The Contract Read Online Free PDF Page B

Ami.”
    Hussain sounded tired and even more reluctant than usual to come home. What had happened
    between those two? None of the servants had heard or seen anything. Natasha had been too happy to
    have her father around to have noticed anything of note and Shahaan was still too young to spy for her.
    He had benefitted by the presence of a male in the meager two days Hussain had so generously
    bestowed on them. She felt sorry for the little boy.
    “So is everyone else, Hussain, but people take time out for each other. It will be extremely rude
    and unforgivable if you don’t come. Javed looks upon you as his own son.”
    Hussain sighed and said noncommittally, “I’ll try, Ami. I have to go now.”
    That was the best she could get out of him.

    * * *

    Shahira was excited about the wedding. Hussain’s family had embraced her lovingly, and she was
    especially good friends with the younger lot. All the girls idealized her, and some of the older boys
    liked to flirt with her. She let them, because no one had ever flirted with her before and it was
    harmless fun once you got the hang of it. They were just kids anyway.
    The phone rang. “Hi, Shahira, it’s Nudrat.”
    “Hey, you! Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in ages.”
    Nudrat was the wife of one of Hussain’s oldest friends and they’d got along from day one. She had
    made quite an effort to get to know Shahira.
    Teasingly, her voice slightly shrill, Nudrat said, “I heard you’ve been busy, too. I heard Hussain
    visited, and you didn’t even tell me, you sly little thing.”
    Shahira tsked. “That was two months ago and you were busy globe-trotting, yet again.”
    “Ohh! That’s right,” Nudrat said, and then added in her best wheedling tone, “So—tell me. How
    was it?”
    “It was okay. He stayed a couple of days.” Shahira replied lightly, not understanding her meaning.
    “Shahira, you’re deliberately being evasive. Give me all the details of your long-awaited wedding
    night. At last it happened. I swear most of us had offered nafal prayers for you.”
    Shahira laughed. For the life of her she didn’t understand how some women could share such
    intimate details with others but apparently they did. It was another thing to be competitive about. How
    many times? Whose husband was the most insatiable; apparently that woman was the luckiest. She
    shuddered.
    Trying to put on a flirtatious tone, she said, “Well, it was…amazing. Absolutely earth-shattering.”
    She’d read that somewhere.
    Nudrat sounded skeptical. “Give me details,” she said.
    “Er…I have to go now, Aunty’s calling me. Talk to you later, okay? Bye.”
    She disconnected the phone.
    Nudrat sat in her bedroom, the phone still in her hand. With a smirk, she said to no one in
    particular, “He didn’t touch you, did he? The little brown sparrow from nowhere.”
    She laughed in delight at her surmise.
    Nasir, her husband, had been married to someone else when she’d met him. It hadn’t taken Nudrat
    long to get rid of the wife and move into his house and his life. And it hadn’t taken him long to find a
    new mistress. Only Nudrat wasn’t going anywhere. Nasir’s money was the only attraction, and all the
    security, she had ever needed. She’d done what she had to, to get it.
    She and Rutaba had been like two peas in a pod. Hussain was a traditionalist, raised with those
    ancient ideas of morality that revolved around women not doing what men did. Why should a wife be
    faithful if her husband wasn’t? But in Rutaba’s case, her husband had been faithful while Rutaba had
    been a greedy, spoilt little rich girl, wanting everything that didn’t belong to her.
    So while she was sleeping with everyone else’s husbands, Nudrat had been there for Hussain. At
    first, she hadn’t told him about Rutaba’s infidelities; she’d made sure he trusted her first, spinning
    made-up stories of Nasir abusing her. Like all good men, Hussain was a sucker for a woman