:
Meera Afa, tell me it isn’t so!
Meera:
…Keetha? ??
Sharmila:
Don’t play coy with me! Did Zahra truly reject the Shah heir?
Zoba:
Everyone knows by now… she did. I can’t believe it! How could Zaynab let her daughter turn down that glorious estate in Bangladesh, that pampered life?
Meera:
Perhaps Zaynab knows her daughter’s heart better than any of us can. ??
