یہ عشق نہیں آسان بس اتنا سمجھ لیجۓ
     ایک آگ کا دریا ہے اور ڈوب کے جانا ہے

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Jannat watched as the candle flickered inside the room. The sweet scent of the scented candle opposed her feelings. In the same lehenga she waited for Azlaan to come back inside his room.

  Her face was washed and her hair were now tied up. A stark contrast from her get up a while ago. 

When the door opened, she stood up, her lehnga trailing behind her.

In the candlelight, she watched his face morph itself into a shocked statue. His hair dishevelled like fingers had run through it, his lips swollen. Other than that, his appearance didn't hint about what he did.

  "Did you meet her? " Her words straight, laced with poison.

His tongue peeked out to wet his lips, his eyes looking away.

"What are you talking about?"

Nonchalance didn't suit him.

"Tell me the truth. Did you or did you not spend the night with her?" 

"I-I Jannat, listen." He was desperate. Questions about how did she know roamed his mind.

Stepping forward, her hand came up and a slapped him on his face, his face tilting to side due to the force. Heaving, she slapped him again on his chest.

Tears streamed down even though she controlled her sobs, her hands turning into fists when his hand came up to grab her.

"Don't touch me." Her words a whisper, she had lost her strength.

Her eyes raised and she looked at him with so much hurt, so much pain that he staggered while she took off her ring and threw it away.

"Jannat, please-just", His words jumbled as his chest heaved, watching as she walked away without looking back. 

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Her steps were measured as she walked the length of the hallway. Tears blurring her eyes as she started running to her room.

Should she tell her mother? Should she tell anyone? He was her Khaala's  (mother's sister) son. The relationship between the both families will be destroyed. How will she face them ever again? Hoorain was friend. And Dua loved them a lot. She didn't know what to do. But she knew one thing, she won't marry him at any cost.

Tears streamed her face when she thought of what Ibraheem did to her. Why was she destined to be broken by men? Why was every man like this? Cheaters, abusers.

With blurred eyes and smudged mascara, she ran to her room. Opening the door with a slam, she sank against the wall, her lehnga pooling around her creating a halo.

Unbeknownst to her, Ibraheem had watched her running inside.
In a minute, he ran behind her too, his eyes filled with concern.

He watched her sitting on the floor, tears falling down.

Crouching next to her, he asked,

"Why are you crying? What happened? Are you hurt?"

When her painful eyes raised, he knew, the hurt was all in her heart.

  "Jannat, please. Stop crying. Tell me what happened." He consoled and consoled but her tears were endless.

Sobs wrecked her body when he made her lean against him, still dressed in his white sherwani, his eyes heavy with concern.

"What happened, darling? Did Azlaan do something?" His words were filled with concern.

Jannat raised her eyes, looking at him, the scenarios of him punching Azlaan and dragging him out of the house filled her head. She was scared, of everything and everyone.

"I don't want to marry him", she blurted out, her words abrupt.

He was speechless. For a eternity, he looked into her eyes. In her eyes, he saw the world, the universe and answers to all his questions. Then he nodded as he patted her hair soothingly.

"Whatever you want."

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Ibraheem stood up. It was time to take charge. It was time to pounce. Exhaling through his mouth, he knocked on his father's door.

His father was a powerful man. What he said once was set on stone, no matter what. His words, his tongue was his pride. The family's heirloom and his success in business made him the powerful man he was today. But Ibraheem knew that the man had a soft heart. A moustache graced his face and the his beard wasn't very long but it was heavy.

The man stood before Ibraheem, as if he had already been informed of a bad omen.

  His gathered all his strengh.

"Abbu, Jannat can't marry Azlaan. "

His father turned, his eye brows furrowed.

"And why is that, beta?" His voice heavy.

"Because I want to marry her."

In a second, with a roar his father punched him on his face, his large golden ring bruising Ibraheem's lip.

"It's my daughter you are talking about!"

Ibraheem lowered on his knees, his hands clasping together.

"Abbu,please. Please. "

His father heard the desperation in his voice. His prideful son had sunk to his knees to ask for something for the first time in his life. The Ibraheem he knew would never do that. He watched as as a tear trailed down his cheek.

"Why would I give you my daughter? You are a drunk, womanising bastard."
Insults for his own son left his lips when he thought of his credibility to marry the girl he held so close to his heart.

Right there, a man had sunk in his knees to beg his own father for the girl he loved. He knew in that moment, it was not his father, it was Jannat's.

His head lowered.

"I-I know. But I promise I haven't touched alcohol or any woman for more than a month. Abbu, I promise I won't. Just please, allow me this one request. I beg you."

That night when he drank with Azlaan last time and met her in her room, he had lost his composure.He went to a bar in the Red Light Area in Lahore and things had gotten out of hand. He was drunk out of his mind when had went to a room with a girl. On his haze of passion, he hadn't realised how rough he was.

The next morning when he woke up, he noticed blood. He had hurt that woman. He thought of Jannat. What if she was beneath him that night? He was a monster. He didn't deserve her. He would taint her innocence and her pure soul. He had decided in that moment, he would leave her. Leave her to live her life the way she deserved. Tears had streamed his face when he thought of her with another man, who deserved her.

When he had asked her to cook for him that night, his heart had hurt when he noticed her blushes. He knew he would have to hurt her once, to save her from more pain. He will get better. He would make himself better for her. He left drinking and his women. She would be his one day, not yet.

He couldn't resist at least one sniff of her hair, one taste of her skin when he sank his head in the crook of her neck.

When she saw him with that girl, it was all planned. He knew she would be there. His mother had informed him. But he didn't realise until he saw her drunken state that night that how much he had hurt her.

Her feeling were not childish as he had thought they would be. She didn't get naraaz ( upset) with him for just some days. He had hurt her greater than that and he was eternally sorry for it.

Watching her with Azlaan felt like he was dying inside. She was his. No one deserved her. She was angelic. He couldn't fathom what had happened that she didn't want to marry Azlaan, but it seemed fate was in his favour now. He had prayed for her. His heart had prayed for Allah to grant her to him. She was a blessing. She was the first thing in his Duas and the last thing on his mind when he went to sleep.

His father's heart melted. It was  his own son after all.

"Why? When she is already engaged?"

His tongues wetted his lips. No words left his throat.

  "I-I love her."

It was final when a glare from his father burned him alive. Which father wanted to listen a man confess to him about loving his pure daughter?

"I will ask Jannat." 

Nothing could be done without asking her, his father knew that.

A smirk graced his lips and his eyes were boastful,

"She won't say no."

With that, another growl left his father's mouth and his fist collided with his face again, this time bruising his cheek.

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I loved writing his confrontation with his father.

Ah, first chapter without any romance. It hurts my soul.

What do you think will happen next?

Did Jannat make the right decision?

Is Ibraheem's cheating forgivable and Azlaan's not?

If you don't remember any of the references in this chapter, please comment and ask me. All those moments happened in previous chapters.
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