“Where is Ma?” Mehwish enquired at the dinner table.“She had urgent work at her NGO?” Salar announced, looking around.He didn’t miss Amaan and Asmaira’s absence at the table.“What happened?” When Mehwish asked, Hania replied, “One of our employees had been physically assaulted by her husband. Ma went to take care of her and also to file a case against her husband.”“Low-class people. What can you expect from them,” Mehwish scoffed.“Where are Amaan and Asmaira?” Salar asked instead of dignifying his daughter with a reply.“I saw his car leaving the mansion some time ago,” Mehwish replied.She smirked inwardly, recollecting how Amaan dragged Asmaira and locked the room’s door before leaving. But that was something she would rather keep to herself and let things unfold. She has done her task of igniting the spark and gradually would fan it into a fire. She always played her card in hiding and let someone else do the dirty deed for her, and that someone was Amaan.“Hania, Ishaal, did
“This is great. The presentation you prepared is exceptional. With this strategy, the Singhania’s will agree to the contract at our terms,” Salar said, ecstatic. Feriha narrowed her eyes, sensing a change in Amaan’s demeanor and also at Asmaira’s absence at breakfast. “We have a rule not to discuss business at the table,” she reminded them. “Let’s discuss this in the office,” he said, apologetically smiling at his wife. While Amaan was closing the laptop, she asked him, “Where is Asmaira?” Before he could answer, Salar said, “She didn’t bother to come for dinner last night.” Feriha, surprised at Salar’s tone for Asmaira, looked at Amaan only to find him give her a smug look. “She isn’t well and slept early last night. I had asked Maya to send her breakfast to her room,” the moment Amaan said, Hania’s fork dropped on the plate. Finding his father stunned at the information, Amaan glances around to see the rest mirroring the same expression before looking at Feriha again, “Didn
When Asmaira woke the following day, she sat up startled, finding herself on the couch rather than outside. Her mind flashed with Amaan’s words, and her head instinctively moved toward the bed. Finding the bed neatly set, she thought he had already left for the office like every day. With her mind occupied with the intention of meeting Feriha and asking for her help, she grabbed her clothes and absentmindedly opened the bathroom without glancing. Her chain of thought broke, and she skidded to a halt finding Amaan wrapped only in a towel. The abrupt halt only made her feet slip, and before her ass could touch the floor, a hand shot out, grabbing her waist and pulling her up. A gasp left her mouth, feeling a strange rush in her body and finding herself in Amaan’s arms. With his hair dripping wet and freshly shaved jaw, he stared at her in confusion. The faint scent of Jasmine enveloped him before his eyes were drawn to the softest browns staring at him. The heat from her palms went st
The last thing Asmaira wanted to do was to work with Amaan. Granted, he caught her off guard, but she will buy some time and eventually cook up some story with the help of Feriha. If things worsened, she could always say she would work with Feriha rather. “Get ready! We’ll go together,” when Amaan said, Asmaira couldn’t help but blurt out, “Where?”“Office,” he shrugged.Her attempt to escape the mess and plan something later was easily caught by him. He would have laughed at the naive woman whose face was an open book if he hadn’t hated her to the core. With Feriha supporting her, he had to break the connection between them and what could be the best way to kill two birds with one stone. With Asmaira rotting in office, she would be away from Feriha and Kabir. “I don’t have appropriate clothes,” she made whatever excuse that came to her mind. She expected Salar or Feriha to intervene, but the silence around told her she was on her own. Amaan stared at Ishaal and asked in mock anger
“Good morning Amaan!” Talia smiled, forwarding his schedule, “what can I do for you today?“The girl in the blue dress,” he mumbled, looking at his schedule.“What about her?” she asked, locking her hands before her.“Make her busy. Do whatever you want with her but make her useful,” he said, giving back the schedule to baffled Talia.“What?” she blinked.Talia was his secretary since he started his career and, apart from Raina, was the only one to understand his temperaments. She was in her early thirties with a sharp eye for detailing, which was what Amaan liked her for. She was an efficient, fierce woman famous for her no-nonsense att
“Can I leave too?” Asmaira asked, seeing Talia packing her stuff.“Amaan is still working. He asked you to stay back,” the latter didn’t raise her head and continued with her packing. Asmaira’s stomach grumbled on cue, making Talia halt in her action. Embarrassed, Asmaira was about to walk away when the latter offered her a box.“It’s a homemade sandwich. I had a lunch meeting so I couldn’t eat it. It should be good since I kept it in the fridge. Or if you not o—”Asmaira interrupted her, “No. I don’t mind eating.”With another low growl from her stomach, Asmaira sat on the chair and opened the box. With Amaan’s morning stunt, she lost her appetite and couldn’t eat her breakfast. And during lunch, she could hardly swallow food with time constraints. Being an introvert with zero social skills, she hid on the fire staircase. By the time she could muster up the courage to go to the cafeteria amidst the curious stare, order the food and sit, it was past her lunchtime. Thinking she would
With last night’s incident still fresh in her mind, Asmaira was on her toes the next day. No matter how often she was forced to make the coffee, she made it with full attention. She remained silent when Talia finally let out her frustration on her. She remained silent when Amaan mocked her about her phobia. She kept her gaze lowered even when Talia threw the file she had drafted in the dustbin.Swallowing the hurt, she worked like a mule under the tyranny of Amaan. Not able to sleep a wink with last night’s terror or eat a morsel because of the bothering throat, Asmaira was lethargic. Yet she didn’t leave any stone unturned whenever Amaan ordered her.With her breathing turning heavy and her body unusually hot, she closed her eyes and leaned over the wall.“I hav
Asmaira stirred, and a sigh left her feeling soft and silky under her. She smiled in contentment as if she had been sleeping on a bed after a long time. A muffled sound of the door or the scraping on the floor made her frown. It was disrupting her peaceful sleep, and she wanted nothing more than to tuck in the bed forever. Her body felt strange, making her stir again to fit into another comfortable position.However, the sound of the draw being pulled too close made her eyes snap open. Her face turned in the direction only to sit up with a jolt. On the other side of the bed sat Amaan with his back to her. What frightened her were the flashes of him confronting her in the file room and the change of her clothing. Amaan, who came to find his phone’s charger on the nightstand, gave a side glance before opening the next drawer.“What….” she trailed off before shrieking in panic. He would have ignored her uncalled reaction if he hadn’t noticed the saline attached to her hand, which she
“Asmaira,” Amaan sighed. “I can’t do this, Amaan.”“You have faced a more difficult situation than attending a college mid-semester,” he said, taking Kabir from her.Amaan came home early to surprise Asmaira with the news of her admission into another college. Another one on the list of sacrifices she had to make because of him and Raina. Finding Asmaira playing with Kabir on the lawn, he passed her the document to sign.“I still would have said no if it was my old college. I lost one year and would look like a fool to take a semester again with juniors,” she replied, bile rising at the thought of people gawking at her.“I knew you would say that. That’s why I transferred you to a new college. You have already learned the subjects but couldn’t take the exams. It will be a piece of cake. Just a few months to spare, and then you will be busy with your thesis in your last semester. Don’t have to go to the college,”What he was asking her was way more difficult than facing Mehwish. Sudde
“I have never been to such places,” Asmaira’s soft murmur caught Amaan’s attention.Giving his car keys to the valet, he reached Asmaira and held her by her arms, “if you are not comfortable, we can leave. I will make some excuses. Ross and Natalie will understand.”Although he said that, deep inside, he wanted Asmaira to break free of her reservation. He didn’t expect her to become an extrovert, but her level of introversion wasn’t healthy for her. He cannot let her live only for Kabir and not for herself. She moved closer to Amaan, lowering her head when a group of people walked by. The gesture was enough for him to wound an arm around his waist, ready to call Ross, but Asmaira stopped him.“I want to meet them. I-I,” she swallowed, ‘want to get to know my sister through Natalie. How Raina lived after her marriage.’She wanted to say but ended up saying, “I didn’t get to say my thanks to Ross.”Before he could ask why thanks, Ross’s voice interrupted them. “Asmaira, you are here.
Amaan glanced at Asmaira, who was busy entertaining Kabir with the outside view of the car and shook his head at her lack of questioning. On the other hand, Asmaira was happy to see Amaan putting in the effort to spend as much time as possible with Kabir. It was as if he was doubling the effort to compensate for his one-year absence. As long as Kabir was happy and would get to grow up in a complete family, she was willing to do everything, including sharing the bed or a meal. Her smile dropped, noticing a familiar route but she didn’t ponder over the thought. However, the closer they got, the more worried she was. It was not that she was afraid, but she didn’t want to open the can of worms.“Where are we going?” she couldn’t help but ask, to which Amaan smiled. They both knew where they were going. He didn’t want to expose her, but it was also true that he didn’t want her to run away. Things she had to let go of to keep one promise to her dead sister. He wanted to return it to her.
Asmaira sat at her usual place, where she used to hide from Amaan at the beginning of her marriage. Although she was safe in the mansion, the memory of last night never left her. The thought that there were women who were living a life worse than death and she could have become one of them—if not for her luck—terrified her.She cringed inwardly and recalled how someone tried to force himself on her. She couldn’t stop the shudder in disgust. She sat on the floor without bothering to touch her food, staring aimlessly at a distance: Coco and kitty’s words ringing in her ear. She closed her eyes in despair when a soft mumble caught her attention. At first, she thought it was an illusion, but her eyes snapped open when she heard, “Mumma.”She blinked and heaved a deep inhale when the realization drew upon her. She hesitated, but something inside her compelled her to turn toward the direction of the giggle, breaking the gloomy atmosphere around her. What welcomed her was the sight of Kabi
Aslan glanced at his brother from the driving seat through the rearview mirror. He could read how much he was trying to suppress his turmoil with the way his vein was popping over the side of his neck. He sighs and glances sideways at his father who seemed to notice the same. When they got a lead about Asmaira and were called to identify her, their first thought was to leave Amaan behind, but when he volunteered to come along, Salar couldn’t deny it. Although Amaan was responsible for the mess, one look at his remorseful eyes told him he was broken from the inside. And as a father, he couldn’t let his son suffer by adding more to his misery and denying him the respite. It was one such instance where he went against Feriha, who didn’t want Amaan to be around Asmaira, even around a radius of a few meters. Seeing Amaan’s hand trembling, Aslan took the steering wheel and drove them to the police station. As soon as it came into view, Amaan sucked in a shaking breath feeling shame seepin
It was not Asmaira trying to take Raina’s place. It was you who were looking for Raina in her.Feriha’s words reverberated in his mind. It was as if someone had thrown cold water and brought him back to reality. Being his mother, she read him like an open book when he himself didn’t realize what actually troubled him about Asmaira.The room echoed with the slamming of the door against the wall. Amaan marched to the center only to halt at the condition of it. Everything was kept in its place and looked thoroughly cleaned. He walked backward when the scene of how he manhandled her on the Gala night flashed before his eyes. He stumbled on the vanity when her scream of that night echoed in his ear, and he covered his ears, dropping the phone he was holding in the action.
“Y-Yes,” Mehwish’s stutter confirms Feriha’s suspicion.Rodriguez subtly disappeared from the scene and instructed his team to clear the premises. As a loyal subordinate, he read the room and gave privacy to the family.“And what did Asmaira reply?” Feriha took a few steps towards her, emanating her intense aura. The last fiasco in the Gala hasn’t been sorted, and she found her daughter at the center of another.“S-She….” Mehwish glanced at Amaan only to see realization drawing up on him.“If you
“We have a charity dinner invite from Mr. Shah. I want you to come along with Kabir,” Feriha said.Asmaira’s head snapped in her direction in surprise, “Me?”After getting discharged the next day, Asmaira was relieved that Amaan had left for a business trip. But what had suffice between them that night kept haunting her. That night, he not only unlocked the new fear for himself but also opened Pandora’s box. She couldn’t muster up the courage to meet Kabir in his absence. The guilt she was responsible for his miserable childhood overshadowed her love for him.Noticing her avoiding Kabir, Feriha planned to bring her and Kabir together on the pretext of evening tea. With Hania taking care of the NGO in her mother-in-law’s absence and Ishaal busy designing her new exclusive collection, this was the only way for her to break whatever wall Asmaira had created around her.“Now that people have seen you during the Ga
“Fuck!”Amaan slumped on the bed with his elbows on his knees and clasped hands before his lips. Locking Asmaira away was the only way for him to calm himself down and think through.The fire of hatred that started seeing Asmaira in Raina’s look made him take the drastic step. He had been verbal to her with his warning, but seeing her nonchalant, he had to threaten her in a different way. However, what he didn’t expect was finding her squirm beneath him half-naked would only lead him to lose himself.The anger should have been extinguished after seeing her broken form. If anything, it intensified and irked at his emotions going haywire for a woman who brought agony to Raina in her dying moment. He swatted the night lamp on the ground. With his chest heaving with untamed fury, he clutched the duvet and ripped it. The bedsheet and the pillows met the same ending. He doesn’t know what was making him feral, but the thought he was about to force Asmaira made him feel like a sexual predator