Without You ✔️ (completed)

IV. distances: دورياں

To say she was ecstatic would be an understatement as she watched her brother and sister-in-law at the dinner table. There was emptiness there because Kabir was missing. He was yet to reply to her.

"They look so happy together." Mrs. Wahab murmured Mashallah.

"Gosh, the way he looks at her like she is holding the sun and moon of his world." She clasped her arms under her chin and leaned on it as she watched Rabail and Asfandyar.

The way he picked apart the mushrooms from her plate.

"Isn't that's how Z. stared at you too before you pushed him away?" That was not a taunt. Mrs. Wahab was never the one who would do that. She was just reminding here where Zach and she would be if she dared to tell him the truth.

"He would either not be sane or behind the bars as a murderer. For me, it was self-defense. For him, it would be a cold murder If he did it."

Mrs. Wahab's eyes cascaded down to her plate. She was in a dilemma between the promises and oaths, and the pain both Ayla and Zach were going through.

"He is here. He landed earlier with them, but I'm sure he went down to the lake."

Ayla's eyes darkened with memories. The Lake. Wasn't that's where they run away to? Hiding from the brutal truths of life even when they were mere teenagers. 

"Where the hell is Zach?" Rabail's huffed voice broke the chain of memories.

"Babe!" Asfandyar tried to calm his annoyed wife.

"Don't babe me Asfi, I told you he is going to run away." She held her hand up and Asfandyar watched his wife with merriment in his eyes. "I'm telling you Tabassum Aunty, your son has been giving me stress since I became friends with him. It's like raising a two-year-old."

Ayla watched her with awe and regard. This little woman, who was much younger than all of them, had everyone on their toes. She shook her head.

"Let him come home. I'm going to straighten my slippers, and then hold him from his ears and give him good beatings."

Let him come home!

The toxic guilt swirled in her again. The shadows of her past chasing her thoughts. And there she was in a room full of people she loved, still wallowing in the abyss, running with the demons of past: guilt, shame, scars, and disgust.

"You were asking for it, Sweet Little Girl!"

"Ayla!"

"Huh!"

Inhaling sharply, she tried to figure out who called her. Fear clawed at her as if they could see the ruins within her. The ruination she was the sole reason of. Not just hers, but his too. All of their eyes were on her. They felt invasive. Like they could see the collapsing walls within her.

"Sorry I zoned out." Her voice was thick barely making it through her lips.

"Walk home with me." Mrs. Wahab gave them a half-smile as she picked up her bag. "Yaseen is probably getting grumpy sitting alone with his newspaper."

She came to her rescue once again, saving her from their concerned gazes. Rabail and Asfandyar hugged Mrs. Wahab, with a promise to eat breakfast together the next day. She hugged them as well, and bid them goodnight as she walked out the front door.

The frosty wind coiled around her and she shivered as she pulled the lapels of her cardigan across. Crossing her arms, she matched the steps with the lady.