BOUND

PART 5

In the subsequent evening, Faris came from office early just so that he can personally take Afira to meet Babar. He wanted to keep this meet up a secret and so he couldn't trust his driver. In front of Mr. Dawood, he pretended that he was taking Afira for a dinner.

Faris drove the car to the restaurant where Babar had invited Afira and within half an hour they reach the destination. Faris instructed her to meet him privately while he will be having dinner at the adjacent restaurant. Once they are done, Afira can give him a call so that Faris could collect her and drive her back to the house.

Afira disembarked from the car and entered the restaurant where Babar was already waiting for her. It's been more than a year since she last saw him, and a lot has changed in her life since then. After greeting each other, they both took a chair and called waiter to order dinner. After having a little chatter about trivial topics, Afira shifted their attention to the main agenda, the subject they had come to discuss.

She asked Babar when he was going to talk to her father about their marriage on which Babar posed a demand that he would talk to Mr. Wani later, but first Afira had to file a divorce against Faris. Hearing this condition, Afira became riled; she wasn't expecting this. She argued that if she got separated from Faris and Babar couldn't convince her father to agree on their marriage then what would she do?

Babar told her that within Faris's Nikkah, it would be difficult for him to persuade Mr. Wani. If she would get divorce from Faris then Babar would be the only option left for Afira and his father would have no choice but to accept Babar.

Afira criticized Babar for coming up with such a crappy plan and berated him on how he gave her false hope that he was going to make everything alright and now when she was finally counting on him, he was making excuses.

Babar retaliated by asking that why Afira was making such a big fuss about getting divorce from Faris if their marriage took place only in circumstantial basis, but instead of answering his question, Afira insulted Babar for being a coward and how he always tried to find a reason to run away from facing responsibility. First, he ran away when she asked him to talk to his father before her marriage was fixed with Akbar, and now once again he was running away because reality was that Babar didn't have guts to take a stand for Afira.

Babar argued that he was not running away this time, he just knew that Afira's father would never accept him until she was already a wife of someone. When Afira urged him to at least give it a shot, that's when the timidness of Babar became apparent, and he started berating Afira for making divorce with Faris such a big issue. He argued why she agreed to marry to marry Faris in the first place. Afira replied that she agreed for that Nikkah because she didn't know that on the same night, Babar was going to call her and finally gather the courage to talk to her father.

Babar established that his offer was open and whenever she would make up her mind to seek separation from Faris, he would go talk to her father for her hand on that very day.

"I don't care about your offer," Afira said as she stood up from her chair and began to leave. Babar requested her to at least have dinner, but Afira had already made up her mind. She made an excuse that it was getting late for her, to which Babar suggested that he would drop her home.

"No need for that," Afira replied. "Faris is waiting for me, I'll go with him." To hear this Babar became shocked and asked to reconfirm that she came to this restaurant along with Faris.

"What excuse have you given him to meet me?" Babar queried with desperation in his voice.

"I didn't give him any excuses, I truthfully told him everything about our relationship," Afira confessed.

"Are you out of your mind?" Babar yelled at her, both of them were now standing at their table. "How can you reveal this to a stranger?"

"I didn't intend to," Afira clarified. "It's just so happened that I started crying when I read your text message, and when Faris entered the bedroom, he found me in that state, so I had to explain him the whole story."

"You are sharing a bedroom with him?" Babar asked in accusatory tone.

"It's sad that you are concerned if I share a room with Faris, but you are not at all concerned about the fact that I was crying because of you."

"Don't change the subject," Babar pushed her. "Give me answer that why you are sharing a room with him?"

"I am not obligated to answer you anything."

"You are in no position to answer anyway," Babar ridiculed her. "I thought that it was only a Nikkah, but I was wrong, it's much more than that. He is driving you everywhere; you are sharing all your secrets with him and also sharing a room with him. I wonder what else you two have shared."

Afira felt disgusted listening Babar's toxic comment about her and Faris, and so she immediately left the restaurant and called Faris to pick her up. She was standing at the porch waiting for Faris when Babar followed her outside and provoked her even more on how bitter truth was hurting her and now among the two of them who was trying to run away from the situation.

"For the record I want to make this very clear," Afira told Babar facing him right in the eye. "I am not running away from truth, I am running away from you, because I've just discovered that you have a very sick mentality. I can't believe that I've spent such a long time with you. You are insecure about someone who I've only met couple of days ago and how Faris who I don't even know that well and who is also happened to be my legal husband is not insecure about my ex-boyfriend at all. That shows the difference in mindset."

Babar became silent as if Afira has just slapped him through her words.

"You know, Faris told me that if you become successful in convincing Mr. Wani then he will confront his own father for the divorce, and he told me that if you become unsuccessful then he will go and personally talk to Mr. Wani and try to convince him for our marriage. You see those who have guts to take actions don't hide behind clauses. They fight their battles on their own terms."

"If you are so fond of him then why you even came to meet me?" Jealousy and hatred depicted all over Babar's face.

"Actually, I wasn't sure about meeting you," Afira reprimanded. "It was Faris who convinced me for this meeting, because there is a thing with Faris that he can't stand watching me cry. And as a matter of fact, I am actually feeling grateful because if I didn't come here tonight I would never realize that I was digging grave for myself when I chose you as my life partner who is such an insecure and narrow minded prick."

Babar face has turned red.

"After what I've gone through, perhaps I've become better at judging men, I can differentiate now which guy is sincere and which guy is utter phony, a kind of insight I didn't possess when I fell in love with someone like you unfortunately."

And that's the final knockout punch which Afira has spit on Babar face before Faris's car arrived. Afira left Babar, and the waiter came over to him with the dinner bill which they didn't eat.

"Ms. Afira, you had a very brief meeting." Faris remarked. "I had to leave my burger halfway."

"I'll make one for you when we reach home." Afira replied. Faris noticed that she called his house home for the first time.

"How did the meeting go? When will he to talk to Uncle Wani? Did he tell how he is going to convince him? What's his strategy? Ms. Afira? Say something."

"I will never going to meet him again." And this answered everything. Faris didn't say anything in response. "Thank you," Afira said.

"For what?" Faris asked looking confused.

"For everything," she was looking out of the window smiling, for the first time in many days, she was at peace.

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