CHAPTER No.4 ||PART 5/29||
Ijaz had a huge issue with anyone that I adored or admired, especially those in my family. My older
brother and eldest nephew were considered the geniuses of the family. But a good word about them led
Ijaz to immediately ridicule them, and then to ridicule me. They both visited us only once, and their
visits resulted in so much stress that even I didn’t want them to visit again. Spending money on me and
my kids was bad enough, but Ijaz did not take kindly to spending any money on my family. However, he
would spend more than we had just to win over those he wanted to impress. In the end, his complexes
and insecurities won out, and my attempts to reason with him failed altogether.
As I devoted myself to making sure everything was clean as expected, I stumbled on ill-kept secrets.
In the writing desk was my new husband’s true life partner: two bottles of alcohol, hidden away.
Alcohol was not something I had seen while I was growing up. Alcohol is disapproved of, and not
generally kept in the homes of Muslim families. I came from a family where the men did not even drink
with friends outside of the home. I have always considered alcohol to be nothing more than a socially
acceptable drug. I never touched the substance myself. When he came home, I questioned him softly.
There was no shouting or screaming my end, just a simple question. His response to the new wife was
two words.
“Stupid bitch”.