Qurbat

|35|

"He is doing you a favor." Her chacha made it clear. He didn't waste a second to tell her what he had been planning behind her back. Ayat chuckled derisively.

Favor? Fuck it.

"How is this a favor-" Cutting her own words off, Ayat turned to him only to find him staring at her- lost in his own deadly thoughts, "What do you think I am to do me a favor? Am I a charity case? Or do you see me unfit for love?"

"Not everything goes as we wish." Fayd scoffed it away, taking a step back and leaning against the desk as he watched the uncle-niece duo argue as if he wasn't just partaking in the negotiation. His head ducked down and millions of thoughts raced in it. He would gladly leave her if she were to be happy. He would gladly kill to permanently plaster that smile on her face. The world called him psychotic but the only thing he ever saw after her comeback into his life was only her. His Ruh.

Leaving Ismael Wajdani to argue with himself, Ayat turned to him and the words she heard over Isaa's phone rang in her ears. She took slow steps towards him- the inside of her hands moist and the back of them dry after being exposed to the cold weather. Was he even aware of the turmoil he wrecked inside her with words? Was she that easy to leave? It hurt her. It hit right in the gut where it hurt, he didn't say anything nor he tried to explain himself to her. He didn't cup her cheek and tell her that she wasn't unfit for love as she had wanted him to do. He didn't cup her cheek and look into her eyes so that she could melt into them like how she had wanted it to go.

"Meri Allah se sirf yahi dua hai ke main jis tarhan muhabbat me zaleel hua hon, meri muhabbat apni muhabbat ke haathon kabhi na ho."

Asher's last words from that day echoed in her ears and she couldn't do anything other than swallowing the humiliation. She had promised him to be patient with him and she intended to do it even if he pushed her limits. How hurt must Asher be to say that to her– to the woman he practically worshiped. How hurt he must have been to walk away from that place after knowing his love fell in love with another man.

She was only a couple of steps away from reaching Fayd when, "Asher is back then why do you need Fayd to be with you?"

How the hell did he think it was to work out this way? How did he think that by mentioning Asher, he could make Fayd leave from her life when Fayd himself left her alone to deal with Asher instead of sticking to her hip? How did he think he could trick him when he was simply ready to sell everything for her. When he had known her longer than Ismael Wajdani ever did.

"What?" Fayd's spine steeled and he straightened. His eyes darkening to the level where it was all black. He could feel the anger building up inside but it wasn't just yet that he was going to let it out. He had too many things to resolve before he could ruin everything with his anger.

"They were supposed to marry each other, Fayd." The investigator laughed, almost taking off to lunge at him and to hold him up by his collars until he strangled, nevertheless, had been held back by her.

"Well, look at you trying to sacrifice others for your own selfish motives." Fayd snapped but before he could take it over, Ayat brought their attention to herself,

"Do you think you can become my father and make decisions for me just because I don't have one?"

Ismael Wajdani was visibly shaken at her question. No he wasn't her father but he intended to be a father figure in her family less life and that was why he embraced her when she had stepped into his threshold for the first time, "You lied to me. Your son betrayed me. I didn't think Huzaifa would go behind my back to take my company away from me."

"That's not true. I may sound biased but Huzaifa is my most honest child. He is the same as you, Ayat."

"Cursed? I know." Ayat shuddered, thinking of the pain the eldest Wajdani children had to go through. She watched her chacha jaan's face shrink in dismay and in agony. No matter what or how it was, Ismael Wajdani couldn't save his own son from getting broken at the hands of ex-wife. He was so hurt that he needed nobody. He was so hurt that he buried his own self when he saw his wife stroll her luggage out of their room. That was the last nail of his coffin- that was the needle that he used to seal his heart.