Business and mafia was now managed by Shehryaar as he was not in a situation to look after anything. His mind a pure chaos. Unable to see through anything.
Another unholy night fell, Irtaza had another bottle of alcohol in his hand, slow poison as he called it. He stood infront of Zahra's room and was thinking hard whether to step inside or not, whether he would be able to handle it or not.
Slowly, turning the door knob he dragged his feet in. He could see clearly all corners, her memories were everywhere but again just like other days those memories came running into his mind when he had manhandled her, all those scenes as if flashing in front of his eyes.
"I am sorry Zahra so so sorry" Irtaza drawled and that's when tears flowed down his ashamed face.
"For everything. When you rejected me in front of everyone that day, I got so mad. I had to claim you by any means. And when you betrayed me it was like as if you were pulling it in my face that I couldn't have you. I controlled your life to make me feel that I was the one in control. All of my life I had the upper hand of walking away from people and dominating them and not the way around. But with you, I went too far. Nothing can or will justify my reasons but tell me what to do now when you're not here. This is not fair, after all things we went through you can't leave me like this. YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME! DO YOU LISTEN ME?!!" He screamed and gulped all the alcohol down his throttle, his adam apple bobbed.
His eyes shut, sucking in sharp breaths. He swallowed the lump in his throat and opened the windows to his soul again .
He looked from the lonely window, tears still fluttering out, in order to seek some hope, some approval from the stars. He asked the winds about the well- being of his beloved but it blew in direction away from him, just like her.
He went through her stuff believing that amidst them he might find her, might find the comfort only she could provide. But he didn't find solace instead this added to his distress.
He unlocked his phone and opened the gallery. A picture popped up infront him, when she was having dinner, a small smile sprawling on her lips as she looked excitedly down towards her food when he had clicked it. The perfect moment.
Her every smile fueled the rusty machine that was his heart. How her presence restored his faith in the realm of felicity.
He went back inside the room and laid on the bed, throwing the bottle away harshly which broke into pieces and laid into her bed. It was the room which he had assigned to her before shifting her to his room. Her enchanting fragnance was still there as he closed his eyes, her beautiful brown eyes was the last sight on his mind when he drifted into deep slumber.
The rays of sunlight touched his eye lids and someone's hand on his shoulder brought back his vigilant posture as he immediately sat up.
"Bhai it's me" Dua told him.
"Leave me alone" Irtaza groaned.
"No bhai. I want to talk to you." she told him and he just nodded his head, sitting up as she sat beside him on the bed.
He looked towards Dua but her eyes were lost somewhere before she began. It was a matter needed to be addressed to him.
"You know Bhai, from the day I read that letter that Zahra wrote I hated her instantly. I never paid any heed to her part of story, I just considered her the culprit and you innocent. I thought it was a hit below the belt to play with someone's emotions like that. But the day I got to know about her life, how you guys got married, I was shocked to say the least bhai." she stopped and turned her head towards him, "How can you do that to her? How can you force her into this marriage? how bhai? How? Do you even had an idea how her life was like before marriage? Do you?"
"Did you have any idea about her life before you married her?"
"Dua, can we talk about this some other day" he told. Whatever it was, it must be increasing his guilt, the guilt in which he was drowning. He came to know about her importance when she had left.
He was shattered.
His heart was crumbled.
Love indeed is a crazy thing.
"No! You must know. Do you know, She was harassed by that Shoaib for five years. Five damn years!" she told him and he just frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"His cousin, Shoaib harassed her every chance he got. And do you know who forced him to do so, more like beseeched him to do so, her lover Daniyal. The same man because of whom he played with you. Rather, it was Daniyal who had emotionally blackmailed her to betray you like that, to play with your feelings. It was him. Just imagine her heart broken state bhai. Her lover betrayed her. Her lover made his brother harass her. How would she have felt? How would she have felt when that bastard harassed her?" she completed in a whisper as if giving a thought to her words she said.
"How do you know?"
"She told me everything. She told me all this" Saying this Dua left and shut the door behind her. Even the thought of her brother doing something so evil to a girl like Zahra disgusted her.
Irtaza, on the other was stunned at first. His heart begin to pound heavily in his chest.
What he had done?
She was already so troubled.
Harassment?
Harassment!
She was harassed.
These words of Dua just lingered in his mind.
The thought of any guy trying to lay hands on his Zahra was enough to awaken the lion within. He didn't think twice and left to the cellar in the basement of his office building where Asim and Shoaib were kept.
He went inside and without giving a second thought held Shoaib by throat and punched him across the face. Anger curled hot and unstoppable in his gut like a blazing inferno.
"You Motherfucker! How dare you lay your filthy hands on her" he bellowed and landed another punch on Shoaib's face not giving him time to respond.
He held his jaw tightly in one hand and fisted his other hand in Shoaib's hair.
"How did you fucking dare to touch her? How you both bastards could plot something so fucking like that against her? You mother fuckers." saying this Irtaza thrashed him on the ground and kicked him hard.
Shoaib just growled in pain. Irtaza took out a gun and shot him between his eyes. He wanted to do so much more but his anger got the best of him and he just wanted to erase Shoaib's existence once and for all. And then his hand moved towards Asim who was now shivering with fear. He just landed a shot in his throat and he died on the spot.
His anger had number his senses for a moment but he was glad that they both were dead now. Sooner or later he was going to kill him then why not now. But again that guilt hit backed into his heart. He was no better than Shoaib, he did worse to her. Maybe he deserved it. Maybe he never deserved Zahra.
Her departure was killing him slowly, like a poison.
He took a deep breath to clear his mind and then ordered his men to clean the mess over here and then went to haveli.
"Sahab?" said Ghulam Ali gaining his attention. Irtaza turned and looked at him and he lowered his eyes in respect.
"Sahab. Four days ago, when Zahra bibi went missing, some papers from some hospital came for her. I have placed it on your table but i forot to inform you " spoke Ghulam Ali in timid voice afraid of Irtaza's temper.
"Okay" he gave a curt nod and went to his office.
He went to his office and found a file on the table. Sitting down, he opened it. He turned to the second page and what he read dropped thunderbolts on his being.
Zahra was 3 weeks pregnant according to the reports. The pages slipped from his hand as he lost all his grip, all his strength. His heart raced, his throat parched and his mouth open in utter shock.
He distinctly ordering the maid to give contraceptive pills to Zahra. But then another thing came rushing out of his memory box that was the doctor's diagnosis. Zahra had consumed something expired. He could put two and two together.
She was pregnant. And she was in danger too.
He wished for someone to trick him into believing all this was a bad dream. He felt his heart has been corked up in a glass bottle and thrown into the middle of the ocean. And that bottle has hit against a merciless rock and cracked open making his heart spill out, not little by little but all at once to join all the other pieces.
The night fell upon and again she was back to her room in his mansion. He could feel himself surrounded with her memories here.
He was broken. He couldn't breathe properly. Her absence was making it hard for him even to live. He was just a living corpse. Nothing more. Nothing less. When it comes to her, one can boldly call him vulnerable. He was not himself without her. As if he was nothing without her. He had felt that. This was evident, him not being able to even control his mafia, his business made it all clear to him that how much he was dependent on her,
He needed her.
He wanted to protect her. Cherish her. Love her, Save her from all harms.
His mind was chaos. A mayhem.
Her thoughts were filled in his brain day and night.
Just then an array of hope ignited, his phone rang. He picked the call at speed of light thinking this might be the end of his suffering, finally an answer.