Salaam readers,

I love reading the comments and messages that I have been receiving :) Thank you so much for all the love :)

Which character do you love the most in this story?

And do you wish to see any of these characters in my next novel?

Loads of love <3

"What do you mean?" Lissa chirped in anger.

"He is a traitor."

"Don't be ridiculous," Lissa argued. Silent tears flowed through Lissa's beautiful luminous eyes, and she did not make an effort to wipe them away.

The pain of betrayal was so heartbreaking and I realised how painful it might be for Lissa to hear such news.

"How did Dilshad help his father?" Lissa questioned wryly.

"It was Dilshad who tried scaring Aleena in the villa. Later he began leaving threatening messages, but when he realised that he wasn't getting any information from her, he decided to fiddle with the equipment in the lab," Aahil replied wryly.

"Dilshad can never hurt anyone," Lissa replied with conviction.

"I wish that was true," Aahil replied grimly.

"What else did he do?" Noor enquired.

"He was the one who sent a man to hurt Aleena when she was in the hospital. That man was paid to tamper the elevator and he unplugged my respiratory system too," Aahil winced as he spoke.

Mom and Noor gasped as I sat still with my heart sinking.

"And, then he tried gaining information by various methods but when he realised that Aleena wasn't going to disclose it, he kidnapped her. He tricked me," Aahil banged his fist to the wallpaper and winced. "He said that he would ask Aleena to wait in the penthouse until I would finish my work and I believed him."

"Calm down, bro. Things haven't turned as worse as they possibly could. Allah has been merciful to us."

"Noor! You won't ever understand the pain of betrayal I'm subjected to as I have known Dilshad for years and he was like a brother to me."

"I cannot believe he could do this to us. Does it mean that he could be involved in Aleena's dad's murder too?" Mom interrupted.

Aahil shook his head and threw his hands in the air, "I don't know."

"Does that mean that all those threatening notes were left by him?" I questioned meekly.

Aahil nodded his head, a muscle pulling taunt at his jawline. "All this information was recorded in one of Rizwan's conversations. He conversed about how easily Dilshad fooled each one of us."

Lissa began sobbing and mom hugged her fiercely, "All this so horrible."

"Let's stop discussing the past. Right now we need to think of a plan to get out of here," Noor emphasized every word, and all agreed with him.

Just then the door opened revealing a smug-looking Rizwan, followed by his daughter, "It seems like I have interrupted a lovely family gathering. Safia, have you taken me for a fool? This room has cameras and I had the honour of listening to wonderful confessions. Cheers for the sweet family before they die," He mocked.

The room became dead silent as a number of his men gathered around us with weapons.

Rizwan pointed his gun at me and Aahil lunged forward but was retained by two men who held him by his waist.

"Let go of her," He yelled.

"Stop shouting, you jerk. Just tell me where have you hid the laptop and I'll return your princess."

"Kill her daddy, he deserves to witness losing her." Safa screeched, slapping me with force. "Witch! It is because of you that Aahil has forgotten his first love. You deserve to die and the sight is going to make me ecstatic."

"My darling daughter, this is not about your revenge. If anything matters to me then it is those millions that I'm going to earn by selling the research papers. So stop acting like a lovesick puppy."

Safa huffed in annoyance as she went to get herself a drink from the wooden cabinet.

"You should be ashamed of yourself, Rizwan. Islam teaches us peace, don't you have any conscience left inside you? Aren't you afraid of meeting your lord on the day of judgment when no injustice shall win? It is due to the deeds of a few ignorant people like you that the world blames the whole Muslim community for terrorism. The sacrifice made by other good people like my father gets overshadowed by the evil actions of people like you. The world doesn't realise that people like you do not belong to any religion or faith, you people are just devil incarnate," I seethed in anger.

"Oh god, who asked you to open your damn mouth," He squeezed my throat with his rough hands, strangling me as I choked for air.

Aahil looked at me with helplessness, "Stop hurting her. I'll reveal the -------"

"Aahil, don't tell him. My life isn't precious enough to jeopardise the lives of millions," I went into a severe coughing fit.

"This stupid girl is more stubborn than her father. She is giving myself a headache."

Everyone watched in horror as he directed the gun to Mom's forehead. "I better kill this woman as she has betrayed me and considered me to be a moron."

"No! please don't do that," Aahil requested meekly. A sheen of sweat covered Aahil's forehead. It was clearly visible that he was going through extreme distress.

Rizwan laughed out loud, "Aaah I'm enjoying this game thoroughly. Get on your knees and beg for mercy."

Noor came forward, but Rizwan kicked him hard making him cry out in pain. "Don't utter a word, you hypocrite! I have had enough of the drama and the hour has come to put an absolute end to this."

Aahil sighed deeply and ran a hand through his dishevelled hair.

"Aahil, blurt out all that you can before I lose my patience."

The sound of the gun clicking was deafening and the explosion that came a moment later made everyone freeze in their spot.

I closed my eyes not having enough courage to witness the scene in front of me.

That moment lasted forever.

Not a single sound escaped through anyone's lips.

It felt like time had stopped.

Everything had ended after all.

I squeezed Aahil's hand as tears flowed through my cheeks and I wasn't yet ready to face reality, but Dilshad's voice made me gaze upwards.

He stood with a blank expression on his face, white shirt crumpled to bits and tie hanging loosely around his shoulders. He had a gun in his hand which fell to the ground with a loud thud.

He looked exhausted as he sank down to his knees and began crying.

There was blood spattered on the white floorboards, which made my stomach stir and I threw up.

Aahil rushed to my side and gently ran his hand through my spine and I gathered the courage to see the sight that awaited me.

Rizwan was sprawled on the floor and I was surprised that the red liquid that covered the floor was oozing out from his arm, which was deeply wounded, and a bullet had cocooned itself in his muscles. "Dilshad! Have you lost your mind?" Rizwan cursed in pain. "What on earth possessed you to shoot your own father?"

"Yes, I had gone insane to have helped you with all the filth. I thought we were doing this for Safa as she was going through such depression and I wished to see Aahil taste the exact heartbreak and pain that my sister went through. I never ever imagined that you were doing all this for money."

"Dilshad, how could you?" Lissa whispered, a sob escaping her.

"Lissa, I did not know that my father had such evil intentions. I agree that I have committed my share of mistakes and I'm ready to surrender myself to the law, but I never intended on killing anyone."

"Were you responsible for the accident in the laboratory?" Lissa asked in a flat tone.

"Yes, I did. But, Lissa ---- "

She cut off his reply by waving her hands in the air in a gesture of dismissal, "Please, don't."

"I can explain. Please listen to me," He argued.

Lissa rubbed her eyes furiously to stop the tears from flowing. "Just go away."

"I hope you'll forgive me someday."

Lissa's response was to draw her abaya closer to her slightly shivering body and turn the other way around to glance outside the window, placing her back towards him.

He stared at her for few moments before Aahil leapt from his chair and punched him hard on his face. "Aahil listen to me. I haven't ---"

"Save yourself the explanation, Dilshad. This punch was not for betraying my family, but rather for breaking Lissa's heart."

Dilshad wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hands, "Why the hell don't any of you understand me?" With the tug of heart- wrenching regret, I saw his chest expand heavily.

There was a long silence.

Just then Hamilton entered the room followed by a large group of policemen. "Rizwan Farooqui you are under arrest. You will be given the right of attorney, but right now you are expected to respect the law and come with us without any arguments, as anything you say can be held against you before the law."

Rizwan stared at them with pure panic and tried to run away in haste, but groaned in pain as his elbow hit the wall and the police surrounded him.

Hamilton took brisk steps towards Dilshad, "I will try to minimise the sentence you receive, as you have helped the police and tried stopping your father from committing a murder."

Dilshad nodded his head and allowed the police to fasten his wrist with handcuffs.

He turned towards me one last time before he left the room. "Aleena, I'm sorry, won't you forgive me too?"

When I kept silent and made no move to reply to him, he left the scene with a pained expression on his face.

As I watched him stride out of the door, I expected Lissa to run after him or Aahil to say something but nothing of that sort took place.

What Dilshad had so easily lost was their trust and I knew that it would take ages for them to forget about his betrayal.

Or maybe they would never forgive.

Well, I couldn't say anything about Lissa, as love had its own way of forgiving.

But I knew now, that all bad things would come to an end and only good had the power to prevail forever.

Surely, after every hardship there was ease.

I felt twinges in my stomach that was verging in pain and made me feel decidedly uncomfortable, but right now that didn't seem important.

I rushed towards Aahil and buried myself in his embrace, tears stung my eyes, "Oh god! all this was such a nightmare," I sagged wearily against him, as I just needed him to hold me.

He lifted my chin gently with a forefinger, "Alhamdulillah, you are safe and so is my family. May ALLAH never separate us."

Beneath my thick coat, my shoulders lifted as I took a deep breath and gathered enough courage to confess my feelings.

I had waited long enough and right now my intuition told me that something truly bad was going to take place and before that I just wanted to let him know what I felt for him. Without much thought, I blurted out, "I love you so very much. I cannot imagine life without you."

Through the glare of lights and the commotion still behind us, I saw understanding dawn on Aahil's face.

I closed my eyes against the dark intensity of his, "Please don't say anything. You don't have to feel obliged to reply. I know that it should have been the other way round and a girl is supposed to wait until the man himself proposes to her first, but believe me, I have waited long enough. And, however, a woman is always more sensible than a man."

"Why do you think that?" His voice sounded incredulous and he let out an amused laugh.

My head dropped against his shoulder, covered by the jacket that noor had placed around it.

He made me feel so wonderfully warm and safe.

I lifted my face to him, my expression pained, yet hopeful. "Do you?"

He gave a self-deprecating grimace and I essayed a rather distracted smile.

Something was happening to me and I wasn't sure what but my pains were almost cramping now.

Unconsciously, I ran a hand over the back of my soft pink skirt.

I felt so uncomfortable.

"Oh, my love ...... what did you think? That I didn't love you? I've always loved you. Since the first time that I laid my eyes on you, but then I convinced myself that it was infatuation. As time passed by, I realised that I didn't have any control over my emotions. You consumed my every thought and I had to confess to myself that I couldn't live without you."

There was a fresh smear on Aahil's cheek and I frowned at the bright, damp blood on my fingers, at the dark, jagged line where the blood had already coagulated around the wound above Aahil's eyes.

Something wasn't right!

It was terribly wrong. I could feel it.

There was blood on my hands, on my clothes. But it wasn't from him.

It was mine!

"Oh, no ----- -"

I stared, paralysed, at my hand, although my small sob and the fear that my face depicted had Aahil instantly taking control.

I might have fainted if he hadn't caught me, using what strength he had to sustain me as he pulled my back with him against the wall, supporting me with his knee, and through a swirling haze, I heard his voice, urgent and commanding. "For goodness' sake, someone get an ambulance over here!"