"He saw us that day, Rei, Amar saw me with you and he lost it." His voice trailed off and for a moment, just for a moment, I thought he wasn't going to say anymore, 'cause you see, he was crying. I knew that for a fact. But he surprised me when I heard his voice, a bit hoarse, continue.

"We weren't suppose to happen, you see. It was always him. He saw you first, he fell for you first and I was suppose to bring you together, but then I fell for you and then that night had happened and everything was ruined. Me, you, him, Irrfan, everything." He paused.

I was almost tempted to ask him what has Irrfan got to do with all these but he saved me moments later when he continued his confessions.

"Irrfan wasn't supposed to happen." He sounded bitter, angry. "You weren't supposed to fall in love with him and he, you. He was Amar's bestfriend. He was supposed to just hide you for six months, just until Aman could convince you that he loves you, you know, the old chivalrous way. He saves you and you fall for him. That was the plan but then I got a call from Irrfan asking me to come save you. He said he got into a fight with Aman and he asked him to leave, but he couldn't. He had gone back to you that day and had stayed with you ever since. I was supposed to meet you both the night he escaped with you but that too I manage to ruin somehow. Irrfan had died and it was because of me."

And then quiet again as if he was giving me time to allow the truth sink in and for a moment there, I thought just maybe, maybe, he knew I was listening, but then he had went on again his shame and pain evident in the lithe of his voice and somehow it didn't matter if he knew or not.

"If he hadn't called me, perhaps..." He let his words hang. "And Khairat too." He let go of a deep breath. "I ruined her too. I do that a lot, Rei, ruin people. You, Aman, everyone I come in contact with. Perhaps I was better alone. Perhaps that was why God had kept me that way all along. It was a sign, apparently. But I was greedy, ironic, isn't it? " He let out a harsh laugh but it was more of a whimper. He was clearly in pain.

"She didn't lie, Rei, she didn't." He was almost screaming and his voice bordered on hysteria. It was as if he was trying to hide his pain in the intensity of his voice, like some sort of shield.

"She did see me drunk, only it wasn't me, it was him. He had been jealous and angry and had downed more than his fair share of alcohol and then he'd broken Khairat's heart all over again in a bid to ruin us and then he'd gone for a ride and we both know what happened next." He hit the steering wheel hard and again and again and again and again and then I held his hands. I couldn't let him injure himself you see. I simply couldn't. And for a while, we sat in silence, my hand over his bloodied wrist until his pained voice slithered through and broke the serenity.

"How was I supposed to blame him, Rei? You were never mine in the first place. I stole you from him. He wasn't at fault, I was. I never should have come into their lives." He rested his head over my hands, defeated and I felt his warm tears on them.

I wanted to tell him it wasn't his fault, that it was all destiny. He couldn't have done anything. But I couldn't. I simply couldn't find my voice at that moment. All I could do was cry; for him, for me, for everything that had happened. He was only seventeen when it had all happened, two years after he found his family, how can I blame him for wanting to protect his family? I know I would have done same.

"That was why I was willing to take the blame for it all. You already hated me, I didn't think I had anything more to lose anyway. But he betrayed me, you see. He had a video of us from that night. I don't know how, but he did and in exchange for the video, I promised to stay away from you. However he found out that I had contacted you and in a fit of anger, he sent the video to your dad, blackmailing him and I found out too late. I tried to explain to him that I only called you to end it. But he didn't want me to end it. He wanted to pretend to be me and I had ruined it all. I never even knew he wore contacts sometimes. I didn't know that he spied on me with a camera he'd installed in my room. I didn't know he was jealous of me."

He looked up and our eyes held in the darkness but even in the dark I could see how broken he was. I looked out the window and moments later, he went on. And in his words, I felt his regret and pain

"Perhaps if I had known earlier, I would have at least saved your dad. But you were in the hospital and I had been heartbroken and lost and feeling guilty and with the lawsuit and all, I had given up completely on myself. I never suspected he was up to something until I heard him talking to someone on the phone about your dad. I tried calling your house but no one was home and when I got to the hospital, you had already left. I didn't know who to call or what to do. He's my brother, you see, I couldn't call the police on him, not when I nursed the hope that I could make him see reason. I was even prepared to take the blame for the kidnapping too but when I got there, your dad was barely alive, and he wouldn't give up and in the end, he locked up the both of us."

"You...you met my dad?" I whispered softly but he didn't hear me, he had turned his head towards the window and wasn't paying me attention. I am pretty sure he hadn't heard me.

"I tried so hard to convince your dad to simply sign the papers Amar wanted him to sign but he simply wouldn't budge, he simply refuse to give you up for his freedom. I told him we'd find a way, both of us to free you if we survive here, but he refused. He'd read the whole thing you see, it's a marriage arrangement you can never be free from, ever. It binds you to him legally until death, he simply couldn't take that risk. You have to believe me, Rei, I tried my best, I really did but he refused and instead asked me to give to you a necklace, he said to tell you the answers you seek are all in it. But then he'd asked me to leave, to let him go  I didn't want to though, I knew you would never forgive me but he left me with no choice. He suddenly asked to see Amar and they walked him out of the house and I never saw him again. And then I heard he was found dead by the roadside a day later."

"Where is the necklace, Aman?" I asked in a guttural voice tugging his shirt, forcing him to face me.

"It doesn't matter now, Rei," He still wasn't looking at me. "Amar has the necklace now. But he'd destroyed it. I am sorry I failed you, again."

"Why didn't you give me the necklace, Aman, why?" I broke down, crying hysterically. I opened the door and began to run; anywhere but in that car with him, that was all I could think.

However he followed me and when he tried to stop me and I struggled hard with him screaming for him to let me go, but he refused. And after struggling for a while, I stopped. And for a few more moments, I allowed him to hold me as I cried my eyes out and moments later when I tried to leave, he didn't stop me. He simply followed me  behind like a bodyguard.

I stopped after a few steps and faced him. He stopped too, but he refused to look at me.

"Why didn't you give me the necklace?" I asked again, calmly this time.

He looked up at me, his face surprised under the soft light of the streetlights. "I did. I wrapped it up in an envelope and with my confession and sent everything to your mom. It was the necklace Amar took from you when he kidnapped you that day. I thought you knew that was why you had the necklace on you, always."

I didn't. Ma only said it was my dad's last gift to me which was in a sense true, just not entirely.

He took a step towards me, close enough to feel each other's breath but not touching.

"I am sorry I have always failed you but believe me not a day has gone by that I hadn't think of you and all the things that I could have done differently. And I have written to your mom ever since asking for her forgiveness but she never wrote back. She never called my number either until last night when I had received a message from her to come get you."

So it was mum.

"I don't deserve you, I know. God I know nobody deserves me. But I promise, Rei, if you'd give me one chance, one last chance, I promise to love you, cherish you and make you the happiest woman on earth. I love you so much, Rei, you're all I have in my thoughts and prayers in the last ten years. You are always there no matter how much I wanted to move on, in my memories, on every breath I took, in every decision I make. I don't know if God is giving me a second chance at happiness with you but I'll like to believe so. I have always love you, Reima Ahmad and I'm afraid I always will. You complete me, Rei, like a prayer answered."

And then he'd covered the distance between us.

"A lifetime with you, that's all I ask. A lifetime to show you how much I love you. A lifetime to show you how much we fit each other."

And then he'd hugged me.

"I love you, Rei. I love you so much it hurts."

And then I hugged him too. And in that moment our bodies held each other, I could feel that our heart was beating on the same wavelength. He was right, we fitted each other perfectly.

And when moments later his eyes had looked down at my lips longingly, I let him kiss me, and even though it was against all I stood for, even though it was wrong, I kissed him back.

And the world suddenly made sense.

And then just like that, I turned and walked away. And this time, he didn't follow me or even try to stop me. He simply let me walk away.

He didn't have to. I was his. He felt it in my kiss as I did in his. I have always been his.

THE END