Hasil e Lahasil | حاصلِ لا حاصل

2

Chapter 2

Mayhem

"He is Dilawar Malik." Her mother, Shireen, informed, who was anything but sweet to her, unlike her name. "Sarah's betrothed." And then, she felt she noticed a brief look of disgust crossing his face, as though someone forced something bitter down his throat, which he masked with a smile as quickly as it appeared as he sat back on his chair.

She nodded in his direction and took a seat beside her grandmother, Zahida Bibi. They had been expecting the person, but not so soon.

The girls had been kept in the dark just like him and had learnt of the arrangement, not a long time ago. After the initial shock wore off, they were left aghast against a union that required naught of their choice, and still the elders sat down to write their future as if they held the reins of it.

After much deliberation and negotiations, the family had decided to wed Sarah to the son of the Malik's on the insistence of their mother. The only heir of an inheritance worth more than billions.

The ever cheerful Sarah had gone dormant, after the girls had been informed about the setting. Whereas, Laila had been contented, as she wanted to marry for love, not wealth.

But she could not ignore the colour draining off Sarah's face that has still been imprinted in her mind. She could have given herself for the sake of her sister's happiness but she was not some cattle to be sacrificed. Not when her mother despised the mere existence of her, and the sister who she thought she knew in their childhood, knew nothing about her.

No matter how selfish she might come as, she was happy that her sister might have the chances to break her shackles and achieve her dreams, no matter, how much freedom she attained, she was in need of more to breathe properly. To get out of the clutches of their despicable excuse of a mother.

And if for Laila, she never detested her sister. It was of least importance for her that they chose her above everything, that was bound to happen. She never felt any bittersweet feelings for her only sister, who had been the apple of everyone's eyes.

The one, who held herself with grace and elegance. The most pampered child of the family, the one being the centre of her mother's attention as she was her father's, who unfortunately, rarely spent his time home due to work and business but made sure he did whenever he was around.

Laila found herself speechless, as if possessed by a spell. In any normal situation, she would have found something to speak. Any polite words for the guests, or something kind and gentle for the man sitting across her. Instead, she found her tongue tied, despite her opening her mouth, parting her lips slightly, she closed them again, as no words escaped them.

She had never intended to meet the stranger from the road, in the drawing room of the Shah villa. And the way those darkest eyes stared at her, she knew he remembered her from their encounter this early morning.

"Laila?" Shireen called for her attention in a sickening sweet voice, and regardless of that she was thankful to her to divert her attention from the man with dark eyes.

"I have asked the servants to set up the tea in the garden. Dilawar expressed his likings for nature, so they are rushing around making preparations." Laila knew where this was going and she wanted to groan out loudly.

Why couldn't she just stay in her room and divulge deep into her poetry books?

"Please, see up to it before we join you there." She found herself nodding, and escaped the room, that was almost starting to close up on her.