Love isn't always butterflies and pounding hearts. Love can also lie, deceive and betray.
Her way of seeing the world was a lot different from his. She was broken with open wounds, standing high on her throne and giving no damn to the world. A stron...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Asher ka yahan na hone se kya hi farq parh jaayega? Tumne saari zindagi usko chaha hai."
His words kept ringing in her ears. Ayat pulled the duvet over her face and stirred in the bed, coldness of America during nights seeping through her bones. As the night folded and Fayd told her to return to her room, she had been feeling peculiarly alone, not being able to utter a word to bibi jaan to alleviate the weight he burdened her with. He made it clear that he would help her. He made it even more clear that he was in love with her. The man she fell in love with was in love with her. Yet still, it was no child's play when they were all surrounded by lies and deception. She wanted to trust no one.
"Asher zinda hai, nahi?"
Holding her life in the crack of her throat, she had asked him, hoping he would say no but only staggered back when he nodded positively. Asher Alamgir was very much alive, only nobody knew about it.
"His death was staged."
Though, he couldn't find out who faked his death. Their prime suspect had once been his father– Zohaib Alamgir but the man was found visiting his son's grave at midnights when everyone else slept– a grave that was empty, a grave that was filled with Asher's clothes and things, a grave that his father dug to have aid in times of adversities. He dug a grave to feel close to the only family he had after his wife. It was such a shame that his visits to the graveyard were a waste.
The numbness that pulsated in her blood wore off at once even so she had nothing to hold against him. Ayat felt nothing, no tooth clattered in happiness, no tears were shed, her heart hadn't quickened and her natural reaction to the revelation was nothing more than a mere chuckle because in the end the one she grew up with betrayed her. In fact, he was the first one to deceive her.
Even though her eyelids drooped with the heaviness of exhaustion, her thoughts kept her awake. She had faced so many things in the absence of her parents, they were her first criminals. Leaving alone a seventeen years old daughter to depart to a new country only to commit suicide after a couple of months felt so vile. They did leave everything with her but where did it lead her? A girl who was dreaming to serve the law was pushed to ascend on her father's seat in a cut throat corporate world. Oh and how she hated every bit of it.
Getting out of her bed, Ayat walked around the room while seeking for the journal she carried with her everywhere. And flipping to the last page ever written did she see the date– it was the night of Asher's alleged death. She could remember that day, the shivers running down her veins as she barely managed to scribble on the papers. She could remember it was only for a few moments did she remain sane before breaking apart and losing everything to her imaginations. Denial and hallucinations lessened her misery and she felt closer to him.
I do not want to believe it. I don't want to believe that the man who gave me his heart has lost its beats to a tragedy.
Ayat wheezed, his eyes falling over his ring. She fell in love with Fayd when she was still engaged to another man or was she? One thing was sure, Ayat was not going to take it off until the day she dug him out of his grave and confronted him. The ring that shone so bright and fit so tight like it was designed for her, except the gold had found home around her finger all those years ago. When she bore the weight of it, she considered it as the love of a dead man.
