Chapter 43: Chapter 43

The morning light hit him making his eyes open and the first thing that hit him was a wave of headache. He sat up, groaning and that was when he realized he was on the sofa. He frowned before looking back only to get surprised upon finding Sheharzaad there.

"Sheharzaad?" He whispered to himself, trying to recall how she reached here. And as instinct his eyes went to her hands and a satisfaction came over his face upon finding his mark still over there.

He stood up and came across his reflection in the mirror. There was blood on his shirt as glimpses of last night began to appear in his mind. But he could only remember the parts in the torture cell yet how, when and why Sheharzaad was here, he still couldn't recall.

He ought to ask it from his servant, Khan to apprise him of his orders and went to the washroom to take a bath.

He appeared from the restroom, rubbing a towel against his damp hair as water trickled down his torso that was on display. He found her sleeping. Still and sound. Eyes closed. Now she had curled herself and placed her head on the armrest.

She looked too innocent. Too beautiful. A smile struck on his face as he slowly approached her and when he stood near her, an urge took over him to push back her hair that were covering her face.

Her scarf was on her head.

The same scarf, he remembered, she had thrown away last night.

His fingers moved and tucked back her hair, his eyes landing on her face now.

He kept on standing there. Seconds elapsed. Minutes elapsed. He didn't blink. The smile that was on his face was long gone. Void eyes just stared at her for a long time. Long long time.

And sensing someone's gaze, she stirred in her sleep and her eyes opened. Finding herself in a different surrounding, her eyes immediately wide-opened and she quickly sat up only to look up and found him standing near her.

As soon as she saw him, her eyes shot to her hands and she breathed with relief to find her ring there. Looking up at him again, she found him shirtless and her cheeks turned hot so she averted her gaze.

He could see her hesitance by the way with which she fixed her scarf on her head and fisted her hands. Her toes curling inward. Her chest heaving up and down. Her lashes casting a shadow over her cheekbones and a subtle movement of scooting back from him.

He couldn't decipher, was she nervous or was she afraid?

It felt like a mix of both.

She didn't utter a word like last time. She herself had demanded to go home but now she wasn't saying anything. Rather, he was able to feel her heightened state of anxiety and that made him wonder what happened last night.

She looked scared. A little too much.

When he placed his knuckle underneath her chin and bobbed her head up.

"What happened?" He asked, raising his brows just like that elder who would ask a scared child to know his dilemma.

She only shook her head and rubbed her tongue on her dry lips and that was when a frown formed on his brows.

He moved her head further up so her neck was accessible to his eyes as he had seen a blue mark on her neck. His frown deepened upon seeing blue finger prints on her neck and it was enough for him to put two and two together.

He knew, he did this.

And probably that was the reason she was being awfully quiet.

"Come on, let's drop you home," he said, releasing her face and stepping back.

She immediately stood up and began to move towards the door when an arm was encircled around her stomach and she was pulled towards him.

Her breath hitched on being too near to him while his upper body was bare.

She moved her lashes down, placing her weight on one feet then another. Again, she was quiet. He could see her cheeks turning red and her lips getting partly open so she could breathe.

His lips twitched into an unnoticeable smirk as her nervousness could be clearly seen because he was shirtless.

"Acha chalo bhaag jao," He said, upon seeing her struggling so much. He just had to retrieve his hand back from her waist and she scampered away, faster than a vampire.

(You can run away)

"Wait for me in the car!" He commanded loudly so it could reach her ears as she was running away.

He chuckled while rubbing his head with the towel.

...

He had dropped her at her home. The whole ride she had been quiet. No words were exchanged but occasionally he would glance at her, that had her queasy. She took a breath of relief when her house came infront her vision and she was about to leave the car when he had stopped her to inform he was going haveli for some time.

She suppressed a smile and passed him a nod before leaving the car hurriedly. Finally, she would get some time to search through his office. Though, Khaleda had given her a span of two days but she decided to send her a message that she needed more time to get the file as Shehryaar was going away.

She had sent the message to Khaleda just like the last time when she informed her about the girl he had locked in the basement. She didn't receive a response.

Marriage preparations of Ahmed and Amna was going on and she had to go to the market almost everyday to buy the necessary things. As she had a job, a well-paid job, it helped her to support them financially. The date was fixed. They almost had a few weeks in their hands.

Hannan had been budging her constantly when to bring the buyer of the house as only the papers were to be handed and cash was to be exchanged. All the other formalities were done. But Sheharzad kept on refusing Hannan to come yet because she still had to get her hands on the file.

The very day, she would send the file to Khaleda would be the very day she would be running away.

It was the third day of her going to the office. And she decided to thoroughly search his office today. It was locked but she had seen the pass code he would enter into the locking device. With shivering fingers and cautious eyes, she entered the passcode and turned the knob. The door got unlocked.

Closing the door behind her and locking it, the first thing that hit her nostrills was his manly perfume that was lingering around the office. It reminded her of him and a shiver passed through her spine.

She didn't realize that her legs were shivering. She tried to calm herself down and propelled her feet forward. Cold sweat trickling through her back. Her hands were shivering so bad. She turned on the lights so the darkened office was illuminated.

It felt too illegal  and scary to touch his things when he was not around. Her eyes fixed on his black swivel chair and she rounded the table. Closing her eyes and opening them again, calming herself and then she brought life to her lips as she recited 'bismillah' and began to search through the drawers while whispering prayers.

She was too careful. She haven't been so careful even while solving mcqs of her entrance test exams as she was now. She never thought her life would make her reach this state. Carefully, she would place back the things in the same order in which she took them out. Reading through the files, going through them, she didn't find it.

More than an hour had passed as she was being too careful and slow. Her chest began to feel heavy as she couldn't find the file. She closed her eyes defeatedly and when she opened them, her eyes landed on a safe.

A memory clicked her mind of him unlocking the safe, the last day she was here at this office. Immediately, she stood up, unlocked the safe and came across a file. A smile sprawled on her lips. A smile of victory as with shivering hands she took the file out. Opened it. Her eyes bulged out with happiness, shock and fear when she found out it was the file she had been looking for.

She was quick. As she unlocked the safe back, took the file, placed it in her purse, gave a bird's eye view to the office just to check that things were in the order, then turned-off the lights and rushed out of the office, of that building and directly to her home.

The house was empty as Amna was out with Ahmed for shopping. She was glad as her body was shivering so bad. She wrapped the file in a brown paper and couriered it to the address which Khaleda had sent her through a message in the middle of this week as a response to her prior message.

And her next instinct was to run away as she asked Hannan to bring that customer after two days. During these two days, she decided to pack everything, load it in a truck and send it to her new flat in Multan.

Sitting in her room, next to Amna, she stared at her ring. They both were quiet. No words were exchanged. Just worried glances. As Sheharzaad just got done with telling the deal she had made with the FBI. Amna was too speechless to talk.

"Sheharzaad, what if he came to know?" Amna asked. Even her voice was fearful, "I'm too afraid of him. Too afraid for you,"

"Eventually, he would know, Amna," She muttered and took off the ring before placing it in the drawer. A shiver running down her spine. His grey eyes flashed infront her eyes and she was quick to hold the ring and put it back on. She decided to take it off only when she would be completely free from him, "and we have to run before he c-catches us," Her voice wavered.

"Can we run now?"

"Just wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day,"

...

She had gone to the washroom to take a shower when her phone rung with an unknown number. The phone was placed beside Amna who was reading a book.

She frowned upon seeing Sheharzaad's phone ringing with an unsaved number.

"Sheharzaad! Someone is calling,"

"Who?" She asked from inside the washroom.

"Unknown number,"

"I'm coming, Amna. Just two minutes. You can pick it and ask them to hold on. It might be important," Sheharzaad said so Amna picked up the call.

"Hello. Assalam alaikum. Kon? " Amna asked, with a frown.

(Greetings. Who?)

"Where is Sheharzaad?" The man asked from the other side. His voice was quiet. Dark. Sending her heart to beat a mile a minute.

"Who is speaking?"

And she heard him chuckle. Her frown deepened.

"I'm surprised. She deleted the number of her fiance," The sentence alone caused the phone to drop from Amna's hands as she crawled away from the bed and lunged towards the washroom door, lightly knocking it.

"Sheharzaad! Sheharzaad!" Amna called out. Her confused mind couldn't understand what she should do so next she took the phone and placed it on her ears again.

"She-she-she is n-not at h-h-home," Never in her life, Amna had stuttered so badly as she was doing now.

Amna heard the tick of a lighter from the other side of phone and she knew then he was smoking. After a moment, in which she assumed, he was puffing the smoke out of his mouth, he spoke, "I have my men stationed outside. They told me, she is at home. Isn't it.."

"Amna," She said her name and thankfully on the cue Sheharzaad appeared from the washroom and Amna signaled through her eyes that it was him. She could see Sheharzaad's face getting paled and that paled Amna further.

"Oh. So... you're Amna," She heard him mutter as meanwhile he would take in the cigarette.

"Yes I'm Amna and sh-she is not at home," Amna quickly said and abruptly ended the call before throwing the phone away.

"I don't know what I've done, shehar," Amna said as soon as the phone was cut off. Even Sheharzaad looked confused, "He.. he is scary,"

They both suddenly got startled when the phone started ringing again.

"I will pick it up, Shehar,"

"No. I will handle it," Sheharzaad assured her and proceeded to take the call.

A scary thought running in the back of her head.

What if he came to know?

"Assalam alaikum," She uttered.

"Wsalam, Sheharzaad. Wslam," he muttered and her heart pounded incessantly in her ears. There was something off about him.

"Planning to run away? Eh?" He asked and she tightly gripped the phone on her ear.

"No. Why?" Was her abrupt, calculative response.

"I've been informed of your recent activities,"

"What activities?" This time around it was a whisper. A whisper of shock.

"Don't you know? Hmm?"

"Ohhh that," She tried to act as if she recalled something, "actually...I..I forgot to tell you that Ahmed Bhai and Amna...they are getting m-married and...so...so this is why," she explained.

"Oh. So your brother is getting married?" He pressed on the word brother and Ahmed's fake proposal came into her mind. She didn't say anything.

"Nevertheless, I hope you are not going anywhere,"

"No. No. I'm not,"

"Good. Good, Sheharzaad or in case you are entertaining other plans then I won't hesitate breaking your legs but before that I would definitely need to do something with your pretty head that entertained the idea of going away from me," He just heard her ragged breathing from the other side of the phone, "best of luck," He said and hung up the call. The cigarette that he lighted was thrown under his shoe and it was crushed as he walked inside the haveli.

He would go back tomorrow as the wedding festivities were over.