"my heart was a beggar; with nothing but a few shards of love,

but you came and you changed me into a millionaire,
a millionaire with a heart full of love.
love is a powerful feeling that conquers true hearts and destroys false ones,

only true hearts, capable of handling it's power, love and are loved- faaris."

Faaris had joined his new office a few days back . And thankfully , all the formalities had been cleared off much more effortlessly than he had thought . As far as his boss Aasiq was concerned , he wasn't that bad of a guy . Just loved to have fun and enjoy every situation .

"Where's my girlfriend ?"

He exclaimed , sitting down on the couch and relaxing against it . The work load was insane , sometimes even continuing for days together , depending upon the type of protection or client being served. With him being a retired army official , it was not entirely bad . A little tiring perhaps .

"Don't talk to me liar ."

He smiled wide , as Mahreen's insult echoed in the empty house .

As she stomped her way into the living room , her open hair almost flying about due to the intensity of her steps , he got up from his seat and went on his knees in front of her .

"Oh my baby ! I missed you so much ."

Mahreen scoffed , crossing her arms over her chest and huffing loudly .

"Guess you missed her more ."

Faaris' mouth twitched with a larger smile .

"What do you mean ?"

He played innocent , battling his lashes .

With a huff , she pulled something out of her pocket and slapped it into his chest . Faaris' mouth hurt with the way he was holding back his laughter .

When he did take whatever it was that had caused his girlfriend's blood to boil , his eyes snapped open .

"She ? Where did you find this ?"

She gave him a side view and whispered a reply .

"On your desk . You forgot it this morning ."

Faaris had almost lost himself in the photo when the steps of her stomping away alerted him .

"Hey ! Hey , hey , hey , hey ."

He rushes forward to her on his knees and she turned her head away .

"Look , now you're not trusting your boyfriend here . That is wrong okay ?"

He pouted and she sort of gave him a look .

"Besides , I carry her photo just because she's....well , because her photo somehow ended up in my wallet ."

That seemed to convince the girl a little , as she turned to fully face him .

"Really ?"

Faaris nodded with determination .

"Of course ."

He moved closer to her and whispered into her ear .

"I don't want to hurt her you know ."

Mahreen nodded , a little understandingly .

"Also , I got my girlfriend a little gift !"

Her face enlightened instantly . He carried her in his arms , as she laughed gleefully at the weird noises he was making .

Once they'd reached the kitchenette , he dropped her on the island , ordered her to shut her eyes and asked her to count till then .

She opened her eyes to find him holding a cake box in his hands , stretching it out towards her .

"A cake ? Yay !"

She exclaimed happily , throwing her arms around his neck while he lifted her up and twirled her in the air .

After he had dropped her on the couch , he went back to the kitchen and cut a slice out of the strawberry cake . Arranging it carefully on a plate , he dashed out and propped beside her .

"Here's the cake for the most perfect girlfriend ."

She giggled as he put down the plate in front of her .

"Now where's my gift ?"

He asked and she turned to look at him .

She pulled him close and dropped a kiss on his cheek and he smiled back widely .

"Thank you Habibti ."

She grinned .

"You're the bestest boyfriend ."

And with that , she got engrossed into eating her cake and he relaxed against the couch . While she ate , he decided to lay down on her lap . She looked down at his face , stunned for a second before she nodded .

"Okay okay , lie down ."

Most of the times , he wished coming home from a hectic day at work and relaxing in his wife's arms . He could be considered a love sick puppy but he didn't mind that . Because as long as he felt relaxed in his lawfully wed wife , nothing would be wrong .

But only if Inaya gave him the privilege to .

"Okay , so kids , today we'll be having a very special person with us soon ."

Valerie announced , setting down her fork and chewing on the last bite of her raspberry tart .

"Oh yeah , we forgot to mention !"

Elsa exclaimed , sighing loudly .

"Who's it ?"

Samantha asked , leisurely chewing her fries . Sarah had been quietly watching as her sister stole a fry from her plate and devoured it shamelessly .

Victor looked at her with narrowed eyes and motioned for her to stop it .

"Well , it's our brother , Franklin who'll be coming soon ."

Elsa squeaked , both she and Valerie squealing with elation .

"Isn't he the one whose wife passed away a few years back or something ?"

Gabriel casually pointed out , holding up a spoon .

The table fell over with a devastated silence as everyone seemed to have a hard time swallowing the remaining food . When the news was first delivered , it had ended up being very traumatic and even stressful to Derek , Franklin's only son .

"Yeah , we had met him only once . A few years back at that ."

Victor slowly replied , while both the sisters had fallen gravely silent .

"What had happened ?"

Afra found herself being curious . She drank her glass of water and almost spit out the last swallow , as everyone's piercing gazes locked onto her .

Elsa sighed sadly .

"It was a very tragic case . He had fallen in love with a Jewish woman.....I don't recall her name but she was a beautiful person in and out . The kind of people one shouldn't let go if they ever cross our path ."

Valerie smiled sweetly , propping her chin on the heel of her palm .

"They truly were in love one could say . Our parents never entertained interreligious marriages and it was a matter of great trivial . In both of the families , horrible riots took place . For several months , our brother had been under strict surveillance whereas she was locked up in her room ."

Valerie sighed loudly as Victor took over the narration .

"From what I've been told , after that , several months passed by . And Franklin and her were sick to the point that both of their families were worried with their deteriorating health ."

Valerie weeped a little as Victor rubbed her back .

"Finally , seizing the Christmases opportunity , they ran away . Never to return . Years passed by and life went on . Mom often cried recalling him , but never wanted to talk to him or even find out if he was alive or not . A few years after Derek — their only son's birth — I had somehow been informed that his wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer ."

Afra gasped aloud , along with Sarah and Samantha .

"That is horrible ."

Inaya softly emphasised , earning a sad smile from Valerie .

"Very unfortunate indeed regarding how we didn't even have the privilege of meeting her ."

Elsa sighed , banging her fist down on the table and standing up abruptly .

"Which is why exactly I want my brother to have a very good time here with us ."

Everyone at the table slowly agreed — albeit a little taken aback with Elsa's outburst — because why not !

They had finished eating . Gabriel decided to just leave the ladies do their work and the men aside .

Gabriel was seated in the back garden , admiring the city's weirdly orderly scenario . He had walked in there right after their food and was glad he had taken that step .

The road was bustling with cars and large trucks and although it was the peak hour - with several schools being dispersed with majority of offices - the place felt like a place of order with strict standards and rules .

"Hey brother , wassup ?"

Sam hit him on the back of his head and he grimaced .

"Thinking of the devil and the devil appe....- " he paused , feeling a little uneasy when he spotted Hafsa make her way with Sarah .

Sam followed his gaze and let out a low whistle .

"She's gorgeous just so you know ."

She wiggled her brows at him and he felt his cheeks burn a slight bit . He knew that she was amazing . They hadn't talked much and nothing of specific significance , yet it came off to him like she was a part of him . A part of his that spoke to him .

"I know that ."

He softly whispered as Sam hopped  her way to Hafsa and Sarah . They giggled and talked about something in hushed voices . Gabriel wondered what it was but chose to question his sisters when Hafsa wouldn't be around .

As he started to dwell upon the well maintained mini garden that had been grown , someone tapped his shoulder and he turned around to see it was .

"A penny ?"

He turned back around to find Inaya swinging on a branch . The branch belonged to one of the three trees that beautified the garden . It was a little unbelievable that Inaya could swing so well on a branch .

"For my thoughts ?"

She nodded , clasping her fingers tighter around the branch .

"Yup . You sort of look worried ."

Gabriel frowned a little . It was true that he was going through the events of the last day . The day they had hung out in a mall .

The malls here were large and spacious , similar to the ones in London . Now that wasn't what was perturbing him . As a matter of fact , a situation that had happened during that time had been pestering him for a while now .

"I......there was something that happened yesterday ."

Inaya steadily stopped her swinging , tilted her head to a side and looked at him blankly .

He watched - quite edgy in his seat with regard to the height - as she swung herself with one last energised blow , loosened her grip on the branch and landed on her knees at a distance .

Gabriel scrambled to his feet , his mouth partially open while Inaya dusted off her abaya and hands .

"How did you do that ?"

He asked , still momentarily fazed with what had occured .

Inaya shurugged , settling on the bench a little space away .

"Just like that I guess . It took me a lot of time to practise that ."

She paused and tapped the seat to ask him to sit down .

"I had - "

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT ?!"

Gabriel and Inaya turned around to find a very spellbounded man with a head of tousled dark hair and widened grey eyes standing at the door , pointing a finger at her and the tree alternatively .

As he took his time walking to the bench while keeping his gaze stuck between Inaya and the tree , Gabriel made out his dark eyebrows and thin lips .

When he came back to the bench — his puzzled look now replaced with an impressed smile — Gabriel figured it was his cousin who was expected to arrive earlier .

"Anyway , I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself ." He smiled sweetly and extended his arm forward .

"I'm Derek ."

Gabriel shook his hand .

"Name's Gabriel ."

Derek seemed impressed .

"That's a nice name . Gabriel ."

Gabriel frowned . His name was pretty common and known . He shrugged a little .

Derek extended his arm towards Inaya who politely shook her head .

"I'm sorry I don't do handshakes . But it's nice to meet you too Derek . I'm Inaya ."

He blinked a little at how she had refused to have a handshake with him but quickly gave her a soft smile .

"You're name is.....really pretty . It feels so luxurious to say ."

Inaya smiled gratefully and placed a hand on her hand to show her gratitude .

"That's very sweet of you . Thank you ."

An awkward silence fell over them and Gabriel wished he could just let out his worries to Inaya . Within his gang of crazy cousins ,  she seemed that most reasonable . What he had foreseen required a human of professional experience and he figured that as much as he wanted to discuss it with Hafsa — just for the sake of talking with her — Inaya was the perfect option . She was even the eldest after him in their cousin club and it was only sensible to let her know of the dwelling trouble upon Afra .

"I'll go and meet them ."

Derek waved and jogged over to the little girl gang . As soon as he had gone from their vicinity , he turned to Inaya .

"We have something to discuss ."

She propped her head against the bench while settling down on it .

"You've been worried sick about something and I can feel it . So spit !"

Gabriel sighed , running a hand through his hair .

"This is going to sound weird and very paranoid at that . Still you need to know it ."

Inaya's eyes narrowed slightly as he adjusted himself a little closer to her .

"In the mall , the other day , Afra had I presume finished her shopping and was searching for me so I could carry her bags . Somebody else had volunteered to help her out in the meanwhile ."

Inaya had already straightened her back , fully facing him at this point .

"I was actually following the same guy who had kind of developed an interest in Afra . He kept a close watch on her and made sure to click some pictures of hers too . It was alarming me greatly but there was no way I could hold him guilty of his crime because he was very smooth at what he was doing . I could have let him slip by had I not seen him stand a few aisles away from Afra while clicking a photo . It seemed suspicious and I had — to the best of my abilities — kept a pretty close watch on him ."

Inaya held her breath , feeling a sense of guilt alert her . All that time she was busy with Sarah and Sam while Afra could have been probably abducted or something had it not been for Gabriel's observations .

"Imagine my horror when I figured out he was offering to help her out . Thank god , I was right there . In that huge mall , she could have been easily carried away — or whatever it was he was planning on doing — and nobody would have even noticed ."

Inaya felt her knees went weak and her mouth dried up .

"How..... — no , you found him clicking her picture ."

She murmured , drumming her knuckles on the bench .

"Exactly ! I saw him clicking her photo only . I mean if he was some pervert , he could have targeted the other women who had not been as modestly covered as Afra . No offence to any woman , but I'm just trying to get the point to you ."

Inaya nodded pensively . The facts were indeed evident in pointing out that Afra was some man's target .

"I don't mean to startle you right now , but I had ever seen him around here while heading to the grocery store down the street ."