Madiha Shah, a young woman from a middle-class family, finds her life unexpectedly entangled with the illustrious Zafar Shah Abraar, a prominent business magnate in India and the elder brother of her betrothed, Zahid.
As fate would have it, unforese...
Rất tiếc! Hình ảnh này không tuân theo hướng dẫn nội dung. Để tiếp tục đăng tải, vui lòng xóa hoặc tải lên một hình ảnh khác.
Zafar received a call from the person he had appointed to keep an eye on Zahid.
"Yes?"
"Sir, Zahid is on a flight back to Hyderabad."
Zafar felt himself freeze for a second. "When is he landing?"
"In about an hour."
"Why am I getting to know about this so late?" Zafar asked, gritting his teeth.
"Sir, I have been trying to reach you since yesterday. I even texted you when Zahid boarded the flight."
Zafar applied pressure to his forehead with his thumb as he sensed a mild headache starting to form. Madiha and him had returned back home last evening. After a prolonged reunion with their family, they went straight to bed because both of them were very tired. That had given him no time to check the phone.
"Thank you for your service. You can take a few days off." Zafar said before hanging up.
His eyes then moved to Madiha who was sitting with Almaas and Ziya, showing them all the gifts she'd gotten for them from Mahé. He contemplated if he should inform the family, but the huge smiles on their faces stopped him. He wasn't sure how everyone would react to it, especially Madiha. Heck, he wasn't even sure how he was feeling about it. He always knew that Zahid's return was inevitable. After all, he is a part of the family. But a small part of him was terrified about him returning.
What if he came back and apologized to Madiha? And she decided to forgive him and choose him? His headache intensified tenfold as these thoughts raced through his mind.
Madiha finished showing gifts to Almaas and Ziya before walking to Zafar, who was sitting in one corner of the living room. His laptop was open, but his eyes were trained somewhere distant.
"Are you okay?" She cupped his right cheek. That broke his trance. He stared at her beautiful face for several seconds.
"Zafar?" She called again.
He brought her palm, that was resting on his cheek, to his lips and pressed a kiss on it. "I am fine."
"Are you sure?"
He kissed her palm again in response.
"Chotti begum," A househelp interrupted them, "the haleem is ready. Come and check it once."
Madiha nodded and tried to slip her hand away from Zafar's hold. But he didn't let her. He tightened his grip around wrist.
She looked at him questioningly.
"Don't leave." He whispered.
A soft smile came on her lips. "I am just going to the kitchen. You asked for haleem for lunch, didn't you?"
She bent down to kiss his forehead, which made him close his eyes. He unwillingly left her hand and she walked away.
She tasted the haleem, it was perfect. She then instructed the cooks to start with the naan. Lunch was served in the next half an hour.
Madiha came back to the living room. "Lunch is rea.." Her words got lost in her mouth when her eyes fell on Zahid who just walked in through the main door.
Almaas and Ziya stood up in disbelief as well. Zafar, on the other hand, nervously waited for everyone's reaction.
"Assalam alaikum." Zahid spoke, dropping his backpack on the floor.
A few seconds of silence followed.
Zahid started to take a few steps forward, but Almaas' voice halted him. "What are you doing here?"
"This is my home as well, maa sahib." He replied.
Almaas humorlessly chuckled. "Then why did you not think about the reputation of this home before running away like a coward?"
Zahid hung his head in response. "Maa sahib, I am not proud of what I have done. That is why I came back."
"You can't come back. I won't allow you in this home anymore." Almaas shouted.
"Maa.."
"No!" The screaming was making Almaas take deep breaths. Ziya rushed to her mother's side to calm her down.
Zahid started saying something, but it was cut off by Zafar. "Ziya, take maa sahib to her room."
She immediately nodded and helped their mother inside. It was finally Zahid, Zafar and Madiha left in the room.
Zahid eyed Madiha, and he felt a strange prick in his heart. The woman that was going to be his wife, was now his elder brother's wife. All because of his one weak moment of cowardness. After reaching London, for a long time, he had made sure to keep all of his social media deactivated to keep Zafar from tracking him. And when he finally went on Instagram, he found Zafar and Madiha's reception pictures there. He could not sleep that entire night.
"Go freshen up and take some rest. We can talk in the evening." Zafar said before leaving.
Not wanting to stay alone with Zahid, Madiha turned her heels as well.
"I am sorry, Madiha." Zahid's words halted her.
Without looking at him, she replied, "It doesn't matter now."
In the kitchen, she asked the house help to reheat the food. "Serve maa sahib and Ziya in their rooms."
She then served a plate for Zafar.
"Also ask Zahid for lunch." She said and padded to her bedroom.
Inside, Zafar was seated on the couch, staring outside the window.
Taking a seat beside him, she set the plate on the table.
"You should eat," She urged, but he remained silent.
Tearing a piece of naan and dipping it in haleem, she gently placed the bite in front of his mouth. Finally, he turned his eyes toward her and accepted the morsel without breaking eye contact.
"For Maa Sahib's sake, you have to stay strong." She implored, feeding him another bite. "Do you like it?" She asked, motioning towards the food.
He nodded, and a small smile graced her lips.
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Not a lot of chapters to go now! 10 more, I guess.
Also, I don’t want to do this, but the engagement has been low, I will have to put a minimum vote requirement to post the next chapter.
It hardly takes a second, guys!
So as much as I hate to do this, I will post the next chapter when this one gets 100 votes, and 15 comments.
