Ishq | (complete)

41 | samjhota

❝Unhain jo naaz hai khud par nahi hai bewajah mohsin,
Kay jis ko hum nay chaha ho woh khud ko aam kyun samjhe?❞

— Mohsin Naqvi

Shadows of humiliation haunted Laila's eyes when she stared at the legal document lying at her feet. Her entire world was mere inches away from burning in the fire he started. Her hands had gone cold and still midway as she stared into those dark eyes. Why would you do this? She was far too shell shocked to voice the words. No sound made its way out of her lips even when she tried. You know me more than anyone else. Why would you do this?

"Laila..."

Laila turned on her heels and left. The hurt was almost tangible in his office, she couldn't handle it. She couldn't hear anything over what had just taken place in his office. It wasn't just the document that had fallen to her feet. Everything she had struggled for, fought for, dreamed of through these three years had fallen to her feet like a pile of cards. Her self-respect, her hard work... most of all her credibility. No one was going to believe she made it to be a Project Manager on her own. Her marriage had already put her in a precarious position already. A shareholder title would burn down everything she spent her entire life scrapping for.

Hailing a cab, Laila reached home in a fog. Her brain barely struggled to get past anything as she sat on the sofa, staring at the sun that was ready to abandon the city. No one will be me. No one would believe that she had given her everything to the hospital project. That she had barely gotten sleep for days dealing with each problem she stumbled upon. That her bones had been exhausted beyond the limit. That the project held her blood and sweat. He had thrown acid on the respect she had earned for herself through so many hardships.

"Laila." Laila blinked looking into the brown of his eyes. A dark mop of raven hair fell over his forehead, covering the lines that held worry for her. Did he forget in these two years who she was? Did he forget what her self-respect meant to her? Everything in her had gone deathly still. Utter and heartbreaking silence because she had no idea how to deal with the damage he had yet again caused. "Talk to me, damn it!"

"You took away everything I worked hard for." Her shoulders sagged as she lowered her head. That document chained everything rational in her, letting the pain come to the surface and blind her. Rubbing her eyes as the tears stung her, she could see the storm coming and wrecking it all when the news would spread. "No one will ever believe I got to where I am on my own." She won't have the torn scraps of respect that she got because of her brain, her resilience, her hard work.

"No." He kneeled in front of her, cupping her face. "No. Listen to me, Everyone knows who you are and how you got there. You are Laila. Sirf Laila." He rummaged for words, but even he realized it too that this was going to damage her career.

"Did you forget how brutal and toxic this industry is? I was your assistant. Personal assistant. There is already hush-hush slander with that position. Then we got married, an- an- and now these shares." She pushed his hands away from her face, moving away to the window. Her voice had gone eerily quiet, coming in shreds of pain. Barely a whisper over the darkness peering in through the tall windows. "You know what the term for that is... a gold digger. No one will call me Miss Laila. The only thing that will echo through the hallway will be The CEO's wife who got the shares handed to her. My entire life will be reduced to one word... trophy wife."

She crossed her arms, there wasn't even a fiber of anger in her. What could she even be angry about? His one damn decision had turned years of her struggle into the dust. The darkness of her future crawled on her bones, crushing them into physical pain. She was so proud of herself. God, she'd look at herself in the mirror and remember how damn proud she was when she won the hospital contract.