Chapter 26

"A trap? What trap, Ayaan Bhaijaan?" Najma asked from beside her mother.

"It was a trap to frame Zoya, Tamatar," Ayaan replied. Asad looked at him then at Zoya, then back at Ayaan. His heart filled with something that he was willing to bet his entire wealth on, was hope.

"What are you trying to say?" Dilshad asked. Ayaan turned to look at her and he smiled softly upon hearing something else directed from her towards him besides a greeting or a plea to leave.

"Badi Maa, I'm trying to say that Zoya is innocent."

"WHAT?"

Everyone turned to look at person responsible for the sudden outburst. Tanveer, however, was staring at Ayaan with a mixture of fear and anger.

"Zoya is innocent," Ayaan repeated.

"Ayaan, don't give me false hope," Asad begged quietly. Zoya looked at him and felt her heart reach out to him. If Ayaan did indeed have solid proof, then she really wanted him to put Asad out of his misery.

"How do you know, Ayaan?" Zoya asked quietly, her gaze still fixated on her Mr. Khan.

"See, she accepts that she did it," Tanveer said.

"She didn't accept anything and would you please do our ears a huge favour and shut up!" Humaira barked, surprising everyone in the hall except Ayaan, whose chest swelled with pride for calling Humaira his fiance.

"Humaira," Dilshad scolded. The younger girl looked at her with a cheeky expression.

"Sorry," she replied, her cheeks going slightly pink.

"Get to the point Ayaan," Asad said impatiently.

"Bhaijaan, watch the video," Ayaan said. Asad shook his head.

"I've watched it already, I'm not watching it again."

Ayaan shrugged and produced the beige cloth from Zoya's shirt.

"See this? This is the cloth that Tanveer used to tell you that it was Zoya who did it. But something doesn't fit," Ayaan said.

"What?" Najma asked. Ayaan quickly replayed the video.

"This piece comes from a beige shirt, but the person in the video is wearing white," Ayaan said. Asad, Najma, and Dilshad quickly gathered around to re-watch the video and noted that Ayaan was indeed right. The person was wearing white. Tanveer came forward and watched it too.

"It must be the lighting, the beige might be looking whi-."

"Didn't I tell you to shut up? Or do I need to get some tape?" Humaira asked Tanveer rudely. Zoya glared at Humaira and the younger girl shrugged her shoulders but kept her icy gaze on Tanveer.

"No Tanveer, it couldn't have been the lighting because that's not an excuse for the next fact," Ayaan continued.

"This woman is wearing a salwar suit," Ayaan said, "and the piece that I'm holding comes from a shirt."

All their gazes went immediately to Zoya who was standing in her grey sweatpants with a white shirt and a black cardigan on top. Zoya looked down at herself and wrinkled her nose.

"I didn't feel like dressing up today," she said simply. Ayaan hid his smile and returned to the video.

"As I was saying, this piece comes from a shirt and the woman in the video is wearing a salwar suit. In summary, the colours don't match up, and neither do the clothes," Ayaan said shutting the cover of the iPad.

"The woman who set the fire isn't Zoya, because we all know Zoya doesn't wear salwar suits often," Ayaan added.

"But what about the bracelet?" Asad asked after a few seconds.

"What bracelet?" Ayaan asked. Tanveer grabbed Zoya's wrist and held it up, the rhinestones on the bracelet glinted in the light.

"This bracelet, it's on the woman's wrist too," Tanveer said. Ayaan rewound the video and watched it, pausing and zooming in on the bracelet.

"See, she's got the same bracelet," Tanveer said.

"No she doesn't," Ayaan replied. He held up the iPad and then Zoya's wrist.

"Zoya's bracelet has rhinestones on it while this one doesn't," Ayaan stated simply.

Asad looked at the bracelet in the video then at the bracelet on her wrist. Ayaan was right. There were no rhinestones on the bracelet in the video.

"But if it wasn't Zoya, then who was it?" Dilshad asked slowly. A startled gasp caught everyone's attention and they all turned to look in Zoya's direction.

"The piece," she whispered before dashing to her room.

"What is she talking about?" Ayaan asked Asad blankly. The latter just stared into space with an expressionless face. Zoya came running back into the hall and thrust the piece that she had kept safely hidden in her cupboard into Ayaan's hands.

"Look! Look! I found this a few days after the fire!" Zoya said, breathing heavily after having sprinted to her room and back. The piece was passed around but it was stopped in Dilshad's hands before it could reach Tanveer.

"This is..." Dilshad trailed off.

"Ammi, do you know whom it belongs to?" Asad asked his voice holding that small light of hope. Dilshad glanced at Tanveer and hesitated.

"Asad, I," Dilshad said, not sure if it was the right time or not. But one look at Zoya and she knew that she had to tell him the truth. Zoya looked like she would break down any second if Asad didn't find out the truth.

"Ammi, please tell me," Asad practically begged.

"Beta, this is zardosi," Dilshad said after a few seconds of silence. Asad's shoulders drooped. He had thought she was going to tell him the name of the person whom it belonged to rather than tell him the type of work.

"But Badi Maa, how does that help us?" Ayaan asked.

"Oh no you don't!" Humaira said grasping Tanveer's arm and holding her still. Tanveer had slowly started to move towards her room and this had caught Humaira's gaze who stalked up to Tanveer and blocked her path. She knew the truth and they waited impatiently for Dilshad to say the name.

There was only one question that was running through Asad's head ever since it had been revealed that Zoya was innocent.

"If it wasn't Zoya, then who was it?" Asad voiced his thoughts, aggravated.

"It was Tanveer."