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Zainab stared at the test in her trembling hands.
Positive.
She was pregnant.
At just 18, her world tilted again. A baby… inside her.
She paced her room, heart racing, mind spiraling.
She wasn't ready.
She wasn't even sure she trusted Yusuf completely yet.
And yet… something inside her felt different. Protective.
It was no longer just about her.
---
When she finally told Yusuf, he stared at her for a long moment.
Then, to her surprise, he smiled. Genuinely.
"We made something real," he said softly.
"Something that belongs to us—not the family, not the cameras. Just us."
For the first time in a long time, Zainab let herself believe in something beautiful.
A new beginning.
---
But just as her heart began to soften…
Her sister returned.
The one who vanished on the wedding day.
The one Zainab was forced to replace.
Sana.
She showed up unannounced—glamorous, unapologetic, and carrying secrets.
"I came to meet my niece," Sana said with a smirk, placing a hand on Zainab's belly.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to take Yusuf back. Unless… you still don't trust him."
Zainab's blood ran cold.
Why now?
Why return after everything?
---
The pressure of it all—her pregnancy, the press still swirling, Yusuf's family's silence, and now her sister—nearly broke her.
That night, she cried for the first time in months.
"I'm just a girl," she whispered to herself.
"How do I raise another?"
But then… she felt a tiny kick.
And something inside her shifted again.
"No," she said quietly, holding her belly.
"I'm not just a girl. I'm a mother now. And I will not be weak again."
---
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