The Longest Two Hours
The Woman Who Stayed- Chapter 24
The Longest Two Hours Part 1
There are evenings when minutes stretch into hours.
Tonight was one of them.
It had been two long hours since Fraz left for the gym, and my body was betraying me with every tick of the clock. My stomach churned. My heart pounded. My head spun as though I were bracing for a storm I could neither see nor stop.
Yesterday, I had tried to prepare myself. I had whispered quietly to my own heart that if the gym became an extended escape, I would accept it. But instead, he had returned after only an hour, catching me completely off guard. For one brief moment, hope had slipped back in.
Today felt different.
He had left in a brighter mood, more cheerful than he had been in days. That unsettled me almost as much as his absence. I had watched the heaviness he'd been carrying recently, yet today there was a lightness about him. And as the minutes crawled by, that lightness became heavier inside me, filling my mind with suspicion and dread.
I kept repeating the same words to myself.
He is not mine.
He belongs to her now.
I must let go.
But last night's quiet whisper of "I love you" had slipped past every defence I had carefully built. It had sounded so gentle. So sincere. So real.
Once again, my fragile heart reached for hope, as though it had forgotten every wound it had already survived.
So I waited.
Caught in that endless whirlpool of fear and longing.
Waiting for the front door to open.
Waiting to discover whether tonight would bring peace......or pain.
The Longest Two Hours- Part 2
At 11:10 p.m., the front door finally opened.
He had been gone for exactly two hours and twenty minutes.
My heart, already bruised by waiting, quietly sank.
I was upstairs, ironing what felt like an endless mountain of family clothes, trying to keep my restless hands busy while my mind fought battles of its own. By the time I came downstairs, he was already sitting at the table.
Three or four hurried spoonfuls of daal.
Almost as though he needed to create evidence.
His stomach looked heavy. Bloated.
The way it always did after he'd eaten a proper meal.
In that moment, I knew.
He had eaten at Bushra's.
He calmly explained that he'd finished the leftover hotpot.
But I knew there hadn't been any hotpot left.
His words were simple.
Yet they carried the unbearable weight of betrayal.
This pain felt different.
It cut more deeply than all the nights before.
This wasn't simply suspicion anymore.
It felt like reality sinking its teeth into my heart.
A quiet voice inside me whispered,
Today was your first true test.
And even through the ache, my soul turned instinctively towards Allah.
Ya Allah...
Keep me strong.
Grant me the dignity to stand tall.
Give me the patience to endure what I cannot yet change.
And give me the wisdom to protect my heart.