Zara's POV

I doff the duvet off my face when I rise from the slumber. The sharp gleamy white dawn is persuading my brain to speculate that I am still in a dream, probably the one which I was having in my deep sleep earlier. I stretch my limbs while sitting up, duvet still wrapping my lower half and the warmth transpiring through it still furnishing my body with insulation.

I run my fingers through my hair while my eyes scanning the vacant room. Probably I have overslept today, for this reason, I don't realize when Armaan has left the room. I grab my phone with my right hand while my other hand covering my mouth stifling the yawn. My forehead creases in confusion when I notice many missed calls and voice note from the maid of Dad's house. Being the heavy sleeper I am, I don't get to realize about any of these calls. I hope everything is okay. Why she has been calling me since the night yesterday?

I play the audio message with a thumping heart. My eyes widen in panic and uncertainty while listening to it.

'Sorry, Zara Mam, you weren't picking up my calls that's why I had to leave this audio message. Your father has got a heart attack at night today and he is in the hospital right now. Please come as soon as possible as he really is in critical condition.'

No this can't be true. Tomorrow, he was all healthy, and now what happened to him? Tears start building up in my eyes rendering my eyesight blurry. I storm downstairs while dialing the number of the same maid regarding whereabouts of the hospital. Tears begin trickling out of my eyes. Critical condition! No that's can't be true.

"Mam, where are you going?" A servant asks anxiously seeing me rushing out of the house but I ignore her. Seems like no one is at home at this hour.

"Can you take me to the hospital quickly?" I ask the driver while dabbing my tears from the back of my hand.

"Which hospital? Is everything okay, Ma'am?" He inquires worriedly.

"I'll tell you on the way, " I explain and get in the car.

         *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The ground seems to heaves from my feet, abandoning me flabbergasted at what just I listened to. My feet get glued to where they were and a hard and heavy thing drop on my heart leaving me to succumb to react to anything. Someone tell me I have heard wrong, tell me this is a dream, or at least tell me my senses are lost.

"I am sorry, he is no more, " The doctor tells the servants present there.

The flowy tears from the earlier freeze in my eyes, my paced heartbeat slows down and my already quivering legs cowardly quit to being a support for my whole body and when I acknowledge the people here have become aware of my presence, my knees dishinge and if it wasn't for the wall behind me, I would have fallen right on the floor.

His smile starts appearing in front of me. Today I have become alone again. Does he really have to leave me without talking to me in his last breaths? And in a jerk of a minute, my all senses came back, it's like someone has pushed all the switches on again. The tears start flowing from my eyes wetting my cheeks, my heart starts beating at an insane pace and my feet do get lift up but this is all accompanied by the disfunction of my nervous system and the last thing I know is that the wall also can't bear to carry me and I fall right on my knees only to be carried up by a faint familiar figure's strong arms before my mind goes.

             *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Armaan's POV

My running fingers on the laptop stop moving when my father enters my office. He never himself come into my office for the entire time I started working here, today what happens that he is here. From what I have learned by living with him, he surely has come here for a purpose.

"What brings you here?" I ask with a stout tone.

"Go to the hospital in the district quickly, Zara's father has got admitted there, " he informs me this news like this is ordinary for him. There is no sign of worry, concern, and distress on his face.

"What happens to him?" I ask panicked while standing from my seat with a jerk.

"He has got a heart attack last night. Now go already, " he orders with disdain.

I nod while grabbing my coat from the back seat of the chair. I again glance at it, no worry and no alarm. He leisurely sits on my seat while his fingers continuously making a rhythm on the table by tapping on it. Isn't be supposed to visit his friend too?

"Are you not coming with me?" I ask raising my brow.

His fingers stop assaulting on the table for a moment and he looks at me with his lips purse in a thin line. The expression on his face is unknown, not sad, not happy, not even normal. He shakes his head slightly giving me a no signal.

"I have some important meeting in an hour, I can't go."

"Don't bother about taking Zara with you, she has already got to know about this and she is in hospital."

My moving feet stop at this and I turn around to face him again. Still, he has an unreadable expression on his face making me curious to know how the hell he has known all the information.

"How do you know that?" I inquire keeping my voice as soft as possible.

"Enough questions, now leave already before something happens."

He orders and leaves the room as he came earlier. Why he is acting so weirdly? Suddenly the idea of Zara's father sparks in my mind. I hope he is okay. I grab the keys of my car from the table and rush outside.

As soon as I enter the hospital, the usual scent of medicines and surroundings invades my nostrils. I try calling Zara several times on my way but she wasn't picking up any of my calls. I hope everything is fine. I ask the girl on the counter about Mister Khawar and she gives me the room number where he is admitted. I scramble towards the provided room number when my eyes discover a familiar girly figure. I move ahead to find it's actually Zara. She is sobbing and in a blink of an eye, her eyeballs pull back behind and she loses her balance. I run towards her only to be welcome by her fainting. I grab her arms hard so that she won't fall.

"What happens?" I ask a female who is probably one of Mister Khawar's servants also coming to rescue Zara.

"We lost him. He has left us," she replies while crying.

My eyes get widen in shock. I look at blacked-out Zara in my arms. I pat her cheeks and call her name but all in vain. I lift her up in my arms and rush towards the emergency.

               *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"Thank you so much for coming here every day. To be honest, if it weren't for you I don't know how would I manage it," I thanked Aila. She has been coming daily from the day Mister Khawar has died and consoling Zara. Although she has not been succeeding that much, still I think it's better for Zara.

"No need, I have to do this. She is my best friend after all, " she replies while smiling.

"By the way, I am really worried about her. She has not even taken a bite for three days. Please take care of her. I would have stayed more but my mother is also sick. Please make her eat, " she gives me the tray with hope in her eyes.

"Sure, thank you again, " I say again.

I sigh and twist the doorknob slightly. It opens with a small slam. She is sitting on the floor near the couch she has been sleeping, with her head buried in her knees and she is hugging her legs tightly. She hasn't even looked up when I enter. I slowly walk towards her and sits near her on the floor. I put the tray aside while examining her. I can still hear soft, small sobs from her. She still hasn't looked up even she doesn't move.

"You know when my mother died, I was probably just seven. I was also behaving like you, not eating anything, not talking to anyone. I even locked myself in a room for many days, just crying and fighting with Allah that why he took my mother from me," I pause for a moment to look again at her but she was still.

"Then my grandmother says that you don't love your mother. If you were, you wouldn't have give her pain and make her worried even after she is no more. And you know what she told me, I am giving my mother more suffering by doing cruelty to myself, not eating, not talking to anyone and by mourning. She said do you think she will be really happy with you when she will get to know that you are going hard on yourself because of her and... "

I get interrupt when she suddenly lifts her head. Her eyes are red and puffy with crying. I smile and fill the spoon with rice and forward towards her direction. She looks at the spoon than at me and to my surprise, she eats. A soft sob left her mouth when she wipes the tears off her cheeks.

"Good girl!" I smile and make another spoon at which she hesitates first before eating it.

           *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

As soon as I enter the room, darkness welcomes me. I switch the lights on and my eyes wander towards the sleeping Zara on the couch. She hasn't even covered herself with a duvet for the reason she is trembling and quivering slowly due to coldness. It's a relief for me that she has eaten something although she refuses to eat after some bites, still, it's better than nothing. I pull the covers on her when I hear soft sobs from her. Is she crying in sleep?

"Why you leave me alone, I...I have no one now in this world. No one..!"

My eyes widen when I hear what she is mumbling in sleep. Her sobs are getting more intense. I tug the untied layers of her wet hair behind her ears. Why I am feeling bad for her? She quivers under my touch more. I lift her up carefully not to wake her up and carry her bridal style to the bed. I carefully lay her down on the side of the bed and pull the blanket over her. I lay on the bed making sure to have an adequate gap with her.

"No one loves me. The ones I love, all leave me one after another. Why I am still alive. I don't want to live..."

I stare at her in disbelief. A girl like her thinks like that. She is now properly crying and I can see tears on her cheeks. Why does she think like that? Isn't she the one who gets everything by her money. Why she doesn't want to live?

Sighing, I pull her towards me by her waist and wipe her wet cheeks.

"Shhh, I am here with you, " I whisper and hugs her. She snuggles in my chest and after a while, she stops shaking. I lift her face a little by placing my finger under her chin, her face is all red and swollen. I gradually remove the strands of hair from the side of her face which gets stick there due to tears. She is so strikingly beautiful. I don't realize when my eyes are wandering on her face, from her eyes to nose to her lips. Her lips! Why they are so beautiful? This is the first time I am looking at her face this closely. My eyes linger on her lips. I have never seen such gorgeous lips. They are full of natural lavender tint of pink. They are delicate and smooth like a velvety, soft petal urging my crave to feel and touch their delicacy.

I came out of my thoughts when she shifts slowly. What the heck I was even thinking? Was I drooling over her lips? No, never! I pull her apart from me with a yank not minding that she can get awake from this. This can never happen. How can I even get enticed to a girl like her? I run fingers through my hair in frustration. Why the heck I even bring her here in the first place? Maybe because I was worried about her. I pull the pillow harshly from the bed and strides towards the couch.

               *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Assalam O Alaikum! How are you, people? I would like to thank you all for 3K reads on this book. It meant a lot. To be honest, I wasn't expecting this much from me when I start writing this book. But again thank you for being my motivation to continue writing this. And by the way, I was nervous from the start that I won't be able to give justice to Armaan's POV but there it is somehow. I don't know its good or not so I want you people to give your thoughts about his POV in comments. Don't forget to vote if you like this chapter.