SantaClaus &Tooth Fairy-FF,Chapt 16 updated,(23/7) PG 70 - Page 3

CHAPTER2:

At the park, Zoya distributed the last of her gifts to a cute little boy clutching the hands of his mother and crying inconsolably. But the moment she appeared in front of him as Santa Claus , the boy stopped crying and looked at her in awe. She smiled inwardly and held out the gift in her hand; each of her gift was wrapped in shiny red wrapping paper with small twinkling stars on it and tied with a bow made of white ribbon. The little boy was at first hesitant to take the gift but after an approving nod from his mother, he put his hand forward and accepted the gift from Zoya's hand. And right that moment the boy's face which was completely red and blotched from all the crying he did few minutes back, transformed into pure joy; and it was this look of joy and happiness on each child's face when she gave a gift that made Zoya's day and filled her heart with satisfaction and contentment.

After the little boy went away with his mother, Zoya sighed in satisfaction and slumped herself on the grass nearby. She was really tired by walking around the park after a hectic day at office, but all her efforts were worthwhile and she felt a kind of bliss she has not experienced since days.

By then, the sun had almost disappeared from the horizon and the park was almost empty. Zoya sat lost in her thoughts thinking of her childhood and how she got interested in Santa Claus and fairy tales.

*********************

Zoya Siddique came into this world 25 years back, born to parents whom the world thought were so much in love with each other that they would give that much love and cherish the beautiful daughter with which they were blessed that day. Little did they know that cracks have appeared in the perfect marriage of Mr.Siddigue and his wife Zainab Siddique. Zoya's parents Siddique and Zainab met at college and fell in love in no time. Theirs was a kind ofl love story which would be said as the stuff of Bollywood romantic movies. Siddique came from a well off family and Zainab was a poor girl and Siddique's parents arranged his marriage with a girl who belonged to the same social status as them and they refused to budge when Siddique said that he would not marry anyone other than Zainab. Finally Siddique and Zainab ran off together and got married in secret, enraging his parents to the extent that they cut all ties with him and dispelled him from the family business as well.

But Siddique being educated and a hard working man, within 3 years of marriage, he established himself as a successful upcoming businessman. Zainab of course was the backbone of his success, always being there encouraging him and supporting him during his tough times. Life for the young couple continued to be almost perfect.

And then in the 5^th year of their marriage Zainab finally got pregnant after they had been trying to conceive for almost a year. The couple was so happy and so were their few close friends and real well wishers, thinking that their perfect life would become more perfect when the new addition to their family arrived.

But then things started to change. Zainab first noticed it while she was nine months pregnant. In the first three months of her pregnancy, she had been vomiting excessively and was so sick most of the time and Siddique had to take care of her, sometimes even leaving his work at his office into the hands of his assistants. Despite this apprehension, he took care of Zainab very well. In the next three months her health improved and their role reversed one again with her taking care of Siddique and his needs at the home front. And things were perfect again in Zainab's little world, until one day in her fifth month of pregnancy her father in law suddenly came to their house one evening. Zainab was surprised beyond words and being the kind hearted nave girl that she was, she invited him in. Her father in law told her how much they were missing Siddique and wanted him back in their life and even asked for Zainab's forgiveness. Zainab forgave him but when Siddique came home and saw his father sitting at his home and drinking tea, he was livid. He refused to talk to him and asked him to leave while Zinab was giving him pleading looks. His father left but then few days later it was his mother who returned. And this time a mother's tears were more effective in reaching his heart but Siddique still refused to come home and to even be a part of the family business once again.

In the next couple of days, both the parents visited Siddique's house regularly, and most of the time it was when Zainab was alone at home. Their pleading touched Zainab's heart and she finally started approaching Siddique and pleading with him herself, to accept his parents' wishes and to unite with them once again. Zainab always had a guilty feeling at the back of her heart that she had taken a son away from his family and the wealth into which he had a right, so it became very easy for Siddique's parents to manipulate her.

Not long after Zainab began her pleading, Siddique gave in and agreed to his father's request of merging his small upcoming company with the family business and taking the helm of family business. The only thing he did not agree to was shifting to the family home and selling the house they were living and that became a blessing in disguise for Zainab just few months later.

It was after taking over the family business that Siddique met Raziya. Raziya was an educated but cunning and ambitious young woman who was the exact opposite of Zainab and her main ambition in life was becoming rich or a rich man's wife. She was working as the personal secretary of the chairman of the company when Siddique took over as chairman and naturally she became Siddique's personal secretary. And soon after seeing the young charismatic Siddique as chairman, Raziya started her plans of ensnaring him.

But her attempts did not bear any fruit in the beginning as Siddique was still too much in love with Zainab and the thought of even looking at another woman in that light never crossed his mind. But even luck was on Raziya's side, as eager to prove his capability at his new position; Siddique was working hard and spending even after hours at office. Still he did not want to burden any of his staff so he had asked everyone including Raziya to go home once the official hours got over, even if he was still working. But on and off Raziya started to stay back making excuses of pending work; and not having an inkling of what she was really up to, and thinking that she was really dedicated to her work, Siddique allowed her to stay on those days.

Soon those on and off days became a routine and Siddique did not even realize when he became so used to Raziya being around and at his service whenever he needed anything.

But Zainab was still the most important person in Siddique's life and hence he always tried to go home at eight o'clock and have his dinner at home with Zainab. But even this started to change when Raziya cleverly and indirectly managed to put across to Siddique that at that time he should really give all his attention to his work and that it was all right to stay even late, on days when he was not able to finish some of his work even at 8 pm. Raziya reassured him that Zainab would understand and when Siddique discussed this with Zainab, she being the nave one agreed that Raziya was right.

And to Raziya's delight, soon even dinner at office became a routine for Siddique. And being the only two individuals at the office at that hour, Raziya and Siddique soon started having their dinner together.

Days soon passed into weeks and it was one or two weeks before her delivery that Zainab finally realized that things weren't as it used to be between her and Siddique. But she could not pin point an exact problem and she dismissed it as something that she was feeling due to her pregnancy.

And during one of these days, Siddique's mother visited his office in the pretext of not being able to see her beloved son, who according to her was too engrossed in his work to even visit her. When she entered his office that evening, Raziya and Siddique were having dinner together and it wasn't long before that Siddique's mother who was another cunning woman deduced the intentions of Raziya.

Siddique's parents still hated Zainab even though they acted sweet while in front of her and siddique, and soon after this evening Siddique's mother started to invite Raziya to their home along with Siddique, sometimes for lunch and sometimes for dinner. And it was during one of these dinners that Siddique mentioned that he had to go for a meeting at Delhi for few days. His mother grabbed the chance and enquired who will be going with him and when Siddique replied that he would go alone, his mother suggested to take Raziya. During those days it wasn't appropriate at all to take a female employee along with you for out of town meetings. But Siddique's mother managed to convince him that without Raziya it would be very difficult for him to manage and much to the delight of Raziya, he relented. And, following this meeting, Raziya started to accompany him to all of his out of town meetings.

And then few weeks later, Zainab gave birth to a beautiful daughter whom they named Zoya. Although things weren't so normal between Zainab and Siddique, he was the happiest dad on earth that day and he distributed sweets to all the staffs at office as well. Raziya did not like this at all and she boiled in anger even though she had known very well that Zainab was pregnant. And on that day she decided that she should not waste any more time and should hurry up with her plans for Siddique.

It was two months after Zoya's birth that Raziya got her next chance. During this time, Siddique was once again giving more attention to his home and his new born baby and Raziya could barely tolerate it. Siddique was even avoiding out of town meetings but on this day, this meeting with some clients was too important for him to miss and he decided to attend it. After the meeting got over they had to stay overnight as there was no train back home and during the evening dinner at restaurant Raziya managed to bribe a waiter to put some sleep inducing pills into Siddique's drink.

In the morning when Siddique awoke Raziya and he were on the same bed and Raziya had made it look like they had slept together. Siddique was aghast at what happened and apologized to Raziya. Raziya accepted his apology and then cleverly told him that she was also sorry that she let that happen. She then said that she had initially tried to stop Siddique but she could not do it later as she was in love with Siddique. Siddique was very surprised by her confession and looked at her dumbfounded. Raziya started crying then and told him that it's all her fault but she could not help in falling in love with him. She then told him that she would have hidden her feelings like she did all these days had this not happened that night.

Siddique consoled Raziya and told her over and over how sorry he was about what happened.

They returned back to Bhopal that day. In the following days, Raziya initially did not talk about that night again and Siddique too avoided the topic. But after a week or so, Raziya started telling him that she is unable to forget what happened that night and that she cannot stop loving him. And to his dismay, Siddique soon started seeing Raziya in another light. He knew that he was cheating Zainab and doing something very wrong but he felt he could not help it anymore.

And soon the relationship had turned into a full blown affair and even the office staff became aware of it.

Most of the staff avoided talking about it in fear of jeopardizing their job, but Suhana a young junior secretary who on Siddique's request had gone to his house on some occasions to help Zainab with some things had liked Zainab a lot and it was Suhana who finally spilled the beans to Zainab when Zoya was 9 months old.

Initially it was hard for Zainab to believe what Suhana said but deep down she knew that it was true because she had known for months that something was amiss in their relationship. She had known it but she was too happy with her beautiful daughter and taking care of her that she was unable to give too much thought to it.

For one whole week Zainab cried not knowing what to and questioning Allah why he allowed this. At times she felt that it was her fault and she had neglected Siddique during her pregnancy and after Zoya's birth as well. At other times she told herself that it wasn't her fault at all. And then finally a determined Zainab decided not to be weak and to confront this head on and went to Siddique's office one evening where she caught Siddique and Raziya red handed.

Zainab came crying home and Siddique followed her. He knew that there was no excuse he could give and that he had completely betrayed Zainab but still seeing her in that condition was not something that he had ever wanted. Zainab locked herself with Zoya in the room and refused to talk to him and Siddique had to sleep in the guest room that night and all the nights that followed.

Distraught and unable to eat or do anything except Zoya's basic needs, Zainab spent two more weeks before she approached a lawyer who had studied at high school with her and filed for divorce.

Siddique did not expect this despite everything, and he refused to divorce Zainab. He pleaded with Zainab to reconsider and to forgive him saying that he would never hurt her again. But Zainab was always a self respecting and strong willed person and she decided that she should never forget what Siddique did and most importantly she knew that she could never trust him again. But thinking of Zoya, she wondered whether she was taking the right decision and it crossed her mind to reconsider her decision. But before she could completely do it, Siddique's mother started to play on his emotions urging him to give divorce to Zainab saying that Zainab did not love him that much and that was the reason why she decided to leave him so fast. She also tried to assure him that Raziya was more suited to be his wife and advised him to marry her, and Raziya herself played her part in the drama crying and saying that she never wished this to happen but she cannot live without Siddique and that no one else would even marry her after this scandal. And finally Siddique succumbed to Raziya and his mother and decided to divorce Zainab and marry Raziya. He called the lawyer and agreed for the divorce and the lawyer told this to Zainab on the day when she went to the lawyer to tell him to withdraw the case as she needed some more time to think. When the lawyer told Zainab that Siddique had agreed for divorce, Zainab immediately knew that it must be because Raziya has convinced him to marry her. She knew Siddique that much to know that he would never let her go so easily unless it was to marry Raziya and she decided to let go of him. And that is how a beautiful dream of two people who were so much in love with each other ended.

Chapter3:

Following their divorce, Siddique allowed Zoya to be with Zainab and transferred the house to Zoya's name and moved back to his ancestral home. Zainab knew that it was a generous thing he did as she did not have any place to go to, as her own parents lived in the out skirts in a single bedroom small house; but she was too hurt to even thank him.

One month after their divorce, Siddique married Raziya in a lavish ceremony organized by his parents and Zainab's heart broke once again. Hearing about their daughter, Zainab's parents came to live with her for some time, but they were too old and too frail to be much of a help. Still it was Zoya's Naani who took care of her and did most of the things for her; Zainab being too broken and distraught.

Sometimes Zainab would sit at one place for hours just staring at nothing and at other times she would curl up as a ball on her bed and sob uncontrollably. She even hardly looked at Zoya and would not even remember to change Zoya's nappy till her mother reminded her to do so; and then she would walk like a robot and change it, most of the time not even looking at Zoya while she did it.

When her parents got divorced, Zoya was a chubby, beautiful 9 month old girl with a cute dimple on her left cheek; and she hardly cried even during the night. She had a happy nature and would spent hours giggling and talking in her own language, even when she was left alone in her crib while Zainab went about doing her chores. But then suddenly one month after the divorce, Zoya started crying and waking up at night and then later on she even started crying during the day time as well. She was inconsolable during her bouts of crying, and it was very difficult for her Naani to make her stop. It was as if the little Zoya could perceive the unhappiness of her mother. Zainab too even in her distraught state recognized this sudden change in Zoya, but still she was not in a state to do anything about it.

Zainab's old mother and father wondered why Allah was testing their daughter this way and they wished they could do something for her; but they knew that there is nothing they could do except pray. This distraught state of the house continued till one day when Zoya choked on her food while Naani was trying to feed her. On that day also, Zoya was crying nonstop for almost an hour and not knowing how to stop her, Naani decided to give her the milk bottle. She took the bottle with her two little chubby hands and started to suck on it but she had still not stopped her crying. And then suddenly the next thing Naani saw was Zoya gasping for breath.

Naani ran crying to the next room where Zainab was again sitting like a statue and dragged her out.

They immediately took Zoya to the hospital, where the doctor saved Zoya but gave them a lashing for being irresponsible parents. That night Zainab sat besides Zoya's crib at the hospital and cried her heart out once again. She could not believe that she had almost lost her daughter and she understood that it was her fault. She had completely neglected her loving daughter, and she blamed herself for being so selfish. Seeing her daughter sitting and crying, Naani who was crying herself came inside and gently put a reassuring hand on her daughters shoulder.

"Crying will not solve anything and neither will it help you Beti... You have to stop all this crying and be strong." Naani whispered wisely and Zainab nodded.

And sitting beside her daughter that night, Zainab vowed to never cry again and to never think about Siddique again. She promised herself that from that night onwards she would live only for her daughter and she would give so much love to her daughter that she would never crave for a father.

And Zainab kept to her promise. Little Zoya became the world around which Zainab rotated like a sun; engulfing Zoya with her warmth and security. And like a miracle, once Zoya got back her mother's love and attention, she even stopped her crying. And to the relief of Zainab's parents, Siddique arranged a monthly allowance for Zoya. Zainab did not want to take anything from Siddique and initially refused it; but her mother and father wisely told her to take it. They questioned how Zainab will take care of Zoya otherwise as she would not be able to get a proper job easily, and even if she did she would not be able to go to the job and take care of Zoya as well. And reluctantly, Zianab had to agree with her parents and accept the allowance.

Days passed into months and months to years, and Zainab and Zoya lived happily in their own little world till Zoya was about 5 years old. Zainab was in a way too protective about Zoya and she did not want to send Zoya to a preschool also. Hence it was that year that Zoya first started going to school. And the other change that occurred in little Zoya's life that year was the new family that shifted to an empty house adjacent to theirs.

The family was Christian and consisted of Mr. and Mrs.Vargheese and their 7 year old son Danny and 5 year old daughter Debbie. Soon Zoya and Debbie became best of friends and started spending all their free time together. And at Debbie's home Zoya was treated like another daughter and it was at Debbie's home that Zoya saw how a happy family lived together.

Debbie's parents fulfilled all her wishes and Debbie had the kind of toys and books that Zoya had never seen before. And Zoya had just started learning English at school, so she would spend hours engrossed with Debbies story books, often asking Debbie to help her when she did not understand the meaning of some words. And at other times both the girls would dress up as the characters in the stories they read and enact them, sometimes even dragging Danny to play along with them enacting as the male character.

And on the Christmas of that year Mrs, Vargheese made special cookies and other delicacies and Debbie told her how each year Sanata claus would gift her toys and anything else that she wished for herself. And to Zoya's surprise, on that Christmas, Santa visited even her and had left presents for her at her bedroom when she woke up.

And that was how Zoya became interested in Santa clause and fairy tales and those were the happiest days of Zoya's childhood.

********************

Zoya did not know how long she sat lost in thoughts of her childhood and the Christmases that she celebrated with the Vargheeses.

The sudden change in temperature and the chilly breezes that started to pass through the park after the sunset made Zoya shiver and she came out of her reverie. At that same instant she saw a small girl holding the hand of a middle aged lady, staring intently at her from a distance of few feet.

The little girl's stare made Zoya realize that she was still in her Santa Claus dress and that was the reason why the little girl was staring at her so curiously. Zoya got up and came near to them.

"I am so sorry princess, but I don't have any more presents left with me to give you". Zoya said kneeling besides the girl and caressing her hair.

The girl looked about 3 - 4 years old and had shoulder length wavy hair with shorter small curls that surrounded her delicate cheeks. She was wearing a knee length pink frock made of tulle and net and had a small band on her hair that looked like a tiara. Her over all get up and cute features made her look like a princess out of a fairy tale book, and hence Zoya could not help but address her as Princess.

A sudden thought occurred to Zoya at that instant and she rummaged through her bag till she found what she was looking for. It was a small brooch in the shape of a fairy with delicate wings, made of sparkling little stones and was one of Zoya's most cherished items; a gift her mother had given her on her 9^th birthday just a year before she passed away. Zoya did not know why she wanted to give this small girl something that she had always kept with her as her mother's memory; all she knew was that she wanted this small girl to have that gift; and she did not know why she felt that the girl lacks some things in her life and is in need of some love and care. She put the brooch on the girl's dress and the girl who had been looking at Zoya intently all this while looked at the brooch on her dress and caressed it. And the next moment she looked at Zoya and her whole face transformed with happiness and she smiled at Zoya sweetly and whispered thank you shyly.

The look of pure joy on the girls face reassured Zoya that she had done the right thing by parting with her mother's gift and passing it to this lovely little girl.

"It looks expensive and something precious to you... you should not have given it to her" the lady besides the girl chided Zoya and touched her cheeks gently. Even though, Zoya was still wearing the Santa claus glasses and cape, the lady could see that Zoya was a young woman, beautiful to look at and by her actions she could tell how sweet she is by nature.

"It's all right Aunty. I do not know the price of it so cannot say if it's expensive or not but yea it's very precious to me because it was a gift by my late mother". There were tears in her eyes when she said that.

"And you are parting with your mother's memory, just to bring a smile on a girl's face whom you just met?" the lady gently inquired.

"Yea. It's worth it". Zoya nodded and looked at the young girl.

"I somehow feel that our princess here needs this gift more than me right now, and I also feel that she would take care of it just the way I did all these years." Zoya said caressing the little girl's soft cheeks lovingly.

"You are a lovely young woman my Dear child and thank you for brightening my little girl's day." the lady told Zoya.

"And now, why don't you introduce yourself to the beautiful Santa who has given you such a beautiful gift?" The lady said turning towards the little girl

"Hi... I am Naina". The little girl extended her hands shyly towards Zoya.

"That's actually Sunaina but we call her Naina for short and she likes to be addressed as Naina only." the lady explained.

"That's a lovely name just like you Princess.. And I am Zoe, short for Zoya and even I like to be called as Zoe." Zoya smiled broadly at the little girl.

"So your actual name is not Santa?" the girl exclaimed innocently.

"No I am not really Santa but i can be Santa for you anytime you want." Zoya laughed.

"Come let's make a move now.. I think they will be about to close the park right now and your Abbu might have returned from office and wonder where we have disappeared." The lady told the little girl and held her other hand.

Zoya walked with the little girl and the lady till they reached the gate of the park.There she kissed the girl's cheeks and wished them good bye. The lady wanted to drop off Zoya to her place but Zoya refused and reassured her that she would be fine.

She stood staring at the departing back of the lady and the little girl till they reached their car and climbed in to it. Zoya did not why but she felt a strange kind of attachment to the little girl Sunaina and she reminded Zoya of her own self when she was small.

Zoya sighed thinking how strange life is at times and headed towards her own home.

Originally posted by: --Radhika--

Hehe I loved the introduction! Zoya dressing up as Santa Claus. Update soon and please PM me for further parts. 😃

P.S I buddied you for PM's! (:

Originally posted by: yashasvi_88

looking forward to it

Originally posted by: -waitingforyou-

update

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Originally posted by: --Aashi--

Awesome !!
Plz PM me ...