Divulging Remorse ✔

Chapter 32

It was a busy day after the weekend. Moutasim rested his head against the big leather swivel chair. He wasn't even through half of the work that lied in front of him yet. His peers noticed his unusually slow mechanism earlier in the day but nobody badgered him about it. As undercover cops, it was natural how one could get under mental trauma or anxiety for all the genuine reasons. 

But it wasn't the current case that was haunting Moutasim. He had been through rougher times in the past and had fled off smoothly. Right now, he couldn't just get her face out of his mind. Though he had been closely following her through cameras and GPS trackers, he had actually seen her after two whole years! 

The meeting was almost like how he felt when he was a teen. He didn't know what to say to her, he didn't even know if they were on the same page, as if they ever were. That is why he had kept the meeting strictly professional. It was supposed to be like that, anyways but emotions do kick in here and there no matter the code of 'conduct'.

He was awestruck at how she had pointed out being 'Mrs Moutasim Ali Khan.' It was unbelievable that she still considered their marriage to be something, leave alone herself as his wife. Their forced marriage was still struggling to thrive but it was alive even though it had drowned in countless storms over the years. That was something that hit him in the moment. 

He didn't expect her to, nor himself. He was almost going to divorce her the time they were separating in Turkey.  He had to stop himself from doing that because of the word he had given to Agha Jaan. He had done so, reluctantly, without wanting an inch of this marriage to Riya but he had done it because his grandfather wanted him to.

At the time of their Nikah, he had said, "Promise me something, Moutasim. No matter what happens, you won't ever turn your back on her. She has no one, except you or me." 

"I promise, Agha Jaan." 

He had promised his vulnerable grandfather for something he wasn't sure about, not at all. Nevertheless, he still abided by his decision. He didn't know why he had chosen him out of all the people. "I trust you." He had said. He could have chosen one of his other cousins or his own elder brother. Did Agha Jaan know that he loved her? Maybe he did, but he also knew that Moutasim lived his life on an edge!

Agha Jaan, his parents and siblings knew well that Moutasim was an undercover agent. The only thing his mother worried about was his safety among the scoundrels he worked with to get them behind bars. This could cost his life but he was pretty rock solid about it. 

Why did he choose the profession that always had his mother worried in knots? He wanted to wipe out the evil from this world. And he could only do that by pretending to be evil himself.

His family had thought that he did it as he was furious at himself, for all the bad reputation the false statement had brought him because of Riya. They had blamed her for everything, they thought, she was the one who had got him in the state he was. Aggressive was an understatement.

Little did they know, that the aggression was to chase his dream. His childhood dream of becoming a hero. Riya's deceit had only given him a boost to work harder, he used it as a strength to achieve his goals faster, though furiously. 

After he was falsely charged with the hit-and-run case, all thanks to Riya's father, a million bucks was paid by his own father as the blood money that the victim's family had demanded. He was thankful that his family knew what the truth was and upon his insistence, they didn't file a case back against his uncle. That would have certainly put Riya in a bad light and he would never have let that happen. 

He hadn't been easily accepted in the intelligence bureau due to the recent case he had gotten out from. Still, they admitted him considering it an 'accident' and had put him under training right away. His instructors had observed his intense will to cope up with the tough routine that was about to follow. He had to quit university mid-way to solely focus on his career.