#1 AsYa(KaBhi)FF: Fallen in the Trap of Love (link to #2 pg 148) - Page 23

"So have you told everyone that you were just faking the marriage planning with Zoya?", asked Ayaan, from the end of the line. "What?", asked a confused Asad. Ayaan groaned, he thought to himself, sometimes, bhaijaan can really be dumb, for a smart person. He explained, "You know, you and Zoya were just pretending that you were gonna get married, because your ammi's health was poor?" Asad gulped, as he finally realized what his younger brother had been intending to say, he didn't know how to break it to him that he actually was getting married to Zoya. "Bhaijaan?", Ayaan called into the microphone. Asad fumbled, trying to find the right words to say, "Woh...actually...I tried telling ammi but she said that I'll have to get married to Zoya." "Then tell her you don't wanna get married to her!", Ayaan exclaimed, exasperatedly. "But I do wanna get married to her.", Asad blurted out, unintentionally. Ayaan took the phone away from his ear and stared at it, unable to decide whether Asad had actually said that. "Can you just repeat that, please?", he asked, just make himself sure. Asad smacked himself on the back of his head, he hastily replied, "Umm...Ayaan, I've got some extremely important work to do, I'll talk to you later." He hung up before Ayaan could say more than that. He rubbed his temples, while muttering to himself, "I better explain everything to him properly, before he finds out about me and Zoya, himself."

Asad walked to into the dining room, he noticed that Zoya hadn't yet arrived. Dilshaad and Najma smiled at him, as the saw him approach. He smiled back at them, as he sat down. Asad glanced at Zoya's shut bedroom door, having a faint idea of why Zoya hadn't come yet. He smiled to himself, as he realized that she was probably a little embarrassed about facing him, after their previous conversation, knowing that he was gonna try again to make her say those three words, which he very obviously was gonna do. He turned his attention to his dinner and started to eat. After a few minutes, Asad looked up at Zoya's room door, again, hoping that she would come out. Dilshaad noticed this and smiled, she leaned a little to his side and whispered, teasingly, "Missing your fiancee?" Asad quickly turned his head away and started swallowing the food, in a rush, as his cheeks turned red from his mother's comment. Dilshaad watched him amusedly, as he tried to stuff down several spoonfuls into his mouth in a go, only to end up choking and spluttering. Dilshaad laughed at him, as she handed over a glass of water. Asad drank the water and coughed a couple more times. Just then, Zoya walked out of her room and quickly made her way to her seat next to Najma. She sat down and started serving herself, trying her best to avoid looking at Asad. She could feel Asad's gaze on her and her body wasn't taking it too well. Butterflies fluttered inside her stomach, leaving her queasy. She glanced at Asad from the corner of her eyes, only to find him holding a smug look on his face, staring at her, in the process. She quickly turned her head away and began to eat. Just to make things worse, Najma excitedly asked, "So Zoya, has bhaijaan confessed his feelings for you, yet?" Zoya felt her eyes nearly pop out, she pleadingly looked at Najma, hoping that she would leave it at that, but Najma was in no mood to shut off the topic, she turned her head to see Asad's reaction, only to find him smiling. She grinned at him and turned her attention back to Zoya, she nudged her, as she chirped, "So bhaijaan did say those three words to you! Look at him! He's smiling!" Zoya looked up at Asad and true enough, he was smiling, but as soon as he caught her gaze, he smirked at her. Zoya scowled at him, only to earn another smirk from Asad. Najma elbowed her, urging Zoya to explain. Zoya gulped as she tried to think of some possible way to crawl out of the situation. Najma sighed, unhappy with the fact that Zoya wasn't responding. She started to take guesses herself, "Ok, so bhaijaan must've gone down on one knee and dramatically asked, "Zoya, you are the most beautiful girl that I've ever met and I love you, will you marry me?" " Zoya frowned at her, while muttering, "Let's see him do that." Asad said, "Najma, that was probably the lamest proposal that I could think of." Najma replied, "Fine. I agree that was lame, but why don't you tell me, yourself, then?" Asad gulped, as he mentally whacked himself, as he realized that he'd accidentally cornered himself. "Why don't you ask Zoya?", he replied, defending himself. "But she's not answering!", Najma exasperated. "Tough luck, Tamatar.", he replied as he got up to leave. Najma crossed her arms against her chest, with a cute pout on her face, not. "Goodnight", he said, before heading off to his room.

Zoya tip toed out of the house, careful not to wake anyone up, she made her way towards the bench in the garden and sat down with a sigh. She glanced at her watch, midnight had just struck, she looked up at the starry night sky and whispered, "Happy birthday, ammi." A gush of wind sped past her, leaving thin strands of her hair falling across her face. She smiled, as a lone tear made its way down her rosy cheeks. She spoke out loud, "Ammi, you know that I'm getting married in four days, please give me your blessings." Every year, after her mother's death, Zoya had made sure that she was outside by the strike of midnight. She would wish her mother and ask for her blessings and eventually break down. This year was more special to Zoya. She believed in holding the oath of her marriage for a life time and the day she'd have to hold on to that oath was coming in just four days. No one apart from her appi and jiju knew her mother's birthday and Zoya had asked them to keep it that way. She was more than happy that her mother's birthday was just four days before her marriage, it made her feel stronger, for some unknown reason, probably because she felt that ather ammi always blessed Zoya, on the day of her ammi's birthday and she knew that her ammi would always be protecting her and her marriage, from above. Zoya drew her knees upto her chest and wrapped her arms around them, bracing herself. She cried into her knees, soft sobs escaping her lips. She looked at the stars and asked, "Why can't you be here?" As ecstatic as she was about her marriage, there was also this unbearable pain which had engulfed her. She wouldn't have a mother, or father to stand beside her with a proud smile on their face, during her nikaah. Finding her father had been her last straw of hope, but knowing that he'd also left her, had left her shattered. There was probably nothing more cruel than knowing that you were alone in this huge world. Zoya buried her head into her knees, once again and cried. She looked up, after a couple of minutes, she frowned as she noticed a blue mug in front of her. "Take it, then.", she heard him say.

Sleep had evaded Asad in every possible way. He sat up from his bed, completely annoyed, he looked at his wall clock. "It's just midnight?", he groaned and flopped back down. He sat back up after a while and stared into empty space. He grumbled to himself and bounced off the bed. He made his way to his window and looked out and there she was. Zoya. His breath hitched as he caught sight of her serene form. She looked purely angelic under the shimmering rays of moon light. Her hair was swaying accordingly, to the wind, an instant grace surrounding her already beautiful form. Right then, she could have even given Aphrodite a run for her looks. But something was wrong, he could clearly tell she was crying, even from that distance. The way her shoulders lifted up and went back down, very few seconds, explained very well that she was crying. He sighed and made his way to the kitchen. He made himself his black and bitter coffee and made another one with milk and sugar. He quietly slipped out of the house and made his towards the bench where Zoya was seated. He stopped when he heard her say, "Why can't you be here?" Who is she referring to?, Asad asked himself. He realized that she could be talking to her ammi, or abbu. He didn't know whether he should interrupt her private moment or not, so he decided to wait until she was done. When he noticed her loosening up a bit, he walked towards her and held the mug up, in front of her. She looked up and frowned, as she noticed the coffee mug. He said, "Take it, then."

Asad sat down next, gazing at her affectionately. Zoya quickly wiped her tears away with her thumb and swallowed, nervously. "Why were you crying?", he asked, while thrusting her mug into her hands. She took at it an shuffled a little, feeling a bit awkward. "Zoya?", he asked again. Zoya didn't know whether she should tell him, or not, she decided to stay quiet and hoped that he wouldn't question her more, but it seemed that he didn't want to leave it. He slowly asked, "Were you thinking about your parents?" With that, Zoya broke down, once again. She turned her head away as tears rolled down her cheeks steadily, while soft sobs escaped her lips. Asad shifted closer to her and caressed her cheeks, making her face him in the process. He wiped her tears away and wrapped his arm around her waist. "Do you trust me?", he asked her, as she positioned herself comfortably, in his arms. She nodded against his chest, he continued, "Then you've got no reason to be scared of sharing details of your past, with me. I'll always be someone to hold you when you're about to fall, not someone who steps aside and let's you fall." "No one knows, apart from myappi, jiju and me.", Zoya whispered. "No one knows what?", Asad asked, his forehead creasing in confusion. "No one knows that today is my ammi's birthday.", she replied, her voice cracking, as she shifted closer to him. "But why were you crying?", he questioned. Zoya found the same tears reappearing in her eyes, waiting for the right moment to spill. She clutched Asad's kurta, as she spoke in a barely audible voice, "Why has it got to be me? Every girl on this planet would want at least one parent to be with her on the day she's to become someone else's, but why me? I'll have neither my abbu, nor ammi with me." Asad stroked her head, as she buried her face into his chest and cried. Asad tightened his grip around her as he answered her, "Some people are written in our destiny and some people aren't, no matter how much you love them. Life is too short to be saddened by people who were never in our lives." "It's easy for you to say, you've go both your parents, you would not know the pain.", Zoya countered. Asad balled his fists as he replied with gritted teeth, "I would rather just have my mother than having to live the shame of calling that man my father." Zoya's eyes widened with shock, as those bitter words escaped from Asad's lips. "How can you even say that? No matter how much you hate him, he is still your father!", she snapped at Asad, as she glowered at him. Asad looked away as a distant tear drop formed in his eyes, his voice cracked as he replied, "If he was a good father, he wouldn't have left me, Najma and ammi, to suffer by ourselves. Ammi used to stitch clothes for a living, did you know that?" Zoya shook her head, indicating a no. Asad got up to leave, but stopped as he felt a gentle tug on his wrist. He turned his head around, to find Zoya looking up at him, with teary eyes. Zoy stammered and looked away from Asad's eyes, she slowly started to say, "Main appse..." He sat back down and smiled at her, as he squeezed her hand, urging her to go on. He rested his forehead on hers, as he waited with bated breath, for her to say those. "I love you.", she let out in a breathy whisper. Asad froze, he was dumbstruck, he blinked wildly for a few seconds and all he managed to say was, "Huh?" Zoya buried her face into his chest, once again, as a deep shade of red, creeped up her cheeks. A dreamy smile formed on Asad's lips, as he realized that she'd actually said it and he had not been dreaming. Yes, he had know that it was coming, but he'd expected her to take at least the next ten minutes to actually get somewhere, he had not thought that it would come so quick. "What was that?", he asked, teasingly. Zoya whacked his arm, her head still hidden in his chest. Asad pulled away after a while and caressed her cheeks, he asked her, "Did you mean that?" "Like never before.", she replied.

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precap: Zoya giggled and called out, "Don't go breaking things now!" Asad ignored her and walked off. Zoya laughed to herself, but stopped when Asad made a reentry, in the living room, with something in his hand, that looked vaguely familiar to her. He smirked at her, as her jaw dropped. Zoya stuttered, "Wh...where did you g...get that?"

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So that was chapter 11. I know this was also quite short, but I'd initially typed up in around 3000 words, but then then, i thought I'll keep that as a part in the next chapter, coz the theme would have been diverted and I didn't want that. So I've already got 600 words of the next chapter. I'm gonna end this FF at the 18th chapter, I guess and I'm trying to be quicker with updates, so the updates r gonna be just about the length of this chapter from now on, unless I feel that there needs to be more than there already is. I'm gonna try and finish of the the 12th chapter by tomorrow, but I'll only be posting it after a week. Hope u liked this chapter and please leave your comments behind!

Ramya 😊

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