Inferno-A FF by Arabflower. Chapter 19 page 36 - Page 13

CHAPTER 16

Deep within the darkest corners of the city of Bhopal, a plot was brewing. Plots so sinister that the devil himself had turned his face, letting the plotters carry out their work in absolute secrecy. Razia Siddiqui paced the charred Doll Factory, anxious and to an extent annoyed. She didn't care that she was standing above the grave of her husband's true love; all she cared about was finding a way to put Gaffoor Ahmed Siddiqui's secret daughter in the same place as her deceased mother.

She stopped her pacing to face her cohort, her partner in crime was an old player in the game and apart from their previous connections the thing binding them right now was their mutual loathing for one Zoya Faarouqui. Razia wanted Zoya dead because of her husband while Tanveer wanted Zoya dead so she could become Mrs Asad Ahmed Khan. Tanveer had played every trick in her arsenal and even though she was no longer desperate to become Asad's wife she began to like the idea of being the wife of a powerful man and the luxuries that came with it and Zoya was the only thing standing in her way. The plan that they had come up with was risky but there was no way that Tanveer was going to let a little risk stand in the way of her and Asad Ahmed Khan's wealth.

The plan was not very complicated, Razia would get her into Zoya's bridal chamber and then Razia would somehow get Zoya to this Doll Factory and Kill her, sure the details were vague but If Tanveer was to become Mrs Asad Ahmed Khan then she really didn't care. There was one glaring problem though; Tanveer could get caught easily while sneaking in

Tanveer: "Bi...how am I going to get inside, Khala, Najma and Jammy will recognise me and our game will end before it begins..."

Razia: "Don't fret, Billo Rani all you have to do is say 'Qubool Hai' when the Qazi asks you, I'll handle everything else..."

The evil laugh that left her lips resonated throughout the vacant factory, her laughter was soon joined by Tanveer's and both embraced signalling that no matter what happens, they will do everything possible to succeed. They were in this together and both had enough to lose, so they would do everything in their power to make this plan a success.

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Najma calmed Zoya down and put her and Maahir to sleep and upon her exit she caught glimpse of her mother's broad smile. Such a smile indicated good news and Najma was about to excitedly rush over and ask her mother what had happened when she saw her brother's solemn face. Not knowing whether Asad knew about Zoya's paternity, Najma decided to keep it vague.

Najma: "Ammi, what's going on?"

Dilshad: "I just got off the phone with Siddiqui; the Nikaah is to be fixed at the earliest..."

Najma just stared at her mother, her expressions begging Dilshad to not reveal much as the whole of Bhopal knew that Asad Ahmed Khan despised anything and everything Siddiqui and right now the last thing Zoya needed was Asad turning against her because Asad blamed her father for everything bad that had happened to this family.

Najma was busy preparing a cover story in her head which included things like 'we have to invite Family', 'The Siddiqui's are a part of the committee which owns the Nikaah Venue...' when the word that left her brother's mouth threw her for a loop.

Asad:"Abbu is right. The Nikaah should happen as soon as possible."

Najma's jaw dropped stared at her Bhaijaan then at her Ammi, she opened and closed her mouth several times as her brain processed what Asad had just said.

Finally when the analysing became to taxing on her, Najma opted for a direct approach

Najma: "So will Abbu bring Ayaan, Nikhat and Nuzat along..."

Asad: "Ayaan, Nikhat and Nuzat will attend along with Humaira...as for our Abbu...he has every right to be there..."

Najma was confused, her expression extremely comical and her gut telling her that she was definitely missing something. Her mother took one look at her face and burst into silent giggles, her brother on the other hand smirked at her confusion. Deciding to let his sister suffer for a few more seconds, Asad spoke once again

Asad: "and my father in law and sister in law should definitely be there..."

Najma's eyes widened and she was now convinced that Asad had NO idea who Zoya's father was. The lack of steam blowing out of his ears, a scowl on his face and anger in his voice was all the proof she had needed. But Najma held her own and tentatively asked

Najma: "Bhaijaan, who exactly ARE your in laws?"

Asad: "Well Humaira is going to be my sister in law either way..."

When her brother had said that, everything clicked in Najma's head. Her brother was messing with her so she did the one thing that she could think of...she charged him, tackled him into the sofa and began tickling him mercilessly. Asad let his sister have her revenge while his mother laughed on at her son's predicament. They had not laughed like this since Zoya's return to New York and they had hoped that this was the first of many future times that their laughter will ring through Khan Villa. Najma had ceased her assault when the phone had rang. Since Dilshad was closest, she had answered the call. She had spoke for a few minutes, agreed to something and told the caller that she will check about something else. After cutting the call, she turned to her children and announced.

Dilshad: "Asad, Najma and I are going to meet the Siddiqui's and your father about the wedding details, Zoya and Maahir will be here alone and I want you three to spend some time together."

Asad: "Sure thing Ammi..."

And with that the Ahmed Khan's went their separate ways; Asad had gone to spend some time with his wife and child while Najma and Dilshad prepared to meet Siddiqui to discuss the wedding details. It was decided that Siddiqui's/ Rashid's office was the safest place to meet as it afforded them with privacy over and above being central to the current location of all.

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Siddiqui and Humaira paced around Rashid, making him dizzy as his eyes tried to keep track of both father and daughter. Dilshad and Najma had not arrived yet and although they were only three minutes late, Humaira and Siddiqui were convinced that Razia had hired some henchmen to kidnap them, despite Rashid's constant reassurances that no such thing has happened and that they were probably stuck in traffic.

Sure enough, Dilshad and Najma arrive causing Humaira and Siddiqui to stop pacing and bombard them with questions

Siddiqui: "where you followed?"

Humaira: "are you hurt?"

Siddiqui: "Do you want anything?"

Humaira: "I'm calling a doctor"

Siddiqui: "I knew this was dangerous..."

Humaira: "It's too risky..."

Dilshad and Najma looked from father to daughter in utter confusion finally they turned to the last person in the room hoping that he could shed some light on why Humaira and Siddiqui were acting extremely paranoid.

Rashid had put on his straightest face and addressed Dilshad and Najma

Rashid: "Humaira and Siddiqui are convinced that Razia hired some henchmen to kidnap you..."

Dilshad and Najma couldn't help but laugh at their overreaction simply because it was something that Zoya would do. When both Siddiqui and Humaira blushed sheepishly Dilshad could see the resemblance Zoya shared with them.

Siddiqui: "well now that we are all here...I think that it's important that we decide mine and Humaira's relation to the bride and groom."

Rashid: "well Ammi, Shireen, Ayaan, Nikhat, Nuzat and I will make up the groom's party along with Dilshad and Najma..."

Dilshad: "But the bride's party? Zoya's friends from New York are coming but she doesn't have any close relatives to make up the bride's side..."

Humaira: "that's not true! Her Abbu and Sister are here...Abbu and I will come as the bride's party"

Najma: "But Zoya doesn't know how she is related to you so I don't think that she will agree to having Humaira and Siddiqui as a part of the bride's party. I mean she will feel uncomfortable if she has no idea how you guys are related and then you guys come as a part of the bride's party when she knows that Asad doesn't really like the Siddiquis."

Humaira: "Najma, Zoya and I are friends and even if I can't attend her wedding as her sister and can do so as her friend."

Najma: "That's fine Humaira...but how on earth are you going to explain your Abbu's presence?"

Siddiqui: "Well I am going to be attending my nephew's wedding and besides and friend of my daughter is a daughter to me so all Humaira has to do is tell Zoya that and I'm sure she'll agree..."

Dilshad: "Zoya will agree when Asad agrees, I'll talk to Asad tonight."

Siddiqui: "As of this moment, the enmity between our families has ended, with this wedding Bhopal will welcome its most powerful family to date. The unification of the Ahmed Khan family, the Siddiqui family and the Faarouqui Family I'd like to see anyone try to separate our family now..."

Humaira: "Well it's happy times ahead... So let's celebrate!"

Humaira then extracted a piece of Barfi from tray of Barfi in the mini fridge located in the office and proceeded to feed each person in the room a piece.

Laughter and happiness rang through the room as the Nikaah between Asad and Zoya will finally end the misery that everyone was suffering from.

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Six days later Khan Villa was flurry of excitement as everyone scurried to and fro putting the final touches in place for the Nikaah this afternoon. All the guests from New York had arrived the previous day and where now busy either getting ready or socialising with the Ahmed Khans. Isabella and Esmerelda were busy with Dilshad and Najma, Ayaan had arrived with Badi B, Nikhat and Nuzat moments before and all were laughing and having fun. Asad was watching his family united after such an extensive separation, happy after a long depression and all this was because of Zoya. It was because of Zoya that his mother was smiling, it was of Zoya that his siblings were laughing and joking so freely. His grandmother was laughing freely; Esmerelda and Najma were busy telling her about Zoya's escapades. His grandmother was openly praising Asad's choice in women while Nikhat and Nuzat agreed with their grandmother completely. He looked around for his father, Maahir, Siddiqui and Humaira but he couldn't find any of them. Ayaan watched him look around and brought him out of his confusion.

Ayaan: "Humaira's outside on a phone call, Ammi didn't want to come, she said some horrible things about Dilshad Ammi, Abbu is at the venue there's some last minute things that need to be done, Mamu said he will meet us at the venue plus Mumani with him so he said that he should keep an eye on her... "

Asad had understood immediately, Razia was devious so keeping an eye on her was of utmost importance. He looked around for his little boy and turned up empty, this time Humaira's voice provided him with an answer,

Humaira:"Our little angel is with Zoya, she wanted to speak to him"

Asad went over and hugged his sister in law. He felt her arms slightly loosen around him and make their way to his wallet located in his right side pocket.

Asad laughed and took out her present from his left pocket.

Asad: "Thank You Humaira...It's because of you and Najma that this day is happening. I will be forever grateful..."

Humaira: "You can return the favour by helping your idiot brother become a little more romantic."

Asad laughed heartily at this and pulled Najma, Nikhat and Nuzat into a big hug. Ayaan felt left out so he pulled Badi B, Esmerelda, Isabella and Dilshad into a big hug of their own.

Zoya was standing on the Terrace, talking to Maahir who looked completely adorable in his mini tuxedo.

Zoya: "This is our new home little one...We have a family, we belong somewhere..."

Maahir looked up at his aunt and gave her look which any grown up with translate to 'I told you so'. Zoya took him into a big hug, the last time she will stand alone to protect him.

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The venue was lavishly decorated, such ornate decorations would make the Mughal kings of old weep with envy, Razia put her plan in motion, she had Tanveer disguised as a part of the catering company. It wasn't difficult to get a hold of one of their employees and pay them double to give this shift to Tanveer, right now she was standing next to the dais and she just made eye contact with her partner in crime. Her husband became engrossed with a conversation Rashid enabling her to slip away. The guests haven't arrived yet so Razia snuck Tanveer into the bridal chamber where she was to lie in wait until the opportune moment to strike.

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The groom's party was yet to arrive; Rashid had left a few moments ago to join the procession while the bride's party of Humaira, Siddiqui, Esmerelda, Isabella and the Upper East Side's most prominent families had entered with Zoya a few minutes ago. Zoya was headed to the bridal chamber in the more secluded parts of the venue to get ready so Humaira had left her side to give her sister some privacy. As Humaira watched Zoya step inside the room a sense of uneasiness had fallen upon her. She wanted to brush it off as nothing but having fallen victim to her mother's ploys before Humaira was not about to chalk this feeling up to paranoia. So she immediately began scanning the venue for her mother. She sighed in relief when she had spotted her mother chatting to some relatives so, lulled into a false sense of security and expecting the attack to come from outside, Humaira had gone to socialise with Zoya's friend's from New York not knowing that the danger lurked within.

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Zoya entered the chamber and closed the door behind her. Just as the lock clicked, she felt some think heavy pound against her skull, causing her ears to ring, her vision to become blurry and a wild, fiery pain to spread throughout her. She clutched her head and let the darkness engulf her.

Behind her Tanveer smirked, getting rid of Zoya was too easy. She waited for a few seconds until Razia arrived and together they loaded the unconscious bride into a nearby car. Tanveer headed back to the bridal Chamber and proceeded to get ready while Razia checked to see that there were no witnesses before she got behind the wheel of the car and drove to the execution site...the doll factory. Had she not been in such a state of panic she would have checked for witnesses more carefully. Luckily Humaira had forgotten her phone in the car she arrived in so she took the keys from the owner and went to the parking lot. She had seen her mother and one of the caterers load something into the back seat of another car and then her mother getting behind the wheel of that car and driving away. Knowing that this was the proof that she needed, Humaira thanked her lucky stars that Ayaan had taught her how to drive, so she dove behind the wheel of the car and quickly pursued her mother, knowing that her sister's life was in danger.

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The darkness covered her vision for a few more seconds, she tried to move but something was keeping her still, restricting her movements, things had not become clearer once her eyes opened because instead of her bridal chamber the images she could make out through her blurry vision was that of an abandoned warehouse or some sort of factory. Getting a severe migraine from attempting to adjust her eyes to improve her vision, Zoya looked down. She was on the floor, arms and legs bound next to a ditch with a charred skeleton at the bottom. The skeleton seemed familiar...like the one from her nightmares and so she began to panic but for some reason it reminded her of Rashid Ahmed Khan. She looked around for someone to help her and realised that she was in the same doll factory in which they had seen Rashid Ahmed Khan move a skeleton in an attempt to cover up a murder. Zoya began to hyperventilate, the sight of this factory was coupled with images of a burning building dancing in her mind's eye, the walls where high, and even though they were not on fire at the moment, the walls seemed charred as though it had been touched by flames and this thought scared Zoya even more. 'Could this be the same building? But if it is then the skeleton is...' Zoya turned to look into the ditch again and she sobbed

"Ammi..." Was the strained barely audible cry that escaped her lips when she finally realised who the deceased was. She had found her mother! After all these years she had found her! But a slow, echoing clap which sent chills down her spine told her that she may be joining her mother very soon...

From the darkest corners of the factory floor and woman emerged, she was opulently dressed, covered in the finest jewellery. Her hazel eyes were menacing and as the darkness lifted from her face, Zoya recognised her; she may have been very small when she had last seen Razia Siddiqui but those eyes were ones that she had buried into her subconscious many years ago and now staring into those eyes again made her insides bubble with rage. She stared her mother's murderer in the eye, challenging her because Zoya Faarouqui was a fighter and there was no way she was going down without a fight.

Razia had seen the fear in Zoya's eyes change to rage but this did not faze her.

Razia: "My my Zoya...how you have grown. The last time we were in this factory together your feet were dangling from my husband's desk..."

Zoya: "what do you want? ...Why have you brought me here? ...What did my mother ever do to you?"

Razia: "I'll tell you what your mother did...she made my husband fall in love with her and then she had you..."

Zoya: "what? That's insane...you're lying"

Razia: "It's the truth...I may be Gaffoor Ahmed Siddiqui's wife but I will never be his love and it's all because of your wretched mother!"

Zoya: "So you killed my mother just so you could keep your husband...you orphaned me so he would love you? You evil...evil woman!"

Razia: "Oh no Zoya... I orphaned you because my father in law told me to do so...I dumped you in that orphanage because my father in law told me to do so and I listened because I love my husband. Even though he made it clear that his heart will always belong to his first wife, your mother, Zainub

I did everything in my power to make him mine. But seven years ago I realised that dumping you in that orphanage was a mistake. You see even though my father in law had told me trap Rashid Ahmed Khan into setting this very factory alight nearly 22 years ago with you and your mother in it, there was something off about him that night. He had insisted that he come along to make sure everything went according to plan and I had seen him throughout the entire evening except for the few minutes where I pulled my husband away from the burning building to stop him from rushing inside to save you and your mother. When I had next laid eyes on him he was carrying you in his arms, singing softly to calm you down. I should have known then that sparing your life was trouble. For some reason or the other he never particularly like Humaira while she was growing up which was odd because to the world she was his only grandchild, you had ceased to exist for us but little did I know that your wretched shadow will snatch my daughter's rights from her. On the day he died I had discovered my father in law's Will, in it he left everything to his eldest grand daughter...you. And it was then that I decided to hide the will and began dreaming of killing you. So in a way Zoya...I'm doing you a favour. I'm reuniting you with your mother so you should be thanking me. I even paid Tanveer to kill you, but you are one tough person to bump off... I tried, Tanveer tried and even though we didn't kill you we managed to send you back across the Atlantic. I could then breathe easily but then that wretched Najma decided to prove you innocent so I made the excuse that I wanted Humaira's wedding gifts to come from abroad so I easily convinced everybody that we should do some of the wedding shopping in New York since Ayaan and Rashid were eager to see you while my husband wanted to reminisce the past. Once in New York it was easy to slip away and pay somebody to collide with your car, although I wasn't expecting that husband of yours to die instead of you...oh well, at least now I have the satisfaction of killing you with my own hands...you know what they say...if you want something done right, do it yourself."

Zoya was silent; her brain processing the onslaught of information, Razia had her eyes fixed on Zoya while Zoya had her eyes fixed on her mother's remains. Neither noticed Humaira lurking in the shadows neither noticed her put off the recording on her cell phone and neither noticed her running outside to make a phone call.

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Humaira was outside when she finally had a strong enough phone signals to place a phone call, so she dialled Dilshad's number, knowing that if anyone could stop this wedding now it'll be her. She sent prayers to the Almighty hoping that fortune would favour her and that Dilshad would pick up. The phone rang for a few moments before it was picked up.

Dilshad: "Hello, Humaira...where are you, the Nikaah has started..."

Humaira: "Dilshad Ammi! Dilshad Ammi! Call it off! Stop the wedding! The bride is not Zoya!" It was at this point that Humaira's phone had gone out of range and the call is disconnected.

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Dilshad stares at her phone and then to the veiled bride, the intricate work on her Dupatta (veil) makes it difficult to see her face.

The Qazi had already sought the consent from Asad and Asad (who had Maahir sitting on his lap) readily said "Qubool Hai"

The Qazi turned to the bride and asked for her consent, but before the bride could speak, Dilshad had beaten her to it

Dilshad: "Qubool Nahi Hai..."

The guests gasped in shock, Asad and his siblings had stood up and stared at his mother. Rashid and Siddiqui are walking towards Dilshad, about to ask her what was going on but Dilshad raised her hand to stop them, she then walks to the dais towards the bride. She places her hands on the Dupatta (veil) and pulls it off...uncovering the imposter, eliciting another set of gasps from the guests when they register that the one seated as the bride is not Zoya...but Tanveer.