Chapter 7

Dilshad and Najma were arranging the dining table as per Asad's preference and OCD principles. Dilshad was looking depressed and from the childhood Asad and Najma have learnt to identify the difference between their mother's anxiety and depression, by their own, after their father's betrayal. This was also not a different day and Najma quickly noticed the wrinkles of unease on Dilshad's face.



She shrugged her head, "Ab kya hua Ammi! Kal tak to sab thik tha?"

"Exactly! Kal tak sab thik tha.", Dilshad replied carelessly as she was lost in her own thoughts, thinking that all would be okay, if she has not allowed Zoya to stay in Khan Villa, even after knowing that Zoya exactly looks like Aseemah and in the search of peace and solace for her son, she herself constructed the wall of suffocation and guilt in her own son's mind and heart.

Najma was already in amazement about the strange behavior of her mother, she thought that she might be worried about something and her judgment conformed when, when Dilshad whose hands were fumbling to butter-up the bread slices, stroke the glass, placed near her right hand and crashed on the table.

Dilshad came to reality by the jolt and realized that the glass was shattered mercilessly and the whole water filled in it, was on the table. She along with the help of Najma succeeded to clean the table, before Asad's arrival and when the whole table was clean neatly, they took a sigh of relief. 

But Dilshad was not still relieved; Najma grabbed her handa and asked scrunching the eyebrows, "Why are you so worried now?"

"Najma! Asad was so upset with me, because - Because I allowed Zoya to stay here", Dilshad started in a thick tone as the fresh lump was choking her throat.  

Najma pressed her lips in helplessness and tried to confirm, "Unhone aap se kuch kaha?"

At her question Dilshad nodded her head in denial and continued in tears, "Aj tak kabhi kisi cheej ke lie mana kia hai usne mujhe.", she said with a proud smile and tried to draw out the disappointment which she had from herself, "But I failed as a mother.", but she chocked in between and Najma started drawing circles on her palms to calm her.

Najma offered a seat to Dilshad and sat near her but Dilshad's hands were still intertwining in her hands and she was continuously supporting her mother.

"May be, He was shock after seeing Zoya?", Najma consoled her.

"I don't think so. He didn't behave shocked or surprised after seeing her. His entire concentration was on Zoya's stay at our house", Dilshad assumed about his behavior towards Zoya.

"Then?", Najma asked softly.

Dilshad took a deep sigh and said in tears, "Pehli baar usne mujse ankhe mila kar baat nahi ki Najma", and the drop of tear fell down from her eyes.

"Meri baat poori hone se pehle hi wo chala gaya.", Dilshad cried and turned her head in Najma's direction from the table. She uttered with chocked throat, "Aisa kabhi nahi kiya usne. Aur sirf meri wajah se--", but she couldn't complete herself, her turmoil didn't allow her to complete. And Najma hugged her to give her support.

Najma wiped her tears from her finger tips and persuaded, "Everything will be fine Ammi. We will never ever allow Zoya to know about Aseemah. We can't tell Zoya to leave the house or to be away from Bhaijaan, but we will try to not let her hurt him again, intentionally or unintentionally."



Dilshad tried to make Najma understand that it wasn't that easy as she was thinking but she stopped when Najma replied, "Aur Bhaijaan apse wese bhi jyada der tak naraaz nahi reh sakte. Right?"

Dilshad nodded her head in affirmation pressing her lips and a fresh tear drop rolled over her cheek and Najma said while giving an amazed look, "Tch! Aap bhi na. Stop crying! Bhaijaan dekhenge to mujhe hi datenge, ke main aap ko pareshaan karti hoon", and pouted which forced Dilshad to smile and she smacked her head.

-X-



Asad entered the spot, he examined the dining table which was adorned as per his preference and OCD manners, but he was more relaxed because Zoya hasn't entered the area yet which was a positive aspect for him as he didn't want to see the face of the girl which has no difference with the girl to whom he loved.

Asad took his main seat, Najma and Dilshad started serving the breakfast for him while he was reading the newspaper when his cellphone rang. It was Prasad's, his PA's phone call and he left the seat to take the call and Prasad was not audible to him from the dining area, and the same time Zoya Farroqui entered.

Zoya took the seat at which breakfast was already served and it was Asad's seat. The Khan Ladies noticed that but they were in dilemma that how to force the guest of the house to leave the breakfast chair that too on the second day of her arrival.




Whereas, Zoya being Zoya hasn't any idea about the Ladies' situation, she was all lost in investigating that how properly arranged the table was, according to the table manners. The plate was filled with less oily and healthy food, the knife was in the left side of the plate and the folk along with the spoon were lying on the right. The neatly cleaned black coffee mug and water filled glass was in right, which were lidded with the coasters.

The dirt lover, Zoya remained with a O' shaped opened mouth with the astonishment that how her hosts were so particular about the cleanliness and the arrangements on the dining table. She has noticed that the same rule was implied in the whole house from the living room to washroom, from terrace to backyard and from floor to the ceiling fan. But this was a limit for her.

Zoya was habitual to create litter all over the floor from the pizza boxes, coke canes, and chocolate wrappers, was dumbstruck with the fact about the cleanliness and particularity of her hosts and she was going to live with them, god knows for how long.

She opened her mouth to ask with aghast, "Huh Phoopie! Itni safai?". Her eyes were popped out like soccer balls and her mouth was open in a perfect O' shape.

But before anyone could utter something from their mouth, the same time Asad entered the spot and his both hands were tied behind his back. He was looking at her mother and Dilshad was pressed her lips with helplessness, so Asad who was burning with anger decided to open his mouth.



"Kindly! Leave my chair", Asad asked from the back as he didn't want to face her.  

But Zoya turned her head behind in left, which was unexpected by Asad, but he tried to control his sentiments and she asked with confusion, "Your chair?"

"Yes it is my chair.", he agreed with confidence.

She examined the whole chair which confuses the whole Khan Family, and after examining it carefully she gasped out, "yahan naam wagerah to nahi likha apka."

Asad closed his eyes tightly with hopelessness and clenched his teeth, "Main yaha roz bethta hoon."



"Toh!! Roz to hum saans bhi lete hain. To ab aap jake earth se kahengey ki oxygen apki hai.", she blabbered out as she was so serious about this.

Asad pressed his temples and sarcastically asked Dilshad, "Can I eat today? Or should I have that also in the office."



"Asad! Tum roko main samjhati hoon.", she assured with confidence.



Dilshad gently explained Zoya, "beta! Its Asad's chair, he uses to sit their daily. Even we are also not allowed to sit at that chair."

At her statement Zoya gasped, "But I jumped on the chair first, Aur New York main come first, take first ka rule hai"



"It's not New York dammit! It's India. Yahan rehna hai to yaha ke rules ke hisaab se rehna seekhiye.", Asad gritted his jaw.



"Stop it You both!", Dilshad took the command in her hands.



And she continued gently, "Zoya beta please! Sit somewhere else."



Zoya nodded her head leaving the chair and ended gazing Asad, "Just for you Phoopie"



Asad rolled his eyes behind the newspaper and hid his face with it so he cannot see her face again and then started having the breakfast all lost in the plate.



Asad was avoiding her completely and she didn't notice it, she thought he was avoiding him because his judgmental behavior and worst encounters. She was just engrossed in her food and he left for the office.



When he was leaving the house after grabbing his blazer and laptop, she slipped from her mouth in a low tone, "Mr. Chairman Ahmed Khan."



"kuch kaha aapne", but she didn't notice that he was just behind her back and heard what did she stated, and this question came from him.



She bit her tongue and said, "Nahin! Not at all. Kuch kehna tha kya?", she asked turning her head in left, and made an expression of an unaware innocent girl, which forced Asad to leave because he didn't want to face her.

-X-

Asad was trying to concentrate on the PowerPoint presentation which was displaying by his one of the employee on the projector. The lights were off and the only thing he was imagining on the projector screen was not the architectural designs but they were the two pictures of present and past.

That means, Aseemah and Zoya. He knew and even accepted that Aseemah was no more in his life and the world and she will never ever be a part of the world. But Zoya, she was a present, she was all around him, under the same roof and always flashing the mirror of Aseemah to whom he was trying to forget and was failing after every day in this progress.

In this dilemma of Aseemah and Zoya, he failed to witness the real presentation. The lights switched on and it was the time to give his feedback at the presentation, which he omitted. First time in Dilshad Constructions' history, he fumbled his fingers and replied at the mike, "break time"



-X-



Zoya, a free bird was sitting in his room gazing at the last letter of Abeeda Khala and opened the wooden box which she has left with the letter. She found a black and white photograph of her Ammi and Abeeda, she smiled with tear filled eyes after seeing that her eyes and smile were gifted by her mother. She clutched the photograph near her heart and closed the eyes which poured the warmth of water on her cheeks but her shivering lips were still curved in a smile. The smile was the mirror of solace as she was feeling the warmth and affection of the dock of her both mothers.



After feeling satisfaction, she wiped her tears carelessly and picked a piece of paper which has containing a short three line hazed note over it. She scrutinized it very carefully and it seemed that it was an unclear address. She knew that, she had only these few puzzled clues about her family and identity as well, so she resolved that she will never ignore even a thin fiber of clue in this search of her identity and she decided to search the address.

Zoya was lost in her own World when a voice came to bid her, "Hey Zoya!!"

Zoya shifted her eyes in the direction from where the person was calling her and she found Najma with two mugs of coffee.

Zoya smiled and quickly started stuffing the material lying in her hands but she became unsuccessful to accomplish this and somehow Najma noticed the piece of paper, which seemed as an address. 

"If you don't mind me asking, what is this Zoya?", Najma asked with creased brows and offered the coffee mug.

Zoya didn't want to share the reality of her life so she continued the lie of thesis and lied whitely, "Umm!! This is...This is an address given our family friends. Unhone bataya tha that there is something special in this place. So I should visit there for my thesis.", and closed her eyes after completion with guilt to lie the people who were helping her in such a great extent.

"Oh!! That's great. But it's not clear.", Najma asked confusingly while sipping her coffee.

Zoya again tried to find out the lie and excused, "Actually they left India, years back so they just had the old address."

Zoya rolled her eyes to join some dots and asked with the pool of hope, "Just look at this. Do you have any idea about this place?"

"Nahin Zoya! It's not at all clear. Main koshish karungi par ye samajh hi nahi aa raha hai, bahut dhundhlaa hai", Najma helplessly replied.

At her reply Zoya remained hopeless and her thumbs automatically reached at her temples to rub them. Even with the hot caffeine her temples were aching and she was rubbing them when something stroke to her mind.

And she quickly started finding that in the wooden box curiously as a person hungry from ages search for the food and she finally got that which relaxed her a bit but she was still gasping.

-X- 

Asad was typing the keypads of his laptop furiously but it was only Zoya's face which was not allowing him to type. After struggling with undo, redo and backspace tabs he finally defeated and adjusting his elbows on his working table, he hid his face in the palms and shuffled his perfectly comb hairs in frustration.

But the same time, his eyes fell on the laptop screen which was displaying screen saver of Aseemah's pictures. His family was trying their best to help him to come back with the mishaps of past but he was the one, who was punishing himself by feeling Aseemah's presence, whether in the photos, laptop screen, her broken bangles, the old love letters cards, withered flowers and so on. And now there was an addition came into his house, or almost in his life, as the shadow of Aseemah, Zoya Farroqui.

Zoya Farroqui, that girl has the same face, which Aseemah had and whenever Asad's eyes fell on that face, it forced him to think that he was the reason for Aseemah's death, which was suffocating him and eating from inside, rapidly.

It wasn't the matter of only the same face, the innocence, and the charisma of her talkative eyes were equally alike as her face. And that was the reason; he doesn't want to see her. Undoubtedly, Aseemah was a culture loving girl and that was the only reason that Asad justified that Zoya was cultureless proud girl. And he wanted to assume her totally opposite to Aseemah, even he didn't had any idea that why did he want that.

-X-

Zoya took out the same photo which she was feeling as the reality, her mother's and Khala's photograph. The photo was a haze unclear, black and white photograph in with Zainab and Abeeda were standing outside a huge haveli.

She showed that picture to Najma unsteadily and asked, "Yeh! Yeh jagah tumne kahin dekhi hai?"



Zoya was hoping that this time she will get the solution for all her problems but this time she got even more disappointed when Najma spilled out her answer sheepishly, "Dekhne mein toh haveli lag rahi hai par bahut purani. Maine kabhi nahin dekha isse."

Zoya closed her eyes tightly and her eyes became moist but Najma continued herself, "May be! Bhaijaan ne dekha ho. He is an architect aur Bhopal mein shayad hi aisi koi jagah ho jo Bhaijaan ne na dekhi ho."

"That's great I w--", Zoya got excited when she listen that from Najma but she herself stopped and she stood bewildered and assumed in her mind, "Why will he tell me? Wese pata nahin kya problem hai unhein mujhse.", and she shrugged.

Zoya came into senses when Najma's voice trailed her, "Zoya!!"

"Huh! Haan", gasped Zoya with a jerk.

Najma cocked her brows as she was asking what happen and Zoya replied nodding negatively and gave her a fake smile. While Najma left the worried Zoya, being unaware along with the tray of coffee mugs.


-X-

For a change, after months, Asad came home at 7 p.m., remaining the Khan Ladies shocked that too for the second time. This change in Asad was unrespectable for them, especially Dilshad who was being habitual with Asad's late arrival at home. But somewhere in heart, she was pleased. She thought whatever may be the reason; she got the chance to see her son in the home at the time.
Asad immediately entered his bedroom without shifting his eyes at anyone. He threw his laptop bag and the coat brutally and cupped his face in his hands. He wanted to threw out Zoya's face, her innocence, her actions, in fact every related to her out of his mind, which was becoming ever more difficult for him, whenever he tried.

In the process to forget Zoya, his eyes fell on the veiled portrait of Aseemah, he didn't take a single minute to figure out that why was the portrait was covered with a piece of cloth and his eyes shut their lids, automatically. The interwoven stringed series of the photo frames placed on the corner table were not present there; he found them carefully kept inside the nearby drawers.

He started boiling with anger that how could her mother hide his love's photos, just for the sake of a mere guest and present a girl in the name of a guest in front of his eyes who was a perfect replica of his love, that seems so unjust to him and when he was about to leave for the Living Room to question her about all this something stopped him which was Aseemah's voice.

-X-

Zoya, herself assumed that Asad will never help her about the haveli of the photograph, willingly or unwillingly. She supposed that he will not even bother to help her in this process as she was so confused that why he always used to call her cultureless and behave improperly with her. So she decided to go out of the Khan Villa in search of that haveli, and grab some information about it with a ray of hope that something will come into light with the reality of haveli.

Zoya tried to seek the information about that haveli by asking almost each and every person near Moti Maszid, but she was not succeeding in her search and the disappointment forced her to search even more about the haveli. In this entire struggle, she didn't realize when the sunset and it was about 7.15 p.m. in the watch. But she was not ready to worry about the time and was trying to seek some information about the Haveli.

-X-

Asad was about to leave for the Living Area to question his mother with angst but he stopped when a voice reached to his ears and forced him to stop, which belonged to Aseemah.

He turned his head in every direction but she was nowhere and then he realized that it was the voice which was lingering in his sub-conscious as it was a remembrance of the past happening. 

"You know what buddhu! Ammi jo bhi karti hai, it's always right, because she always do this for us. And we shouldn't question on her justice. Samjhey! Go and say sorry to her."

When her words came into his reflection, his feet solidified at the same spot where he stopped and while sitting on the bed he decided to not question her.


-X-


Asad has now changed into a white tee and tracks, and took the dining chair. While grabbing the chair the whole morning chair incidence stroke his mind and he closed his eyes to control himself.



Najma was serving the dinner to Asad, when Dilshad ordered, "Najma go, call Zoya."

Najma bit her tongue and informed sheepishly, "Uum!! She is not at home...wo kahin bahar gayi hai?"


"Where?", Dilshad asked worriedly looking at the wall clock which was showing 7.45 p.m. and she was even worried because she knew that how particular Asad is for the time of the arrival at home for the girls and Zoya was missing.

"I don't know", Najma replied in a low tone.


Asad fisted his palms and placing the spoon on the plate confirmed, "Ammi! Have you not informed her that girls of this house, doesn't roam here and there alone, after 7.p.m?"


"She is a guest Asad. We can't load our rules on her.", Dilshad tried to explain him.


"Jab tak woh--", before he could say anything he found a petite body in front of his eyes, which belonged to none other but, Zoya Farooqui.



Asad was glaring her piercing his eyes into her face with angst, folding his hands on his chest and from his face it was clear that he was fuming with anger.



Zoya was confused that why all were staring at her like hell and she cocked her brow and asked, "Now what happen?"



"What happen? Don't you know what happen?", he asked biting the words what happen'.



"Asad let me handle", Dilshad signaled Asad to stop and hesitatingly asked Zoya, "Zoya! Tum kaha gayi thi. Beta iss ghar ki ladkiyan 7 ya hardly 7.30 ke baad ghar ke bahar nahi rehti", and she shared a gaze with Asad indicating him not to say anything.

"kyon?", Zoya questioned back at which Asad retorted, "Apse jitna kaha jaye utna hi kariye."



"Asad!", and Dilshad nodded her head negatively to not yell at a guest.



Zoya creased her brows and gasped, "Allah Miyan what's wrong with you Mr. Khan? We are living in 21^st century, not 17^th?"



Asad rolled his eyes and tried to not scream and said, "Dekhiye! Jab tak aap iss ghar mein hain, apko iss ghar ke rules ke hisab se hi rehna padega."



"Really! What are rules of this house? Iss chair pe mat betho, raat ko 7 baje ghar aao, bina bataye kahin bahar na jao aur na jane kya kya?", Zoya sulked.



But now Asad lost his temper and shrieked back, "That's your problem. Na ap mein tameez hai na tehzeeb."



"How much you know about me? And why are you behaving like this to me?", Zoya questioned confusingly.



Asad sighed and announced, "I know that till the date you are in my house you have to live regarding my rules"



"Accha! Now you are going to interfere in my privacy also? Wese apko ek baat bata doon, mehmaano par paabandi nahin hoti.", Zoya disgusted.

But Asad was equally stubborn as Zoya was, so he declared, "Jab tak aap iss ghar mein hain, aap humari responsibility hain or islie aap par bhi pabandi hai."
He paused for a second and gritted his jaw, "we are not going to ask you aap kaha jati hain, kiske sath jati hai aur kyon, lekin jab tak iss ghar mein hain iss ghar ke rules ke hisab se rahiye", and saying this he departed without eating anything and closed his room's door with a thud.



Zoya left numb with all this, her eyes were moist and on the same time she was disgusting with the man, Asad Ahmed Khan, who claimed to be a tehzeebdaar man, has just insulted his guest, correction the female guest of the house so harshly in front of the whole family and left.

Dilshad tried to give explanation on Asad's behalf to Zoya, but she too left with equal velocity and Dilshad jumped on the chair fisting her head in his hands.


--XXX--

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A/N: Hey Folks!! I know this time I am sooo late to update, and so sorry for that, if I will try to explain the reason, the whole eve will get pass so sorry, and from this time I promise to update every week. Please leave your feedbacks, suggestions, criticism anything, for this update in comments or at his least hit the like button, if you like it.

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Loads Of Love
Aditi