Half an Unseen Heart (Part 1)
Loading...
Part 1
There are people who carry in their chests half an unseen heart, a half known only to those who dare to approach, a half that remains hidden between silence and darkness. There is a story that breathes between light and shadow, between pain and concealment, where love begins from half a hidden heart, but the complete feeling is born from the courage to see and accept. «I chose you not because you completed me, but because you accepted my incompleteness.»
Sometimes tales begin with a deceptive calmness...
A normal day, fleeting details, and hearts that do not know destiny will change everything...
She didn't know that moment would be the dividing line between what she was...
And what she will become.
In that city that hides more than it reveals, our story began.
In a quiet house amidst the beautiful calm neighborhoods, a girl in her early twenties named Sana Abdullah Al-Sharif woke up to the voice of her mother, Madam Hoda, saying to her:
"Girl, Sana, wake up now so you don't be late for your university. Get up and wake your brother Eyad so he isn't late for his work too."
Mama Hoda, or as Sana likes to call her "Hodhod", is a woman in her early fifties, with a big heart. Always smiling, despite what she has endured,
She has a beautiful way of caring for her children after the death of her husband, her affectionate life companion. Abdullah Al-Sharif, who died 10 years ago in an orchestrated accident.
As soon as Sana opened her hazel eyes, the dim morning light reflected in them, a burdened look. She blinked slowly, as if trying to chase away the day's weight before it began. Her brown hair fell around her face spontaneously, scattered locks resembling her thoughts, as she tried to think about her scattered dreams before the reality of the new day took over. She felt the sun's warmth sneaking through her room's window, despite the autumn cold, but it couldn't erase that hidden feeling weighing her heart with a sense of responsibility since early morning.
Sana said to her mother with a yawn, "Good morning, Hodhod. I'm so hungry, starving. What breakfast did you make for us with these sweet hands of yours?"
Hoda laughed with resentment, "You only care about your stomach, girl. Wash your face first... A doctor she says, what a mess, it doesn't even show on you, not even the sip of water you drink."
Sana jokingly to her mother as she stepped into the bathroom to perform ablution,
"Just say it, Ms. Hoda, you're jealous of me because I'm curvy."
Hoda threw her house slipper at her... The other continued teasingly, "My love, Hodhod, thank you, spring of tenderness, for all this love. Now go wake up your precious son so he isn't late for his work, acting like a prosecutor when he doesn't even match Uncle Abdo the doorman."
Sana was surprised by a hand landing on the back of her neck, and it was none other than
Eyad, her older brother. "What's your business with the prosecutor now? What if I lock you up on charges of slander and defamation, ruining your future while you're only a meter and fifty?"
Sana jumped up, straightening her posture, saying proudly, "Easy, easy, Uncle Eyad, I'm 151 cm, are you going to eat a whole cm off me... You are a man of the law and know the penalty for fraud." He grabbed her stubbornly by the lapels of her childish pajamas.
"You entirely don't even add up to the size of Tom Thumb from the old days."
Sana, trying to free herself from her brother's hand, "Man, let go, I'm no match for you, let go, leave me, can't you see the size difference? A skyscraper in front of Tom Thumb."
Her brother laughed at that teasing, as the house was never devoid of her joking.
Eyad Abdullah Al-Sharif is a 27-year-old young man possessing blue eyes like the sky when its colors mix with the colors of the waves, and an athletic body...
A man of the law, a "lawyer at the Court of Cassation," residing in his home with his family, consisting of his mother and younger sister Sana.
"May God compensate me in my children, oh Lord," Hoda said, entrusting her affair to God regarding the childishness of her children, the apples of her eye.
Eyad went and seated her, kissing her hand and forehead, saying tenderly, "What's wrong, my beautiful Hadoush? Why are you upset and angry this early morning? Just tell me who upset you, mother of all, and I'll know how to get your rights back from them." He was trying to raise his voice slightly so that the teaser could hear.
But Sana was faster than him, laughing and saying, "Speak your size, Mr. Dony, you know what my abilities can do to you," standing with her hands on her waist.
Eyad pounced on her, grabbing her pajama collar, "Are you up to these words, girl, while you're just a span and a half?" He carried her in his hand, exercising with her in an overhead arm press.
Sana jokingly and with a scared scream, "Believe it or not, I can see the sea from up here.
Boy, Eyad, put me down, I'll fall and break, damn you."
Hoda saying with exhaustion of patience from them both, "That's enough, Sana, stop picking on your brother and come on so you can go to your university."
"And you, Eyad, come on my dear, put her down so you're not late for your work."
Sana resenting her mother's tenderness towards her brother, "Yeah, Mrs. Mama, Eyad is your favorite, while I'm the black duck's daughter. He's the precious one, what can we say."
Hoda took off her light house slipper again and threw it at her while she was above her brother's arm, "So I'm a black duck, you mistake?" Sana gasped dramatically, "I'm a mistake!!"
And Hoda completed her drama, "And regretting it too... I was content with Eyad, but you really came as a mistake. What can we say about God's will, praise be to God for what He afflicted me with."
Sana with artificial sadness while suspended in the air above Eyad's arm, "I know no one loves me in this house. I'll take myself and walk away from here, and not even the white jinn will know a trace of me."
Her brother commenting in astonishment, "What a white day, you even made the blue jinn white."
The doorbell rang, and Hoda opened it, only for a girl in her mid-twenties, a few months younger than Sana, to jump on her...
Farida Al-Nabawi, whose father and mother died since her childhood in a traffic accident on their way back from the Hijaz "Hajj," studying in her final year of medical school specializing in pediatrics.
Farida with a strong hug, "Mamaaaa Hoda, I missed you so much."
Hoda choking, "Easy, girl, careful, you'll kill me. It'll be you and them against me."
Farida saying with nostalgia to her adoptive and upbringing mother, kissing her cheek strongly,
"A thousand times God forbid for you, Hodhod, God willing your enemies instead."
Hoda hugged her affectionately, for she was the one who raised her and brought her up with her children,
She doesn't differentiate her from her daughter Sana, and also because she is her friend's daughter.
For a moment, she looks in panic at her friend suspended in the air. "Did you move the gym here, Dido? You're bullying the girl just because she's weak and no match for you."
Eyad put his sister down on the ground after counting 100 moves in the air with his sister.
Sana added, saying, "Oh my God, my legs can't hold me, help me, I'm going to fall."
And tried to hold on to her brother, saying with nervousness and irritation,
"Mind you, Eyad, the big has someone bigger, and the strong has someone stronger, and God is against the oppressor, and God is sufficient for me, and He is the best disposer of affairs."
And she fled to Farida, hiding behind her, and went to her room.
She put on her prayer garment calmly, as if the movement itself was a ritual preparing her soul for tranquility before her body. Everything inside her suddenly settled; the house's noise, the teasings, the morning laughs... all took a step back.
Sana stood on the prayer rug, adjusting her garment, and whispering:
"God is the greatest..."
In those short moments, she felt she was returning to her own balance point. No university, no brother's joking, no mother's and friend's comments, just her and her Lord. And a small space of peace she needs every morning to continue her day.
And with the first Takbeer, Sana realized that this calmness is her true weapon...
Before returning once again to a world that never stops moving.
Sana finished the reverence of her prayer, passed her palms over her face, then rose feeling a strange lightness, as if the prayer had arranged the morning's chaos inside her.
Then she headed towards the closet where she gets dressed to prepare to go down to her university.
She put on her pants quickly, then the shirt, and gathered her brown hair in a quick tie, looking at the clock and muttering:
"There's still time... Thank God, Fari, come on so we can catch the lectures from the beginning instead of getting kicked out."
She picked up her bag from the chair, and stood in front of the mirror for a brief moment.
She didn't look for perfection, just made sure she was ready for a long day,
The day of a student studying at the Faculty of Psychiatry.
Knowing very well that minds are sometimes more exhausted than hearts.
From outside the room, her mother's voice reached her, assuring her.
"Take care of yourself, Sana, you and Farida, and don't be late."
To confirm, saying at the same time: "Okay, Hodhod."
And Eyad's voice getting ready to go down.
Sana with a malicious coquetry, "Dido, my love, tell me something..."
Eyad quickly anticipating her request,
"I won't drop you off in the car because I'm late for the office. Order an Uber."
Sana pouting her lips to gain his sympathy,
"They kidnap girls, Dido. Would it please you if Sansoona, your beloved sister,
And the apple of your eye gets kidnapped, along with this poor orphan girl Fari, and they sell our organs and no one gets news of us except the fish that will eat us in the sea?"
"He would have done me a favor, served me and all of humanity, and wronged himself, I swear..
And
Besides, mind your own business with the girl Farida, she's my upbringing...
But you are a foundling staying with us by force and might.."
Farida coquettishly, "Love of my heart, Dido, I swear I adore you."
Sana with burning annoyance, "May a gecko love you both."
"Alright, I'm going down, Mother, peace be upon you."
Eyad said it, kissing his mother's hand, ready for his descent.
Hoda with prayer and wishing,
"May God light your path, provide for you, place the children of halal in your path, oh Lord, expand your livelihood, my son, and grant you victory."
And Sana and Farida went down to the university...
********************
On the other side, the private jet landed
On its designated helipad atop the building's roof,
It was the Al-Fares Engineering Group of Companies.
A number of security men and special forces lined up, spread out on the edges with organized calmness, communication devices in their ears, and their looks scanning the place accurately.
He sat in the plane for a few minutes, his green eyes gleaming with intelligence like a falcon, watching the location of his group of companies from the plane's window. His black hair was carefully styled, and his light brown skin added to his strict presence. He didn't speak, and he didn't need words: his looks alone were enough to announce his presence. He sighed quietly, and prepared to disembark, the cold autumn air touched his face and hair,
And the dim sun smiled at him on his brown skin but he didn't seem affected,
Everything seemed calm before him, and every step emitted a presence that couldn't be ignored.
Every movement of his created an impression that the whole place moves with a word from him
And goes as he pleases,
The plane's door opened... He descended and moved with steady steps towards the side entrance leading to the private elevator, that elevator doesn't pass through any public floor.
An elevator known only to the tight administrative circle.
He headed straight from the elevator to his private office guarded by a tight security force, and as soon as he closed the door behind him, he threw his coat aside, and sat on his chair quietly.
On the lower floors, the employees were starting their day as usual;
Morning meetings, quick coffee, fleeting laughs in the corridors.
They didn't know that the company's owner was already inside the building.
Fares Kamal Al-Shazly... 30 years old
And he is the owner of Al-Fares Engineering Group of Companies
Only minutes had passed before the door was opened forcefully. And a cheerful young man of the same age entered
His entry didn't need permission, for the place knows him as it knows its owner.
"I swear to God I didn't believe my ears when they told me you came...
Nor do I believe my eyes seeing you in front of me in flesh and blood..."
Man, I thought they killed you and threw you to the street dogs who ate your corpse."
A grim look from Fares drew on his face, as if darkness settled in his eyes,
And that look carried the weight of what he went through in those days and secrets he didn't reveal to anyone.
Selim continued, "No sense or news from you for 6 months, you didn't even say you were coming except this morning... Tell me what happened Fares, what did you do there and why were you so late? Didn't we agree that there's no return to that path again, my friend..."
A complete silence lasted for minutes, nothing was heard but his friend's quiet breaths,
Selim nervously, "Fares, I'm not talking to myself, answer me...
Reassure me and tell me what you did."
Fares quietly and with a resonant voice contradicting what was apparent on his face: "Selim, lower your voice, I can't bear it, I swear."
Selim angrily: "How cold you are, brother... I swear I'm at fault for worrying about you, may you and they burn in kerosene..."
Selim Raouf Al-Shihabi... completed the third decade of his life. Fares's lifelong friend.
Strong-built, athletic body, warm wheatish skin, and brown eyes,
Despite the seriousness of his profession, his nature is cheerful; he works as a special forces officer.
"I'll tell you later, Selim, but come on, drop me home in your car, let's go."
Fares said it with evident exhaustion on his face.
Then he headed towards a side door inside the office indistinguishable from the rest of the wall. He opened it with a special key, revealing a secret corridor known only to the inner circle.
Selim stepped behind him in silence.
A few minutes, and they were inside an internal elevator taking them straight down to the garage.
And they rode the tinted-glass car, a slight silence filling the place.
But Fares's mind didn't silence for a moment... what is this mysterious man thinking about...
Selim drove the car with half a mind, his eyes following the road unconsciously,
Preoccupied with his friend's talk, Selim and Fares arrived, and entered through the palace entrance together, where at the inner palace entry gate Selim rang the doorbell.
For one of the palace maids to open...
Dada Aziza: Selim Bey, thank God for your safety. Please come in, the family is inside at the dining table, not seeing the one beside him disguised...
Selim welcomingly, "God bless you, Dada."
And he stepped forward with Fares behind him, and as soon as Dada Aziza saw him, she couldn't believe her eyes... She gasped, hitting her hand on her chest, Fares Bey...
He looked at her with nostalgia and couldn't utter a letter.
They entered together into the dining room, and Fares greeted them all.
Saying: Peace be upon you...
Echoing "And upon you be peace and ........" shocked by what they see,
******************
In the most prestigious areas of Cairo, Eyad sits heading his office,
At Counselor Akram Al-Shazly's Office for Law and Legal Consultations.
This office wasn't just a luxurious space where files piled up...
But it was a silent world where battles are managed quietly.
Sunlight sneaked through the wide glass facades, reflecting on carefully lined shelves, carrying law books and judicial rulings that witnessed years of conflict, victory, and loss...
Eyad sits behind his desk with a cup of plain coffee in hand, to follow up on some important case files placed before him, moving between them with calmness and focus. The place looked organized, reflecting the nature of legal work and the prevailing discipline. That silence wasn't broken except by the sound of papers,
And the voice of his friend joking as he pushed the door forcefully...
"Police stations, prosecutions, family courts, marriages, and divorces in the morning.
By your conscience, are these faces anyone should start their morning with."
Zein said it sarcastically as he shook hands with his friend Eyad.
The other threw a new criminal case file at him.
Saying with artificial sharpness: Akram Bey recommended that no one works on this case file but you, "And by tomorrow morning at the latest, it should be done..."
He opened the file for two seconds and closed it again, saying with a fabricated tone,
Tomorrow what? What do you guys see me as? A magician?"
Eyad with a joking calmness: If you have an objection, report it to Akram Bey yourself.
I delivered the message. "Oh God, I have conveyed."
Zein with artificial anger: "I don't know if he's my father or my stepfather to do this to me... Instead of starting my morning with a sweet, soft babe to lighten my mood, calm my nerves, and say good morning Baby, I start it with this case."
Zein Akram Al-Shazly... 27 years old, works as a lawyer at his father Akram Al-Shazly's office,
His brown hair with his white skin and hazel-grey eyes...
Attracts all girls to him, from his childhood through his study days at the Faculty of Law up to his work until now...
His main preoccupation is women, he dies for messing around, the boy breathes women...
He barely finished his speech until he was interrupted by the ringing of his phone to take a look at the caller...
And he answered: "My love, Soly, I missed y...
" Selim interrupting, "Zein, drop everything in your hand and come home immediately. And bring Eyad with you."
Zein jokingly: "Got a babe and hiding her or what, boy?"
Selim sharply: "Not the time for joking, Zein, come immediately."
Zein hung up the call astonished, took Eyad, and they rushed out of the office heading to the Al-Shazly family home...
******************
Tell me your honest opinion, it will make a big difference to me. I accept criticism.
But let me catch a girl writing something like this or that
Or not liking the part. "He who warns is excused." 😍🔪
Love you so much... Mayada Magdy 💗
******************