Grief, worry and hesitation clouded Afni's mind as she paced around her room in the middle of the night. It was the second day after the devil himself showed up at her bedroom door.

She thought that his proposal and that stupid contract of his was absurd. There was no way she would agree to that forceful marriage because she even had a fiance.

'How dare he even threathen me?'

She thought and chuckled humourlessly.

The one thought that had been running through her head repeatedly was if she should sell her soul to the devil and save her family or if she should ruin her family and save herself.

She knew she loved her family to death and they, her but selling her soul to that devil may turn them against her.

Her phone was in her hand and she tightened her grip on it. She had 4 hours until the deadline he had given her and she will either have to save or ruin her family.

Just one word is enough, just one. Wahid kalimat and that will determine her entire future.

In her heart she had already made the decision but her mind kept telling her not to do it. She had always followed her heart but not that day.

She was not so sure because her mind put up a pretty good argument. She groaned and ran her hand through her hair from under her hijab.

"Ya Allah, you are The Most knowledgeable and The All Knowing. Please guide me to the right way."

She entered the bathroom and performed wudhu(ablution) and went out to pray istikhara. After praying two raka'ahs, she raised her two hands to pray to Allah.

She was so deep in thought that she didn't realize she had started to daydream. Her conscious was making up possibilities of what could happen based on her decision.

Whatever she saw was all she needed to assure herself of her decision.

She snapped out of her thoughts and took her phone that she had thrown on her bed in frustration earlier.

She started to fumble with the buttons. She was having second thoughts about what she was about to do but she had full faith in Allah SWT.

She finally sighed and pressed on the call button. On the first ring, the devil picked up the phone almost as if he had been waiting for that particular call.

"Assalamu Alaykum. Who is this calling me in the middle of my peaceful sleep. Do you not know to never wake up The Almir Akhdan from his amazing slumber?"

A gruff voiced spoke immediately. She rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"Wa Alaykumu Salam."

She answered and received a chuckle from the other end.

"So let's see, miss Afni Imran finally decided to call me and that too at what? 1:27am."

The devil answered smugly and she could almost see his smirk which she wanted to wipe off his stupid face. She sighed and got to the reason she called in the first place.

"I've made my decision. "

She said it in a small voice and the smirking jerk answered with,

"What is it then?"

She hesitated before finally saying it, uneasiness settling deep in the pits of her belly.

"I... Well uh- hmm yes. "

He laughed with that his gorgeous voice that made her feel faint in the head. She quickly dismissed the thought with a shake of her head.

"Yes, what?"

He taunted though his voice suggested he very well knew what she was talking about.

"Yes, i will sell my soul to you in other to save my family from your evil clutches!"

she answered annoyed and exaggerated.

Suddenly there was silence from both sides. Minutes passed before he finally spoke up.

"Ok i will visit you tomorrow so that we can discuss it, my queen."

He mocked and before she could answer with a retort of her own, he cut the call and she groaned.

'This man is impossible wallah.'

As she thought about what she had just done, her face fell and she started panicking again.

She sat down on her bed to think about what she had just done. She had betrayed her family and Salman, her fiance. How did it even get to this? How did she end up in this situation?

"Ya Allah, please help me. I seriously regret my decision for saying yes to that devil. But if i had said no then that meant that i was being selfish but even though, i still regret my decision."

The best solution for her was to wait till he came the next day as promised and she will try and convince him to leave her family and her alone.

She still couldn't believe she even thought of destroying her whole life that way. How could she? How could she betray salman?

He gave her all his trust and she betrayed him. She didn't even know if she could face him ever again after what she had done to him.

'Oh ya Allah! Ya Rahman, Ya Rahim, Ya Gaffar. Please forgive me for all the sins i have committed against your servant. For all the people i have hurt. Ya Allah, guide me to the right part. Choose what is best for me and my family. Ya Rabbil Arshil Azim.'

She laid down on her bed and the thing that went through her head was the thought of meeting the smirking jerk again, tomorrow.

-------------------------------

"I'm sorry but I can't marry you. My engagement is coming up next month and I cannot betray my family and my soon-to-be fiance."

She had said as soon as she sat down on the brown London bench.

She had woken up in the morning and taken a bath and changed into a peach billowing high waist skirt with a white long sleeved sweater top with peach and pale blue designs on it.

She had blow dried her waist length curly brown hair and put it up in a candy floss bun. She put on a white and peach flower necklace then tied her pale blue veil around her head.

She put on a light peach lip balm, mascara, kajal and then finally she was done. She changed the case of her phone to match her clothing, and that's just how obnoxious she was!

She finally went downstairs to eat breakfast. That afternoon, the girls and her planned to meet up and have some fun.

At 12:30pm, Almir called her up and asked her to come to a park 20 minutes away from their house and she agreed with the intent to tell him the truth.

She put on a pair of pale blue heels that matched her outfit and stepped out of her home to the hot afternoon blaze.

Now there she was, waiting for a reply but she didn't expect to hear what she did. But then again, she was talking to the most unreadable person ever.

He had just shrugged and threatened her, and that was all it took to get her to comply. How easy it was to remind her that her family's fate lied in his hands.

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