"sometimes when things are falling apart, they might actually be falling in place- inaya"

The weather had fallen to an ill fate ; crying light tears of impotency while being surrounded by the darkest of troubles that could make you shed tears incessantly .

The last few events of his life had made him so very sensitively frail that the climate change had fallen over him like a hex . Apart from the fact that he was standing at Haaroon's funeral ; heartbroken .

Whatever had caused him to not bid farewell to Haaroon - as he was being lowered into the depths of the moistened soil of earth - he couldn't think . For all he knew , his friend's face glowed with Noor , he didn't have the courage to face him after being the soul reason of his death and hearing the loud and uncontrollable sobs of his father .

Sulaaymaan could hardly bring himself to talk to his household . He was the reason Haaroon wouldn't be there anymore and he was the reason his family was scarred heavily . Death was inevitable but the factors he passed away in were not what he deserved .

"Sir , are you alright ?"

All of the other guards had accompanied him - even when he had most vehemently threatened to dispose them off alive - for they feared for his life more than theirs .

"Sir , you look terrible . Are you sure you're alright ?"

Yaaser - a sturdy man in his late thirties - gripped Sulaaymaan's shoulders in fear that the latter would collapse .

Sulaaymaan briskly nodded his head and held up a hand .

"He's gone and atleast I'm alive . What could be better than that ."

The crowd of guards around him stilled for a moment , their breaths almost gone for a second . Using their stillness as an approach , Sulaaymaan swiftly made it his way out and dashed towards his car placed at the farthest corner .

Against the light tapping of the drops of rain - a miraculous blessing upon the dried arid desert - he felt his insiders feel parched and his soul withered .

Laying his palm on the soaked bonnet of the car , he rested his head on his hand . Life had been terribly miserable for Haaroon and he couldn't believe it that he was gone .

Gone forever .

He shut his eyes , feeling the large drops of tears flow down his cheeks . Memories of Haaroon came gushing into his mind . His laugh , his smile , that crazy outfit that he always chose to wear , his hair that he had accidentally coloured a dark purple instead of brown , the way he had formed a routine to taunt Sulaaymaan on every insignificant aspect and the shoulders he had lent despite his sickness . Never once had he complained of pain or winced with ache because of his acute arthritis .

"Allah , I'll miss you so much Haaroon ."

He held his head against the car , as certain precise details and promises emerged into his chest . And he felt his smile only getting precise and more overwhelming than ever .

Haaroon had loved rain !

Sulaaymaan instantly looked up at the sky .

"Damn you Haaroon . You.... actually won . It is raining on the day you've died ."

It had completely slipped Sulaaymaan's memory . Haaroon had always told Sulaaymaan that it'd rain the day he would die . Always . Like he knew what life had in store for him .

As the footsteps of someone approaching him were faintly recognised , his body stiffened .

Nobody else was there around him , but the footsteps were there .

He tried hard to focus on the steps because he had a bad gut feeling about them . Under the pitter pattering of the rain and the thunderstorms that had started to seep in , it was challenging .

But at a point things ceased for a brief second and he panicked at the footsteps that sounded louder than he had been prepared to hear.

His guards always had a specific rhythm to their style of walking in addition to the way their keys jingled in their pockets .

He may not be sharp minded - like many around him had made sure to let him be known to that - but they had failed in detecting his keen observatory skills .

The steps had started to draw nearer and Sulaaymaan felt nervous , nonetheless as always had been prepared .

As the time passed , the rain pelleted and the storm lightly started , Sulaaymaan felt a shiver run down his spine as he became aware of something steadily making his way onto his shoulder .

With a slow breath , he wheeled around and threw a punch on a person he couldn't make out much , as the rain bet heavily down on them . Whatever little light had been peeking through the clouds was long gone and Sulaaymaan was too preoccupied to have made that out .

"Owwww !"

Someone fell to the floor and Sulaaymaan felt his heartbeat resonate in his ears .

That voice was familiar.

He crouched on one of his knees and strained to watch at the person slumped down , wincing loudly .

"Rehaan ?"

"Sir ."

There was a slight moment before Sulaaymaan helped the man on his feet , who still clutched his abdomen painfully .

"I'm- I'm so....so....- sorry ."

When the shock of reality had seeped into him , he strolled back and forth - deep confusion unsettling to him - while people slowly started gathering around their cars .

He had been deeply concentrated on the pattern and the pace of the footsteps and there was no way he could have been mistaken in that case.

More of his guards followed soon after - the sound of their heels clicking and the jigging of those keys - everything synchronised in a flow.

Where then had he gone wrong in assuming things ?

"God , whatever happened to you Rehaan ?"

Taaher exclaimed as they neared the car . Once Rehaan explained , albeit a little painfully , all their eyes had stuck to him wide eyed .

"Whoa ! You can throw a hard impact punch ?!"

Umar exclaimed innocently , blinking at him .

"Well yeah , duh ."

Sulaaymaan coolly answered , though deep inside , he felt unprotected . Things were worser , way worser than he had imagined .

The sound of loud applauding snapped him back to reality where he witnessed all of his guards clapping and cheering him on . They had awestruck , surprised and stunned looks on their faces as they looked at each other in astonishment .

Sulaaymaan sighed and slapped a hand at his forehead .

"We're so proud of you sir ."

Sulaaymaan could not believe himself at what sort of kids he had hired .

As they all settled into the car , Sulaaymaan keenly focused his attention on Rehaan as he hopped into the passenger seat .

The footsteps and the jingling of the keys echoing faintly .

Afra felt dull , in accordance , with the weather that had befallen over the state . For being used to sunshine , her soul was missing it immensely . For the most part because she needed the warmth and the brightness it brought along . The occurrences of the past few days had been holding her down greatly .

"Are you alright Habibti ?"

Afra looked up from her glass of mango juice , as Queen Basmah gazed over her in concern .

"I'm fine ."

She managed to smile a little . It wasn't easy to do that . Nothing was even easy anymore .

She wondered if Sulaaymaan had already disclosed the details they'd discussed the previous night . He never talked about his father , which Afra found very perplexing in the current situation . Whatever the case , she felt horribly guilty about keeping so much from everyone at home . They may be worried sick .

With the fear of answering their continous calls , Afra had switched her phone off and had thrown it in the farthest corner of her wardrobe .

Her parents never had any hand in terms of her mental well-being . Until the time Inaya entered her life , she was left to herself without much of human contact . It was miserable when she recalled those days .

When Inaya came along , things had taken a great turn in her life . It was as if her world been illuminated and upon her desperate prayers , an angel had been sent to her rescue .

However , the only thing that changed her mindset was that she had been used to depending too much on Inaya . At every step of her life , Inaya held her hand and guided her along the rocks and pits . Along the way , she habituated herself too much with Inaya's comfort .

And it was not good .

She needed to learn to rely on herself and become proficient in challenging her mind to be able to go through the journey of rocks and pits alone .

And perhaps , that was the reason , she was left alone with the royalty .

But that didn't explain how she could cut off her family from her life , because in the end she needed to keep them informed of her safety and security .

"Ukhti , let's go play ." Kat had been tugging on her sleeve for the last few minutes and she had absolutely had no idea of it .

They were seated for a snack time and the triplets were enjoying their muffins very much .

Queen Basmah took a seat beside her and crossed her legs .

"Habibti , today let's do something a little different ."

She exclaimed delightfully .

Kat along with her girl squad plopped down on the couch as Queen Basmah urged Afra to settle down beside them too .

"Now that we are settled comfortably , I was wondering if we could have some fun ."

Afra and the girls blinked at each other .

"Let's play dress up !"

Queen Basmah exclaimed with a clap of her hands .

Afra was not very sure about this . Not that she was uninterested in this , but she did not feel well enough to play along . Her head hurt and her body shivered . Nightmares that she'd been encountering for the last two days had been excruciating for her and had left her weak and tired .

Yet she didn't have the courage to hurt the smiles on their faces .

After a heavy sigh , she grinned weakly .

With a quick move , Queen Basmah had escorted them all to her room upstairs . While walking up the steps , she had almost tripped on her abaya and felt suffocated beyond breath in her scarf and felt nauseated with her niqaab on . And she didn't even know how she had managed to make it to the top floor .

The triplets danced along the steps , singing some random tune . Queen Basmah shouted at the top of her lungs to ask them to be careful as she struggled to stop their carelessness .

They started to move along the floor with Queen Basmah refreshing her old memories .

"This mansion - though so lavish and built to the latest style - is quite misleading ." She paused to look at Afra . "When the king's mother gifted us this mansion , it was nothing but a roof of mud , wall of bricks and ground of soil ."

Afra softly laughed as Queen Basmah chuckled .

"It was because this mansion was given to us back in those old days . However , times changed and my Queen mother in-law passed away . Until then , things were pretty alright in the family and - kat no , you can't slide down the stairs !"

She exclaimed, dashing forward to catch Kat . Afra was dazed by the narration for the second and did not understand what had occured . Once the words made sense to her , she turned around and ran to the staircase .

Queen Basmah was already crutching down beside Kat who kept saying that the top of the stair was slippery .

"Mama , I did not try to slide down . I was about to slip ! This is slippery !"

She kept throwing a tantrum and shrieking her answer out . Afra could feel something weird about it . Kat - or any of the twin at that - wouldn't lie . While Queen Basmah softly tried to argue about it , Afra ducked on the ground and examined the floor above the stairs with narrowed eyes .

The heavy lighting over the roof normally did illuminate the marbled floor . But this time she noticed , that the flow had a noticeable sheen and it was glistening unlike the other parts of the ground .

Queen Basmah pulled her daughter up and helped her from around that area - along with Dandelion and Jazz - just to make sure to get them away from the stairs as far as possible .

Afra heard her strictly order the girls to not move from the spot . The girls obediently - with Kat looking shaken up - sunk to the floor and remained silent .

She ducked down beside Afra who was too busy in examining the ground just with her eyes .

"What is wrong Habibti ?"

Afra shifted her gaze to Queen Basmah's worried face .

"I think - " Afra paused and decided to carry out the action . With a racing heart and anxiousness gnawing into her stomach , she ran her shivering hand on the floor , only to find it covered in a thick layer of colourless oil . "That someone dropped some oil here ."

Afra - though not exactly sure about the dangers lingering on the family - was positive that the oil was deliberately put there . Sulaaymaan wasn't home since morning , the triplets and Queen Basmah had been downstairs since Breakfast and Afra was with them all along .

And there lived no one else with them .

Who , then , could have dropped oil on the staircase ?

Despite the dreaded fear crawling into her heart , she stood back up , dusted her palms and tried to smile with ease.

"Ah ! I remember that I had wanted to massage some oil into my hair . I'm so sorry , I didn't think I'd have dropped it so carelessly ."

She apologized endlessly , adding how it could have gravely affected the girls . Queen Basmah did look like she was not buying the story but because of Afra's constant apologies , she had to slap her head to stop her .

"HABIBTI , STOP IT !"

Afra had to stop . It wasn't her fault but that didn't make her feel any better . Whoever it was - a shiver ran down her spine at the thought of the balcony intruder - didn't have clean intentions .

After a few minutes , Afra asked the Queen and the girls to go ahead and get everything ready while she cleaned up the oil .

"Habibti , you look like you'll die with worry ! Just relax . Alhumdulillah , nothing happened and it was all a mistake . Just calm down ."

Queen Basmah softly spoke , rubbing Afra's back . The motion felt so soothing and relaxing that Afra had to - as politely as possible - push herself away before she would burst into tears .

"But , I still feel awful . Had it not been for you , she could have slipped ."

Queen Basmah sighed shaking her head with disbelief .

"Everyone makes mistakes Habibti . If it wasn't for you , it could have been me or even Sulaaymaan . The one to has done the mistake isn't at fault . And besides , I'm telling you it's alright Habibti ."

She kissed Afra's head and patted her cheek fondly .

"Jazak'Allah Queen Basmah . I promise I would never be so careless again ."

Queen Basmah shooed her away . She found Afra go down the stairs , while being engrossed in her thoughts .

As Afra descended , she had a feeling that someone was watching her closely . Too closely for her own liking which reminded her of the last few nights .

She stopped slowly and turned around abruptly . There was - most obviously - no one to wave at her . She took her sweet time in closely investigating the matter . The inspection lead her to the conclusion that there was - or is still for that matter - an intruder in the house . There was a high chance that it was the man who had abused her a few days back .

And he was pretty keen on hurting others around .

She tilted her head up and made out the huge railing lining the third and the fourth flours . It was weird how the twins - inspite of being kids - had the full third floor to themselves . It was unsettling to leave three seven year olds to themselves on an abandoned floor where till hallways away no one would be able to hear their cries for help .

She continued on her search and noticed a little something that she had either missed or she'd overlooked .

She made a mental note to catch up with Sulaaymaan soon . Things were getting dangerous .

« Assalaamualaikum Princesses ! ❤ .

Wassup my girls ?

I don't know if you guys can feel this , but everytime I write down an author's note , I feel so nervous that my mind goes blank .

I don't even know why !

*Facepalms*

Please forgive me if I sound like an Idiot .

I ❤❤❤ ysm !

Also , I was wondering if all you guys could do this crazy girl here a favour ?

I wanted to add all of your reviews into the description of this book .

So , would it be alright to ask all of you to leave your most valuable feedback down in the comments section ? Be extremely precise , downright brutal and mercilessly honest .

I like it how other books have that . So I kinda wanted it too . *Smiles sheepishly and shakes my feet because I'm crazy* ❤❤

Plus , I'd love to know your thoughts in detail .

Jazak'ALLAH so so much for giving this book a try as always . I am....as always just TOOOO grateful . ❤❤❤ .

P.S. let's get to know each other shall we ? Where do you guys come from ? ❤ .

P.P.S. please please , *begs you* , please keep our Ummah in your precious prayers . All of the Muslims are in extreme need of as much duaa as possible . ❤❤ . Let's be good and awesome Muslims . ❤❤ . In shaa ALLAH . ❤❤ .