It was always written ✔️

Chapter 22

The lens was now facing the wall.

However, a thought struck through Alayna's mind.

There had to be more than one.

She was about to start searching when she heard the scuffling of shoes down the corridor.

He had arrived.

She scampered out to be faced with his confused face.

"What's wrong?"

She pulled his arm to take him further from along the corridor and away from the apartment, whilst closing the door on the way out.

"There's dried blood and a camera, you need to help me find any others that are there, I don't know how old it is, and I don't know if it's working, I've dislodged it and it's now facing the wall."

He nodded along, the two of them meticulously searched the apartment, there was nothing else.

Syed carefully examined the camera, his eyes sparkled in recognition. He held it in his hand, covering the lens and slid the back off, it was battery operated. Perfect.

He turned to Alayna, "This company went bankrupt 13 years ago, this was the last line of cameras that they had released, the cameras were extremely faulty and were known to black out randomly, customers were unable to get refunds, and to backlash customers boycotted the company, and they fell through."

"Does it have an SD card or some sort of hard drive on which I could use to access what has been recorded or is that impossible."

"Its very likely that even if it has recorded footage that the footage will be somewhat corrupted, when watching it black you'll see random glitches and sometimes it may have recorded video and no sound." Despite his words, his hands moved quickly cracking into the camera further and fishing out a SD card.

Alayna held her hand out, and he placed it in her hand.

He looked around, "what do you want to do with all this?"

"I have a feeling this apartment will definitely bring out some more secrets, so for now it has to stay as it currently is. Obviously not before we take some photographs." 

"Why?"

"To make sure no one breaks in here and erases everything."

She looked around the apartment, "I hope I can trust you Syed." 

His eyes snapped up to her. 

"What do you mean?" 

"I hope you aren't planning on betraying me or messing with me. Just because I fell into your arms once does not mean you can take advantage of me." 

"Why would I do that?" 

"Aren't 3 of the businesses in which you are the main shareholder operating at a major loss? It would just be so convenient if all my wealth fell into your hands." She tilted her head, waiting for his response. 

He stepped forward in her direction, "I'll have you know, Miss Alayna Ismail Hussain, that Alhumdulillah I am a fully functioning man and I have plans for these companies that you speak of, and even if these plans fail, I will never fall into the sin of stealing. So, I ask you humbly do not make the mistake of repeating such an accusation." 

She stared him down, "Then how did you get here so quickly, when your home is a 45 minute drive from here." 

"I'm a business man Ms Alayna, I can't stay stuck in one place for too long." 

"Fair Enough Mr Syed, say what was your surname again?"

"Malik." 

"OK. I think we need to pack this place for now. We both have better things to be getting on with." 

They wrapped up their work and went on their separate ways. 

Alayna slid into the drivers seat of newly purchased car, and glanced at her phone to catch the time. 

She had a good amount of time, to get what she needed to do done. 

She pulled away from the curb smoothly bringing the car up to the speed of the road limit. 

And, surely, sooner rather than later she was in the hospital parking lot. 

She had already called in a favour with a loyal client at her clothing business. 

She made her way to the entrance and was directed to a doctor's room immediately. She entered in the harshly lighted room. An oak table, with a chair on one side and two on the other, the walls were painted a pale blue. She took a seat, curiously looking at the file that was boldly stamped with her mother's name. 

Bored of waiting she picked it up and opened the file, seeing nothing that she recognised forced her to put it down. 

The door opened to see a doctor. 

The wrinkles on his forehead. His kind eyes. His soft eyes. His droopy eyelids. 

She was sure she had seen him before, yet he showed no recognition towards her. 

"So, Ayla Khan. This seemed like a fairly straightforward case at the time. We assumed she had both physical and mental strain on herself and that's what caused her to miscarry, but when she gave birth to another daughter who was fit and healthy, there was something fishy. The gynaecologist that was assigned to Ayla before her delivery, confirmed that Ayla confessed that she had been gang raped, we tried to encourage her to file a case, but she claimed she didn't know who it was as she couldn't recognise their voices and their faces were covered. Just before her delivery, she had a nervous breakdown in this hospital, because she saw someone she had must have had a past with and that triggered her. She was put into therapy and through that and the questioning of a supposed family member we realised that she has PTSD. But this was a very different case. What we discovered is that she would soften what had actually happened to her, she was living in a reality that she had created and not the one that had actually happened." 

"Who was the supposed family member?" 

"Her mother."

Alayna's racing thoughts stopped, her mother? 

"Could you give me a name please?" 

"Rabia Bi." 

She let out a steady breath. 

Her blood was curdling at this point. 

Her mind flashed back to the previous week when she was staying in a hotel room, to ensure that Zunair was off her trail. 

She had taken the day off to analyse all the info that she had paid for. 

It had started with her mother, and then her father and everyone else followed. 

Her eyes would read along the words analysing them, she would hold the photos up to the light making sure she wasn't missing any detail.

It was amazing how these men had done all this. 

She looked around at all the scattered photographs, documents, copies of official government papers, everything seemed to make sense. 

In all this chaotic mess, there was clear relations, tactics and purposes for each everything that had happened and unfortunately her mother was caught in the middle of it all. 

She had her victims and her motive.

Now everything would proceed as she wished. 

And obviously her first victim would be her beloved husband, it's better to become a widow rather than a divorcee, right?

How else would she be able to ensure that she was certain that she had fully ruined him?😉

******

Sorry, I'm so late. 

I have rediscovered my motivation for writing this book.

And that is by attempting to finish it off before the year ends.