Thank you for all the love and support on the last chapter.
Now let's go and read what Minal and Zaydaan have to say to each other.
Keep an open mind. Make sure to vote and comment.
I'm on a roll, three constant updates huffff!!
By the way, I never thought ya'll would actually react to sadkey the way you have. I always thought humsafar and humdard were my peak stories.
But oh well!!
I love you all.
Minal X Zaydaan
If there was one thing that Minal Ashfaq had learnt with time, it was that Zaydaan Ziagil was a ticking time bomb. He would bottle things up inside, bottle them up so much that at one point, the frustration would start to rise above a certain level and he would snap, he would burst.
That was how it had always been.
And nobody knew how he was going to react either. Usually, it was the unflinching anger and sometimes it was the prideful hurt.
When Zaydaan chose power over love, he hadn't informed Minal about it. Instead, he had stayed with her late till night. They had talked, they had some coffee together, and at the end of the night, he had hugged her, kissed her forehead, mumbled an I love you and said goodnight.
The next day, Minal Ashfaq came to know that Zaydaan Ziagil had agreed to marry Aaina Imran.
It had hurt.
So she had called him and she had asked him why, Zaydaan hadn't given any explanation. He had told her that she understood him better than anyone, she knew why.
So Minal understood.
Last night was his way of bidding her goodbye.
She had cried, she had been angry, she had been bitter and cursed the woman he was marrying.
But she had attended his wedding, she had tried to be just friends with him but her frustration would come out, his would too.
So she had learned, slowly and gradually she had learned how to live in a word where Zaydaan Ziagil was not by her side.
There were times when she would just sit on the floor and ask God to return her the love he took away from her and there were times that she would call up her friends, their friends and ask them to do something to shake a change within Zaydaan.
A woman is a conflicted human being, a woman loves her pride, her ego, her self respect, but she also loves a man. It's hard to make a choice.
She didn't understand how and why her father had suggested for her to marry Awan Chaudhry, she didn't like the unpleasant perverted man, and she had told her father it wasn't happening.
Idrees Uncle, he had always liked her but she didn't expect that he would snatch Zaydaan away first and then try to put him on a path back to her.
As she reached the hall downstairs, her eyes landing on the Prime Minister, all she could do was stare for a moment.
Zaydaan didn't even stare at her.
One moment, she was looking at him and in the next moment, she felt consumed by him.
When gentle arms hug you, they give you a space to breathe but when there's a hug of strong arms, there's no space to breathe, just feel.
She felt him press himself against her, trying to find a comfort, trying to find some sort of comfort that he just couldn't find.
Your hug is stronger than I can remember, it's been a long while, a year almost, and I feel you. I feel your frustration, your confusion. I understand you don't know what is happening. You think you're a Prime Minister, you have a responsibility to this nation and so you think that you shouldn't even ponder over your personal feelings but I know, a part of you is hurting, is uneasy and you don't know the reason why. I know you, Zaydaan. I do. And I have missed you, you being so close, it's the most alive I've felt in a long time.
Words. So many words she wanted to say and so many words that she chose not to.
"Zaydaan." She took his name instead, feeling his teeth pressing against her back.
She smiled.
"Minal." She didn't correct him. Minal. It sounded so foreign on his tongue, calling her Minal even when they were alone.
"Are you really biting into my neck?" She questioned him instead, trying to pull away and successfully detaching herself from his arms.
"I miss you." She heard him murmur.
I miss you too.
I have missed you for so long. I have survived without you, I have been happy too but a part of me has not been happy for a very long time. I miss you so much at times that its hard to breathe but I won't tell you that. You have to make a decision based on your feelings, not mine.
She touched his forehead instead.
"You're so warm. Do you have fever?" Zaydaan shrugged.
"I don't know."
"Why are you here?" She asked next.
"I don't know."
He replied.
When did Zaydaan Ziagil not know something? You could be the leader of the world and not know about what is happening to your heart.
Life was crazy that way.
"Okay, okay.." Minal took a deep breath as she held his hand.
"Betho." She whispered. He didn't sit.
"Zaydaan, please. Betho." She insisted once again and Zaydaan finally obliged, sitting.
She observed his droopy eyes, his tired face, his confused stare. She put her hand on his head once again, feeling the fever.
Her hands reached out to the phone beside her as she dialled to the kitchen.
"Achi si chai bana do, biscuits ke sath aur do panadol bhi bhejdena, pani ke sath."
She said over the phone, frowning at how quiet and un composed Zaydaan was.
She hung up after that and stayed quiet for a moment.
"Kya hua hai?"
She finally asked.
What happened? What happened to you? I know what's happening but I want you to tell me what really is going on?
"Kya?"
It seemed like he was in another world and he had no response for any of her questions, as if he hadn't even heard them.
"Tumhain kya ho gaya hai, Zaydaan."
He hadn't heard her voice sound this emotional, but she did. She looked so overwhelmed, like she was fighting a battle within her own self, just like him.
"Pata nahin, mujhe khud bhi nahi pata." He answered honestly.
He told her he had no idea what truly was happening and she nodded, understanding him.
"Ahad told me that you're here to ask me to marry you." She started off.
Zaydaan looked at her, he observed her slightly wet eyes and her composed face. If he didn't know Minal any better, he would say that she was having a casual day but he knew, he knew that she was in pain.
"Would that really be so shocking?" He questioned her in agony.
"Yes."
It is shocking because I have seen it all. I have seen the way you talk to her, I have seen the way she smiles at you and I have seen the way you smile back, I have seen you defending her like you used to defend me. So ofcourse, it is shocking.
Words.
She didn't say them out loud. She kept them inside.
"Why?" He asked back.
"Because you're not the same Zaydaan anymore, you've changed."
She told him of the truth.
You have changed, Zaydaan Ziagil. Your words have changed, your actions have changed and maybe, your heart has changed.
"Pata nahin."
He denied. Minal clicked her tongue as the tea arrived. She sent the house worker away, pouring him tea on her own.
She gave him the water first, and the panadol. He didn't say no, he just took it.
Then, she handed him over his tea, giving him a hard look.
I don't know why I still care so much, why I still love you so much. You hurt me and I still understand why you did what you did. You chose power over love but I understood it, I understood your priorities. And I knew that you still loved me. But now? I'm not so sure.
"You're married. And you want to marry me." She stated, Zaydaan took a sip of his tea.
"Yeah."
"Ahad told me everything, I didn't really expect you to come to me but I'm glad you did." She started off.
There was some sort of awkwardness between them, so many things unsaid.
He sighed.
"Yeah,"
She couldn't help herself, it felt wrong but it also felt so damn right. So she held his hand and tightened her fingers around his.
"I've never seen you so confused, Zaydaan. Are you okay?" She softly enquired, he shook his head.
"Minal, Father told me you agreed to marry Awan Chaudhry."
Why do you say it like you own me? Like you have a right over me. You don't. I wish you did, I wish I was yours and you were mine but you're not.
"I didn't. He lied to you to get what he wanted." She replied.
"And what was that?"
"You came to me, did you not? He trapped you." She continued, letting out a sarcastic laugh.
"What a great Prime Minister you are." She mumbled.
For once in his life, Zaydaan didn't feel like he was good enough. And that was scary, it was a foreign feeling to him. He had never felt helpless like this, like he didn't have a solution.
"Yeah, what a great Prime Minister I am." He accepted, tone disappointed and unhappy.
Minal let out a deep sigh, knowing that it was hightime she told Zaydaan what really was going on, with her, with him.
"Tumhain pata hai mujhe tum se itna pyaar kyun hai? Kyun main tarapti hoon tum se milne ko? Baat karne ko?"
She questioned him, do you know why I love you? Why I desperately want to meet you, talk to you?
Zaydaan didn't answer, so she continued talking.
"Because you're honest with yourself, because you don't lie to your own self." She whispered.
Zaydaan could manipulate the world, could lie, could be cold and mean, strict and firm but the one thing that he couldn't do, it was lying to his own self.
She pressed her fingers against his palm.
"Wo bauhat achi hai, Zaydaan. Us ne kuch bura nahin kiya, na mere sath, na Tumhare saath."
She shakily said, He listened to her intensely.
"Pehli baat to ye hai ke main kabhi bhi us ka ghar barbaad nahin karungi, she told me that I'm smart, and beautiful and I can get anyone I want. That I should move on because it will be the best thing for me."
Zaydaan didn't know about this, he didn't know that Aaina and Minal had this kind of conversation.
"What did you say?" He questioned back.
She let out a watery chuckle.
"I said that I'm not going to argue with a little girl. She smiled at me and said that this little girl is your first lady."
He gave out a small smile, Aaina was changing.
"Mujhe pata hai kesa feel hota hai, aap ko jis se muhabbat ho, aur wo kisi aur ka ho jaye. Main jaanti hoon, aur ye bhi pata hai ke agar Ahad yahan na aata toh tum kabhi bhi na aate, tumhain koi farq nahin parta."
She told him next.
"Tum nahin jaante, Zaydaan. But for some reason, you care for her more than you wanted to, you care for her because you love her."
His head snapped at her.
Love?
Aaina. He didn't love Aaina, how could he fall in love with her so easily? He didn't think it was possible.
"You know why I know that?" Minal enquired, her heart ached.
She didn't even know why she was making him realise all of this, maybe it was because she needed closure or maybe her love wasn't selfish, it was selfless. She wanted his happiness, even when it wasn't with her.
"Because I saw the way you looked at her, at the G20. I saw how you looked at her in those pictures. That is not something you can fake." Zaydaan shook his head at her words.
"I don't love her." He denied.
I wish I could believe you. I wish I could tell you to be with me and love me but I can't. Because your heart isn't with me anymore and you need to realise it.
"You don't?"
"No."
She smiled.
"Okay, prove it. Look at me."
He looked at her.
"Look into my eyes and tell me that you love me. Batao mujhe ke mere ilawa kisi aur aurat se muhabbat nahi karte, ke main hi hoon jis ke liye tumhara dil dhadakta hai. Tell me you love me, as a lover. Not as a friend, not as a confidant. As a lover."
So he did. He looked into her eyes and he tried to find the right words to say.
Say it Zaydaan, Say that you love me. Tell me I'm the one for you.
Zaydaan Ziagil could not look at her and say those three magical words. He didn't know why but they couldn't escape his mouth.
"Minal.." He trailed off.
She let out another chuckle. A bitter one.
"It was always Mina for you, never Minal. You never called me Minal because you said that 'I call you Mina because nobody else does, because it's different and you're different. I say it because I love you."
I often wonder if I'll ever be happy the way I was happy with you. I often wonder if I would ever love a man as much as I have loved you. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. But one thing that I know for sure, it's that you don't love me anymore.
It hurts that you don't. But you truly don't. You might love me but you're not in love with me.
"Mina se Minal tak ka safar."
Her eyes burnt to the core where she had to close them to keep the tears at bay, so she took another deep breath.
She wanted to tell him how she felt and she wanted him to realise that he had changed, even if he didn't want to accept it.
"It hurt me, when you left. When you chose power over our love but I also understood it. I understood that you love me but you loved something more than that. And it's okay, if you love her now, I know that you love her. You want me to be in your life because you think I'm the only one who truly understands you."
Zaydaan didn't think she was right but was she really wrong? Minal knew him better than anyone, so her words had much more impact on him.
Aaina.
Did he love Aaina?
Did he love his girl with the silky hair and the soft smile? The one with the tears and puffy cheeks? The one who loved him to an extent where it hurt?
Did he really?
Minal sniffed.
"I'm honored that I understand you, Zaydaan. But she hasn't been with you for fifteen years, I loved you after I understood you. She loved you before she could even understand you."
Zaydaan let out a sigh.
"I don't know whose love is greater but for some reason, she is the one you are married to. She's the one that I think you love, even if you don't want to accept it." She remarked.
Zaydaan put a hand on her cheek, pressing on it.
"How can I love her when I have loved you for fifteen years?" He pondered, she smiled.
"If you really love me, why don't you kiss me?"
I want to kiss you, but I've grown fond of the lips that I have been kissing for a while now, they're soft and small, they're perfect.
She's perfect. But I don't know if I love her. What I do know is that I've loved you for fifteen years and my love can't just transition so quick.
If I kiss you, I don't think she'd like it. And for some reason, I don't want her to be more hurt than she already is.
I'm angry at her, she thinks I should leave her for you. She thinks it's okay to ask for a divorce. She can't leave me and I want to know if I can leave you.
If you say that I love her, why am I so confused about it?
Zaydaan's mind raced with his thoughts and Minal moved slightly back, his fingers removed from her cheek.
"Kya hua, Zaydaan? Soch rahe ho na us ke baare main, usko hurt karne ka soch kar Acha feel nahi ho raha na."
|What happened? You're thinking about her, aren't you? It doesn't feel so nice when you think about hurting her, does it?|
She questioned out loud.
"This loyalty, this is love. This feeling, this uneasiness, this is for her."
"You don't want to accept it because your father chose her for you and when has Zaydaan Ziagil liked someone forcing things upon him?"
She continued. Each word pierced her own heart. Each word hurt as she said it out loud.
Ahad had told her that she wasn't a home wrecker, and she knew she wasn't one. She wanted to be, for so long but she didn't have that inside of her.
"You don't want to accept it because she's young and naive and innocent. You think that you can't make a good couple together when you do."
She insisted.
You look good with her but you looked the best with me. It's a shame that I had to lose you. It's a shame that you're not mine. I wish you were.
"We don't control who we fall in love with, we can't."
She vocalised next, telling him the decision that she had made.
"I wouldn't mind being your second wife, but you love her. I wouldn't want to come in between that."
Zaydaan groaned in misery, expressing himself in whatever way that he could.
"You don't understand, Minal. You don't."
I wish I didn't. I wish I hadn't seen the love that you possess for her. But I have.
"I do. Okay, tell me, if you got told that leaving Aaina would mean you being the Prime minister for the next decade, would you leave her?"
Zaydaan looked at her like she was crazy. What honorable man leaves his wife like that?
"Ofcourse, I won't. I'll find another way. She's my wife." He defended.
She gave him a sad smile.
"That's the difference. You chose power over love with me, but you won't choose power over Aaina. If that's not love for you, I don't know what is."
She put a hand on his chest. It felt foreign.
"Your stubborn heart fails to recognise that you are loving a girl who was forced upon you."
"It's your nature, Zaydaan. You don't like loving the people that you haven't chose. But you have gone against your nature and loved her."
Sometimes, it takes a lifetime, to get to know yourself. And sometimes, it takes a moment for others to get to know you.
He looked at Minal, how she was about to cry, how she looked so heart broken and it made him feel bad, but when he compared it to how he felt when Aaina cried, when she yelled at him, it was so different.
Was Aaina the mirror that he had to see to realise who he actually loved?
But how could he love someone so different?
"Her love has changed you, can't you see that? Zaydaan Ziagil isn't that stupid." He saw Minal scowl at him.
"Pyaar us se karte ho, aur shaadi Mujh se karni hai?"
She asked him with a choked up laugh, a laugh that actually showed the pain that she held within her.
|You love her and you want to marry me?|
She shoved Zaydaan a little on his chest.
"Chalo ab jao yahan se, Prime Minister hoge apne ghar main, mujhe rona hai aur tumhare samne rone se behtar hain main doob ke Mar jaun."
Life was unfair. Was it not?
You love someone for fifteen years and you lose them, you finally have a chance of getting them back but you use that chance to secure that someone's long term happiness.
How unconditional was love of a woman?
Zaydaan called out her name, he owed her way more than this but it was the best he could do right now, in this complicated, fucked up situation.
"Minal,"
"I'm sorry," He apologised.
I'm sorry that you weren't my first priority. I'm sorry that you aren't the love of my life, I'm sorry that I couldn't give you what you deserve.
"Jab mujhe chora tha, tab maafi nahin maangi, aaj maang rahe ho?"
|When you left me, you didn't apologise, and now? You're apologising?|
She enquired.
"Haan,"
Minal Ashfaq wiped a stray tear that had managed to leak out of her eye, she looked at him and gave him her biggest smile.
"Jao tumhain maaf kiya, Sadkey tumhare."
|I forgive you, for your sake|
She whispered, and then just like a gust of wind, he was gone.
I might not be the love of your life, Zaydaan. But you'll always be the love of mine.
----
Not all exes are bitches 😂🤷♂️
Hope you guys liked it!!
Happy so far?
Next chapter, ya'll will get to know a little bit more about Zaydaan.