"You knew it and now you're rubbing it on my face," Dua gritted to her, "see what I do to you," As another tear released from me."You've no right to talk about my sister in law like that, first of all, and that too infront of me! And you've no right to accuse me of such a heinous act," Dua cried out while a tear slipped from her eye yet her face had nothing but anguish and rage. All the colors flew from Hamna's face."Get the hell out of here? Who the hell are you to talk about my family member like that?" Dua shouted as tears poured down her eye, creating a commotion.Her father approached the scene and Hamna stared at her, in anger and in shock."What happened, Dua?" Haider asked her."Baba ask her to get the hell out of here," she pointed at Hamna, "ask her to leave," her chin wobbled as Shehryaar too came to the scene.Dua instantly hugged him, crying in his arms."Bhai... ask her to leave,""What happened, Dua?" He asked her."You are going to fire her from the company too. Do
'I'll take you again upon reaching home,' The words were playing like a music in her ears, a tone of which she couldn't get rid off of from her mind. The sick feeling in her heart was increasing by leaps and bounds almost making her nauseatic. Her mind was playing games with her as she was not able to recognize the reason which was instigating the memories of that night from some corner of her brain. The memories which she had dumped in her mind long ago. Those moments became non-existent for her once she had stepped out of that room where they did the deed. Yet repeatedly, those scenes were coming infront her eyes, the voices were running in her mind. She could hear her whimpers and moans from that night. She was able to experience the same terror as she had experienced in that night. Her heart was shivering. Shivering bad. Whenever she would close her eyes, she was able to see that bedroom walls increasing her anxiousness making her short of breath. And she didn't realize when
At the dining table, she found herself poking with her food. Her appetite was low. Just because of the thoughts in her mind. She stared at him with her side eye to know about his mood.He hasn't addressed her disobedience of last night yet. Also, he was talking to her normally today.Maybe he won't punish her and he has let it go?Maybe he would let her go and not put her in the cell again?Or maybe he was waiting for the right time to punish her....The last assumption made a bolt of panic hit her. Her mouth hung open as she instantly turned her face towards him.He looked back at her and notice the fear in her eyes.He knew, she was overthinking so he fed her the bite on the spoon he was going to take, filling her half-opened mouth.She became too struck to talk and as she looked around, their gazes were on her and she felt embarrassed. She now was not able to sustain attention on her as she looked down and fondled with her food. If it were her old version, and her husband would hav
Her beige colored attire was placed beside her as she was now in her everyday clothes. The night has sprawled in the sky. Her wet hair indicated the shower she had just taken. That shower was an essential to relax her strained muscles after another hectic day of walima ceremony. The walima was held after a one day gap. There were still some guests in the haveli who accompanied them to the haveli from the wedding hall. They included some of her husband's friends along with family's confidants and some relatives. All day a nervousness had again kept her occupied. But after coming from the ceremony, it transformed into an immense fear. Her heart had been beating out of its rhythm since then. During the whole ceremony, she tried to maintain a distance from Shehryaar especially after what happened that night. Not being able to fulfil her duty towards him had created a subtle sense of panic inside her, which was slowly raising within her system. She was trying to ignore that panic, sup
Days passed.Things were normal for them but not for her. She carried on with her routine of eating the sleeping pills and sleep before he come home or to be at his father's room so he wouldn't so easily get her. It was dinner time, and the maid had asked Sheherzaad to come to the dining room. She didn't feel like going.She felt aloof.She liked to be reserved and alone.Depressed.This was what she just had been failing since past few days. She felt she had developed a hate with her ownself.Whenever she would look herself in the mirror, she won't like what she would see. And that would make her cry. Her hopelessness in herself and in life has been increasing. She couldn't identify the reason but when she looked in the mirror, she didn't like what she see as she used to before.The other day, she was sitting on the sofa when slowly tears began to flow down her eyes and she began to cry out, "I hate myself,"She then stood up and stared herself in the mirror and placed her hand o
The first thing she did with her phone was to call Amna. And as soon as her voice hit her ears, it reminded her of her old times. In a life where she was free.Free of paranoia and a constant terror. "Amna," Sheharzaad's voice cracked as she called her name."Shehar," Amna's voice cracked too. "Are you... are you fine, Amna?" "Are you fine, shehar?"A tear left from their eyes."I really want to meet you shehar. I miss you. I feel so alone," She cried out."How-how is your treatment going?""I-I'm recovering, Shehar," "How is Ahmed bhai?""He is fine,""And-," "How are you, Shehar?""I'm good as well, Amna,""No. Tell me, how are you?""Living," Her lower lip wobbled, "Alone. Scared. Trapped," She sniffled, "I'm so scared to upset him, Amna," A sob formed in her throat, "I live in a constant fear. Day and night. Every moment. Every second," the sob streched her throat, making it difficult for her to speak."Does he... he beat you?""No. He doesn't. His presence alone is so terrif
It all happened so fast. In a flash. Like a thunder of lightening. Bullets being fired. Loud gunshots. And a pair of grey eyes coming infront her vision. Her wrist clasped in a callous hand and she was being dragged. She didn't realize when she was in the over speeding car, the metallic gates of haveli opening, she being dragged all the way from the car to their room and on the plush mattress. The haveli was empty since everybody was at the birthday party. Her beggings, like music in background, resonated in her ears and those beggings fell deaf on his ears. "Shehryaar.... no...I wasn't involved in it," "Shehryaar no... please don't take me to the cell," "Shehryaar.... Dua... told...Shehryaar.... Dua said that you'd be there... please," All her beggings were invain. And his words. His menacing words. "My father never caught my mother red handed that is why he is still in his grief but that won't be the case with me, Sheharzaad. I will make each betrayer reach thei
Tears after tears rushed through Dua's eyes. Her eyes going blood red. Her body jolting with her sobs. Regret. Regret was what that overtook her. Her heart was pounding hard with guilt. What has she done? The peace which she had been seeking after finishing her revenge game was not there. She thought she would be happy, content that the woman because of whom her ex-husband left her was now at the death bed, battling with life. After two suicide attempts. And the remnants of peace she had, went into drain when she came to know of the crystal clear truth. The ugly truth which jabbed at her heart, that she wanted to die with the pain. She looked at her hands. There was blood on it. A blood of a human life. She was pregnant. Sheharzaad was pregnant. And Dua was the killer of their child. How could she.... How would now she face her brother? How would she face Sheharzaad? Because of the color of revenge that had overtaken her mind and senses, in a flash, she became
His tongue was too heavy to utter anything. He was still in shock, a state of disbelief had still encompassed him. His grey eyes kept on looking and tracing the cracks on the hardened mud of the grave. Dilemma was hitting him, clutching him in its painful paws and tightening its grip on his heart with every second.To say the least, he was baffled.Grave.It was a grave.Grave of his mother.Mother.Who had died decades ago.But still that day was freshened in his mind like yesterday. Every intricate and minor detail was in the back of hiss head.Often those details took shape of a nightmare in his dreams. The soulless and dead eyes of the lady who hung with the ceiling.Utter helplessness on her face.He thought as much that suicide was her last resort. That was why he considered her weak. Considered womankind weak. Considered womankind manipulative, cunning, untrustworthy.But here he sat, near the one, who was the reason those feelings were born within him but this time he cam
He was in ICU. His guard told her that he was driving the car fastly to home and suddenly the his grip loosened, the tyres slipped and the car crashed. She couldn't stop the tears coming out of her eyes. She knew the reason behind his eagerness to get home as fast as he could.It was because of her request to come home early. She felt utter guilt clipping her heart.That guilt too that she has suppressed within her.She still thought that Haider died because of her. She considered herself as the culprit of Shehryaar. She took his father's life away. If she hadn't given that dary to him, maybe Haider would have been alive today. She took his father's life away.And now he was fighting for his life because of her. Although, Shehryaar had told him numerous times that it was never her fault behind his father's death but she never agreed to him. There was a part of her which still told her that she was the culprit and that part of her was again taking control over her, inciting suici
The evening sky has sprawled. The blue hue was everywhere as the bird chirped, returning back to their respective abodes. There sat Sheharzaad on the sofa of the study reading the same page again, trying to regain her focus. Yet her eyes would move in between the page of the book that read, 'Karachi. The city of lights. Rather previously known as the city of lights....'The book was titled, 'Zaryaab' after the name of the male lead of that book. Sheharzaad's grey eyes again fixed on the sky, witnessing the birds. As the sun reached the horizon, the sky was a mix of orange and blue.Her mind was wondering to Shehryaar. Where was he? Should she apologize? Or should she wait for him?She found herself guilty in this situation. She should have broke it on the very first place to Maaz that she was married instead of going for that lunch. She knew that Maaz was interested in her but she was just finding the right time to reveal it to him and to everybody that she was married that too t
She was sitting in her cabin, going through a file but repeatedly her concentration was breaking as her mind kept on shifting to somewhere.The memory made her bite her lips and take a deep breath. She was at work!She needed to focus.Why was she feeling that way?She could feel butterflies flipping in her stomach. His intense stare again came over in her mind that had her shook her head away. They both sat together, in that starry night, under the shade of moon, with their hands in hand."Isn't moon looking so beautiful today?" she had whispered dreamily as her head rested on his shoulder. "Which one?" he asked making her puzzle."The one in the sky,""Not as beautiful as the one sitting beside me," "You're cheesy with your dialogues, Mr. Shehryaar,"His eyes flickered from the stars on the sky to her face, "Dialogues ain't the only thing I'm cheesy at, Ms. Sheharzaad,"Sheharzaad averted her gaze, looking away. She was grateful that it was night because her cheeks were turning
Every eye was full of tears.Cries and wails rose from the haveli when the janazah was risen from the home.Haider has passed away. Leaving his mother-less children now father-less. Eyes were sad.Yet his grey eyes stared at nothing just the eye-catching verses that he recited. He was silent. Quiet. Unable to produce any response. Placing her head on his shoulder, his wife sat beside him, with tears propelling from her eyes as her hand held rosary reciting tasbeeh for the departed soul.Sheharzaad was crying.But Shehryaar was silent. It was just those eye-catching verses that had his complete attention. His father used to teach him the Quran in his childhood but he never got the chance to finish it because his practice sessions with his grandfather awaited him so he always used to leave without finishing his recitations. Last he read these verses was decades back and then he did not touch the holy book again. When he was set to made his first murder. He considered himself too
The wiltering flowers at his beloved's grave stood out as an evidence of the abandonment by her own family. Haider sat near the grave. As tears slowly cascaded down his eyes."You've endured enough. I wish... for once you'd have expressed your love for me. For once. Then my whole life wouldn't be so bleak. The reciprocation for which I waited finally came after decades," he played with the mud of the grave, "For once, you could have told me... what Agha did. What my father did. I wish... after your demise even for once you'd have come in my dreams and apprised me how you were brutally killed," Another tear dropped from his eye and landed on her grave, "I read... what you wrote in those pages. Where you expressed your love for me. I freed you from myself only because I wanted you to be happy and be with your lover. I've never hated you. Despite you were caught with another man.... I loved you regardless of every circumstance. My love for you was conditionless, my Jahan" (IN URDU JAHAN
"She didn't commit suicide. She wanted to live for her children. But you know what? She was hanged and it all appeared as suicide. This whole idea was of Agha, Shehryaar. Your mother wanted to live," Sheharzaad finished. Her voice has turned into a soft whisper till the end of her dialogue. She could see the enrage slowly developing in Shehryaar's eyes but he was controlling. He was really controlling himself so the monster won't break free. Zahra came running into the study followed by Haseeb. As soon as Zahra's eyes landed on Irtaza, she went in his arms and hugged him, very well aware that she needed him the most in these moments. And as soon as Dua's eyes fell on Haseeb, she rushed into his arms and hugged him. The previous talk they both had in her room was enough for her to trust him completely. He had gained her partial trust when he had convinced her before their nikkah that he will give her all the love of the world. As well as the time and space she needed for this relati
Tears were slipping down their eyes. The whole study has turned upside down. The glass table, smashed and broken. Books from the bookshelf were torned and rested on the floor. The glass pieces of vase were scattered. The place depicted of an utter apocalypse.And among all these broken and torned things, there lied a safe in the middle of the room. Bullets pierced through it and was now tattered and battered. Sat there on the sofa were three siblings, with nothing but tearful eyes.And a piece of paper in their hands. Written to them in her last moment by their mother. The letter which reached them after twenty five long years.Each word pierced through their soul. Every breath they took was heavy, filled with sighs and unattained wishes. The unattained wish to meet their mother one last time.Shehryaar's hand shivered as he still held the old worn out letter. Tears silently slipping out of his eyes. He rather wished he could have died than knowing this truth. After Sheharzaad na
Dua had immediately taken Sheharzaad to another room once her eyes had landed on her. She did not talk to her family or anyone. She wanted to say the words that have been long overdued on her mind.As soon as she entered in the privacy of the room, Dua hugged Sheharzaad and tears slowly slipped out of her eyes."I-I'm sorry, Sheharzaad. I-I-I," her voice croaked, "I wronged you.... I wronged you... I'm sorry, Sheharzaad. I'm sorry," she kept on repeating. Because she just had this word on her mind. The crime she committed was unjustifiable. It didn't matter Sheharzaad would forgive her or not, but in that moment, Dua just wanted to apologize. Apologize for the crime she committed five years back. Apologize for the crime that stayed in her mind for five long years and it kept on haunting her. The guilt kept on eating her. What she did with Sheharzaad broke her more than anything else. Sheharzaad slowly raised her hand and caressed Dua's back, "stop crying, Dua. I... forgive you," sh