"I'm in front of the building. Where exactly are you?" A furious Maryam asked at the top of her lungs.

"Calm down, lioness." Nafisa chuckled from the other side of the line. There's absolutely no need to get hyped up. I'm right here. I hope you didn't let anyone else know about this meeting." She emphasised.

"I didn't." She replied, curtly. "I just want to see my child."

"Good." She replied.

Maryam could sense her smirking from the other side of the phone. "Please d-" before she could finish her statement, Nafisa had already ended the call.

~~~~~

Not more than five minutes later, Nafisa appeared before her, smirking perilously. "Wow! It's nice to finally see you again." She ridiculed.

Scoffing, Maryam questioned; "where is Manal?"

"I know." She gave a lopsided smile. "But not so soon, ma'am." She rolled her eyes. "First and foremost, we need to talk business."

Exasperatedly, Maryam spoke; "what do you want from me? Name your price. I will give you any amount you ask for, just give me back my daughter please."

"Money." Nafisa smirked. "I will definitely ask for it. A large amount at that, but before that, I want you to kneel in front of me."

"You swindler." Maryam lunged at her, ready to punch her smirking face, but unfortunately for her, she was able to scurry away and two hunk guys, plus a skinny one appeared behind her.

"Try it." Nafisa dared. "Try it and see what happens next."

"I didn't come here for this. Please just tell me where you've hidden my child and we will leave." She beseeched. "Like I promised, I didn't inform anyone. Not even my husband."

"Do I look like I care?" She rolled her eyes. "Will you do what I ordered you to do, or..." She trailed off. "Should I leave?"

"Hey, babe! I don't think she's ever going to do it. Let's leave. I just can't wait to finish what we started. Poor little thing! Her mother doesn't care about her. She only cares about her self-respect. Come on, let's leave." The skinny guy who happened to be her boyfriend remarked.

"I think you're right, Mukthar." Nafisa agreed and turned to leave.

"Wait." Maryam screamed. "You want me to kneel in front of you? I will do it. Just please return my daughter back to me." She cried.

"I have already promised you I will." She furrowed her brows. "Now, do it!"

With unshed tears in her eyes, Maryam nodded. If it had not been for her daughter's same, she would have ripped Nafisa's head off her neck with the amount of pain and anger in her. Who would have thought the girl who had came to her home, years back, would turn out to be this cruel and inhumane. She wished she had listened to her husband and all these would have been prevented. She was not worth any of her concern, yet she treated her like she would treat her own daughter. She never maltreated her just because she was a maid, but the payment for her kindness was malignity. She was about to do a humiliate herself in front of her previous servant, but it was all for her daughter - she reminded herself. Just her. She was a mother and no mother in their right senses would be able to endure the fact that her daughter was being held hostage. Without further thinking, she knelt down in front of her. "Please give me back my child." She cried, tears running down her cheeks like a loose faucet. Tears from humiliation, pain and most of all, tears for her poor daughter, whom she did not know the condition she must be in.

Laughing in satisfaction, Nafisa remarked; "you look so beautiful in that position. It is exactly where you belong; AT. MY. FEET!" She enunciated through gnashed teeth. "This is pay back time, habibty." She mocked. "I will make you pay for all the things you did to me, while I was living under your roof."

Maryam's chest fell and she resisted the urge to gasp. "When have I ever treated you unfairly?" She questioned. "Fear Allah at least."

"You might have forgotten, but I haven't. Firstly, you enrolled me in school - which I was very grateful for, but you destroyed the good deed, by not making provision for me to attend the school. We both know the distance isn't small at all, yet you allowed me trek to school." She sneered. "Let's be honest here, if you had given birth to me, would you have left me to suffer the way I did? With the number of cars in your house, wouldn't you have at least hire a driver to take me to school on weekdays with one of the cars? But you didn't, because I was just an ordinary, worthless maid."

Taken aback by her outburst, Maryam shook her head in astonishment. She never knew Nafisa bore so much hatred in her heart towards her. Indubitably, she was an ingrate - it was not her responsibility to even enroll her in a school, but out of the goodness of her heart, she did and the gratitude she got in return was malevolence.

"Secondly, you were the reason my brother passed away. If you had given me the money I asked for earlier, it wouldn't have happened. You're the cause of what happened on that fateful day and I swore never to forget and forgive. I won't rest until I have made you pay for every single tear I shed because of you."

Wordlessly, Maryam looked up at her. She so desperately wanted to speak up, but for some inexplicable reason, her voice got stuck in her troat, preventing her from letting out a word - she had no idea she was this bitter until now. Her words stung more painfully than a bee. She could remember vividly everything that happened on that day. She even prayed to Allah for his wellbeing.

"Thirdly, you allowed your daughter disrespect me in a way no child has ever done. Not even my siblings. You spoil that brat so much that I began to wish for a chance to beat the shit out of her. She's not only a child, but a little devil in disguise. I don't know how she always managed to annoy and irritate me. None of my siblings have ever dared to disrespect me. They know how I can be when angry. I beat them to a pulp. I should have done just that to Manal before leaving your house - it would teach her to always obey her elders and you would have thanked me for it, because obviously, you failed in instilling manners into her. What a spoilt little brat!" She seethed. "Only God knows how much I detest that child."

At this point, Maryam couldn't hold back her tears anymore. A lump suddenly got stuck in her troat, making it extremely hard for her to breath - her breathing became labored. So much hatred for a little girl! If she hated Manal that much, only Allah knew what she could have done to her in her absence. Obliviously, she trusted the despicable person to take care of her child. She sobbed - not only for her poor daughter, but for herself for being such a negligent mother. She should have noticed the change in her daughter much earlier.

"Fourthly, you lock your room each time you and your husband leave the house. Why? Because you don't trust me, right?"

"I trusted you." Maryam wiped her tears. "I fought with my own husband, just because of you. I didn't bother giving him a listening ear about the bad vibes he got from you. I doubted my husband all because of you."

"If you trusted me, you wouldn't have locked your room, whenever you went out!" She accused.

"Of course I don't!" Maryam boomed, her patience completely exhausted now. "Who in their right senses will trust a swindler? I made a huge mistake by trusting you. My daughter is innocent in all these. If you wanted someone for revenge, I am here. Just let my daughter go, please. She will be traumatized."

"If you think I only want revenge on your daughter, then you're wrong." She smiled mischievously. "I want revenge on you as well."

"What do you want from us? Just tell me already!"

"In due time, ma'am." She ridiculed.

"Let's take this inside. Someone might sight us and alert the police." Mukthar reasoned.

"You're right." She replied, then turned to the two hunk thugs behind her. "Take her inside."

Hearing the order Nafisa just gave, Maryam sprung up and took a step back as the guys took two steps forward. She stretched out a hand in an attempt to stop them. "Please don't touch me. I will move by myself."

Nafisa rolled her eyes. "You should be thankful, I'm not telling them to do to you what I have in mind. Yet." She added irritatedly.

"Please let me walk." She beseeched with glistening eyes. She couldn't even imagine another man's hands on her, apart from her husband. Though it wasn't willingly, she felt it was cheating.

"Are you going to stand there and listen to her bullshit?" Mukthar hurled. "Take her in!" He ordered.

In spite of how hard Maryam tried to prevent then from dragging her into the building, her efforts proved abortive. With a hand each on her arms, they dragged her in.

Nafisa followed suite and took a seat on one of the plastic chairs. "You will see your daughter, but only on two condition."

"What do I have to do?" She cried.

"Are you pregnant?" Nafisa suddenly asked, eying her now protruding belly.

On reflex, Maryam wrapped a protective arm over her abdomen.

"Why am I even asking?" She heaved a deep sigh. "It's obvious you are."

"What are your conditions?" Maryam questioned, exasperatedly.

"Impatient, are we? Don't worry, I will let you know." She smirked, malevolently. "I want you to make a call to your husband right now and say all sort of mean things to him. Tell him you have Manal already and that you're leaving the country together. End everything by asking for a divorce."

Astonished, Maryam shook her head aggressively. "Why would you ask me to do something like that? It's uncalled for!"

"I want to destroy your 'perfect, little' family - this is my revenge. I will stop at nothing to see you miserable." She seethed.

Indisputably, Nafisa was a psychopath. Who derived pleasure by another person's misery?

"I can't do it. I won't do it." She remarked adamantly.

"Then you're not ready to save your daughter." She rolled her eyes.

"I will do any other thing, but not this please. I don't want to hurt my husband in that way. I can never do it."

"I know you don't and that is my main reason for asking you to do it - to destroy your home. Who knows, I might end up taking your place."

"Stop being delusional! Your wish is never going to come true." Maryam yelled.

In provocation, Nafisa averted her gaze to one of the men. "You, go into the room and bring the little brat here."

Maryam's breathing laboured. She could not wait to see her baby. To see what condition she was in. To hold her in her arms and assure her everything would be alright. She could not wait to get her back home to Sa'eed. He would be ecstatic and forgive her for her mistake - she was sire his anger towards her will vanish once she succeed in getting their daughter back hone, safely. Knowing how Manal was, she was sure she must be terrified. Her poor baby!

Seconds passed by like minutes and minutes, like hours. The man was still not back with Manal and that made Maryam worried to the core. She could not bear the tension anymore. Just as she was about to speak, she sighted the man approaching them with Manal in his arms. She was about to run towards them and take her from the thug's arms, but was yanked back by Nafisa.

"Don't you dare move!" She commanded. "One more wrong move from you and we won't hesitate to kill her." She deadpanned, pointing a finger at Manal.

Seeing her mother, Manal screamed in tears. "Ummiii"

"Manal." Maryam cried. "Don't worry, ummi's here. I won't let anyone hurt you."

Nafisa snorted at that.

Manal did not stop crying and that irritated Nafisa immensely. "Please shut that kid up."

Without wasting a second, Mukthar ambled towards them. "Put her down." He ordered the man and when he did, Mukthar placed his large hand over her lips to silence her. To everyone's astonishment, Manal bit him hard on the wrist, drawing a little blood in the process.

Maryam gasped and before she could comprehend what was going to happen next, Mukthar had stroke Manal hard on the cheek. In an attempt to silence her, her wails grew louder.

Infuriated, he removed a tape from his pocket and placed it over her lips, like the beast he was. "Get me the injection." He ordered the other man.

Maryam couldn't bear to keep looking at the vile scene in front of her. Her heart screamed in pain for her fragile daughter. Tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably and she felt suffocated. "What...what injection?" She asked with trembling voice. "Please no more." She cried. "I'm the one you want right? Leave my child out of this. Hurt me instead. I'm willing to take any punishment, just leave my daughter alone. She has had enough."

"Not until I say so." He smirked as he collected the injection from the man.

"Please don't do it." Maryam beseeched. "What are you injecting into her? Please stop!"

"Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous. Just something to shut her up for a really long while." He smirked and without thinking twice, he injected the entire content of the syringe into her arm. Just as soon as he was done, her eyelids began to meet and she slipped into unconsciousness.

"Manaaaal." Maryam screamed and broke lose from Nafisa's grip. She ran all the way to her daughter and picked her up in her arms. With tears in her eyes and a heavy heart, she hugged her tightly to her chest. In spite of how hard she tried to wake her up, her efforts were futile. "Why isn't she waking up? What have you done to her?" She queried, horrifically. Her eyes bulged in realisation. With quivering lips, she accused; "you've killed her, haven't you?"

~~~~~~

Is Manal in fact, dead?

Who cried for Manal? She's so young and yet, going through all sort of terrible things.

How will Sa'eed react to all these?

Please comment your views. Thanks :)

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deey_jah