Chapter 49: Chapter 49

There was a guy involved

We were fearing telling you this

Hannan

She... she had been working with him

Since the first day.

Actually.... it was regarding the sale of her house,

We tapped her phone. No records found. She was aware that her phone might be tapped so she used her friend's phone.

Yes. At times PCO's. Men who were stationed to follow her kept on sending me reports.

Hannan.

Out of all the information he had received only one word managed to stay in his mind.

Hannan

She was with him.

She had been with him.

Wonder how far and deep their relation could have gone?

Was it just help? Or was it something else?

The speculations began to rise in his mind.

While coming back to her house, he had received a call from Murad, one of his workers, informing him that everything was ready at Sheharzaad's house. Sensing his hesitance on the phone, he asked Murad what was going on and then he told one of the plot twist that Shehryaar had not been expecting.

This story not just had the intelligence agencies involved behind the curtain but also one of the boys at his office, with whom Sheharzaad had once gone out. The same boy he had forbade her to go with. She had been builting plots behind his back with the same guy.

His eyes had landed on her sleeping form and that steely look that captured the grey in them was enough to bring a shiver down the spine of anyone who could have managed to witness it.

And his eyes were still manifesting that similar steely look while staring at her unconscious state in one of his cells.

She was bound to the chair, her head had been hanging to her right, eyes closed, blood marks on the side of her head where he had hit the barrel of his gun just to send her in a state of unconsciousness. Her lips parted and cheek imprinted with the marks of his fingers.

Sprawling his legs, with one hand he held the cigarette as he kept on staring at her without a blink.

"Khan," he called one of his men who stood near by.

"Yes sir," he said, while bowing down.

"Wake her up," he ordered and pointed towards her.

"Okay sir," the man replied and scurried away quickly. Within seconds, he came back holding water and began to sprinkle droplets on her face. Her eye lids flinched as she slowly fluttered open her eyes. He flicked his finger ordering that man to go and he left, leaving her alone with him.

It took her around a minute and a half to gain complete consciousness as the feeling of drfting in and out of consciousness subsided.

Her half hooded eyes got erect open when they landed on Shehryaar who was sitting there. Calm and composed. Observing her. One look around the area and she found herself alone with him.

"Did you-did you take him to the hospital?" she asked and at this his eye-brows raised up.

He didn't answer, rather placed the cigar between his lips and then puffed the smoke out of his mouth.

Quiet.

Utterly quiet.

"Did you?!" she shouted and began to wriggle her hands against the chains that bound her.

"No," he simply replied and again placed the stick between his lips and puffing out smoke.

"Oh my god! Hannan. Please take him to hospital. He does not have any fault," she began to explain. His bloodied body began to run in her mind.

"And Amna... where is Amna?" she began to ask anxiously, looking around, "let her go. She-she is sick,"

He clicked his tongue and pointed at her with both the fingers that held the cigarette, "this is where your mistake lies," he uttered, "you are worrying about others when right now you should worry about yourself,"

Worry about yourself...

His words trailed in her mind as she began to think of what he can do to her. The anticipation, the anxiety clicking in.

She took in a few deep breaths to calm herself done. What was done, was done now. There was no going back. He was now aware of all her plans that she had plotted against him behind his back. Rather she had braced herself for his every assault. It had to happen now. She will take what he would give but now she won't submit anymore to him. As there was no use in submitting to him. She won't let the fear overcome her now.

Her deepest fear had came true and now what was suppose to happen, would happen. She was ready for everything but at the moment, she found it most necessary to protect her loved ones from him.

He can punish her as much as he would want but not Amna, Hannan or Ahmed. They were the only people in this world whom she trusted. The only family she had. The only people whom she could claim her as her loved ones. Her family.

And she was livid when it came to protect her people.

"Please let them go. You can punish me as much as you want. I won't say a word but please let them go. They don't have any fault,"

At this, he stood up, throwing the cigarette away and began to move towards her.

The fear already started to bubble up as she gulped. Her heart began to pound louder and louder as he was coming closer and closer.

"Let them go," she said but the intensity in her voice was lowered to a whisper. She said it not to him but more to herself. To assure herself that livid and strong Sheharzaad still existed within her and she could fight him, "let them go," she corrected herself and this time brought more threatening manner to her voice and it slightly boosted her confidence.

As he stood next to her, he leaned down, placing both his hands on either side of the arms of the chair where a little space was left as her arms were bound there. He brought up his hand and fixed them underneath her chin to raise her head up so she was looking at him, before settling his hand back again on the arm of the chair.

"Let them go?" he scoffed.

"Yes, please," she innocently stared in his eyes, "you can punish me as much as you want,"

He clicked his tongue, shaking his head in negative, "don't worry about that," he whispered, "now tell me why you did what you did,"

"Look," she gulped, "listen...I-I didn't do anything. Somebody is framing me,"

"Eh?" he tilted his head, "framing you of what?"

"That I knew that woman. I don't have an idea who she was and I-I always...always am with you at the office. I haven't interacted with anyone then how would I know her?"

"I never mentioned that, Sheharzaad,"

She closed her eyes out of her stupidity before opening them again.

"No. I thought you did," she tried to stand on her grounds, "I guess you did," she feigned ignorance.

"Playing with my mind? Is it?" he asked, arching his brow.

"I agreed being engaged to you, marrying you, I went to meet your family, did as you have told me then why would I do... betray you in any me. The real culprit is not me," she tried to bargain, "I don't know that woman,"

"I knew someone who even had children yet she betrayed, zaad. So don't play with me with this part," She could witness a coldness in his eyes.

"I don't know anyone. Trust me," she reiterated, desperate to escape him and his punishment.

He scoffed, straightened up and pulled up a video infront of her, playing on his mobile phone. Through the installed camera in the lock device out of his room, her face could be seen when she was entering code to enter his room. And in the next video showed her searching his entire office when her eyes landed on a locker, she opened it, retrieved a file and then shut the locker back. Afterwards, a CCTV footage of post office was seen where she was handing over the file to the officer. Then, from one of the packets lying on the table, he took it and recovered the file along it and he presented it to her.

"You know where did you exactly fall," he asked, putting back that file, "when a letter was sent to you to post the file to a certain address. You failed to notice, in the end, her name, Khaleda wasn't mentioned. I never knew she was the spy," he apprised and her eyes that were widened, expanded more, "It was me who had sent the letter to test you. Apart from that, the call you made from the hotel room to some international number was enough for me to rise my suspicion, Zaad. It grew more and more when I began to realize it was just you who had came that day in my office while I was discussing about money laundering with that woman. Afterwards, you had also came to get back your phone. So my little lady," he said in a whisper, the last part and held her chin, "I was aware all the time who it was sending information to intelligence agencies," He broke it to her.

A tear fell from her left eye.

"For future reference, don't diffuse my warnings in thin air, Sheharzaad,"

Her mind recalled all the up-heads he had given her all the while. And the last warning, he had made on phone was enough for her to run away. Her sixth sense was right, he knew everything.

"You... you-acted all the way as if-you-trusted me as if...you were making me your w-wife, you-you-" she said more to herself than to him. It was such a big moment of realization for her. Her life played with her bad. Very bad.

With his possession on her chin, he bobbed her head up, "Look me in the eye," he told her and she moved her lashes up to stare at him, "I don't trust women," he said and the intense waves of his sound made the words root deep in her mind.

He don't trust women

The words repeated in her brain.

He don't trust women.

Again

He don't trust women.

Again.

Again and again kept on repeating. His eyes had made all the world dim for her. As if it was just him and her. The words he uttered directly entering her head and burying there, leaving no room to leave.

They were engraved there driven by the intensity of his eyes.

"Now tell me," he tightened his grasp on her chin bringing her out of her mind, "tell me, who is Hannan to you?" he almost gritted.

Sheharzaad's face registered confusion, "why are you asking this?"

"Who is he to you?" he asked, ignoring her question.

The frown deepened as she tried to put two and two together and slowly everything started to make sense as a look of  realization came over her face, "what is it to you?" she asked.

"Answer my damn question, Sheharzaad," he said in a low rumble.

"Now you know everything then why should I hold back from saying what I feel, felt," This time she stared at him head-to-head, "why do you care who is Hannan to me?"

"Because any men in my fucking woman's life apart from me is what I take very personally,"

"I'm not your woman. Never be,"