Fizah

حفاظت|Hifazat

"میرے جنوں کا نتیجہ ضرور نکلے گا
اسی   سیاہ سمندر سے نور نکلے گا"

Her eyes burned as she sat in her office with her chin propped on the insides of her palm. The wait was stretched and excruciating and she wanted anything but it. Fizah was quick in wits to understand that her mother in law got killed for siding with Zahid while Ehan was just a bait to lure their attention away from Adnan sahb. Fizah recoiled in her chair, her eyes staring straight at the flash drive Zahid left with her two hours ago and ever since he was unavailable. She was worried, starving, sleepy and so much more. This was not how she expected to spend her first day back at work after marriage break or whatever Zahid decided to name it.

"Cheh, seven, aat-" Zahra waltzed through her door, trying to keep a professional demeanor while everything about her screamed otherwise. Fizah's narrowed gaze shifted from nothingness to the woman who displayed expressions of uncertainty, counting numbers in both Urdu and English.

"Are you here to make a fool out of yourself?" Fizah sighed, removing hand from her face. Zahra's counting came to a halt and turned to Fizah, watching her with amusement.

"Not sure," Zahra, too, sighed and threw herself in the couch kept across Fizah's desk, "But I feel shitty and losing my mind."

"Care to share?"

"Wow, that rhymed."

"Did you hit your head on your way to work?" Fizah pushed a couple of folders to Zahra that she gave to her earlier in the morning.

"No but I want to." Zahra bawled, making Fizah wince. Her focus bounced back to the flash drive, heaving out a sigh of exaggeration. The man– her husband was out of contact ever since he left her office. Her stomach grumbled.

"Should I get you something?" Zahra asked as she eyed Fizah with a hint of doubt lacing in her tone.

"I'll pass."

"Now that you've heard my sob story, tell me about yours." Getting up from the couch, Zahra shifted to the aligned chairs.

"I'm hungry, one. I haven't slept all night so I'm sleepy, two. I haven't heard anything from Zahid, three and it's throwing me off the cliff."

"Wow, he is literally on the third floor, instructing the group of interns he brought in to publish the collected data of something I swear I have no idea about," Zahra's jaw almost hit the floor, "That's why I'm running away." She had said like he was doing something related to the company. Sadly, he wasn't and she didn't need to run away.

Fizah could vouch that something was off with the way her husband had been portraying the image of five interns he chose from all fifty eight, they expertised in something other than only being rank holders because Zahid saw ability in the applicants rather than the marks.

"How long has it been since he recruited them?"

"A week before your nikah I guess, they joined the company three days later-" Zahra craned her neck as though somewhere a piece of information was missing, "They get along well but they are secretive about their work, I wonder why."

Fizah tried her level best to pull a stony face to hide her emerging curiosity from Zahra. This could have never been a coincidence now that Zahra's intrusions were added to her own instinct that had been bugging her. The team– the interns were not usual like the other employees were being convinced to believe, there was much more to it and she couldn't grasp its end to climb on to the rope that would take her to where the details of it were buried.

Is it hard to have a husband with complex thinking?

No. Parts of her rebelled against each other as she strutted out to the elevator with her dupatta flailing behind her. She had met the interns before going on break and there was a fringe of fierceness lingered in their eyes like they had known to battle against anyone, like they could slow down a war by turning the victory to the side they belonged.