Chapter 56
There was only silence.
I would've asked on my knee with an overly expensive ring but Abdar Rahman was in my arms. And this was quite sudden.
"I..." She fiddled with the material of her scarf, looking at me from beneath her thick, dark eyelashes. "I—Are you sure?"
"Me?" Honestly, I was offended. "There's n.o.body I could ever want other than you, my sweet Leia. You've ruined me."
The tension was so thick in the room, it could've been cut with a sharp knife. Leia's breaths were laboured, coming in short rasps and I could see her getting agitated.
"It's okay," I said, though my chest tightened with worry. "You don't have to give an answer right now."
There were many reasons she could deny me but there was one I was most anxious about: I wasn't religious. Only a few months ago I had started performing my daily obligatory prayers and that was all. I was no way near her level.
"No," she said suddenly.
My heart broke. It was so shattered that I thought, this is it, this is the last time it ever beat. I would die after this. I would drown and I would—
"No, I can give an answer now,"
My head swiveled up. "What?"
"Look, Zayn," She gulped in a deep breath. "Even when we were children, I saw the real you beneath all the glares and the darkness you surround yourself with. So, I have never cared what other people said of you. Because they had never even known you. I see now, just as I saw then. There's so much more to you than you let on. Even more than you think." She closed her eyes to take in a breath. I wasn't breathing at all. "I guess what I'm trying to say is: yes. A hundred times, yes, yes, yes. It would be an honour to become your wife, Zayn."
"What?" I said, almost in a daze.
Leia grinned, though her eyes glinted with moisture. "You want me to repeat the whole speech?"
Her smile was infectious, immediately causing my own lips to curl up. I shook my head. Then nodded. So, she repeated. Yes, yes, yes. In every word, I found joy. They hit my heart like splinters of fire; like shards of ice. The latter just as meaningful as the former.
Those three words were at the tip of my tongue but I swallowed them in. Soon, I would tell her how much I loved her.
Very soon.