BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

CHAPTER 3: COMMON GROUND

With every passing second, every cruel moment of anticipation, Saad hated the man in front of him a little more.

The cruel man who wore his face was just sitting there in the inspector's seat as if he had every right to. With one leg over the other, he was busy on his phone while Saad sat in the chair across the desk. The man seemed to have no care for the disaster he had caused in Saad's simple life.

Saad hated this strange man.

He hated how eerily similar they looked yet acted so differently.

He hated how calm this man was in this whole situation. He despised how he could utter a life-altering question to his father without a moment's thought.

But mostly, Saad hated how quiet his parents were. He hated how they wouldn't even bother denying this stranger's accusations, how they weren't even trying to claim him as their son.

Both his parents have been quiet since the man had asked them the question and they had given the expected answer.

Both of their guilty eyes were running away from his accusing ones.

Saad could feel the overwhelming exhaustion taking over him as his eyes prickled with barely concealed tears.

How had his life turned out like this?

Why wouldn't his parents tell him about his adoption? Why would they feel so guilty? Why would Allah punish him like this? Why?

Thousands of questions ran through his mind as he sat staring at the man who could be his twin brother.

Twins. No matter how different they were.

As Saad waited for the obvious results of that God-forsaken DNA test, he tried to look for similarities in his supposed twin brother. Maybe if he finds something in common with the stranger that was supposed to be his family, that would ease the pain in his heart.

Khan Murtasim Khan.

Was that his name or some kind of title?

That stupid groom did talk about how there was a Khan before in Hyderabad. So it could be a title.

Is it something political or inherited by blood?

Well, whatever it was, it must be a position of great respect. Saad could tell that from the looks of the man. From his perfectly styled hair to his finely polished shoes, he was groomed as if at any given moment, he would need to be present in some mass event.

"Find anything interesting?" The man spoke aloud in that deep voice of his, shocking Saad out of his life!

"What?" was the automatic response that came out of Saad with a surprised squeak. He felt the embarrassment take over him as soon the sound left his mouth.

God, why was it always him?

For a moment, the man's poker face colored with silent mirth as he dropped his phone with a thud on the desk. Saad cringed at the sound. The phone was obviously an expensive one. The man's casual treatment of it rubbed him off wrongly.

Saad instantly noticed the blood-red ring on his ring finger that gleaming under the dim light of the Thana. The man held his hands under his chin in a contemplating manner.

For the first time since their face-off, the man looked at him. His eyes flashed with barely hidden interest. "I asked if you have found anything interesting about me other than the obvious."

"The obvious?" Saad was lost now.

With a smirk that, for some reason, didn't reach his eyes, he vaguely gestured toward their faces.