"lut gaye ham toh pheli mulaqaat mein."

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IF Haider had to characterize himself in three words, they would be: indomitable, assertive, and confident.

He was always a man in control.

Of his life.

Of his emotions.

He had been through many rough patches, had been in problematic predicaments but he always managed to retain his composure regardless of the situation.

But not tonight.

Tonight, every fibre of his being was shaking with unbridled wrath.

His heart was ablaze.

He was burning.

And he wanted to burn the whole world to cinders with the raging inferno she had sparked inside of him.

Standing in the half-empty banquet hall―the place where he was supposed to tie the knot tonight―with his downcast eyes and hands latched onto the top rail of a chair, he fought to control himself.

The space was charged with the cacophony of complains and apologies but he failed to focus on anything. His mind reverberated the same news he had received upon his arrival; the words that had struck him like a bolt from the blue.

"Iman is not here."

He grounded his jaw.

"She ran away with a guy."

His knuckles turned pale with the crushing grip he had on the chair.

He hadn't believed it at first. He thought his ears had betrayed him because she couldn't do this.

Iman. His Iman.

The woman of his dreams; the woman he had waited patiently to make his; the woman so delicate and pure like a flower―she could never do something so vicious, so immoral.

But she had.

His ears hadn't betrayed him, she had.

In the span of few moments, his emotions had transformed from utter bewilderment to pain to sheer indignation. It took an ample amount of restrain to not destroy every garlanded object around him; to not crush every chain of flowers that seemed to taunt him.

"If Iman didn't want to marry my son, then why didn't she say so earlier? Why did she do this? And how could you not know she already had someone else in her life, Ashfaq?"

His father's booming queries slashed through the air and reached his haywire brain grappling with the same questions.

"I... don't know what to say," came Iman's father's dejected reply, prompting Haider to lift his gaze and march forward until his sturdy frame was standing right in front of him.

Haider had never seen Ashfaq Bakhtiyar look so helpless; so defeated. He couldn't believe he was the same old man who always held his head high and could intimidate anyone by just looking at them but couldn't even look him in the eye tonight.

"I always thought your daughter didn't like to speak much," his voice was ominously low, scathing, and scorching. "But, I didn't know she also had a talent of leaving people speechless."

Her father averted his gaze shamefully and mumbled, "I'm so sorry, Haider betay."

"Sorry?" he scoffed in repulsion before an acidic edge coated his tone. "That your daughter will be, Uncle."

His declaration made Omer, who was standing a few feet away watching the storm his bajjo had stirred, swallow hard as he hesitantly glanced at Haider's profile. His taut frame, wild flaring eyes, and lips set into a grim line made him seem like a man who was about to unleash hell.

"How dare she," Haider whispered as he tore his flaming gaze away from her father and veered his body ahead.

And then he roared, "How dare she make a mockery of me like that!"

The sound of his voice―almost animalistic―ricocheted off the ornamented hall, jolting the people present there and leaving them dumbstruck.

"Who is he?" Haider turned to the embarrassed lot of Bakhtiyars and posed his seething question to them. "Who's the guy she ran off with?"

"We don't know anything about his identity but Sameera saw him," Amir was the only one who dared to answer him and his gaze instantly flitted across the hall and descended on the girl stationed to his left.

Sameera's countenance became rigid when he locked his charring gaze on her and she couldn't quell a quiver that danced across her spine. His rich, dark irises were lit with flames of fury and resentment but she could see a faint tinge of another emotion in his eyes that was being overshadowed by his spleen.

Hurt.

He was hurt. And she knew, hurt fused with anger was a perilous combination.

Haider freed her from his stare with an intent to have a conversation with her later and directed his ravaging glare back to the Bakhtiyars. "Iman has no idea what she has done," he hissed out and the warning saturating his tone was unmissable.

His father moved closer and rested his hand on his shoulder, squeezing it tightly. "Haider, we've been insulted enough. Let's just g―"

"No, dad!" Haider rapped, roughly jerking back his arm and liberating his shoulder from his father's grasp. "No. She won't get away with this so easily. I won't let her!"

And then, he gyrated like a thunder cloud towards her family with an overbearing aura of wrath swathing him.

"I'll find her. Wherever the hell she is, I'll find her. I promise I'll bring her back and make her regret what she did for the rest of her life!" he vowed, each and every word repleted with morbid conviction.

Iman was callow to think she could mess with him and run away to live a happily ever after.

The fire of revenge swelled within his chest and gleamed brighter in his eyes. He would shatter her dreams just like she had mercilessly wrecked his.

And everyone present in the hall had no qualms over believing that he most definitely would.

Because he was a man of his words.

A familiar pale white Vitz was stranded in the middle of the road with the headlights turned off and seats empty of the passengers.

A few miles ahead, the clinking sound of heels hitting the terrain and the rushing of boots filled the cold night air as a red and dark silhouette moved on the asphalted road that wound alongside the coastline. The fathomless bundle of sea had a steady pulse with the waves gently smoothening out to the shore in a musical tone; unlike the couple trailing by.

"Goddammit this sucks!" Zain groused, frayed puffs of breath flying from his lips with every lumbered step he took. "It's all because your precious Omer's car decided to die all of a sudden."

His statement made Iman, who was already struggling to walk behind him, pause and drill holes into his back with her eyes.

"It's because of that car we're not dead yet," she spat, folding her arms across her chest.

Zain swirled around and met her vexed glare pegged on him. "We will be if we don't find a safe spot soon."

"And where is the safe spot?"

"There." Zain pointed his thumb backwards, making Iman peek over his broad shoulders and beholding a towering palazzo with a glossy aqua-white structure standing luminously, adjacent to the mighty ocean.

"That building?" she queried.

"Yeah, now don't just stand there and wait for those goons to catch up. Hurry!" Zain exclaimed.

Iman's brows pinched into a heated frown. "Don't you see what I'm wearing?" She clutched the hem of her lehenga, lifting it up and stressing on the heavy details. "It's so hard to walk!"

A flame coiled in his eyes as his feet moved towards her; inky irises staring at her face bathed in the opalescent glow of the moon. "I just want to let you know that," he drawled huskily, closing the distance between them and keeping his intense gaze pinned on her.

Iman's agitation disappeared into thin air and her heart did a little jump in her chest as she struggled to hold his stare―especially when the moonlight reflected so entrancingly in the dark galaxy of his eyes.

"That?" her lips finally moved but her eyes resided on him―his on her.

"That," Zain blinked, taking a step back. "That I'm not picking you up in this thing."

Iman's jaw tumbled to the ground before she pulled it up and gritted out, "No one asked you to!"

With that, she breezed past him and trudged forward, furiously stomping on the road like she's squashing something―or someone.

Zain chuckled and confined his lower lip between his teeth as he amusingly watched her drag her riled up frame across the road. He shook his head and ran after her, yelling out, "Hey be careful, you'll fall."

After a good ten minute struggle of forcing their weary limbs forward, the bride and the man in black finally reached their destination.

Threading their way past the lobby and elevating to the seventh floor, they both now stood in front of an apartment's latched wooden door.

"Is this where you live?" Iman asked with curiosity crowding her voice.

"Nope, it's my friend's apartment. He's not home though. Out of city," he answered as he swivelled his head to the side and raked the green line of potted plants adorning the entrance.

"Then why are we here?"

He shoved his hand into one of the pots, making Iman's face twist into incomprehension.

What in the world was he doing?

She watched him scour the pot with his fingers for few seconds before he snickered and pulled out his dirt-laden hand, holding a key.

"Aha, found it," he beamed.

Zain turned to the bride who was looking at him with a stupefied expression. "It's a spare key," he elaborated. "He told me he keeps it around here for emergency situations."

"You're quite adept at finding keys." Iman couldn't help the sarcasm that leaked into her tone.

His lips curved into a shady smile, mirroring the cryptic gleam smouldering in his eyes but no words came out of his mouth. Thankfully. She had no desire to find out what was going on inside his head.

He steered his gaze and raised his hand to unlock the door and while he was at it, a swarm of skeptical thoughts started creeping into her head. She knew it wasn't safe outside but... was it safe inside? Could she trust him?

'Should've thought about that before pleading him to help you out and fleeing with him,' lambasted her conscience.

Still, she couldn't tame the turmoil spinning inside her.

Zain took a step forward but then veered his body towards her; finding her frame rooted on the spot and nervously fiddling with her fingers.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he questioned.

Iman looked at him meekly and after a few moments of silence, she mumbled, "I can't go in there with you."

Zain tilted his head, assessing the anxiousness weaving her traits for a moment before he straightened his head and nodded. "Okay then, you stay here and guard me."

His statement took Iman by surprise and her eyes widened incredulously but Zain wasn't done yet.

"And if those ass-goons show up, fight them off okay? I'm counting on you," he added with a tight-lipped smile and proceeded to enter inside.

Iman's mouth hung ajar in astonishment and fear started gripping her heart. She quickly stopped him with her hand rolling out forward and clasping the hem of his sleeve―earning a sharp quirk of his brow as he turned towards her.

His gaze dipped down to her bangles-clad hand confining his sleeve and slid back up to her face, floating over her jutted out lips and winsome eyes. In a swift movement, he drifted unbearably close to her―peering right into her smokey irises.

"Iman, do you want me to pick you up and take you inside? Is that it?" Zain rasped, cocking his head to the side.

Her sheepish visage morphed into utter shock as she released her hold and recoiled back, flushing an agitated pink. Clenching her jaw and sending an icy glare his way, the woman with stormy eyes stormed inside.

A waggish grin pulled at the corner of his lips. Cutie, he whispered under his breath and shaking his head, he stalked after her.

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A/n: Heyo guys! Long time (and a pretty rough time for me actually) I think it's a miracle I finally managed to get a chapter out before this month ends.

Now, I really don't have any idea if I was able to write Haider's reaction & convey his emotions properly because I, myself was an emotional mess. I lost my grandfather last month and it was so hard & devastating for me and my family (please say a prayer for my grandfather's soul)

I just really wanted to write something―wanted to go back to the land of soothing escapism―even if it doesn't turn out how I wanted it to be.

I hope it's not super cringe and makes up for the wait. Lemme know what you make of the chapter.

This chapter is dedicated to the ever so sweet and lovely zayywritesstuff who's been a constant supporter. Thankyou so much, Z. Zain loves you hhahah. <3

So, happy reading and plis if you like it, tap on the star; leave a comment, even if it's just a word or emoji. Writers dig that shit! (whoops sorry, got possessed by Zain for a sec)

And here's an actual footage of Haider when he received the SHOCK. XD

I'll see you soon. x