مگر یہ دل ہے کہ اس کی خانہ ویرانی نہیں جاتی

Tuesday - 5:55pm

"Wait, Baba!"

The evening wind blew heavily around Hemayal Khakani, her clothes and hair fluttering in unity as she ascended the last few steps hurriedly towards her father.

Shahryar Khakwani having heard his daughter loud call from behind, stopped mid-step and turned to glance in her out-of-breath state, brows raised.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Hemayal managed to say, breath caught in her throat as she looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Yeah, sure, but what's the rush?" He said with a confused stare as he gestured her inside the house and Hemayal went in, lips being mercilessly bitten by the teeth.

"I thought you were going outside." Hemayal said, walking into her home towards the lounge, her gait unsure, eyes worried.

"No, I just came back." he said, taking a seat by the fireplace and expectantly looking at Hemayal to occupy the one in front who looked every shade of disturbed and anxious, "Is everything all right, child?"

"Yeah, yeah. Everything's fine. It's just...umm..." Hemayal began after taking her seat and interlacing her fingers furiously, teeth still having their fine dine at those lips.

"What?" The father prodded and Hemayal took a deep breath, as if the next few words cost her dearly.

"I'm...I'm sorry for the other day. I shouldn't have been so hard on you." Hemayal replied, eyes cast down, lips pressed hard and even the air around the two Khakwanis stilled - in shock or awe, one didn't know.

"You're what?" Even Shahryar Khakwani's stunned voice couldn't break the aura of surprise spread across the fire-lit room.

"I'm sorry." This time, words came easy.

"I shouldn't have said that to you. Right or wrong, it doesn't matter. I should have remembered my limits."

Hemayal Khakwani apologizing wasn't something the world had never seen before but the apology words especially directed at her father was definitely a sight no part of the earth had ever witnessed. One just didn't expect these words to leave her mouth when Shahryar Khakwani was concerned and to say that he was shocked would be an understatement.

"It's...it's okay, Hami. You were right." The father said and Hemayal shook her head.

"I'm no one to judge that." Hemayal replied with an air of clarity.

"No, Hami, only you can judge that. You were probably the only person who got hurt." Shahriyar Khakwani's eyes softened to a warmth she had never witnessed there before - maybe sometime in her childhood but never in her recent years and a part of her tore.

"You think so?" She whispered, heart wild.

"I know so. We all walked out of it, unscathed. But not you, you carry those events even now, every single day," he silenced for a few seconds as a deep breath entered his lungs. "I'm so sorry, child."

A heavy silence descended upon the room, one which leeched the air out of her lungs and left her father breathless. The world hadn't witnessed an exchange of such like in a long, long time and now even the stars bled as the father and daughter exchanged a painful look.

"Let's...let's not talk about it." Hemayal tried to smile, not knowing how to handle her father's growing affection.

Hatred, indifference - she could deal with it with the back of her hand but this, this is way out of her league.

"Okay." The father too smiled as he looked at his daughter who's probably been through more pain in her twenty-four springs than he has in his fifty-seven autumns.

"What happened to the man I helped drew? Did you find him by any chance?" Desperate times call for desperate measures and this was her attempt to change the topic - anything to keep her heart sane, from crushing under the weight of her father's affection.

"Just his name, by now. Anas Ali. We'll find him soon enough, you don't worry about it." Shahriyar Khakwani broke the news without knowing how his daughter's heart fluttered who had been hoping for a negative answer.

"I don't worry about it, Baba. I know you'll find him," She replied through a calm exterior with a small smile.

"I will," he replied with conviction.

"You do know why I keep you updated in this case, Hami?"

"Because it concerns me?" Hemayal drew her eyebrows.

"Yeah, well, that too but majorly because this is my chance of making it up to you for previous years, for nor trusting you initially when your Dadu died." Shahriyar Khakwani smiled and Hemayal's breath caught in her throat.

And it were these small moments of concern from her father which made her bite her lip to keep the tears at bay. Oh God, why was life so intricate?

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Wedesday - 3:56pm

"For the love of God, Arsala, will you please shut up?" Hemayal rolled her eyes upward as she threw her head back in exasperation before glancing at her wristwatch.

"No, I will not. You refusing to comment on this topic is all the more reason for me to know the answer," Arsala said with a smile that irked Hemayal to no end who only shook her head. "Who is this handsome guy of yours?"

"He's a no one, Arsala, as I told you before." Hemayal replied as both ladies stood in the parking lot by Arsala's car, waiting for Hemayal's brother to pick her up.

"For you to classify him as a no one with such vehemence, he definitely has to be someone." Arsala, with the last year of her life with psychiatrists rubbing off on her, deduced and Hemayal only crushed her molars with obvious restraint.

"Alright, he's Ibrahim Yazdani. Go google him up but please stop pestering me," Hemayal replied with annoyance that Arsala only chose to ignore. "Where's Lala, man? He's never been late before."

Due to her car breaking down in the morning, the driver had to take it to the workshop so now she was at her brother's mercy who was supposed to pick her up after work but no sign of him could be sighted anywhere nearby.

"Ibrahim Yazdani," Arsala mumbled the name softly and slowly, as if testing the weight it carried and suddenly her eyes widened. "Yazdani...I've heard this name."

"I'm sure you have." Even more reason for Hemayal to never discuss this man with Arsala again.

"Isn't he the youngest son of Morad Yazdani, that politician? The one who returned from England a few years back? The CA?" The excitement in Arsala's voice rose with every syllable she uttered, every new shade of his character she uncovered and Hemayal kept nodding her head throughout.

"Yep, the one and only." She smiled through gritted teeth, pressed lips and every shade of annoyance.

"Oh my, God. How do you even know him?" Arsala asked with wonder and Hemayal cast her a sideways glance.

"I'm offended, Arsala, that you think-" Hemayal's voice died in her throat, eyes widening in utmost shock.

The sight of a white Mercedes entering the parking lot was all it took to silence the woman for she could recognize this car even in her sleep. Its owner had been the cause of her many restless nights and pained days - she couldn't forget him even if she wanted to.

Just as she was beginning to process the car's presence in the parking lot, the Mercedes glided to a stop right in front of her and the window slowly lowered to reveal a very immaculately dressed Ibrahim Yazdani sitting behind the wheel, his gaze directed up and right into her bare soul.

And all it took was that one look for all the walls to fly high around her.

"Hi." He politely smiled at Arsala before turning his eyes back on the woman who was glaring at her with nothing but fire.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here? Hemayal asked, teeth crushed so hard she wondered if she'd broken a molar but right now, she hardly cared - neither of her teeth nor of Arsala who gaped at the two of them with obvious curiosity.

"Hadeed asked me to pick you up, he wasn't free." He replied, nothing but respect and politeness in his voice and Hemayal turned her head sideways and closed her eyes forecfully, asking heavens for patience.

And after a second, surprising not only Ibrahim or Arsala but herself too, she went around the car and occupied the passenger seat after bidding her goodbye to the other woman. The interior of the car was warm and posh, the leather seat soft beneath her, heart wild above her. Buckling her seatbelt, she turned her head forwards and literally glared through the mirror.

For a few seconds there was utter and complete silence between them, such that she feared he could hear her heartbeats with ease, but suddenly a low chuckle echoed across the insides and a second later, the car sped forward. Still chuckling softly with eyes glowing and hands resting on the wheel, Ibrahim Yazdani shook his head as he tried to decipher the dilemma that was Hemayal Khakwani.

"You never fail to surprise me." He said, not even bothering to restrain the laugh, and Hemayal found the softest of smiles plastered on his face as she turned her head at his voice.

"You say as if it's a good thing." She rolled her eyes when he finally turned his head a little to glance in them and although Hemayal missed, Ibrahim's smile only widened at her action.

"It is for me. What can I say, I'm a man of surprises." Ibrahim replied.

"Of that I have no doubt," the bite of sarcasm in her tone faltered his smile but the energy in the car didn't dim - not by an ounce. "Why didn't Lala come?"

"I was in his office when you called, asked if I could come pick you up instead of him." Ibrahim replied smoothly, the slide of the car as it turned to the main road even smoother.

"And he agreed?" Hemayal tried to reason that her brother didn't know the dynamics of their relationship but nevertheless, it didn't halt the anger that rose in her at Ibrahim's information.

"Why wouldn't he?" Ibrahim shrugged his broad shoulders and his reasoning did little to lessen Hemayal's annoyance.

The man was dressed to perfection in his navy blue slacks and a lighter color of dress shirt whose sleeves he had rolled up to the elbow, the tie a shade between the two. His black hair disheveled after a day's work with strands falling intricately across the forehead did nothing but add to his rugged handsomeness.

Will this man ever stop making her heart wild, she thought with dismay.

"Why did you want to pick me up? I think we parted in Karachi on a final note." Hemayal asked, her obvious curiosity overriding her irk and attraction she simultaneously felt towards him.

"You think we parted on a final note. I am nowhere close to being done with you." Ibrahim turned his head to cast a glance in her direction, the brown eyes of his soft and even the rough stubble spread across his jaw couldn't dilute the warmth he radiated at the moment.

"Why, more damage to inflict on me?" Hemayal returned his warm gaze with a cold one of her own and if she hadn't been sitting too close, she would have missed the way Ibrahim Yazdani clenched his jaw, the hollows of his cheeks indenting.

"It was one time." He tried to reply, voice now devoid of the previous humor and compassion.

"One time is enough." Hemayal returned her glare to the windshield ahead, brows creasing.

"I'm sorry, Hemayal. I am so, so sorry. How many more times do I have to say that for you to believe that I really am?" Ibrahim questioned with nothing but anguish in his voice and heavy silence descended upon the car - one lacking hope for the future and only contained pains of the past.

"I believed you when you first said it. It was never about my belief in your apologies." Hemayal replied slowly, realizing that for the very first time, she was mouthing what her heart wanted in the presence of this man.

"You did?" Ibrahim's surprised voice reached her and Hemayal nodded her head in melancholy.

"Yeah, one look at you and I knew you were sorry." Hemayal responded, not daring to turn her head to look at the man who was obviously staring at her with great shock by now.

"Then...what...what's the problem?" Ibrahim asked, dumbfounded.

"The problem is when you came to apologize and how much I'd lost till then." Hemayal responded, every pore of her body tired and vanquished.

"Meaning?" The man wanted to know.

"You came running to me when you found out that the woman you kidnapped was your wife. What if I wasn't? What if I was just some random woman on the street? Do I deserve an apology only because I'm your wife and not because I'm a woman you wronged?" Hemayal responded, voice too low and troubled, too much pain hidden beneath the words.

"Hemayal..." Ibrahim's anguished voice trailed off, not knowing how to respond as the car slowed to an almost halt on the road.

"That day outside my hospital when you first came, all you talked about was that you didn't know, that you wouldn't have done anything if you'd known," Hemayal silenced for a second, the sudden, stupid tears choking her throat. "Tell me, Ibrahim, am I to be treated with respect and not dare be harmed because I'm your woman? What about other women in the world, would you have abducted them and felt no remorse afterwards because you just didn't know them?"

The salt clogging her throat and poking her eyes made her heart heavy but not one drop slipped for she'd spent years walling that heart of hers and steeling those nerves; she wasn't going to let a man strip her of her pride and dignity.

"That's not true." The man replied, bringing the car to a halt and turning in his seat to face the woman whose face had lost its color and lips were pressed tightly to keep the tears at bay.

"Is it not?" She replied, staring directly in the dark brown eyes of his, her state all too vulnerable at the moment.

"No, it's not. Although it is true that I only attempted to find you when I got to know who you really were, but it doesn't mean that I felt no remorse for my actions, you be my wife or not."

Ibrahim responded, fearing that the woman would negate his words and mark them as false just because they came from him but he didn't know what a fragile state she was in right now - hanging between love and hatred, hope and disdain.

Hemayal Khakwani would believe anything Ibrahim Yazdani said at the moment - such was her desperation for hope.

"You said..." Hemayal began but Ibrahim silenced her with only a slight bent of his shoulders in her direction.

"I know what I said and it was wrong of me to put it that way. Yes, revelation of your true identity made me want to kill myself even more but it was like the final blow to my guilt and regret. It was not the first, baby." At the expression of an endearment he had not used for the first time, he extended his arms and took hold of her cold hands in his large ones.

Sudden electricity went through Hemayal at the soft gesture of his, heart suddenly wild against the ribcage as she stared down silently at the small contact of their bodies. His hands were tan against her fair skin tone, too large for her, too powerful. The veins marking the surface provided a pattern that made her breath hitch and with that hitch, came spiraling back her senses.

What the hell was she doing?

With an action that was too abrupt for both of them, she pulled away her hand from his soft grasp, lips now pressing for all the different reasons, and Ibrahim pulled away with a sigh, having witnessed the exact moment logic and senses hit her - her face an open book for her just a second ago, now the history of whole world separating them.

"Dadu died." She whispered, telling that more to herself than to him and Ibrahim nodded, knowing that the feisty Hemayal was back and this time, she wouldn't let go of him so easily.

"Yeah, Dadu died." Ibrahim sighed, by now knowing that this is where all her heart's troubles lay.

Her Dadu'd death.

"For everything I can forgive you but for this, I just can't. Not even if I wanted to." The hardening of her voice and recoil of her emotions back in their shell provided the last crack to cut through the energy that crackled between them.

"I can't bring him back." He said silently, almost reminding her subtly that what's done was done.

"And I can't forgive you." She replied with a cold voice, refusing to let her Dadu's death go in vain.

With her final words, Hemayal turned her attention forward, almost telling him to start the car again but then her eyes took in the sight of a familiar background and walls of her house and she sighed. Unbuckling the seatbelt, she slipped out of his car, hoping he wouldn't stop her and he didn't.

This time, he let her go.

|¤¤¤|

hey, there!

so, so sorry for the delay. med college isn't a piece of cake and things are tough, so please forgive me.

how was the chapter though? things are just beginning to heat up between the two!!

till next time,
salam!