do vote and comment!
Let's take the first step towards the truth!
Word count :1521
CHAPTER #24
Zafar's POV
I had fever two days ago because that whatever happened that night just left me shocked and I took a lot of stress but now I am fine.
I was driving and smiling as our today's morning conversation came to my mind again and again
Today morning...
"don't you think I am so dashing?" I asked her mischievously. So many days went and I didn't irritate her.
"only I can say that" she said with her eyeballs situated at the corner of her eyes looking at me.
"why not others? Especially...."
Oh my God! This is really gonna be fun
"now I'll not talk to you" she smacked on my hand and started walking away from me
I caught her hand and pulled her closer
"I was just joking, only my wife has the right to call me anything she wants" I attached my forehead to hers.
"you are so...so"
"handsome" she smacked on my hand again and we both started laughing. That's my best moment.
I kissed on her cheek and left for my work.
Present...
I sat in my room and suddenly someone burst in.
"hey get out! Don't you have any manners?" I shouted at the man.
"bro come on stop joking" the man said shrugging.
I smiled and hugged him. He was cousin brother, fahad, with whom I went for shopping to the mall where I first saw hafsa.
"of course I was joking! BTW, what a pleasant surprise!"
"oh zafar I am so sorry I couldn't come and meet you at the time your wife was poisoned...I was about to come but something came up"
"oh it's ok, everything's fine now, we'll have lunch together?"
"sure, I won't go before I empty your pockets" he smirked and winked at me.
I laughed.
"how's your wife?" I asked him
"oh she's doing great and..."
I looked at him with a questioning look. "what?"
"I'll tell you later" he said, almost looking down.
We went to a restaurant nearby and sat on a table which was second last from the corner.
"come on tell me now" I urged him to say.
"wait..I'll tell you" he said and got up.
He went up to the counter and told something to the waiter.
He then came and sat down, facing me.
I was still looking at him with the most puzzled look while he he smiled goofly.
Just then, the waiter came up with a plate of sweets and fahad gave him his money.
He took a long breath "I am gonna be a father soon" he said
"what really?! Oh my God! This is the happiest news I've got till now!! I'll be an uncle"
"man stop you're going crazy" he laughed "these sweets from me, you can parcel them to your house too"
"man I am so happy for you, we will soon visit you" I said and then we had a hearty lunch.
...
"now I'll take your leave, do leave a text before you come"
"sure take care bro" I hugged him.
I was so happy for my buddy but for now I had to go to work.
I was doing my files when my phone buzzed.
It was a text from amaan.
'assalamualaikum bhai, how are you? Shams and I were thinking we would finally tell you about ourselves so that you are not embarrassed of us'
I will be embarrassed of you both? Why? Well I am soon gonna know that!
'ok let's meet at 5 in evening'
So I was going to meet the two lads in the evening and was gonna discuss something that I really wanted to know, especially after amaan texted me.
I completed my work as soon as possible and went home.
"you're early today?" hafsa asked me
"yeah, I have to meet some people today at 5"
"oh I see, who are they?"
"I'll tell you in detail when I'll return back..I am running short of time now. Could you remove a T-shirt for me?"
"sure" she said and started searching a nice t-shirt in my wardrobe, till then, I took a bath.
...
"assalamualaikum bhai" shams came up and hugged me.
"walaikumassalam" I greeted them both."how are you both doing?"
"we are alhamdulillah fine, how are you?" amaan said
"alhamdulillah" I replied back
We were in a mall and we all sat in the food court.
"would you like something to eat?" I asked them
They both looked at each other and replied "no, we are fine"
"tea, coffee or maybe an ice cream?" after a while, when they didn't reply, "I'll bring an ice cream for us, any specific flavors?"
"no just vanilla" they said. They certainly wanted to have some but they were too shameful to ask, that's what I guessed.
I went up to the ice cream shop and bought three ice creams, two big sized cups which had 3 scoops each and a medium cup for me which had two scoops of ice cream.
I placed the two big cups each in front of both of them while a negligible smile grazed on their faces.
"ok now you can tell" I said
"so it's about like 30 years before" amaan began "the time when our parents were in college"
I listened with full concentration while taking spoons of ice-cream in my mouth
"my father, hammad" shams said now "and my mother secretly liked each other and my father was a good man too but he was a close friend of amaan's father who.."
"who belonged to a group of gangsters" amaan completed for him "their college had a group which was no less than a gangsters group, well it was a gangsters group and the whole college knew about it. Shams's father, hammad and her mother married to each other but her mother was always against his father's friendship with my father"
"sadiq bhai's mother also studied in the same college and she was a good friend of our mothers. " shams was narrating the whole story now because amaan was gulping the ice cream and had a brain freeze "soon after about an year of my parents marriage, my father also started working in the gangsters group secretly. The gangsters group were no harm but they just irritated people around them and terrified each and every person but there was one member who showed his reality later" shams took a spoon and continued "he was told some work to do by some woman whom we don't know and I guess no one told about her to us but..." shams stopped as few tears emerged in his eyes.
"that man, he asked my father to do the work but it was not possible by a single individual so he asked shams's father's help and he could not refuse. They did their work but they were caught soon"
"hmm, what was the work and how were they caught later?" I asked them
"well" shams was telling the story now "we aren't so sure about the work but I remember it slightly, that man asked to attack a family and kill each and every member of that family but that man wasn't with us who asked us to do this. My father said me that the police came at that moment and caught them and that man was along with them. They were also accused of killing their wives but we know that's not the truth! Our fathers can't do that! "
Shams has tears falling from his eyes and amaan was patting on his back to calm down.
I also smiled and patted on his shoulder
"since then, it was sadiq bhai's mother who took us in but we didn't stay with them, instead we stayed in the hostel and after we finished our education, we were made to stay in an apartment on rent but we were kicked out when neighbors found out our real identity" amaan said
"so.. Where are both of your fathers?"
"they were sentenced to death after jailing of full one year"
"I am so sorry and whatever that happened, it does not have your fault" they both looked at me "you both are innocent and whatever you might have done for sadiq was maybe under his debt or maybe forcefully"
"thank you so much for understanding us zafar bhai" they said, both had tears in their eyes and it must have been hard for them. I know how it feels when you don't have a father but they both did not even have their mothers that too, since their very young age.
"today dinner will be by me" I said
"no zafar bhai don't do this, you are embarrassing us"
"no I am not" I defended "I just want to give you both a good time after all I am your friend now and stop calling me zafar bhai, zafar will do" both of them smiled out of their tears and hugged me.
Alhamdulillah : by only Allah's grace