Emotions were high in the haveli like a whirlwind making it's way across Jahanpur after learning the scandalous rumours surrounding Shah Nawaz and Meh'r-Bano. Now. It came to light that Meh'r-Bano visited Shah Nawaz late last night whilst the dancers were entertaining. Shahgul ordered Wajahat to her private suite demanding answers.
"What is going on Wali? What is wrong with my son?"
Wajahat bowed his head in shame. He had nothing to say to Shahgul. Shah Nawaz did what he wanted and he was out of control. Now he was on a quest to destroy Meh'r-Bano's family.
"What will he do? What extent will he go to?" Shahgul asked. "What does he want with this woman?"
Wajahat was silent.
"Wali, you need to get a grip on this. My son will not be bought down my a simple woman. He has a future, a marriage, children ahead of him to embed his leadership. This woman is a mere distraction. This has to end. What does he want to do?"
"She slapped him."
"What?"
"He asked her to spend the night and she slapped him."
"A woman slapped my son- the chief of Jahanpur?" Shahgul paced the room is shock. "Why hasn't she being arrested? Why hasn't she been called in front of me?"
"Choudhary Shah Nawaz does not want anyone involved. He is dealing with it."
"Just like he is dealing with this infatuation with this maid Where is he? Tell him his mother wants to see him?"
"I will, Choudhrani Jee."
"Go! Get out of here and keep an eye on my son." Shahgul threw her arm in the air. She knew that Shah Nawaz had his beady eye on her, but the audacity of the simple woman to slap him?
***
Reeling from the heartbreaking truth about Shah Nawaz, Meh'r-Bano fought all day to keep a straight face and stop herself from crying whilst cooking or cleaning. But when she was applying balm on Babu's ulcers tears rained down her cheeks. She couldn't hide her heartbreak from Babu's deep brown eyes. Those wrinkles that turned and eyes widened knowing that she was hiding something. Without words, he tried to ask her to speak, but her tears chocked her as she shook her head.
"It hurts-here." She pressed her hand against her chest. There was a physical ache in her chest, it was deep and throbbing.
"It doesn't go away babu." She wiped her tears with her shawl. "Every hour it gets harder and harder. I can't-" She sobbed into her shawl stifling her cries so no one would hear her. "I just wait for the hours to pass by. Every hour drags on. Then I pray I can sleep, few hours of sleep away from this heartache." Shah Nawaz was like the rest of the men in Jahanpur.
"I've been foolish, Babu. Just pray Allah fixes my heart. It hurts-" She shivered with tears. "I can't bear this pain."
However, this was the start of the vengeance approaching Meh'r-Bano's way when a knock on the gate shattered their home. A gasping young apprentice appeared late one evening calling Kaneez.
"Come quick! Ustaad Shafiq has been arrested." Kaneez let out a cry and fell to knees. Meh'r-Bano quickly ran behind as she heard a hearty cry.
"What happened?" Meh'r-Bano cried out.
"Mushtaq- he's dead. They found his body. They arrested Ustaad!!" Cried the boy.
It was mayhem at Shafiq's house, the sky fell in hearing about Mushtaq's death. For days they were fighting, arguing and throwing threats at each other but today it came to a tragic end. Kaneez cried unable to grasp the reality of it.
"My son is innocent!" She cried out. "My Shafiq is innocent."
Kaneez ordered Meh'r-Bano to stay at home whilst she ran to the prison to visit her son.
"I want to come." Meh'r-Bano protested.
"No! You stay at home with Babu! I will find out!" Kaneez's brain was foggy. She didn't' know what to do first. She wanted to cry, lament, scream but first she had to make her way to the police station.
Meh'r-Bano paced back and forth in the courtyard. Every second of the wait killed her. How did this happen? How did Shafiq murder Mushtaq? Last time Shafiq returned home he was bloody and threatened Mushtaq. Why did he do it? Babu felt the fear and commotion in the house and wanted answers. Meh'r-Bano calmed him down with lies that everything was okay. If he got upset it could bear a huge burden on his weak heart and cause a heart attack, Meh'r-Bano would find it difficult to calm him down.
Kaneez returned near midnight with death carved over her face. Meh'r-Bano rushed to her with a glass of cool water.
"We are cursed. We are cursed!" She cried out sipping the water.
"Did you see him?"
"He didn't do it. He is locked up and faces a death sentence."
Meh'r-Bano gasped. "No!
"He is crying that he is innocent. We have to do something, we need a law man or something. He wasn't anywhere near Mushtaq he was at the garage."
"So why did they arrest Shafiq?"
"He threatened him in the bazaar. Everyone assumes it's him. He has been yelling that he will kill Mushtaq- now he is dead. I don't know what to do- my son faces death sentence."
Kaneez sobbed uncontrollably as Meh'r-Bano held her. If this was true, that Shafiq didn't kill Mushtaq then it will soon be revealed. There was no law in Jahanpur. Police were insignificant, propped up by the haveli. All control was ultimately in Choudhry's hands.
"We need to get a lawyer ammi. We can't let this happen. Shafiq would never kill anyone."
That night Kaneez and Meh'r-Bano came together planning ways to defend Shafiq from the accusation. They went through their little money pot and gold bangles to see if they could hire a lawyer.
"You are literate, you should know how to hire a lawyer."
Meh'r-Bano paused on hearing her mother speak positively about her education. Kaneez valued and needed Meh'r-Bano's intelligence now. Since the day she married Shafiq, her mother in law cursed her education calling it a curse and western wanton thinking. This day had to come.
"You have to save my son! He didn't kill Mushtaq. I have one son and I can't lose him." Kaneez sobbed.
***
It was two in the morning when Shafiq heard commotion in the prison and shook him from his light sleep. The floor was cold and hard, the food was raw and tasteless. He looked around at the other two prisoners who were fast asleep. An officer came to the cell and unlocked the gate. Shafiq was terrified unsure what was happening.
"Get out." The prison officer barked. "Out!"
Shafiq rubbed the sleep from his eyes and made his way to the office. In the dim office stood four guards from the haveli dressed in black clenching automatic rifles.
"What's going on?" Shafiq heart pounded with fear looking at the officer. The officer left the room leaving Shafiq alone with Haveli guards and Wajahat Ali.
In his boots, Wajahat Ali crunched the stones under his foot. The prison was a dump. His eyebrows knit together with anger.
"What's going on?" Said Shafiq.
A guard placed a document on the table with a ink pad.
"Do you want to live?" Wajahat Ali began. "Everyone knows you killed Mushtaq."
Shafiq shook his head denying it.
"The panchayat will convict you on Sunday and you will be hanged in front of everyone."
"No! No!" Shafiq looked for an exit but the guards blocked him in.
"I didn't kill him. I had nothing to do with it."
"If you want to live- put your thumbprint on the document."
Shafiq was confused, what was he asking to sign? He couldn't read or sign his signature so he had to trust others to read a document and sign it with his thumb print.
"What is this? I didn't kill Mushtaq- I didn't do anything." Shafiq lifted the document. The document was a legal document.
"I won't sign it- I didn't kill Mushtaq and I won't be forced in a false testimony."
Wajahat took a deep breath. Taking direct orders from Shah Nawaz this was the second part of their plan.
"Divorce papers. You will divorce the woman."
Shafiq shook his head and looked at the document which didn't help. He wasn't sure whether to believe the menacing Wajahat Ali or not.
"Put your thumbprint on the divorce paper and you will be a free man."
Did Meh'r-Bano plan this? Who was behind it? Why was the haveli asking for a divorce? A million questions exploded in his head.
"Why are you doing this? Who is behind this? I won't divorce my wife? Did you kill Mushtaq? You killed Mushtaq and no you can force me to sign this? Never!"
Wajahat Ali expected this response, he grabbed the document and forced it in his face. "Sign it!"
Wajahat Ali grabbed Shafiq from the collars and shook the skinny man. He was no match for Wajahat Ali's fist as he punched his stomach and Shafiq keeled over coughing and spluttering. Wajahat Ali threw the pencil thin man across the room to the other end. Shafiq couldn't fight back, Wajahat was a mighty man with four deadly guards. Grabbing Shafiq by the throat and pushing him against the wall in a strangle hold, Wajahat Ali tightened his grip and yelled.
"Sign it!"
"Never! You can cut my thumb and force me, but I will never free my wife so she can live with another man." Wajahat tightened his hold and Shafiq face turned red and gasped. Wajahat let him free as he fell to the ground gasping for air.
"Never!" He stood up and grabbed the document and ripped it up in pieces. "I will scar Meh'r-Bano's face with acid so another man will never look at her!" Shafiq promised.
Wajahat Ali felt a chill in his spine as Shafiq's face twisted anger with conviction. The man ran a garage and had plenty of battery acid to hand. He meant it.
"She will not be worth any man- that city whore!" Shafiq spat out.
Wajahat pressed the barrel of his gun against Shafiq's chest. "On Sunday, you will hang at the panchayat. That's certain. She will be a widow."
"An ugly widow with a scar that makes any man repulsed!" Shafiq fought back.
With the divorce papers in tatters and Shafiq certain to die on Sunday at the Panchayat, Wajahat Ali raised his hands to the guards to leave. Shafiq was a man on borrowed time and soon Meh'r-Bano would be free for Shah Nawaz to make his mistress.
Shafiq was left shivering with fear in the dark room. His body fuelled with anger knowing that Shah Nawaz had an interest in Meh'r-Bano to such an extent that he was destroying his life. Did the haveli kill Mushtaq and trap Shafiq? Now a divorce? What did Meh'r-Bano know?
"Never!" Shafiq shook his head.
The officer returned and dragged Shafiq back to his cell without talking. The prison was ultimately controlled by the haveli. Every arrest, release and sentence was passed with the approval of the haveli.
That night Shafiq spent the night planning his escape and avenging Meh'r-Bano for seducing Shah Nawaz. He knew it from the day she had dreams of education, school, a class she was dreaming beyond her limits. Then she worked in the haveli, she must have set her sights on the handsome Choudhary, and done something to seduce him. The Choudhary can have any women they like, why her? A married village woman? What did she say and do?
****
By the morning, Meh'r-Bano put on her shoes and draped her large shawl armed with money to hire a lawyer for her husband. Kaneez and her daughter in law walked together to the police officer to ignite hope in him. The village police station was a dilapidated, old building, neglected for decades.
Making their way in, the police officer at the desk was asleep with his legs up on the table.
"Excuse me-" She called him out.
The old man who was dressed casually, his police shirt was wide open revealing his bare chest. It was clear this was far from a police station but a propped up station controlled by the haveli.
"I want to see my husband."
The police officer sat up and glared at the women.
"This isn't the time to visit. Go home."
"No- we need to see Shafiq. He hasn't done anything. He didn't murder Mushtaq." Said Kaneez.
The officer guffawed as he took a cocktail stick into his mouth.
"Listen woman, all murderers say this. Anyhow he was threatening Mushtaq in the bazaar. I have a hundred witnesses."
"I need to see him. He will need to see his lawyer."
The police back cackled with laughter.
"Madam- this is Jahanpur, not your city. Here the land is ruled by the panchayat and the Choudhary. No city man, law man will work here. Take this matter to the panchayat."
"But he is here, in your police station."
"A man is dead. Your husband is the only suspect. If the panchayat find him guilty, he will most certainly hang till death." The law of the land was obsolete.
A shiver ran through Meh'r-Bano's spine.
Making her way towards the prison cell Meh'r-Bano found her husband curled up in a corner of the cell. Her heart dropped to her feet seeing him. He was a shadow of the man he once was. She called him. He turned to her and then stopped in his tracks.
"What happened son?" Kaneez lengthened her arms into the prison through the bars. "Did they beat you?"
"This is all her fault ammi. If I die, it will be her fault." Bruised and battered, Shafiq's anger burned his body with heat seeing Meh'r-Bano. From the day he bought her home, she was a curse. A beautiful woman is nothing but a curse.
"What are you talking about puthar?" Said Kaneez.
"The haveli, the guards, Wajahat Ali came here and forced me for my thumb print." He disclosed glaring at Meh'r-Bano waiting for her response. "Did she know? Did she send them?"
"What for?"
"For me to divorce this whore!" He yelled and spat on the ground.
Meh'r-Bano's froze with shock.
"They beat me and forced me for my thumb print- but I will never let her live with another man. I will kill her -it's her fault they locked me up! I told you I didn't kill Mushtaq, they did. They have trapped me here because of my wife."
Kaneez couldn't get her head around it, it didn't make sense. Meh'r-Bano denied it and the officer yelled at them to keep it quite or else he'd thrown them out.
Was this Shah Nawaz's quest for vengeance? Ruining her with divorce?
"I promise you this ammi- if I leave this prison alive, I will kill her!" He reached out to grab her shawl but she jumped back. "My wife has disgraced me. I will disfigure her that no man will dare to stare at her. They will be disgusted." Shafiq was in turmoil. The prisoners knew of his wife's loose ways. Kaneez grabbed her son's hand forcing his attention to her.
"Puthar listen- listen. Look at me." She yanked his arm and pulled him close.
"Let her rot in hell. Who cares? I want you to be alive. Give them your thumb print. Get rid of this manhoos creature. I can't bear to see you in prison." She argued with her blind son who was on the path of vengeance.
"When I will be released, I will find her and kill her! Better still, I will disfigure her so she suffers every day of her life!"
"Puthar, if you die, who will be our sahaara. Your father will soon die, I will be alone. Who will support me? Think about your poor mother."
Kaneez argued with her son to focus on staying alive even if it meant divorcing Meh'r-Bano.
"She destroyed my life. She should be behind bars not me!" He argued. "Do you know my little apprentice? Even him, he is ready to testify against me saying he saw me kill Mushtaq just for money. It's all trap!"
"Shafiq Please-" Meh'r-Bano begged. "This isn't-"
He grabbed her arm and pulled her had against the prison bar.
"The day your father entrusted me with you, was the worst day of my life. I thought I was lucky, but you were never happy. I was never enough. You always talked a lot, wanted more and dreamed so high and mighty it has got us into this mess. It's your fault I am here- the haveli did this. I won't ever divorce you- I will make you suffer for every day of your life and you will always think of me." Shafiq screwed his face distorted with rage and vengence.
Meh'r-Bano fought off Shafiq's hand. "You failed as a wife, you couldn't give me a child and now that Choudhary will kill me because of you- you witch!"
Freeing herself from Shafiq's grip Meh'r-Bano ran out of the police station with a heavy heart. It was now in the open that Shah Nawaz was hounding Meh'r-Bano and forcing Shafiq to divorce her. She was helpless.
Ten minutes later Kaneez appeared outside the police station. In an act of desperation she took off her shawl-her honour-off her heard and placed it in Meh'r-Bano's feet. She then kneeled in Meh'r-Bano's feet and pleaded with her hands together.
"What are you doing?" Meh'r-Bano gasped. Why was her mother in law, a respectable woman throwing her honour, and herself in her feet. She kneeled down to meet her eyes and held her hands.
"Stop it ammi."
"My son's life is in your hands. My honour, my old age is in your hands!" Kaneez lamented
"I am desperate! I have no one but my son." She wailed. "He is my sahara. If he dies, I die. I beg you Save him!" She sobbed holding her hands.
"Do anything- it's your fault we are in this position. I don't care about anything, just save him. Go to the haveli- beg! Whatever. He won't divorce you- but you have to save his life."
In front of passers-by, Kaneez no longer cared about her honour and keeping her family issues a secret. Her son was the only support and his life was on the line. Meh'r-Bano consoled her mother. Shafiq's life was in her hands. Shah Nawaz was responsible it was in her hands to save his life before the panchayat on Sunday.
"Oh Allah! My son! Save him! Save him!"
That night Meh'r-Bano tossed and turned. Sunday was in three days time and it was most certain Shafiq would be guilty. Everyone was convinced Shafiq killed Mushtaq and offered condolences to Kaneez as they were certain he would be guilty and hang. She was terrified for him. Her heart was on edge. Shah Nawaz's plan of revenge worked. If it was true, that Shafiq was in prison and facing death sentence because of her slap, she had to do something. She had to save him, and a lawyer wasn't the answer. It was the haveli, they could save his life. It was time to face Shah Nawaz, once again.
*****
Author's note:
After 50 plus votes and comments- I have stayed true and updated!
So, you're turn:
What do you think of the twists and turns so far?
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Any plot holes?