Page 11 of Stripped By the Sinner

I have a feeling no matter what happens here, tongues will wag regardless.

ISABEL

Silent treatment.

I’m used to it, though this feels different. Maybe it’s because of everything that has happened with Rostam, I’m not sure. But the way Donya and Maryam are going out of their way to ignore me feels different today. Almost as if they know something. Something big.

Deciding to equally ignore them, knowing that asking them what was wrong would do me zero good, I make my way outside and lie down in one of the loungers. A couple of the kids are playing soccer in the yard, and I smile as I watch them. I don’t know their children well. I’m not really permitted to get to know them.

I’m a guest in this home and I’m okay with that. Though, seeing them makes me think about the conversation last night.

Children.

I’ve always thought that I wanted them. I still feel as if I’m a bit young to have them, but I imagined my life with a few children in it. However, it’s clear to me that Azar will not want them with me anytime soon… probably not ever at this rate. I should be okay with that. I don’t want to have Azar’s baby anyway, but it just seems kind of sad.

The door opens behind me, but I don’t look back. I know it’s not Azar and honestly, he’s the only one in this family that I have to pretend to be interested in. Everyone else is just background noise at this point.

A voice clears. It’s Donya. I know her tense throat clearing anywhere. Inwardly, I sigh before I greet her.

“Donya,” I say without turning around.

I hear her footsteps make their way toward me, then she sinks down into the lounger next to me. I don’t look at her, and I doubt she’s looking at me either.

“When the fourth wife is added, you will no longer be the sole desire of his eye,” she announces.

I hum, hoping that’s the case. I don’t want to be desired by him in any way whatsoever. I want him to forget I exist completely. I want to close my eyes and disappear—vanish. I wish that it could truly happen that way. Maybe not disappear, maybe just poof into thin air from this life and reappear at Ruslan’s place and stay with him forever instead.

It’s a dream, so I dream big. Even though I don’t know Ruslan very well, even though I know that it would never happen.

“Perhaps,” I say.

It doesn’t matter to me though, I know that Donya and Maryam think of me as this spoiled little wife that needs my husband’s attention, that craves it, but they have no clue that I despise him. Which means I’m playing my part perfectly. I would never tell her that though. If I did, then she would run straight to him.

“I was once the new shiny toy, then I was replaced by Maryam. And you replacedher, which means that whoever he chooses, it will be someone young and beautiful that he can play with.”

I almost saygood, but I decide against it. Instead, I give her nothing, which pisses her off even more. Donya snorts, then grunts, and I know she’s getting frustrated with me as she usually does.

“Donya,” I call out, turning to look at her.

She shifts her attention over to me, her brow arched as if ready and waiting for me to blow up at her. I won’t. I wouldn’t. I couldn’t care less about Donya and Maryam. They have never been nice to me, not even cordial really.

I was given to this grown man as a sixteen-year-old child, and they treated me like dirt the second I walked into this house with no luggage and nothing of my old life. They didn’t care for me. They didn’t try to befriend me. They just treated me like shit. No doubt they were full of anger and jealousy.

“Maybe you’ll be nicer to the fourth wife,” I say as I stand and turn from her. I walk away, back into the house, leaving her on the lounger.

I want to get in my car and drive away, but I don’t. It’s too late in the day to disappear, to go to Ruslan. Even though I know that Ruslan will be sleeping from his long night at work right about now. I know that I can usually find Ruslan at his place, asleep in his bed, ready for me at any given moment during the day.

Making my way upstairs, I slip into my bedroom and close the door behind me. There is no lock on the door, something Azar does not allow. He’s controlling, extremely controlling. He gives me my freedoms, which is how I am able to see Ruslan, but the second he thought that I was doing something he wouldn’t approve of, he would take those small freedoms away in a heartbeat.

The only locks we’re allowed to have, are on the bathroom doors. Everything else is to remain accessible to him.

Sinking down in my oversized chair, I pull the blanket over my legs and reach for the paperback book that I’ve been trying to read for the past three months. I usually only get a page in before someone needs me for something.

The same thing happens today. The door opens. I know that it’s not either of the wives, they would knock if they wanted to order me to do something. It’s not the kids, because the wives have made sure that they pretty much hate me.

It can only be Azar.

Lifting my head, I look over to see him standing in the doorway. It’s still sunny outside, so I’m pretty sure that he’s home early. He gives me a small smile, his eyes moving over my face as he does. He can’t see my body, the way that I’m sitting, so he has no choice but to look at my face, something that is extremely rare since his eyes are typically focused on my tits.

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