Make Me Your Villain

Chapter Thirty

Hayat Azhar

My head emptied. My breathing stilled. I couldn't move, shock tightening around my throat and rendering me immobile.

A splitting noise overtook my hearing sense as I gawked at Zohaib sitting right in front of me, drinking water.

Who was...

But then upstairs?

Panic filled my nerves and I fought the urge to collapse, feeling my heart thundering against my ribcage.

It wasn't him. It wasn't Zohaib. His brown shawl, his scented cologne—none of it was his.

Sensing eyes on him, Zohaib turned to the stairs and his gaze caught me.

He rose to his feet, a cheeky grin playing across his mouth.

"Hello." He raised a hand in greeting as he approached me. His voice echoed somewhere in the back of my mind and I absently stared at him, my stomach twisting.

Zohaib's eyebrow curved upward when I didn't reply. "You okay? Are you not happy to see me?"

My ears were still ringing and I couldn't bring my vision to focus. His grin abruptly faded, concealing his teeth.

"That's...a nice ring."

My head jolted to the side and I noticed my left hand plastered against the wall—a beautiful ring around my finger; a ring that wasn't what Zohaib had given me on our engagement.

Blood rushed to my head and a startled prickle clouded my senses. I swallowed hard, feeling my mouth going dry.

The smile lines around his mouth vanished completely as he leaned forward to examine my finger.

"It's..." I struggled to form a coherent reply, my heart pounding violently like I had indeed committed a crime. "This isn't my ring."

I ripped my hand off the wall and Zohaib's eyes followed it all the way until I fisted it into a tight ball.

"I mean, it's my friend's. I wanted to try it and forgot to return it to her." I managed to say, a tremor seeping into my voice. I tugged at the golden band to take it off, but it didn't budge.

Zohaib gave me a slow nod, an unfamiliar emotion filling his eyes. "I stumbled across a similar article when I went shopping for our rings but it was slightly out of my budget. Looks like this one is also custom made."

My breathing hitched, only then noticing a prominent engraving across the ring that glinted under the slightly yellow lighting in our patio.

H - S.

Not wasting another moment, I folded my arms to hide my hand away from Zohaib's skeptical gaze. "Oh, yeah. She's engaged but I didn't know this was a couple's ring. Gosh, now I feel guilty for not returning it earlier."

"Is that the only thing you're guilty about?" Zohaib asked in a grave tone, his eyes boring into mine, searching them for something.

My lips parted. "What?"

"You kept us waiting," he blurted, pulling his face away from me. "Let's go join the others."

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply before opening them again and walked back to his seat. I remained in my place, not understanding how to react.

A part of me suddenly wanted to yell and tell everyone what went down upstairs a few minutes ago. But I realized I'd look like a lunatic and nobody would believe a word.

So instead, I forced a strained smile on my face and followed after Zohaib.

But an unsettling pressure pressed down my chest the whole time. Something had changed and Zohaib went quiet, even the others noticed the alteration in his behavior.