The next morning, I can barely sit through breakfast. My hands tremble as I pour tea for Baba, avoiding Nargis’s sharp gaze. She always notices too much, and today I can’t risk her reading the secret burning inside me.
As soon as I can, I grab my bag and leave, telling Baba I’m going to the library. In truth, I’m heading straight to Aira’s.
She opens the door with her usual smile, but it fades the second she sees my face.
“What happened? Did something go wrong?” she asks, pulling me inside.
I sink into her couch, my heart thudding so fast it feels like it might burst out of me. “No,” I whisper, my throat tight. “It went right. Too right. I got in.”
Her eyes widen. “Wait—what? Hiba, are you serious?”
I nod, biting my lip, and finally let myself smile. “ Imperial college london. With scholarship.”
Aira lets out a scream so loud her little brother peeks in from the hallway. She waves him away and grabs my hands, shaking them. “Do you even realize how huge this is? This is your dream!”
“I know,” I murmur, my chest aching. “But now comes the hard part. How do I tell them? Nargis will… she’ll kill me with her words. And Baba—he won’t fight for me.”
Aira’s face softens. She knows too well how my house works. She squeezes my hand tighter.
“Hiba, listen to me. You’ve worked for this. You earned it. You can’t let her take it away. Your Baba may not say much, but deep down, he cares. If you talk to him with honesty, maybe—just maybe—he’ll listen.”
I shake my head, fear rising in my throat. “You don’t know Nargis. She’ll make it about herself, about ‘what people will say.’ She’ll twist it until Baba believes her.”
Aira leans forward, her voice firm. “Then don’t let her twist it. Speak before she does. Tell Baba first, directly, from your heart. Don’t hide it. And even if they say no… at least you’ll know you fought for yourself.”
Her words sit heavy in my chest, half terrifying, half freeing.
For a moment, I imagine it — me standing in the living room, saying the words out loud. “Baba, I got a scholarship. Please let me go.” The thought makes my stomach turn, but it also plants a strange strength inside me.
Aira smiles softly, brushing my arm. “You’re stronger than you think, Hiba. You’ve always been.”
I exhale slowly, as though releasing some of the fear. “Okay,” I whisper. “I’ll tell them. Tonight.”
As soon as i say that Aira's expression changes into something else like she was holding something in and could not hold the excitement “Spill what ever it is” then she goes “ I got the approval letter too!!” she almost let out another big scream to which her brother burst into the room “Well someone better be dead” to which we just burst out laughing.
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