Qurbat

|25|

A couple of days ago when she asked him about finding love again, he stared at her– he simply stared at her and then cackled like his life was depended on the two fits of laughter. The pain was unsaid and she was able to see right through his laughs. Loving someone and losing them after wishing for an eternity was no less than a death sentence. She had been through the same pain. Huzaifa was spotted mostly alone– revelling in his own company and not expecting anything from anyone. He kept the most of him to himself, only sharing a few things about the business with his sibling here and there. Even after being through so much he went through, he didn't lose the softness like she did.

"I'm not going to try love again. I've tried once and I'm no fool to repeat my mistake." He had said to her when his laughters died down and when he was finally able to see what she was meaning to know. Her heart fell in the bottomless pit in her stomach. That man– her cousin deserved so much but he settled for less. He deserved the world but he settled for the confinement of his walls. He deserved so much more and he wasn't ready to be at the end of receiving because he was aware that he couldn't love again– that he was in pieces to love again. But then the right person loved the shattered pieces even if it hurt them. Love was inevitable.

Yet still, she fell in love with Fayd. She fell in love with a man whose silence had scarred her soul. She fell in love– she passed out of the denial stage when he wasn't there in her life anymore. She fell in love with a man who gathered her mended pieces and threw it against the wall and watched it shatter into millions of pieces before walking over it. She wasn't willing to confess her love to him– she wasn't willing to let him have the power. So only she knew what it took of her to turn away when he confessed.

"Have you packed your things yet, bibi jaan?" She wheeled her luggage into bibi jaan's room to find her sipping on her after-meal chai. She placed the cup on the side table and turned to the young woman who had been adamant on moving out ever since her meeting with Fayd two days ago in the lakeside. She patted on the space next to her, indicating to sit down with her for a while.

"This is your house too, you don't need to move out, meri jaan." She rested a hand on her cheek and cooed like she was a five year old.

"No, this is not my family and I'm going to take more than an year. I can't stay with them for too long." She said– the warmth radiating from her hands seeped through her skin, making her inwardly squirm.

"This is where your father grew up. This used to be his home, you have a right to stay here and trust me nobody is going to say anything. Nobody will be burdened by your presence. Ismael sahb sees his brother in you and you know that, meri jaan." Bibi jaan stroked her Ayat as she looked at her lovingly. The woman hadn't tried anything to get her child closer to her father's family and it was time she did it.

Ayat looked at the woman with pursed lips. She wanted to tell her that Asher was alive. She wanted to tell her that she needed peace to sit and think about it. There must be a reason as to why he showed up after all these years. If he had come back a few years ago, she wouldn't have wasted so much time– she would have dug him out of his hideout and hide in his arms and never let him leave again. He came back– her fiance came back when she fell in love with someone else.

"I.. I'm going to run the company from here for a year and I need a place for myself so I can work."

"If you say so, chalo help me with packing." Bibi jaan stood up and gave her a smile.

Astonished, Ayat stared at her, "Are you really coming with me?"

"I took you in my arms when you were two months old and I've not let go of your hand since and I never will." With one last pat, Bibi jaan started to pack her bags and left the place with her even though Huzaifa attempted to stop them. They left before her chacha's family returned. She would just have to make her chachi jaan and Faryal understand and she was good at convincing them.