Yusuf pushed Saad off himself, having had enough of letting him do what he wanted. Sure, he’d make a huge mistake. But he was the sinner of Kubra. He’d take any shit from her, but others coming up at him when he was here to warn them about something they ought to know, without even asking why he was here was getting over his nerves.

Yusuf never was a patient man, unlike Saad, and he especially didn’t have much tolerance for people throwing him at walls, even when he deserved it. Oh yes, he accepted that he deserved it, but that didn’t mean he would take shit from everyone. Not even from the person who had been more than a brother to him his whole life.

“Enough, Saad! You should really start asking people what they are doing at your home before you disrespect them.” Yusuf adjusted his collars and stepped away from the seething man who he was sure would soon jump his bones again.

“If you had respect for yourself, you wouldn’t keep popping into places you’re not welcome in,” Huma sneered at him. He hadn’t expected anything else. He was sure that if she didn’t have the warning restraints of her father and brother, she would remove his guts from his body, hang them to dry on a hook and make him watch, the judiciary be damned.

“You keep out of this, Huma,” he’d expected this too, to be honest. Shams Mirza rarely let Huma talk when he was there to have a better word. He watched as the tips of Huma’s ears turned red. Being friendly with the Mirzas all his life, it wasn’t something new.

Even knowing she didn’t want him to and he was angering Saad more, he couldn’t help but let his eyes seek the only black ones in the room. Kubra was uncharacteristically quiet (But what did he know of her character anymore), though she was still looking at him, her stance more cautious than he had ever seen it.

Saad pushed his shoulder, forcing him to keep his eyes off her. “Just bark what the hell you wanted and scurry off from here!”

“I needed to warn you guys about something.” He dared to take a step towards Kubra. “I needed to warn you.”

He watched her swallow and once again was reminded just how much of her personality he had changed. The Kubra before was never scared of anything. “H- How did you know where I was? Are you following me?”

“No.” Not since last week, was what he did not say, because he had other things on hand.

“I didn’t take you for a liar, Yusuf. I saw you outside Fatima’s clinic.”

“I didn’t mean to-”

“What do you hope to achieve from your tricks, Yusuf?”

“Courage to beg for your forgiveness.” He knew that there wasn’t hope for any forgiveness, but he couldn’t keep on pretending that it wasn’t an empty space in his soul where he had ripped her out himself.

She snickered, and probably the way she wasn’t breaking down at this moment was why the siblings weren’t throwing him out of here. “Where did you even get the nerve to say that, Yusuf?” He didn’t even know what he was going to say when he opened his mouth to speak but Kubra didn’t give him the chance. “Just deliver your warning.”

She wrapped her arms around herself, the heating systems of the house providing no warmth against the chill that spread over her seeing those blue eyes shutting in every emotion and displaying the icy cold exterior that he’d used when she’d begged him to believe her. The memories lingered close, threatening to take her under at the slightest chink in the false armor.

Yusuf put his hands in his pockets and took a step back. “Jamal Bajwa is going to be released on bail.”

Kubra gasped. Saad stilled. Huma gave word to what they both wanted to confirm. “What the fuck? How is that even possible?”

Yusuf looked at Huma and gave her a cold smile. “An overzealous lawyer like you, but unlike you, he didn’t have trouble lying or fabricating evidence.”

Huma forgot the shock at the jab and gave him a smile that promised death. “He sounds like a lowly bastard like you.”

Fury crossed his face but he kept the smile on his face. “I didn’t come here to exchange compliments.” He dropped the cold exterior. “All three of your lives are at danger.” He turned to Saad. “You need to make sure she is protected at all times. He used her to save his skin once. You skinned him alive to save her. She isn’t safe now. You all aren’t.”

The harsh breathing of Kubra cut their conversation short. “I need to go,” she gasped and started running, knocking the vase on her way.

*~*~*~*

Kubra couldn’t convince herself that she would remain sane after hearing that her culprit, a culprit and a monster, was going to be released after mere months when she’d had to endure much more for years! And that too from the mouth of the man who was bane of her existence. She knew the darkness was going to creep in and the two friends who were not so very friendly to her were going to pop out of nowhere.

So she had run, knowing that she didn’t want to break down in front of the man she hated and the man who hated her.

The man she loved, however, she was aware he was right behind her. But she didn’t dare stop and instead, sat in the back seat of her car and gasped at her driver to, “Go home! Now!”

She started losing sense of the world around her. The blurriness of the fast moving world outside was dimming, white spots appearing in her vision. She could hear whisper of a cackle in the back of her mind. She imagined a slender bony hand reaching out to tug at the last thread by which her sanity was held right now.

But she refused to give in. Cold sweat broke out on her body and she gripped her head in hands, her raging thoughts and emotions a burden she couldn’t hold. She couldn’t care less how she looked like to the driver or the people outside.

The car skidded to a stop and only then was she made aware of the stillness around her, when all she could hear was her harsh breathing. The driver left the car to give her privacy, but she knew he was still nearby to ensure she didn’t do anything stupid, though what could she do in a closed car was unclear to her.

She opened the car door and ran inside. She didn’t know where she was going and it didn’t make sense when she came to realize that she had stopped in front of the one room she couldn’t open before.

But she opened it.

*~*~*~*

Sonia Shahbaz had thought that she had endured all that there was the life had to throw at her. She had thought that it didn’t get any more painful than seeing her daughter being accused of murder and spending four years of agony being apart from her.

But the days of her being free, Sonia was starting to realize that separation was just the tip of the iceberg. She had never heard Kubra cry like that before. She and her husband had made sure that she was always provided for, that she was always cared for, that she never had to suffer any injuries. And even then, the little tears that she’d had to see over the years that were inevitable clawed at her heart.

But now, standing at the doorway of the room she hadn’t had courage to go in four years, watching her daughter tearing down her years of work, screaming as she went, Sonia was one step away from asking god to just grant her death.

She staggered back but was saved by her husband who put his hands on her shoulders. She wanted to look at him, but she couldn’t remove her gaze from her daughter, worried that everything that was already broken would just shatter.

“Shahbaz,” she whispered, low enough to not be heard over the hurricane Kubra was wrecking, but knowing that her husband heard her. It was a plea, a cry to take all their pains away as he always used to manage before somehow.

“Leave her be,” Shahbaz’s own voice was low, not trusting himself to speak any louder.

Kubra was crying as if someone was peeling her skin inch by inch, torturing her by putting salt on the wound and repeating it all over again. Sonia gasped as Kubra thrashed a landscape of mountain scenery on the floor and its wooden frame broke into splinters. One sharp edge cut into her palm and blood oozed out of the wound that seemed deep.

Sonia could only assume that the physical pain snapped her back to reality, for Kubra stopped. Her knees gave up as she dropped on them, holding her hand up and watching the blood trickle down her wrist, matching the tears streaming down her cheeks, except for their color, though they should’ve been bloody for all that she had suffered and still wasn’t been through.

Kubra raised her head and looked at her mother, her face tilting and lips pulling down as new set of sobs racked through her body. If possible, they were more heart-crushing than the previous ones.

Sonia didn’t think. She just ran to her daughter, sank down on her knees and hugged her. She didn’t know what she would do if Kubra pushed her away again.

But she didn’t. Instead, she buried her face deeper into her mother’s shoulder and cried.

*~*~*~*

Kubra cried for the injustice that this system allowed. She cried because she couldn’t bear to see her culprit released so soon. She cried because she couldn’t do anything about it. She cried because her one mistake had cost her sanity, her years, her love, her friendships, her career, her hobby, her passion ___ everything.

She cried because she felt ashamed of going after Wali that night. She cried because she felt angry at herself for being stupid enough to think that he wouldn’t take advantage of the empty night. She cried because she still didn’t know why she had been trapped in this game of all the politicians.

Kubra cried in her mother’s arm for all the cold nights she’d suffered. She cried for all the warm and soft beds she was deprived of. She cried for all the hot meals that she couldn’t eat even after being released. She cried for all the hugs she could’ve received from her parents.

But then her sobs mulled down, and soft sniffs replaced them. She wept in relief.

Relief because she finally was over her restrictions her mind had put over her. The repulsion from touch, the nausea from eating, the sinking feeling on soft beds, she had surpassed all that.

Relief because from the time she’d heard Yusuf say that Jamal Bajwa was being released, darkness was slowly and constantly trying to creep in on her, she hadn’t given in. KB hadn’t manipulated her in anyway.

She had cried because she wanted to! Because she wanted to get it all out of her system.

And now she couldn’t even feel the darkness in the back of her mind. It was just gone. Vanished.

She was finally and truly free.

And with that knowledge, she wept until she fell asleep in her mother’s arms.

*~*~*~*

“You and I are going to have a talk.”

Saad didn’t bother knocking. He didn’t pay heed to the poor assistance’s feeble attempts to keep him waiting. He simply barged in Yusuf’s office, announcing the urgency of the matter with such authority that Yusuf’s employees who were listening to their boss speak in the conference room nervously glanced at the two tall men and scampered out of the room when Yusuf didn’t give any indication to throw the intruder out.

“You’re civil today,” Yusuf commented, sitting down on a chair.

“I’m reigning in the urge to kill you at this moment, yes.” Saad followed Yusuf’s suit.

Yusuf gestured with both his hands a ‘what?’ said, “What do you want to talk about?” and entwined his fingers. Huma had more or less thrown Yusuf out of the house before Saad could ask him anything.

Saad leaned forward and fisted one hand on the table. “I need answers, Yusuf. Be honest this time, as I know you once were.” Underneath all that anger, there was plea in Saad’s voice, wishing to see the best friend he once had.

Yusuf’s resolve for not letting Saad get to him broke and he furrowed his brows, his face reflecting the pain he felt on his once-brother’s words.

“Just tell me one thing, Saad. And this is not a beggary for forgiveness; I know I won’t be getting any. Do you really think if I’d had any proof that she was innocent, I’d have still sent her there? Do you really believe that I wanted to hurt her?

“Do you really believe that I sold my honesty five years ago?”

*~*~*~*

Assalam o alaikum everyone!

How are you all? Hope you guys had a blast at Eid. ✨

I apologize for the wait. I’m really sorry. Hope you can all forgive me.🙏🥺

How was the chapter? Please let me know in the comments. 💟

No long excited author’s note today because I have an assignment due Wednesday that I have to complete so you guys are spared. 🥴

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Lots of Love❤️❤️❤️.
Javeria.