Chapter One
"Hey Zoya! How are you?", a little girl of around seven beckoned to her, while handling her bi-cycle.
Zoya turned and bent down, "Hey my friend! You're looking adorable!" she said whilst tickling.
"Jia always does." Jia retorted with pride.
Zoya mocked at her antics, "Yeah! You do."
At the same time the bicycle slipped and was about to fall over Jia but was saved by Zoya, "Are you okay baby?" she asked and embraced her.
A guy in his late twenties ran towards them, "Hey Ji! Are you fine baby?"
"Yes Chachu, Zoya saved me," Jia kissed Zoya's cheek and the guy smiled, "Hello Ms. Zoya! I am Yash, Yash Khurrana."
Zoya bit her lower lip, "Well I know, being your neighbour Mr. Khurrana," and Jia laughed at her studious uncle, he glared at Jia not to.
Zoya smiled, "Come Jia park your cycle."
"Do you know each other?" Yash questioned sheepishly.
Zoya grinned, "Yes. And names are similar too," which forced Jia to laugh out loud.
Also, the two elder ones joined later...
---
The little Jia sat over the swing while humming a song and Zoya left the park but Yash called, "Hey Zoya! Can we join on the pebbles?"
She looked down over the pebbles of acupressure and pressed her lips, "Doesn't seem like a red carpet to me, but it's fine", and smirked.
Yash smiled, "I am aware of myself being dumb but not deaf."
"Sorry, I am quite nonsensical too," Zoya apologised.
"Zoya...?" He asked for the second name.
She replied, "Siddiqui."
"The Siddiqui's? I mean the one who live in 408?" He asked.
"Yeah the same," she smiled and looked down.
He smirked, "Your dad seems to be a hitler."
She stopped in between and turned her gaze, "He is my dad, a prestigious judge in the honourable high court."
"Post doesn't matter, nature does," he pressed his temples at which she laughed out, "He is not hitler, but Cheengez Khan."
Yash laughed as if he would roll over the floor the next moment but Zoya gave him a how dare you look.
"Oops! I'm sorry," he apologetically smiled and joined, "But your mum cooks really well."
"Haan! Don't you dare to butter up now," she chuckled and they kept meeting for months.
----
Two months later,
"I love you Jaan!" Yash expressed his feelings and gently on the park bench.
Zoya shuffled his hair, "I love you too."
He kissed her palm, "Let's marry," which shrunk the smile from her lips.
"I'm a muslim." She closed her eyes.
He got up from her lap and cupped her face, "Does it matter in 21st century?"
"For my abbu, it does matter." Zoya had tears in her eyes.
He held her palm, "Come with me."
"Where are we going?" She asked but he didn't reply and kept going down the stairs and reached flat no. 408.
Zoya shivered,"No."
"It is now or never!" Yash held her hand to give her strength and rang the bell.
Noor, Zoya's sister opened the gate "Aapi!"
"Who's it Noor?" Mr. Siddique asked and looked outside.
What he saw was unexpected for him, Her daughter with a random guy, hand in hand.
"What is this Zoya?" Mr. Siddique was so loud that even the near by flat owner could hear him.
Yash gathered up courage "I want to marry Zoya, Sir" and was simply slapped by Mr. Siddique.
"Abbu! No!" Zoya yelled.
"You wouldn't meet him ever again." he warned her.
She drank her tears, "I love him abbu."
"Then get out of this house and don't expect any of us to contact you." He announced his verdict and Zoya had no option.
---
After a week, Zoya and Yash got married, everything was fine before that night, which took away everything from them.
Beta-ing by Manmohanna
Chapter 2
Zoya and Yash were now married, in a small flat in the different building of the same city, Mumbai, where their parents used to live. Neither the Qureshi family, nor did the Khurranna family accepted their runaway marriage. Merely, a month has been passed for Yash and Zoya to be married, when Zoya was in search for the job.
Yash who was a criminal lawyer objected the wish of Zoya, to be employed, "Why do you want to be get employed now, I can earn to feed you", Yash being a typical Indian man sounded rude to her.
"Because I always wanted to achieve something, not huge but something", Zoya was shocked at this changed Yash, who was protective earlier and left from the house.
In the late night, when Yash arrived home chuckling with a lady from the nearby flat, who too was a lawyer, "Yeah the case was so interesting Neha", he started laughing with her and this had envied the typical wife in Zoya.
Zoya clenched her jaw when she noticed them together, "You've an objection with my job and you can affair anywhere in the world", she shouted over her husband, Yash when he entered the flat.
"Are you insane? She is a neighbor and colleague too", he crushed his teeth and held her elbow tight.
Zoya laughed, "Tumhe saat khoon maaf aur mujhe ek job bhi nahi", she sounded sarcastic but it was too much for Yash and the same time he slapped her tight, "You have no limit Zoya", and with this he left the flat in the dark deep night leaving Zoya alone.
He didn't come back home for more than a week when police announced that he is no more.
Zoya cried out loud, "Yash! You cannot leave me alone"
She was shivering when the man in the police station, introduced himself, "Insp. Aditya Hooda"
Zoya turned back in tears, "I am not at all interested in your introduction"
"Gussa kyu hain madam, I've not killed your husband, wo to bechara khud hi khallas ho gaya", Aditya chuckled but she slapped him but he held her hand, "Madam, On duty police officer, I hope you might be knowing the punishment"
Zoya left the police station, all shivered. She was flying like a lifeless autumn leaf from here to there. The tears were in her eyes but her eyes didn't want to shed them. She was numb has lost her whole world, after all no one has left in the huge world for her, with whom she could live.
She has left her parents by her wish and in-laws didn't accept her, for the person who left her alone, in the huge universe, what an irony. She was just like deserted plant, all isolated in the huge city, the city of dreams, where all her dreams Yash took away from him.
"All my fault, no my crime", she cried out loud, but she has to start a fresh and this was the only reality which she had to accept.
She reached home, touched Yash's photograph and cried, "I am sorry...I am so sorry"
----
The lady constable said Aditya Hooda, "Poor lady" who glared her hard, "Asha ji! these poor ladies come in her police station daily, agar hum sab pe daya karne lage to ho gaya kaam", and with this Aditya left shading her eyes with glasses.
"Merciless man", Asha ji murmured.
He turned back, "I heard", and tickled her.
"Rona dhona is so boring for me, I love happiness", he winked.
She replied, "I can never understand you"
"I know", and laughed with her when she said, "You know everything, but how?"
"Because I'm Insp. Hooda", he said with self pride and laughed before leaving the police station.
His smile vanished when he came outside, "I will pray for her", and closed eyes looking to the skies and completed when seated on the jeep's driving seat, "Maut kisi ko naa aye"
