HOLA BEAUTIES! Updating three days in a rowww, woot woot! I know I was like "there is only one more chapter in Asad's POV" well, I lied, one more to go after this because I have verbal diarrhea and I thought it would be imperative to the rest of the story to know Asad's POV for every event so far, so sorry if it seems repetitive. But I've added a bunch of things relevant to the case in this so it's not really the same as Zoya's POV! Chapter 10 will also be in Asad's POV and I will post it tomorrow or Thursday. I have classes + I am teaching four lab sections tomorrow so I don't know if I'll have time but maybe I will. Fingers crossed. Hope you like this! Toodles! :)
Chapter 9 Asad's POV
"Well at least you came home for dinner, you are overworking yourself Asad!" My mother reprimanded as she stood behind the stove stirring something that smelled absolutely delicious as I sat at the dining room table.
"You didn't give me much of a choice mother." I said, she had called and all but demanded that I come home this instant or she'd march right into my office and drag me home. I'd learnt that she meant what she said the hard way, at the mere age of 16. Lets just say that she does what she says she is going to do, literally.
"She doesn't even give me a choice." Abbu said walking into the dining room and sitting across from me and grinning at me.
"The two of you need to take a break sometimes." Ammi said rolling her eyes.
"Ah, my son goes after me in the overworking department. He works so much that he forgets to shave, the length of his beard tends to be positively correlated to his stress level." My dad said giving me the look. The look that said that he knew exactly what was going on and that if I needed to talk about something he was all ears.
"I'll tell you later." I said to him and he nodded. I didn't want to worry mom, she would bother me about it and keep herself worried. Now, dad was another story, telling my dad would help - talking to him usually put things in a different perspective for me.
"Where are our other offspring?" Abbu asked Ammi with a laugh. "The house is way too silent."
"Ayaan is probably sneaking around thinking that I don't know about Humeira." Ammi said nonchalantly causing my eyes to go wide. "Nikhat and Najma are trying some new face pack."
"You know?" I asked shocked causing her to laugh.
"Even your abbu got it figured out." Ammi laughed causing me to turn to my dad in shock.
"What's with the surprise? I am lawyer for goodness' sake, it's my job to be observant." He said, trying to sound appalled but his teasing smile gave him away. "He seems to forget that I still pay his visa bills, and I know that my wife's cooking isn't the reason he's eating out a lot more...and spending money at jewelers." He laughed.
"You guys don't have a problem with it?" I asked.
"We have no problems with Humeira." Abbu said, leaving the rest of the sentence unsaid but I knew exactly what he meant. "And I definitely have no problems with Zoya." He said grinning at me.
"Ugh, not you too." I groaned, I'd had enough with the teasing.
"She'd make an excellent addition to the family, considering she is Zainab's daughter." He smiled.
"Why is everyone getting us married? We can't even have a civil conversation." I said rolling my eyes.
"Some things are just meant to be, right Dilshad?" Abbu said smiling at my mother causing her to giggle happily, they were nauseatingly sweet. It was nice though. Yet I rolled my eyes and picked up my ringing phone leaving the two of them to their flirting.
"Sir, a girl just came here. She is driving a white Mercedes." Prasad, my right hand man, said. That one sentence was enough to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I didn't even think before springing up out of the chair and running out the door.
"ASAD! What happened? Where are you going?" I heard mom yell behind me as I ran right into Ayaan who was walking in the door.
"Bhai What-" I stepped to the side of him and ran out to my car, I didn't have time for questions right now. I threw my car in reverse and out of the driveway and sped towards the outside of town, as my heart beat erratically trying to jump out of my chest. She would end up there, of course she would, she had no semblance of safety at all. It is like she goes out and looks for problems, I didn't know why she was there but I had a feeling it was due to her father. Her father would send her out there knowing how dangerous these people were, they were governed by rules, they did what they wanted.
She would walk into a bear's cave without even thinking about it, she loved to assume the best of people but people weren't always nice. I pushed my car as fast it would go, I knew I was breaking about every traffic law out there but I thanked Allah that the roads were empty as I dialed Parsad.
"Is she still there?" I all but yelled when he picked up.
"She is running from a bunch of men, I was following them and then I lost them..."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST THEM? FIND HER. NOW."
"Y-yes sir." He said, sounding scared, I had never yelled at him before. I hung up the phone and pushed the pedal harder, I was glad that my car could hit such speeds. I made the thirty minute drive in under fifteen minutes. I parked my car off the road and ran, just hoping that I would run into her like I usually seemed to, because I had no idea where she was.
"Sir!" I heard Parsad's voice behind me, I whipped around to see him running towards me. "They went that way." He heaved pointing towards the houses. I nodded at him before sprinting through the small streets leading away from Mariam's house. It wasn't long before I heard feet - people were running. I ran towards the noise and then came to a halt, peeking around the corner. And there she was, running while looking behind her, just asking to fall with how clumsy she was. Her small soft body collided into mine as she rounded the corner, I pulled her into the space between two small houses, clamping my hand over her mouth so she didn't scream. Her eyes grew wide for a second but she calmed down instantly, as if she knew it was me before she even looked at my face.
I watched as the men ran past us, their footsteps getting further away as they yelled at each other. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to look at Zoya, she was staring at me, her eyes wide. And then I felt it, the electricity flowing through us, her soft lips against my hand. She was flushed, having been running around, her hair frazzled and a sheen of sweat on her face and she looked so beautiful at that moment that I had to move away or I would have ended up caressing her face and fixing her hair, and even kissing her.
I dropped my hand and moved away as she straightened herself up. I cleared my throat and ran my hand through my hair trying to calm myself down.
"What are you doing here?" She asked and then all of a sudden I realized exactly why I was here.
"Saving you apparently. What the hell are you doing here Zoya?" I asked sounding aggravated to my own ears.
"I don't think I have to tell you anything." She snapped.
"Of course you do. I think I deserve an answer after I saved you from being killed."
She sighed, looking almost speculative before she talked. "Abbu sent me here to find things out about his case, he told me to go see them..." Of course.
"And find out where Mariam is." I finished for her.
"How'd you know?"
"I am her lawyer."
"So you know where she is?" She asked sounding interested.
"No I don't! But the point here is how could your father be so careless? He sent you here f**king alone. They would have killed you Zoya and your father knows these people are dangerous, I can't believe he sent you here all alone-"
"Because maybe he believes in me and doesn't think I am a damsel in distress that needs saving. I am a strong woman Khan, I don't need to be babied." She yelled right back, and her words just annoyed me more.
"I agree, you aren't a damsel in distress but you must realize that you are weaker than five men, this is not about believing or not believing in you, this is about keeping you safe." I said, Zoya was independent, fierce and I didn't think I knew anyone more capable than her, but the fact was that there was no way she could fight off a group of men that intended to kill.
"My father obviously didn't think-"
"Exactly! He didn't think! He sent you out here all alone without a plan."
"He had a plan, I was supposed to be Mariam friend..."
"Yes, Mariam's friend, from the city - a woman with an accent to her hindi, a woman that looks nothing like any of her friends. She doesn't dress like you Zoya, she's a village girl. How could your father miss that?" It was completely obvious.
"Well I didn't know that-"
"Do you even think? Have you noticed where you are? Do you even know anything about this case? How could you put yourself at risk like this?" I felt the anger swell up, how could she be so reckless with her life? I-
"What I do with my life doesn't concern you! And you have no right to tell me what to do." She yelled.
"Okay, yes, apparently the fact that you could be lying around dead somewhere doesn't concern me! What the hell is wrong with you?" My voice escalated with every word, I was worried sick about her, if something had happened to her...
"Why does it matter so much to you?!" She yelled.
"WHY? Because I would have gone crazy if something had happened to you! Do you realize that you always get into trouble left and right? I probably won't be able to sleep at night because I'll be too busy thinking about how you'll find ways to kill yourself. " The words left my mouth before I could even process what I was saying, I was so used to filtering what I said in front of her but for the first time I said what I really wanted to say and her eyes grew wide with shock. "I-I mean...you'd probably haunt me after you died too. And uh, Humeira...Humeira will be really sad if something happens to you...which means Ayaan will be sad...and then he'll make my life miserable." I tried to cover, she knew what I meant though, but she smiled rather than running the other way.
"You know what, I probably would haunt you after I died too." She teased with a smile.
"Let's go before we get caught." I said trying to stifle my smile, glad that she didn't blow what I said out of proportion.
"But my car-"
"Is it locked?" I asked and she nodded. "Where did you park it?"
"Uh...somewhere near Mariam's house." She shrugged and I stifled the urge to yell at her about her safety yet again.
"Give me the keys, I'll have someone else pick it up later."
"But my baby..." She pouted, she was just as attached to her car as I was to mine.
"Your car will be fine. Let's go and no matter what happens run to my car." I said grabbing her hand with mine, her eyes grew wide with shock and I let her hand go but a minute later she slid her hand back into mine and squeezed it. I let out a content sigh and pulled her into my side and walked towards the car, luckily the coast was clear and we drove off.
She didn't speak as I drove, which I found weird, she should have been talking a mile a minute, and the lack of her voice made me realize that she was probably shaken by what had just happened. I turned to look at her and noticed that she was shivering. I turned up the heat to full blast. "Are you okay?" I asked, I was debating on pulling over.
"Uh huh, I think the adrenaline is wearing off and I am realizing exactly what happened." She said causing me to nod, that made sense. But I knew she was strong and would come to terms with it herself, and if she needed help she would say so "What were you doing there?" She asked.
I sighed, my hand automatically finding its way through my hair. I didn't quite know where to start with this, I didn't want to make my feelings too obvious, but I knew I already had back there. So I stayed away from that and asked her about the case. "What do you know of this case?"
"Not much, just little tidbits. But something seems off, like something is missing." She said, of course, she would notice. She could be observant...about some things.
"Hm, I assume your dad is defending Rohan Saxena?" I already knew the answer.
"Yes." She said. "Did he really rape her?" She asked after a few seconds of silence, she sounded almost scared of the answer.
"That is what Mariam said when she filed the complaint." I sighed.
"What does that mean?" She sounded really confused, and I wanted to elaborate but I didn't know if I wanted to tell her right then.
"I can't tell you."
"Because I am working against you on this case?" She asked.
I nodded, because that was partly true. And Mariam was my client, I couldn't disclose anything about her to anyone without her permission, even to Zoya although I knew she wouldn't tell another soul if I told her not to.
"I don't want to be working on this case, I don't want to be a lawyer. I am being forced to do this, and I know that something is not adding up in this case. You know me Asad, I won't tell my dad, or another soul, anything if it'll harm anyone." She said, her voice soft, but I knew her words were true. I knew for a fact that she wouldn't tell anyone a word of what I said to her and I also knew that she wouldn't support her dad if he turned out to be wrong, Zoya stood up for what was right. She always did, and it was something I loved about her.
"Mariam showed up at my office one night, I have an apartment on the second floor, and I stay there sometimes when I work late. She was knocking on the door downstairs, crying, she told me that she'd filed the case but the police station wasn't lodging her complaint because it was against Rohan Saxena. We went to lodge the complaint at another police station, where my friend works and they filed it...but Mariam disappeared, she was there and then I turned around and she was gone. No one saw her." I felt a bit lighter as the words left my mouth, I hadn't told anyone, not even my father yet.
"She just disappeared?" She asked, shock evident in her voice.
"Yes. For a while I was confused but then her family started claiming that they didn't have a daughter which was weird but I am supposing they didn't want her to file the case, they seem like dangerous people too. I have men looking out for her near her house all the time, but nothing. And then today they told me some woman got off a white Mercedes, and I knew that you had somehow managed to get here." I left out the part about me all but killing half of Bhopal's population with my reckless driving to get to her, and the fact that I was dying to make sure that she was okay.
"So you came to look for me?" She whispered, and I nodded. There was no point in denying it, she would figure it out herself soon.
"Why?" She whispered. "Why are you always around to get me out of trouble?"
I felt my hands tighten around the steering wheel as my jaw clenched, I tried not to look at her because I knew I'd say something totally stupid, like tell her that I am in love with her, if I did. And as much as I'd like to think and believe that she had feelings for me, as evident through the past few days, I wasn't sure about it. And I didn't want to risk telling her until I was sure. The ringing of my phone over the Bluetooth as we drove closer to the city and got back cell phone reception saved me.
I clicked the answer button on the steering wheel and Ayaan's frantic voice broke the silence of the car.
"Bhai?" Ayaan said.
"Yeah." I replied, who else would it be?
"Where are you? Mom's freaking out! You literally just ran away from dinner and then your phone was unreachable. Are you okay?" He spoke. I heard Zoya gasp quietly, and I internally groaned. In hindsight, I shouldn't have answered the phone while she was still here, now she knew exactly how desperate I was to get to her.
"I am all right, it was an emergency...for the case I am working on." I said, I felt horrible for lying to him but I wasn't going to tell Ayaan that I was with Zoya, he would just grin and tease me for the next few days and tell the whole family. "There was no cell reception...uh, I'll call you back-" The end of my sentence got cut by a sneeze, a really cute, quiet sneeze and the car went silent. I was sure Ayaan had heard it.
"Who was that Bhai?"
"Uh- that was me." I covered.
"Bhai you were talking...and that's a girl's sneeze." Ayaan said, true, her sneeze was way too quiet to be mine. But I was impressed by Ayaan's skills of deduction. I turned to look at Zoya and she gave me a sheepish look and mouthed sorry wrinkling her red nose cutely.
"No it wasn't." I said but then she sneezed again.
"Wow, Bhaijaan are you with a girl? You have a girlfriend?" He sounded almost shocked. "Why aren't you saying anything? Where are you?"
"Ayaan, I'll call you later."
"But Bhai-" I cut him off by pressing the end call button and the car went silent.
"I am sorry! I tried to stop the sneezes but it didn't work - it must be all that dust, and allergies."
"It's okay, calm down Zoya." I said. She was running her hand under her nose, wriggling it; it was really cute to be honest.
"But Ayaan's going to bother you about it now." She pouted. "Especially if he's anything like his sisters." She added under her breath causing me to smile, I quite liked my sisters bothering her for information.
"What do you mean like my sisters?" I teased, I knew she was referring to the fact that they teased her about me. I heard her gasp after a few seconds, probably realizing that my sisters would have told me about her questions.
"Why are you smiling like that?" She asked.
"Like what?"
"That smirk, you always get it when you know something that you really shouldn't know and plan on using it against me." She said and I felt my smirk widen, because of two reasons, one - she noticed little details about me like I did with her and two - I was about to make her blush.
"My sisters may have mentioned something about a curious Farooqui."
"I was not curious! I was just asking because I was...uh, yeah planning on saving the girl who was with you! I mean c'mon, you may look like Adonis but your personality - and that OCD." She said, rushing through the sentence, I conspicuously looked at her from the corner of my eye, and the blush I loved was present.
"I look like Adonis?" I asked, grinning. I think it was now confirmed that she was sexually attracted to me at least, and perhaps even liked me due to her random acts of jealousy.
"Did I say that?" She asked nervously.
"You did, you know I am starting to feel violated with all the comments about my looks." I teased but I was loving it.
"Don't flatter yourself Khan."
"Apparently I don't need to since you are doing such a good job." I said, score! Sometimes I feel like I should write a book of comebacks, I'd be really good at it.
"HA. Please, I am just stating the obvious. I have no qualms about calling someone good looking if they are. I tell many people that they are pretty." She said, yeah right.
"Sureee." I said as I turned onto her street, the drive seemed to have been really short but I knew it was at least half an hour later. "Try not to get in trouble this time. Your car will be on your driveway by tomorrow morning. And please don't listen to anything your father tells you to do. Don't go anywhere, alone." I warned her, for my sanity, I would probably be worried about the kind of things that could pose danger to her.
"I am already violating about a hundred of Dad's rules." She mumbled. I figured, he wouldn't be too happy to find his daughter with me. He would turn about fifty shades of red in anger if he found out that his daughters were really good friends with my sisters and that Zoya had normal conversations with my mother. But I couldn't care less about what he thought.
"Just be safe." I said parking the car. I expected her to jump out, but she didn't. She sat there, a comfortable silence settling over us before she finally spoke.
"Thank you." She said looking at me. "For today, and for Tuesday...and Wednesday."
"Wow, Zoya Farooqui can say thank you." I teased.
"Wow, you're such an asshole. You could have just said you are welcome and gotten on with it. I take it back!" She yelled, she looked so cute when she was angry and it caused me to laugh. She slammed the door shut and started to walk away but I wasn't done bothering her yet.
I lowered the window down and leaned over so she could see me, she turned around with a confused look. "I was wondering, do you look at yourself in the mirror and call yourself pretty too? Or do you usually just ogle good looking men?"
"Screw you." She snapped before stomping up the stairs, I drove off when she opened the door, a smile on my face. Ah, I loved messing with her.
"HALT." Yelled four voices as I stepped in the front door of the house, three of them were expected - my mother and sisters but Ayaan was standing beside them too. They looked very comic, their arms folded in front of them as they tried, and failed, to glare at me. My dad was sitting on the sofa behind them trying hard to not laugh by the looks of it.
"Hi?" I said.
"Oh ho, look at that smile. I don't think we even have to ask who he was with." Najma squealed.
"Tamatar, don't you have something better to do with your life than analyze my smiles?" I asked her.
"No, she doesn't." Nikhat answered. "Now, open that mouth and reveal all your secrets!"
"Not going to happen." I said walking past them and to the couch, sitting beside my dad. "Hello, only sane member of this family." I said to him and he nodded, trying to stifle a laugh but failing.
"Asad!" Ammi whined.
"Ji Ammi?" I asked her.
"WHO WAS SNEEZING IN YOUR CAR?" Ayaan yelled suddenly causing the three ladies to roll their eyes, they knew exactly who it was, but Ayaan was clueless as always.
"It was me." I said before turning to my ammi. "I am starving." I said, sounding sad, and it worked. She immediately forgot about the interrogation and walked towards the kitchen yelling that dinner was ready.
"Nice save." My dad whispered to me as Ayaan glared at us.
"Thank you." I smiled getting up and walking past Ayaan with a smirk. He wasn't getting any information out of me, and even though Ammi and the evil little sisters probably knew exactly who it was, they weren't going to tell Ayaan.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
I headed to my office early the next morning just to see Prasad pull up in Zoya's car like I had asked him to. He kept giving me weird looks as I tried to write her a note that would not make me seem like some deranged stalker. I was quite sure even he figured out that I felt something for the owner of the white Mercedes because he kept smiling every time I balled up a piece of paper and threw it.
Tell me to write a 150 page dissertation on any topic - I would have no problem with it. But writing a little note to Zoya seemed like rocket science. I gave up after the tenth try and just wrote my number and warned her to not get into trouble, before folding the paper and putting it on the passenger side seat. I told Prasad to drop the car outside her house, as quietly as possible and to leave the keys on the passenger seat above the note. He had nodded and smirked, he was lucky that he was good at what he did or he'd be sacked.
I pushed Zoya to the back of my mind for a while so I could work, it was a really hard task, but it was something I managed to control in the past few years. When she first left for England, right after I realized that I had feelings for her, I would keep thinking of her all the time. She plagued my every thought, but with time I had gotten better at controlling my thoughts and focusing. She was still there, at the back of my head somewhere and would occasionally intrude.
I entered my office and placed my stuff to the side before walking over to the large bulletin board where I had all my notes and information for Mariam's case up. I knew I was missing something, there had to be something that would tell me where she was. I tried the tactic that always worked, I leaned back against my desk and stared at the bulletin board, following the events and relevant evidence I had found.
Fact One: I knew that Mariam wasn't lying when she said Rohan Saxena raped her. He was a vile excuse for a human being, he was barely Ayaan's age, the son of an influential political leader. He thought that he was God's gift to women yet he was a misogynist. He got into all kinds of trouble...let's just say this was right up his alley.
Fact 2: Mariam wasn't raped the night she came to see me; she was distressed - yes. But she wasn't in shock like all the other victims, and she didn't look like she had just been raped.
Fact 3: Mariam had disappeared right after we filed the complaint, she had stepped out of the police station a second before me and when I stepped out she was gone. She made no noise, she was nowhere to be seen, I didn't hear a car or anything. Despite running around the station, I didn't find her.
Fact 4: Mariam's family was large, they lived outside of town, and the local police didn't govern their little village. Rather, it was controlled by a group of elders who decided these things. It seemed that they were a fan of victim-blaming, and would rather keep the matter of a rape quiet than try to find justice - a fact that I had observed in countless individuals. Mariam probably went against their wishes to report the rape.
Fact 5: Rohan Saxena and his father had left town to go to Delhi, two days before Mariam had shown up to my office. The date of the rape was rather ambiguous, and the subsequent departure of the Saxenas seemed a little fishy, but Prasad had ensured me that none of Saxena's men could have taken Mariam since they were with them.
Fact 6: Somewhere between the filing of the report and Mariam's disappearance, the Saxenas had hired Ghafoor Siddiqui as their lawyer. And I knew for a fact that they had probably paid him a large lump-sum of cash to keep the matter quiet and get Rohan out scotch-free. If Rohan was in fact innocent they would have stuck with their family lawyer.
Fact 7: It had been one week since Mariam's disappearance, my men had not seen even a glimpse of her, or heard from her.
Fact 8: Zoya's dad is having her look into the Dewaar case, where the rape victim disappeared before the court hearing. Why? It could be due to two reason, a) he didn't know where Mariam was and thought the case would provide some insight or b) he was the reason behind Mariam's disappearance and wanted to see the previous outcome of having the victim disappear.
Fact 9: Zoya also felt like something was off about the case. And she had good instinct, in everything apart from the feelings I had for her. Okay, this shouldn't even be a fact, like I said, she randomly comes knocking on random doors in my mind sometimes.
Fact 10: I had some calls to make, and some people to talk to. Mariam went to school in the city, against the wishes of her parents, she is bound to have friends that know something of this. Or, Rohan Saxena has friends that were witnesses to the rape, he wasn't the type to go out alone.
I sighed looking at the clock across the room, I had spent five hours debating these facts - analyzing them in fine grain yet I got nothing. I realized that I wasn't going to get much further, and in the proceedings of this case and Nikhat's impending engagement I had neglected to find any other work.
I groaned when Nikhat's engagement came to mind, I was supposed to go pick up Rehan's ring today. My mother was going to kill me if I didn't get it, and I was glad that I had remembered before I went home. I made a quick call to the jewelers and made my way out of the office. The stupid traffic made the whole process longer than it needed to be, but two hours later I was parked in the driveway of my house with a pounding headache.
My mother, of course, took one look at me and started asking me what was wrong. It was kind of freaky that she always seemed to know what was up. But I told her to not worry about it, that it was work-related before handing her the ring. She kept giving me looks as I sipped on my black coffee.
"Bhaijaan." Ayaan whispered from somewhere behind me causing me to turn around.
"Why are you hiding behind the couch?" I asked.
"Shhh! I am avoiding mom, come with me." He whispered.
"What?" I asked confused.
"Dude, you look like you are going to snap with stress any moment. You are definitely getting no peace at home with it being Nikhat's engagement tomorrow. I am going to the farmhouse, come with me." He said.
"Why are you going?" I asked skeptically, because there was always a bad reason behind all of his plans.
"Humeira is coming." He smiled.
"No."
"Bhai, you can ignore us completely. You won't even notice us there, I am saying this for your own sanity." He shrugged. I sat there for a moment debating my options, I could a) stay here and be assaulted with ammi's looks and Nikhat & Najma's hyperactivity or b) I could have solitude at the farmhouse but Ayaan and Humeira would be there.
My mind was quick to agree that the second option seemed much saner. "Okay. But what are we telling Ammi?" I asked.
"You tell her that we're going there early to make sure that everything is okay." He said and I nodded, it seemed like a plausible reason.
"Ammi, should Ayaan and I head up to the farmhouse to make sure that everything is okay?" I asked my mom, turning towards the kitchen so she could see me.
"Oh, that's a good idea." Ammi said with a smile on her face, I nodded at her and turned back around to see that Ayaan was now crawling towards the door.
"What the hell are you doing?" I whispered.
"Dude, if mom looks at me and asks me any questions she'll so figure everything out." He whispered, and at that moment I debated if I should let him know that they already know about Humeira and are okay with it, but I decided against it, let him find out on his own.
TADA! Chappals not allowed, size 9 Louboutins and Jimmy Choos welcomeee! :) Oooh, and size 9.5 Manalo Blahniks b/c they all have pointy toes and I have wide feet :(
Edited by astonm - 10 years ago
Love Friendship Dating and Relationships
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