The next day was one of the worst days of Jenna’s entire life. She hadn’t slept at all, not even a wink, and what bothered her the most, is that Hudayfah didn’t even stir to check on her when she normally would have had her nightmare. He didn’t move from his position with his back to her the entire night and it had hurt her more than she cared to admit.

He didn’t speak when they ate their breakfast, he didn’t speak when they packed their bags, he didn’t speak when they went in the elevator, when they checked out, when they got in the limo. He didn’t even help her out of the car when they got home, walking ahead of her. At least he held her suitcase, but that just might be because they passed by his men leaving while they were coming in, and he probably didn’t want them to know they were fighting.

“Hey! It’s the sort of newlyweds!” Emma exclaimed as they came into the house, and Jenna almost burst into tears at the sight of her sister, but she managed a weak chuckle.

“Salaam Emma.” Hudayfah said as he handed Jenna her bag, and Emma raised an eyebrow as he turned away from her.

“Walaikumasalaam. How was your night?”

“Great, I have business to do, I’ll see you at dinner.” He said in Jenna’s direction, before he headed towards the stairs. Jenna put her bag down with a sigh, and headed towards the kitchen, Emma following.

“Hey Jen, what’s the name of Hud’s cousin?” Emma asked, and Jenna raised an eyebrow.

“Now he’s Hud?”

Emma shrugged.

“Why not? He is my brother now. Don’t tell me you still call him Hudayfah? At least you must have a pet name for him with all those darlings he throws out!”

Jenna didn’t say anything, reaching for a glass and filling it with water.

No she didn’t have a pet name for him, and she wondered if it bothered him.

“Which cousin are you talking about? The girls?”

Emma waved her hand.

“Please why would I be asking about them? No offense or anything, they are very sweet. I’m talking about the guy.”

“Jafar or Ali?”

“Okay which one is the quiet one?”

“That’s Jafar.”

“How old is he?”

“Twenty five.”

“What’s he do for a living?”

“Um I think he’s a pharmacist.”

“Is he married?”

“No,” Jenna’s eyes narrowed as she lowered her glass. “Why?”

Emma grinned.

“He’s kind of sexy.”

“Emma!” Jenna exclaimed, and her sister laughed.

“What!? He’s got that tall, dark, handsome, brooding thing going. He’s like a real life Mr. Darcy!”

Yeah if Mr. Darcy was potentially a double crosser.

“Stay away Em.” Jenna warned, and Emma frowned.

“What it’s not like I was going to throw myself at him. Give me some credit Jenna.”

Jenna sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Emma, that’s not what I was implying at all. I promise you.”

Emma shrugged.

“Whatever.” She reached over towards the bowl in the middle of the island and grabbed a banana before glancing back up at her sister. “So what really happened between you and Hud last night? I know no loving happened by the way he wasn’t all over you.”

Jenna felt her face heat up at her sister’s choice of words. Emma was not known for being tactful.

“Did you have to say that?” she asked.

“What?” Emma asked with a shrug. “We are both adults, and it’s not like I actually said the word.”

“Okay, shut up!” Jenna said, holding up a hand before her sister could say anything else horrifying. “We got into a fight.”

Emma took a bite out of her banana.

“How come?” she asked once she had swallowed.

“It’s a long story.”

Emma leaned back in her chair, and put her feet up on the island.

“My flight doesn’t leave until Tuesday. I’ve got time.”

Jenna rolled her eyes but leaned forward. Maybe it would make her feel better to talk about it, but Emma and Maria still didn’t know about the whole Jamaal thing so she had to be very careful about what she said.

“Apparently he had a fiancée like six months before we got married.”

Emma’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“No way! How’d you find out?!”

“Muhsin.”

Emma rolled her eyes.

“Muhsin’s word isn’t exactly credible.”

“Yeah well,” Jenna shifted uncomfortably, “I found proof of it in his office.”

“Aw Jenna tell me you didn’t go through his office?!”

“I know! I know I shouldn’t have but I had to know if Muhsin was right!”

“And you confronted him last night of all nights?” Emma asked in disbelief, and Jenna groaned.

“I know it sounds crazy. But it’s been going around and around in my head and well I couldn’t let any,” she blushed slightly, “loving happen without knowing the truth.”

Emma smiled slightly before glancing at the ceiling thoughtfully.

“And what did he say?”

“He freaked out naturally. Said I should have come to him and asked instead of snooping.”

“He’s right you know. But he didn’t say anything about it?”

Jenna shook her head.

“No.”

“What exactly did you find? Maybe it just didn’t work out between them, and he didn’t see the need to tell you?”

“I found a love letter, a marriage license and conditions for their marriage, and a diamond ring.” She took another drink. “Even her Maher was listed.”

Emma let out a low whistle and put her banana down.

“Wow. That’s…wow. Okay.” She ran a hand through her hair before propping it under her chin. “Were they actually married then?”

Jenna shrugged

“I don’t know. There were another few papers which I only got to read the first line of, but it looked like it could have been divorce papers.

Emma whistled again, and put a hand on Jenna’s.

“You have to confront him Jen. You have to.”

Jenna shook her head.

“He’s so pissed. He’s not even talking to me. He didn’t say a single word to me since the argument last night. He didn’t even wake me up for prayer. I was just lucky I was already awake and hadn’t slept at all, otherwise I would have probably missed it.”

“What a baby.” Emma said with a scoff, and Jenna rolled her eyes.

“He’s still my husband Emma.”

“Yeah well you two need to fix it. I’m not gonna spend my last few days here watching you two fight! Pray Istikharaa about whether or not you should talk to him or wait for him to bring it up.”

Jenna nodded.

“That’s a good idea.” She sighed, and re pinned her Hijab. “Where’s Maria?”

“She went with Rana, Hind and Hikmah to get groceries.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?”

Emma shrugged.

“I wanted to wait for you. I had a strange feeling you would need me.”

Jenna smiled and put her arms around her sister.

“I miss you.”

“Me too Jen.”

*** Hudayfah sat at his desk, staring at the drawer that held Marwa’s things. He still couldn’t believe that she had gone through his office. Part of him was still furious beyond belief. But the other part…well it missed her. He missed falling asleep holding her, and he missed praying Fajr with her, and it had only been one night! He didn’t like being mad at her, and he was desperately trying to give an excuse to why she did it so he could forgive her. He could just say that Muhsin probably manipulated her emotions, he was good at that, and she just didn’t feel comfortable enough around him to just ask.

Okay that was it.

Ugh but he was still so mad!

Or maybe still a little bit shocked?

To hear Marwa’s name come out of Jenna’s mouth was like a slap in the face and for a moment he had actually drawn a blank. He hadn’t even known what to say or think. Perhaps he had overreacted with the whole ‘I can’t even look at you’ thing, but he had a right to be upset. Just because he was so desperately in love with her didn’t mean she was perfect. Everyone had their flaws and everyone made mistakes. It was just up to Hudayfah to forgive her and let them mend.

“Hud are you even listening!?”

Hudayfah looked up at his cousin and shook his head.

“Sorry Ali what did you say?”

“I said, are Jenna and Emma twins?”

Hudayfah shook his head.

“No, Jenna’s older.”

“They are identical though!” Rami exclaimed.

“Emma has freckles on her nose.” Jafar said quietly, and the other three men looked at him in amusement.

“How do you know that?” Rami asked, and Jafar’s face turned red.

“I just observed it.”

“Why did you just observe it with her in particular? You don’t usually ‘observe’ girls.” Ali teased, and Jafar flushed deeper.

“Okay leave him alone.” Hudayfah said, though he himself was trying not to smile. Jafar was the polar opposite of his brother, and while Ali had found ‘the one’ twenty times in the past year at least, Jafar had never even mentioned a girl.

“I’m going to go downstairs, there is a Knicks versus the Celtics game on, and Houssam Shaykh is playing. God I love that guy!” Ali said, and Jafar stood up also.

“I’ll join you.” He said.

“Maybe I’ll come down as well once I finish this.” Hudayfah said.

“Okay cool. Rami?”

Rami shook his head.

“I have some laundry to do.” He said, and of course only Hudayfah understood laundry to be visiting Omar. It still wasn’t safe for the poor guy to leave the room, so Hudayfah was trying to make it as comfortable as possible.

“Okay. See you soon.” Ali said, and once his cousins had left the room, Rami looked at him.

“Alright spill. What’s wrong?”

“What?” Hudayfah asked in surprise, and Rami rolled his eyes.

“Come on Hud. You’ve been spacy all day, you’ve barely said two words, and you’ve been scowling at your desk since I got here. So either your desk offended you somehow, or there is something going on. Spill it.”

Hudayfah gave a short laugh before sighing, and rubbing a hand over his jaw.

“Things didn’t exactly go well last night.”

Rami frowned.

“Uh, is this a conversation I want to hear?”

Hudayfah shook his head.

“Shut up, nothing like that. Jenna asked me who Marwa was.

“Ooh,” Rami said with a wince, “Rana spill the beans?”

Hudayfah shook his head.

“She went through my desk.”

Rami’s mouth dropped before he laughed.

“What?! Little Jen?! That’s so funny.”

Hudayfah glared at him.

“It’s not funny!”

“It’s kind of funny.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Don’t tell me you lost it on her?”

Hudayfah shrugged.

“I wouldn’t say lost it. But I did get angry with her and sort of stormed out of the room then refused to speak with her.”

Rami groaned.

“Well what did she see?”

“The ring, the marriage license, the letter she wrote to me, some other things.” He said and Rami groaned again.

“Poor thing. Look Hud. I know she shouldn’t have done what she did, but imagine how horrified she must have felt to see those things. Imagine the fear and insecurities. She right now, is thinking that her husband is in love with someone else. That she was just the replacement that you got stuck with because you had to marry her. Look at it from her point of view.”

Hudayfah ran a hand through his hair.

“Yeah I guess.”

“Fix it with her. You love her, I think she’s beginning to fall for you too, you wasted a perfectly good wedding night.” He shrugged. “Go make it better.” Hudayfah nodded before sighing.

“Alright.” He turned off his computer screen. “You going to go see Omar and Muhsin?”

Rami nodded.

“Yes. And tell me again why you let Muhsin know that Omar is here?”

“You know that Muhsin has changed since coming here. Its almost like he is just the scared little freshman that I met our first year in college. I think it’s finally setting in that he is in danger. And poor Omar is lonely. I thought it would be nice for them to keep each other company.”



“Okay. Well I’m gonna go up for a while.” He stood up. “Fix it Hud!”