Precap:- ... "Zoya..." He started then stopped abruptly.
"Mr. Khan..." Her eyes began to water.
"Yes..."
"You wanted to say something..."
"Ummm...yeah!...uum ...nothing!" he changed his mind.
"You did..."
"No...nothing...How are you?"
"Fine..." She tried to sound strong but of course she was weak without him, very weak.
"Mr. Khan... I wanted to tell you something..."
"I can sense that..."
There was a pause. She took in the maximum oxygen in her lungs before phrasing the next line.
"Mr. Khan...i ..i have... " She closed her eyes in desperation. Why is it so difficult...? I cant tell him he'll get hurt...but I cant even hide it from him!' she was lost in her thoughts when his voice exploded in her ears.
"I know it Zoya..."
"Wha..." She stopped midway.
"And I am not mad!" His voice wasn't frosty, neither restless... it was...she couldn't make out anything at the moment.
Chapter 24
Zoya sat still where he also didn't speak for the longest epoch in time.
"How...?"
"Ammi se baat hui thi..."
"Mr. Khan..." Her voice was only a whisper. She closed her eyes not knowing how to react. He smiled sensitively closing his eyes too, feeling the voiceless emotions playing on her. She somehow felt him there, right in front of her. A mammoth gust of zephyr blew in from the window making her hair dance on her face. She smiled hiding away her tears, clearing away the lose strands of her hair from her face.
"When will I see you again?" She asked controlling the uneven pitch of her voice.
"As soon as you wish to..."
She let out a teary laugh. "Now!!!!"
He joined in too. "Close your eyes then..." She obeyed.
"What do you see?"
"Nothing..." She smiled.
He cackled like a little child. "And now...?"
"Still nothing..."
She wasn't making it any easy for him.
"Now start thinking about me..."
"Okay...thats easy... Something im always doing!"
"So...what do you see now?"
"Aaa...myself...rain...and you of course..."
"and?"
"we are drenched in rain... you are walking towards me... and oooh no!!!!"
"What happened?" He asked anxiously.
"..You slipped..." She suppressed her smile.
He bursts out laughing. "So what are you doing there...come help me...!"
"Okay...but you have mud all over you...sorry you will have to help yourself..."
He frowned pouting his lips. "...well... now what??"
"...your so stubborn..you are not even trying..." She made a baby face.
"then...?" His interest augmented.
"..i finally extend my hand for you...and you do the same... when suddenly..."
"hah!...I pull you to myself... masking you with mud too..." he completed it for her grinning all the time.
Her lips stretched in a o'. "...That's why I wasn't going to help you..." she objected.
Asad got up and headed for the bed, where Zoya was already preparing for sleep before calling him.
"...so how do you free yourself?..." He asked drowning in the covers.
She giggled. "...i don't!" and said very sheepishly.
Asad was amused, "..okay ...then...?"
"...think the rest for yourself...i am sleepy..." She yawned.
He chuckled. "Fine... Go to sleep then..."
She stretched on her bed."Doesn't mean you are allowed to cut the call..."
"weren't you sleepy...?"
She yawned again. "Still... keep talking... I want to hear from you..."
He rolled his eyes and talked to her until she was finally asleep.
** *
The next morning Zoya woke up and suddenly sat upbeat with a jerk, soon realization dawned upon her and she grasped where she was. Sighing in relief she filmed everything on or after yesterday in front of her eyes before pushing these nudging thoughts away and heading for a shower.
Fifteen minutes later she walked out in to the attached balcony in her room. The wind was unusually soothing; tempting the wet drops of her hair dripping down her shoulders. She strolled their aimlessly until her ears were greeted with a familiar cackle, she rushed towards the edge to find Ayan and Humera teasing each other in the lawn. She stood their fascinated by the chemistry the two shared, a mesmerizing smile played on her face.
Ayan's eyes shot up unintentionally to find her gazing at the two. He signaled her to come along, Humera also shot a glance up and suddenly lost all interest there, she hasted inside passing an dead look at Ayan, who rolled his eyes following her inside.
Zoya knew this was coming; everyone wasn't going to accept her so soon. The only thing which was disquieting her was Asad's reaction which was pretty much cleared last night. Her thoughts wandered, sometimes thinking about Asad and sometimes the future they were going to share. She was still in uncertainty as to what could lead Asad to accept Sid all of a sudden and vice versa. She was busy connecting the chains when she felt someone's presence behind her. She deliberately didn't turn around to soon find a hot steaming mug of coffee beside her on the railing. She smiled guessing it must be Ayan. And who else could it be.
"Morning Bhabhi..." He greeted sipping a sip from the mug in his hands.
Zoya couldn't help not like him more every time she was with him. Something the two brothers despite being half-brothers shared in abundance was their irresistible knack of making the other person like them whatsoever.
"So you changed your mind...? Switched to Bhabhi hun?" She asked grabbing her mug tightly in her hands and taking in the aroma before sipping the first sip of the finely brewed coffee.
"milk and sugar...perfect!" She couldn't help not compliment.
"Well thanks... I was wondering you might like the black-bitter-insult-of-good-coffee bhai jaan likes..."
"Nah! I couldn't help not puke the first time he made coffee for me.." She recalled.
"Did he?" Ayan was surprised.
She nodded.
"I guess I might have to start studying Bhai jaan again..." He said thoughtfully. "By the way how did it go? Did you tell him?"
"He already knew..."
"You sure?"
"Plus he wasn't even mad..." She felt the corners of her eyes wetting.
"hard to take... but then no one can know what goes on in is already complicated mind."
"I don't know... he'll be here soon...we can clear up this mess then...can I ask you something?" She abruptly changed the topic.
"Why not?"
"What kind of a relationship do you share with Humera?"
"I don't now... we are good friends, grown up together, we share so much plus the family thinks we two are into each other... but I don't think we feel that way."
"You must know her very well then...no?"
"Yeah of course..."
"Then why is she so buzzed up about me?"
Ayan cracked up.
"Is it bothering you... tell me you weren't idealizing me and bhai jaan when it comes to half-siblings?"
She rolled her eyes.
"Nah...Its just that..."
"Chill...there is nothing like antipathy here...just give her some time... She'll be okay..."
"Okay..."
** *
"There is so much I want to confess... So many things for which I want to excuse but whenever I look in the depth your eyes has I feel like drowning in the sea of blunders and sins I have committed." Sid said to Zoya.
"Abbu..." She didn't continue as she didn't know how to.
"I know I have made you suffer a lot. I am that fatted father who couldn't be one. There are so many mistakes I have made that even if I try I can't erase the essence they have left in my life and the people associated with me..." There was an awkward pause in his speech... Zoya was too in a trance, saying a word was out of question. Sometimes thinking about the bad that happens to you is equally painful as going through it the first time was. Still you endure it because there are so many things in life you have to take anyway.
"You've been there in my consciousness and sub-consciousness ever since I lost you and all hopes of getting you back. But somewhere there was always this urge inside me, to have a glimpse of you, to feel you around, to hold you in my eyes... I still find it hard to believe that I was given that chance despite all my ugly-doings... I can't be more thankful..."
"... I can understand the pile of questions and uncertainties you have grown up with, and I know that too that most of them are associated with me only... "
There was another out of the depth pause.
"I don't have any questions for you..."
Sid looked up at her all staggered and shaken, he didn't realize when his eyes began to well up and when he lost all sense and started weeping like a little girl.
"I am sorry... "
Zoya got all worried and rushed towards him to calm him down.
"Its okay abbu...please calm down..."
"I should not be forgiven... you should not forgive me that easily."
"Why not? Why shouldn't I forgive you when you are so guilty? We all commit mistakes and we all seek forgiveness when we realize what the depths of our sins are... then if we are really truly sorry... I think we should be forgiven. Even God forgives those who truly repent then why not we men..."
He was much better after hearing her words. His eyes fixed on the calm and peaceful face of his daughter and he gazed there at something which took him back into the past.
"You are so much like your mother..." He said still gazing at her. Zoya felt a lump in her throat, of course daughters are sensitive when it comes to their mothers; no matter how much less time they get to spend with them. She held back the fresh row of streams her tears were going to make down her face. Thankfully she could hear the Muazzan calling the Azaan out there and she hence excused herself for the Maghrib prayers.
On her way back she stopped abruptly at a closed door hearing weird voices, enough weird to be called abnormal and/or handicapped...
***
Zoya folded the prayer mat and placed it above the shelf neatly. She slumped on the bed dropping her head in her hands and started weeping loudly, and she wept for an endless epoch in time... Something flickered in her eyes... she tried ignoring it first but then let it be...
--- She held closer to the door; the curiosity inside her raising and rising. The voices were muffled although enough to clear out that they were not normal by any chance. She turned the door knob to have a better chance of hearing. Her eyes caught a glimpse of an old lady and Humera sitting beside her. She was trying to convey something to her, her index finger was weirdly pointing towards the door, but Humera wasn't bothered about looking at the door. For a moment Zoya thought the old lady knew she was peeping in but then she was too far and hidden to be noticed that easily. Humera was only trying to calm her down. Zoya wondered who this old lady could be when Humera's word almost shook the ground from beneath her.
"Ammi...kia hua? Relax...please relax!"
Ammi?' Zoya thought. So she is Abbu's wife...' and all the other thoughts trailed down behind. Zoya stood their frozen and then suddenly she ran to her room locking it from inside.----
And now she was sitting helplessly in her room; not wondering, not lamenting, not regretting, but only crying. She realized she wasn't as strong as she was trying to portray herself in front of her abbu. She realized she was feeble and not capable of taking everything all alone.
Alone?' she wondered and instinctively her hand grabbed the cell phone lying across her on the dressing table. There was only one number to dial, which had to be Asad only. The phone was picked up after three rings but when it was Zoya didn't know what to say...
"Zoya?" He asked on the other side.
(Silence)
"Zoya? Kia hua? What happened?"
(Silence) tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Come on say something... I am getting worried."
(Silence) She parted her lips in an attempt to say something but her voice didn't support. She tried again to fail again. The third time she didn't try but began weeping out loudly, much to Asad's bewilderment.
"Zoya? What happened damn it?"
No, she wasn't replying.
"Kisi ne tum se kuch kaha hai?"
...
"I knew it... Kis ne? God damn it! I am gonna kill them..."
He dropped the call in frustration and aggression. Zoya sighed and began the next session of her crying.
***
It was past midnight now; she wasn't crying anymore but was all the more restless. Asad hadnt called back and wasn't either picking up her call. A while passed she tried again to find the phone powered off now. Her restlessness increased.
She heard an audible thud on the window and neared in to hear it again. Very slowly and hesitantly she pulled the curtain aside to witness a silhouette within a yards range. Her eyes impulsively popped out and her mouth shaped up to deliver a full pitched scream when she felt a strong grip against her mouth. She closed her eyes in fear; unable to calculate any of her further moves.
"Dar kar ankhen band kar lena...What science is this?"
She sighed with relief hearing the most familiar voice in her life.
"Mr. Khan...you scared the hell out of me." She said drowning her head in his chest. He sighed and wrapped his arms tightly around her.
***
That's it for chapter 24.
I know I took so much time... Had a few if my own reasons.
Thankyou all those who understood and privately messaged me. Ayesha your msg was really coaxing!
Thanks!
124