𝕿he tension in the room spiked up to an entirely new level. If I weren't already watching my father, I might've missed the flash of surprise that went through his eyes, but I caught it. He did not expect me to come. Seeing my father was harder than I expected. What a difference a few hours had made, he looked small and weak, cheeks hollowed out and so pale like he was fighting for every breath, his hair falling about his face in stringy waves.

I opened my mouth but Baba raised a finger to his lips, his eyes wide in a warning. I tilted my head to listen to the conversation happening right outside the main door, listening to the hushed and murmured responses. I couldn't make out their words, but the men spoke urgently, voices lowered now.

"You shouldn't be here Daania."

I let out a short laugh. What the hell was he talking about?

"How could I not Baba? You're in jail. They won't let you go till the Magistrate comes to court on Monday. They won't accept bail. Up till five minutes ago, they wouldn't let me even talk to you. What is going on?"

"It's all my fault beta. I thought I could get us out of this mess, but I just made it worse."

"What do you mean it was your fault? Baba, what did you do?"

"I had no idea he would react that way! I was giving him the opportunity of his life."

A few minutes later there was a raised voice again. This one was of a woman. I stepped closer, my fingers closing around the cold metal bars. "What is this program Baba? Why is it so important?"

"It's...I-"

More muffled sounds, someone cursed, and then there was the sound of a phone ringing. For a moment, I was worried that Taimoor was in the station, that he had found a way to come here to offer another ultimatum, and when I heard footsteps headed towards us, I pressed myself to the bars, heart-pounding, knowing that I didn't have much time.

"Baba you have to tell me. I only have so much time."

"What do you mean? What did you do?"

"What did I do? What did you do!"

"I was looking out for the family! I wanted to make sure that my family had food on the table..." wild thoughts swam in my head as I remembered the last few months of our life. The silent conversations, the strained faces. Mama's silence when I'd asked her about it."I had to steal the computer program. He gave me no choice."

"Who didn't give you a choice? Mr. Mughal?" I looked at his back as he walked to the back of the room and slumped against it.

"No, I didn't even get a chance to meet him, Taimoor didn't let me get near him."

"You didn't -" that liar. The magnetic intensity of hatred burst through my veins for the man with the scars on his face and a bleak melancholy in his eyes. He had played me. Stalled me. He knew exactly what he was doing. And despite my better instincts, I'd fallen for it. Anger and adrenaline pumped through my veins and, putting them to use, I fired away my questions.

"Baba, where is it?"

"Ask your mother."

Ask your mother? "What does Mama have to do with this?"

His eyes turned sad. "I'm sorry Daania, but I made an error in judgment," a simple statement, but one that bit into my heart with the vicious, snapping teeth of a beast. Hyperawareness inched over my skin, coupled with a terrible feeling of dread."I thought I'd found a way out, he told me that this could be the way out."

"Name Baba, I need a name."

We were wending our way through a convoluted discussion, I could tell by the way his eyes dropped, his finger ticked against his knee, how he looked at the floor. "It was supposed to be a business deal. I thought I'd..." he swallowed and then looked up at me. My headache inflated, pressure popping behind my eyes. "Believe me, I had no choice."

"There's always a choice."

"You have no idea beta. You'll know when you have a family to support, people to save," I gripped the onyx spires of the cage to keep from falling, clenching my teeth together, fury warming the lids of my eyes so that each blink seared. "Whatever he's promised you, he won't stick to it. There will always be a catch to his promises."

"He wants the stupid program Baba, if I can give it to him, he'd leave us alone."

"He'd never leave us alone. He'll never leave me alone."

"Why? What does it do? What have you created?" he didn't reply. My hands shook against my mouth as the metal handle turned. Only a few more minutes. They weren't going to leave me alone for long. "Baba he threatened to have me kidnapped. I bargained for some time, just a few days. I only have till Monday."

"Run Daania. Go to your aunt, she'll protect you."

"What is going on?"

"Take your mother and your sister and move to Jamshed House."

"Baba, I have a job. Nazia has school. Our house..."

"Irrelevant. Listen to me-"

"We can't just get up and leave you!" my mind was trying to convince me to run as far away from this place as I could. That this was a trap. But running wouldn't save me. It would only leave my father behind. Still, my heart wanted to flee. Runaway from this man who had installed such fear in my father's heart. Who was playing us all like careful chess pieces, controlling the amount of information that was given to each person. He wanted me to go to my father and he had wanted me to be late. So that meant that he had expected my arrival or at least planned for an intervention. Which meant...

There was no way to prove my father's innocence.

The fear turned my muscles into twitching fibers, ready to lunge at any moment.

"Listen to me!" I stared at him. "He is not a man to be trusted. He is a monster. There is no one on this earth, not one, not even his father, who knows him better than I do. He will not stop to get his hands on what he wants. Whatever he said to you? That's a lie. Daania, he can not get his hands on the White Rose," air escaped his lips, making him bow over with a cough.

"Baba..."

"Promise me Daania," he coughed and clenched his arms around his middle, keeping his head up. I kept my eyes on his, wanting to make sure I didn't lose him, to show him that he wasn't alone.

"I-"

The sound of a key fitting into my door pulled me from my thoughts. A sturdy set of footsteps come near and walk past me, steps determined. "Sorry miss, your time is up," the beefy, stern man with a jaw full of beard said with eyes full of snide smugness, his demeanor vaguely threatening.

"But I-"

"No special treatment. It's time to leave."

"Baba..." his brown eyes narrowed on me, and just like that, I knew I'd overstepped. My stomach tightened for an entirely new reason now. I'd lost him, I could see the lucidity recede as if I'd ripped it off like a ragged strip of parchment.

"Do what I say Daania. I am your father," swallowing hard, I nodded and followed the constable, nudging the door open the rest of the way, walking outside.

"Ma'am," my feet swayed a bit, and my eyes popped with flares of black light.

Whipping my head to the right, I stared at the severe-looking woman in front of me. Her eyes were kind and empathetic as she strode towards me. "Yes?"

"This came for you."

"How... Where did this come from? Who gave this to you?" everyone's eyes slid over to me at my sudden outburst, but my heart was pounding so hard that I could not focus on anything except the pain that somehow traveled from my head to my chest. The threat could not be more clear. He was having me watched. He was waiting.

I was not sure when I jumped to my feet, but I was suddenly sprinting out of the station and getting into my car, racing home. My breath came out in staccato bursts that collided with each other and started breaking down as I pulled into the driveway. I stumbled out of the car, taking huge breaths of the crystal clear air.

The front door of the house burst open.

"Baba?" Nazia sounded frantic, panicked. Every minute must have eaten at her if she couldn't put on her usual level-headed image.

"It's just me for now," I called. The early night chill seeped into my bones as the sky above me deepened in color and the night took over. Dim, silver-fletched light cast dark shadows over the brick walls and my head "Did Fariha get the car?"

"Dany? I'm here. Are you okay? Where's Uncle?" Fariha's eyes are wide and white in the spill of light from the door. "Nobody could eat. We thought—" she looked away, peering over my shoulder. "They didn't let him go."

I could not say anything. Could not begin to put into words what my father had done by going against the family responsible for his downfall. By going to that meeting at all. My fingernails dug into the fabric of my purse in spite of myself. Inside, I took off my shoes and unwound my scarf, and despite the tepid temperatures, I felt frozen. The sharp edge of a key bit into my fingers as I clenched them in my fist, but the discomfort held me together. I put my purse down with too much force, and it thudded to the table with a loud, angry bang. A chill settled over my skin that I could not shake. There was a very single, very damning card in my pocket and I was afraid to take it out. I did not want to show it to my mother or my sister. I barely even wanted to acknowledge it to myself. Almost as if speaking his name or mentioning him, would make him appear in the room. Taimoor didn't throw my father in jail because of some minor transgression. He didn't stall our conversation because of his annoyance with me. He did it because he wanted to use us both.

The bleakness of our reality slowly sank in. Sank deep as I stood there, shuddering in the warm evening. I'm not sure how long I stand there, staring at my best friend and my sister, mustering the courage to call out for my mother. Taimoor Ali Haider Mughal knew that there was no proof of my father's innocence. He knew that I was the bargaining chip and he was counting on me to come to him. My father wanted us to run away and disappear, to ask my aunt for help, to exchange one damning life for another.

Headlights swept across the living room and all of us froze. My heart climbed up into my throat. My eyes felt so sluggish. Like weights stacking on a barbell, the pounding in my head added heaviness to my eyelids with each steady throb. Was he here? Already? I wanted to believe Taimoor didn't follow me here, that he would at least wait till Monday, that there was some semblance of a man under that exterior, but as I was just discovering, there were no limits to what he'd do.

"I'm coming," I said automatically, though if it was Taimoor on the other side, then I would have wasted my manners. The man didn't deserve my manners or my attention. He was a monster.

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Uh so there you have it! As always, thoughts, feedback etc 😄 What do we think about Taimoor? And what's up with this 'White Rose'?
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