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This is my entry for the IF Novelette contest, based on Prompt number 1.
Synopsis
As (urban) legend would have it, Arzoo Nawsheen Khan always had all the answers. People from far and near flocked to her doorstep (or social media accounts, if you will) to seek her advice. If you were the sort to judge a book by its cover, you might be prompt to think of her as a naive small-town simpleton, too soft for the ways of the big, bad world. But she was a toughie of the most resilient kind, and a hardened pragmatist to boot. So much so, that when she found herself most unceremoniously dumped at the altar by Sahir Azim Chaudhary, the proverbial millionaire businessman, she single-handedly shook herself up and bounced right back. It also helped that she was able to find comfort (not that she needed much) in the friendship of her kind, fun-loving colleague, Zaki. She had been wrong about Sahir; they had been a bad match to begin with. Opposites may attract, but it takes a lot more to sustain a relationship in the long run. Zaki, on the other hand, ticked off all the boxes in her checklist, and so, when he proposed marriage to her, she was able to quell all her fears and apprehensions, and say yes.
... That, is the official version, for the world to see and believe. And believe they did, for Arzoo was a fantastic actress, and never allowed anyone to see the heartache and simmering fury behind her twinkling eyes and her dazzling smiles.
Then, one day, Sahir came back, and the facade of her invincibility began to crack.
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