Chapter 21

"Tanu, how could Zoya have tried to hurt you? Did you see how she couldn't even handle loud noises?" Asad lost control of his temper and ended up lashing out at Tanveer, leaving her shocked out of her wits.

"Jammy, I-."

"Enough is enough, Tanveer. Zoya isn't feeling well and I hardly doubt she tried to kill you with that knife," Asad said turning around to leave. He stopped in his tracks as a thought struck him. He turned around to look at Tanveer with a puzzled expression on her face.

"If Zoya has been feeling weak and hasn't been able to stand up, where did the knife appear from?"

"Jammy, I, you see, the thing is," Tanveer stammered as she tried to come up with a logical excuse. In her haste to blame Zoya, she had become reckless.

Asad watched her with a pensive expression on his face. It didn't make sense how a weak Zoya could possibly fetch a knife from the kitchen.

"It's all an act!" Tanveer exclaimed at last. Asad blinked himself out of his thoughts and looked at her.

"An act?" Asad asked. Tanveer nodded and turned around.

"She's not really that sick anymore, Jammy. She's putting up an act," Tanveer said wringing her hands.

"She thinks that if she puts up the act of falling sick, then maybe she will be able to regain your trust with this whole faade," Tanveer explained. Asad crossed his arms in front of his chest and frowned.

"Tanu," Asad started.

"It's true Jammy. She tried to attack me and kill me hoping that once I was out of the way, she will have you all to herself," Tanveer said turning back around to face him. Asad gritted his teeth.

"Ta-."

"When you came into the room, she started acting again."

"ENOUGH!" Asad roared, his anger getting the best of him. Zoya may have tried to kill him, but she would never ever fake her sickness. The doctor himself had warned them what could happen to his Zoya if they didn't take care of her.

"Enough is enough, Tanu. I won't hear another word against Zoya. You heard what the doctor said. If she's careless with her health, then Zoya will...No. Tanu, she's not faking her health issues. I want answers as to how that knife got there, I want answers and I want them now," Asad demanded, glaring at her. Tanveer cursed herself and tried to think of an answer. Then it struck her, she looked at Asad with a hardened gaze.

"How is it that even after she tried to kill you, you still want to stand up for her?" She asked, feigning irritation. Asad opened his mouth to speak and then closed it before he clenched his fists and glared at her.

"Tanveer, you are act-."

"Asad," Dilshad said as she came into the kitchen. Both Asad and Tanveer turned to look at her.

"Asad, Najma and I want to go to the Dargah to pray for Zoya's health," Dilshad told him.

"Okay, Ammi," Asad replied. Dilshad smiled and turned to leave before an idea hit her. She quickly turned around to look at Tanveer.

"Tanveer, why don't you come with us? You were telling me the other day weren't you that you wanted to go to the Dargah?" Dilshad asked, hoping to drag Tanveer away for a few hours so that Asad could spend time with Zoya.

"Khaala, I would've come but circumstances are such that I don't want to leave Jammy unattended," Tanveer replied, not wanting to leave the two alone.

Asad, however, felt his anger flare again when Tanveer finished replying and he sent her another cold glare.

"Tanu, I'm not a baby who has to be attended to twenty-four hours a day," Asad told her firmly. Dilshad bit her lip from laughing at the expression on Tanveer face and void her face of any expressions when Asad turned to look at her.

"Ammi, Tanveer will go with you," Asad said, in a voice that dared someone to challenge him. Tanveer fumed inwardly but made her way to Dilshad.

"Let's go, Khaala," she said. The two were joined by Najma and started to leave. Once at the door, Dilshad turned around to see Asad going to his room.

"Asad!" She called. He stopped to look at her.

"Please take care of Zoya. The poor girl can't even sit up without having her head spinning," Dilshad said. Almost as if it was reflex Asad did a one-eighty turn and made his way to Zoya's room. Dilshad turned and caught her daughter's gaze, who flashed her a thumbs up behind Tanveer's back. Now all they had to focus on was keeping Tanveer at bay and letting the two spend as much time together as they possibly could.

* * * * *

Zoya looked up at the ceiling in frustration. Her head never spun when she was lying down and as soon as she would sit up it would start spinning again. Growling in frustration Zoya gently tried to sit up very slowly. A soft gasp fell from her lips when a hand pressed against her lower back and fingers threaded hers, helping her to sit up.

Asad and Zoya both felt a jolt of electricity run through them when he touched her. Zoya looked at their clasped hands and then up at him. His face was so close. His lips were just a few inches away. If she tilted her head just right then, Zoya snapped out of her thoughts as her head began to spin again.

Asad could only stare at her. He had felt that electricity when he touched her. Her hand that was entwined in his gave him a feeling of completeness. A feeling that he hadn't felt at all ever since she had fallen down the stairs. Her lips had parted and her eyes fluttered shut as a small convulsion of pain passed over her face. Asad reached out to touch her cheek gently and earned himself a sigh.

Zoya felt her pain ease away when he touched her. It was all she needed. His touch and the pain faded away. He was her route to recovery if he would only let himself be such. She needed him just as he needed her. Zoya opened her eyes slowly and found his gaze boring into hers.

For how long the two lovers stared into each other's eyes they didn't know, for time had lost meaning when they were together. All that mattered to both of them was the presence of each other and the feelings that consumed them. The love that encompassed them both as their gazes stayed locked together.

"I," Zoya whispered. That single syllable uttered from her lips drew his gaze to them. He couldn't take it. He needed to taste her and in order to do so; he needed to bend his head.

Zoya's eyes fluttered shut again when he bent down. She could feel his warm breath fanning over her lips and her heartbeat increased by a mile.

Both of them let out soft moans when their lips touched each other's. It was a small feather touch and he pulled away just slightly before slipping his hand to cradle the back of her neck, his lips coming crashing down onto hers.

Zoya's arms lifted on their own to wound around his neck and she responded to his kiss. It had been too long. She needed him. It was simple. His tongue brushed her bottom lip and Zoya didn't deny him access.

Asad pulled her even closer to him as his tongue sought out hers. Their tongues battled for dominance and the air around them thickened with the passion that crackled from their kiss.

It was only when a foreign sound started to distract them. Second by second it was getting louder and louder. Zoya groaned into the kiss but the sound only grew louder and it took her a minute to realise that his phone was ringing.

Reality came crashing back down on them and Asad quickly removed himself from her, jerking as if he'd been burnt. He refused to meet her gaze and instead answered his phone.

Zoya felt her headache returning as soon as she felt his warmth leave her. She reached a shaking hand to her lips and touched them softly, hoping to find some sort of reminder that his lips had just been there. She glanced up at him to see his back to her as he spoke on the phone.

Quietly and determinedly, Zoya slipped out of the bed and tip toed out of the room. She needed to get away from him and the only place she could go was the gazebo in the backyard. She had come upon it awhile back and realized that it was the only place where she could think. Sitting down gently on the soft mats, Zoya leaned back against the cushion to give her over-worked head some rest.

No sooner had she closed her eyes that her lips began tingling. She opened her eyes again and sat back up again. After wrongly accusing her, distrusting her, using her, how could he just come back and kiss her like that. Zoya was both hurt and annoyed. Annoyed with herself at how easily she had succumbed to him.

"I will not feel for him anymore," Zoya said, her jaw set. However, she knew that she was lying to herself. She had fallen too deep.

* * * * *

"Yes Ammi, Zoya's fine. I told you I will take care of her," Asad assured his mother and ended the call before turning around with dread. What was dread turned soon into panic when he was met with an empty bed. Asad turned around wildly hoping to find her somewhere and before he knew it, he was running out the door screaming her name in hysterics.

"ZOYA!" Asad screamed as he ran around the house in circles looking for her.

"The TV room!" Asad thought out loud before rushing there. He was met with an empty TV room and he growled in frustration. He spent the next fifteen minutes searching madly and when he didn't find her, he grew restless.

"Think Asad, think. If I were Zoya, where would I go?" Asad asked.

Flashback

"Phuppi! This is wonderful!" Zoya screamed joyfully as she ran into the kitchen for dinner. Dilshad and Najma looked at her with curiosity while Asad continued to eat, yet clandestinely hanging onto her every word.

"The gazebo in the backyard! It's amazing! I just found it today," Zoya said happily. Asad feigned wiping his mouth with his serviette as he hid his smile. Her eyes were twinkling with excitement and a wide smile was spread across her angelic face.

"Yes, it was Asad's idea. It's his favourite spot to go to whenever he wants to be alone or to think," Dilshad told her. Zoya glanced at Asad who was casually eating his dinner, not paying attention to her conversation.

"It's mine too," Zoya told Dilshad, her heart fluttering.

End Flashback

"Gazebo," the word wasn't even finished and Asad was sprinting towards the backyard. Just as he'd thought, he found her lying back against the cushions with her eyes closed and her hand folded over her stomach.

"Zoya!" Asad said sharply. She jolted up and then flinched when her head spun again. He was next to her side in an instant.

"What do you think you're doing here? You could've at least told me! I was so worried," he rushed. Zoya watched him with sad eyes and turned her head.

"Why?" She asked.

Asad's heart plummeted as he heard her ask him that question. It was the question that he himself didn't know the answer to.

"You don't have to worry, Mr. Khan. I spent my entire lifetime in New York taking care of myself, I can do it here too," Zoya said to him, he could hear the coldness in her voice.

"Zo-."

"Sorry, Mr. Khan. Only people really close to me can call me Zoya'. The rest call me Ms. Farooqui'," Zoya cut across him. Asad felt like he had been slapped in the face by her sudden cold attitude towards him.

"Zoya," he whispered. She turned to look at him with anger on her face but tears glistening in her eyes.

"You lost the right to call me that the day you chose to believe your best friend over me. You lost it all, Mr. Khan. Including yo..." Zoya shut herself up and settled on glaring at him.

"My what?" Asad asked.

"Including your Zoya," she whispered in a hollow tone. Asad felt his already broken heart break, but he could've sworn it wasn't only his that broke.

"I'm a murderer, aren't I? I tried to kill you and your best friend, yet here you are trying to console me when I know that all you want to do right now is throw me out of this house," Zoya said, laughing coldly. Asad cringed when he heard her laugh. It wasn't the happy sepulchral tone he was used to, no, this one was shrill and forced, the laugh of a woman dying inside and at that moment, Asad felt guilty. Of what, he wasn't sure of but he would bet anything that he felt guilty for not trusting her.

"Go back to your Tanu, Mr. Khan. I don't need you here and neither d-," Zoya cut herself off again and shook her head.

Just as his guilt consumed him, Asad's anger started to rise up. She was acting as if she was the only one that was suffering. It wasn't true. She didn't see what her pain was doing to him. He stood up and pulled her up by her shoulders, his fingers digging into the skin of her shoulders.

Zoya let out a gasp of pain and surprise as she was hauled onto the feet. She looked up angrily at him but her gaze faltered when she realised that she wasn't looking at Mr. Khan. She was looking at Asad Ahmed Khan, the astute business tycoon and the man who held her heart.

"You think you're the only one suffering? Do you know that it kills me whenever I think about you trying to take my life? I tried Zoya; I tried real hard to stay mad at you. I can't do it. I can't hate you, Zoya. I've tried with all my might but I can't," Asad growled at her. Zoya's head was spinning, but it wasn't from the pain or from her injury. It was his close proximity that was having this effect on her. Hell, it was him, who was having this effect on her and she felt her earlier anger ebbing away slightly as her love and desire for him sparked.

"I've always been a broken man, Zoya. Having a father who left me and my mother and sister for another woman, I've hated my life. Then you just came into it and showed me what the word "life" really meant. Tell me, Zoya. How would you feel if you found out that the person whom your life started to revolve around tried to kill you?" He asked her. Zoya watched him silently before she reached up and touched his cheek softly, the lightest touch that one would probably not feel, but Asad felt it, for she had not touched his cheek but his inner being. Almost as if struck with an awakening, Zoya realised that it was not his fault that he didn't trust her. Life had played an awful game with him, a game that she was a player of herself.

"I would try and find out the truth," Zoya whispered gently before she closed the gap between their lips, her anger and frustration all forgotten and blatantly unaware of the danger that still loomed over her and her lover's head.