Ignored Innocent Heart novel Chapter 12

After Hana was done with her 2nd semester exams, she got her summer vacations for three months. Hana was seventeen at that time. Every year, her parents took her on a road trip of three days to show her different places in Pakistan. She always looked forward to these trips as there was no other way for her to see places. Her parents never took her to any relative’s place. She did not know why but every time her parents had to attend a function or had to visit her other relatives like her Khala (Mother’s sister) or mamu (Mother’s brother) or any other relative from her mother’s or father’s side, they always left hana in Islamabad. She did not like to live without her parents so she always begged her parents to take her with them but they always refused.

Hana’s only social circle was consisted of Mishaal, Hana’s parents and now her university fellows. She made three new friends in university. All four of them were really popular in their department for being lazy, intelligent and abaya wearing. All four of them had a lot of things in common. They bonded so much that no one else can enter their close-knit group. All of them were the position holders with hana always being on the top. The second and third place was always taken by two of her other friends.

This time around, it was the last week of Ramadan and Eid was coming. Hana just got free from her exams and now she was excited for Eid shopping. It was going to be the first Eid after a long time with Rayaan for Hana. She was very excited.

“Now that Hana’s exams are over, I would like to take her out for shopping for Eid. Will it be okay if I take her tomorrow ammi?” hiba asked her mother-in-law at the dinner table. Everyone was eating dinner.

“You do know that Zamid and Zayn are coming back in three days! There are so many arrangements that have to be done! I think you should wait for some more days. Let Zamid and Zayn to be back from America then you can take her for shopping. It will still be two days for Eid and that’s plenty of time for Eid shopping.” Dadi Jaan said to her daughter-in-law. She said all this very calmly but everyone knew that she gets irritated with just the thought of Hana.

Hana was quietly eating her food and she got a shock from this new information about her brothers. She did not know that they were coming back.

‘Why nobody told me that bhai Zayn and bhai Zamid were coming back’ Hana thought with hurt. Hana looked at her mother and then her father but both of them were not looking at her. It looked like they were avoiding her gaze but she let it slid.

“Okay ammi! I’ll take her to shopping after they are back” hiba told to her mother-in-law in a soft voice.

All the other family members were silently listening to it and they remained quiet as they knew that Hana was not informed about their arrival because Zamid told them not to inform her. Zamid never liked her so he said that not to mention their arrival to her. Zayn was younger than Zamid and he followed Zamid in all of the things.

All the family can see that hana was hurt about not being informed about her own brothers’ arrival but she did not said anything.

After dinner, everyone went to their respective rooms to retire for the night as they have to wake up early for the Sahri. Hana helped the maids in the kitchen as her dado had given this duty to hana to help the maids in kitchen after every meal if she is at home. After she was done with helping in the kitchen, all the maids went to their quarter and she went to her parents’ room. Hana knocked on the door and went in after her mother told her to come-in.

“Mamma, why nobody told me that bhai aa rahay hain (Brothers are coming back)?” Hana asked in a soft voice.

“Idher meray pas ao (Come here, near me)!” Hiba beckoned her daughter towards herself on the bed and patted on the side for hana to sit. She walked towards the bed where her father was sleeping on one side with his back towards them and hiba was sitting on her side of bed. Hana sat down with her mother and her mother hugged her from one side.

“You were busy with your exams my love so I didn’t want to disturb you and distract you from your studies. That is why I did not tell you!” Hiba said in a soft and soothing voice. Hana just nodded and hugged her mother very tightly.

“What’s wrong dear?” Hiba asked in worry as hana had hugged her after a long time now. Hana was hugging hiba as if her life depended on it.

“Nothing! I just wanted to tell you and baba that I love you guys a lot!” hana said in a muffled voice.

“Aww! My baby!” Hiba said with a big smile. She hugged hana back with equal force. After a little while, they separated and hana stood up to go back to her room.

“Hiba! What are you doing! Don’t you remember that Zamid specifically told everyone not to take her with you! Did not he said that he does not want to even see Hana’s face then how can you even think about taking her with you! You do know that both of the boys will be very upset! How can you upset them after all they are coming after so long! I missed my children and I don’t want to spoil their moods by taking this girl with us!” dadi jaan said angrily to hiba. Hiba nodded weekly and looked at hana to send her back to her room.

Hana listened to all this very quietly and she silently turned around before her mother can tell her to and went back upstairs.

“You should not take stress and get angry dadi jaan! It is not good for your health! But you should not be so harsh on hana! She is just a child! She must be very hurt! You know na how much she adores her brothers and then you told all this in front of her!” Rayaan said softly to his dadi while trying to sooth her anger.

“That girl does not like anyone! She is just pretending all this! I hate these types of double faced people!” dadi jaan said in anger and marched outside and sat in the back seat of one of the cars.

Everyone followed dadi jaan and sat in the awaiting cars and all of them were gone within minutes, leaving hana alone in her room.

Hana was silently crying in her pillow. She could not understand why her own family doesn’t like her. She was also very hurt that her mother lied to her. Hana was continuously crying for half an hour. After all the crying, she went in her washroom and cleaned herself up and went down to help the maids in the kitchen.

After an hour, the cars were back and everyone came back with Zamid and Zayn. Hana took refreshments from the kitchen for everyone and went in the living room to serve them. She said her salaam to her brothers with a fake smile. Both of them replied back. Zamid replied without even looking at her while Zayn smiled at her and returned her greeting. He even commented that how she had grown so much. At this small comment, hana got a real smile on her face but then all of them went back to talking with each other so she went back in the kitchen and set the table for lunch.

Bothe of her brothers had their luch as all the others were fasting and then all of them went to their rooms to get some rest. Hana cleaned the kitchen with the help of the maids and then went to her room. She offered her duhr prayer and sat on her bed. Hana just silently kept staring at her wall. Her phone started beeping and this got hana out of her thinking. She looked at the ID and a large smile bloomed on her face. She attended the call and talked for a long time with the other person.