บท 2: The Mysterious Mark

Morning came too fast for Zamarad who had a very restless sleep for half of the night. A habit was in deed a disease for even after such a hectic night, her biological clock woke her up at exactly six o'clock in the morning.

The slender beauty opened her eyes lazily stretching her arms above her head. As she moved her body in the process of stretching, she felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen which made her yelp. Her left hand moved to hug her flat tummy as her right hand touched her racing heart.

It was as though her heart and the pain in her womb was related. This came as an automatic reaction but she didn't notice it. A few seconds passed by as the pain finally subsided.

Her tired hazel cat-like eyes opened once more as a sigh of relief left her lips. Is it because I didn't take supper? Or is my monthly visitor preparing to show up? She mused trying to think of a reason for such a pain this early.

The answer was likely to be the first assumption since it had been less than ten days after her last monthly period. If she could even joke about it, she was sure to be at her most fertile time of the month at the moment. I would probably get pregnant if I played tango with a guy, she thought letting out a silly chortle.

The girl sat up slowly and carefully in order to avoid any more pain that may occur. She realized that her body felt heavy. Her normally very light body now felt as though she had gained a few more pounds overnight. Probably because I didn't have a good night's rest.

She assumed dismissing any suspicious thought.

Zamarad stood up and headed for the lavish wash room. She went through her normal routine of taking a shower and brushing her teeth. She then wrapped her wet body up in a fluffy soft purple bathrobe before heading out of the room. She sat across the vanity mirror humming a happy tune until her gaze fell on the mirror.

The moment she saw her image in the mirror, panic struck her heart. Her initially hazel eyes had some specs of yellow in them. The long lashes that cover her eyes were even longer forming a curtain like mirage on her eyes.

Her brows looked well shaped and thick. What made her heart almost stop beating was the beautiful mole that appeared below her left eye.

She looked at her face not recognizing it. It felt as though her features upgraded overnight for better which she loved but also panicked about. How was this possible? What could have triggered such changes? Are these sudden changes limited to my face or? The moment that thought surfaced in her head, she yanked the bathrobe wide open and what she saw made her scream her lungs out.

She kept screaming until her vocal cords could take no more pressure from it. Her mind was running on an automatic overdrive as every logical reason was lost to her. I am going insane? No! This is not possible.

She screamed so much until her voice started fading. It was at this moment that the door was unlocked from outside. A tall handsome man came into the room without any hint of worry on his face.

Behind him followed an elegantly dressed gorgeous woman who looked like an older version of Zamarad. In her company were three more people who come could easily conclude were her children. Khalid, Rumi and Ramlah followed their mother into their youngest siblings' room.

"Why are you making all this noise this early?" The sharp irritated voice of Mustafa filled the room breaking Zamarad out of her head. She soon realized that she was standing almost naked in front of her parents and immediately tied up her robe with her face flushing a beautiful shade of pink.

"Sorry father! I was startled by a rat. It was quiet big," she spoke nervously. This was the man who was responsible for her nightmares. Though he was her biological father, he had always treated her like an outsider as did the other members of the family.

Though he did not abuse her physically, the emotional and psychological torture her family had inflicted on her was enough to make her forget her discovery and cower in fear.

"Your face looks different. Why does your face look different? "This question came from her second sister Ramlah who for some reason hated her the most. "What do you mean changed? I look the same way that I did yesterday. Stop insinuating things," Zamarad defended sharply.

This particular sister of hers was quiet hateful. She has been asking herself if she was really born to her parents throughout her eighteen years of life. Her father treated her as a bargaining chip every time. He never cares about her unless she had something that was of use to him.

She learned this the hard way though when she was just eight years old. Lucky for her, she somehow had an IQ greater than most of her peers. Her grades made her skip classes and proceed further ahead. Her father would brag about this to his friends whenever he wanted to make someone feel below his status

She thought he loved her but was proven wrong when her siblings decided to punish her for being smarter than them. They collaborated and made her stay in a cold dark tiny wardrobe in one of the store rooms. She had met her father on their way there and had pleaded with him for mercy but he showed none. He had looked up at her with contempt in his eyes and disregarded her.

A sharp sting on her cheeks brought her out of the memories she had carried with her all her life. She gazed up at her father who had laid his hands on her for the very first time in her life. Even though he never protected her, this was the first time that he had physical hurt her. Her eyes watered as she looked up at him with a question in her eyes.

"Why?"