"Bhaabi—even with the video evidence, do you think it will be enough to stop Harris bhai? We all knew that Harris bhai had something against Rayyan bhai—but to this extent?! Man, he needs help—" Ahmed shook his head besides me; his hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road ahead.

Ahmed was a year younger than Haniya and still in business school. He was their cousin from Mom's side of the family and had no blood relation with Rayyan per se. Yet, he agreed to help me with this, alongwith Haniya. I didn't want to ask her for this—to go against her own brother to help me and Rayyan. But she agreed with Ahmed, that someone needed to stop him, now or never.

"No. But the right evidence in the right hands is all that we need." I returned without looking up. Finally, there was only one thing left to do. I knew how I could put this video to best use.

"Hello? Daddy?" I whimpered, even though my eyes were far from teary. I saw Ahmed turn to me slowly, with a stunned look on his face.

I knew now, what Uncle Zia had planned. He thought he could get rid of Rayyan by using my name to blackmail him. He knew where to hit him, somehow and Rayyan had fallen right into his trap. I had no doubt that everything would've gone according to his plans without my parents ever finding anything about it. Or, even if they did find it out later, it may have very well been too late for it. But whatever it was, Uncle Zia knew what Dad could do to him if he ever knew how they had used me in this way. There was no way that he could afford to spoil his business relationship with Dad, over anything. That's mainly why he had arranged mine and Rayyan's marriage as a last resort, afterall.

Everything was going smoothly until he, pulled that stunt.

I knew what my Dad's response was going to be and the only thing that was slightly different from my imagination was the height of Dad's rage.

"HOW DARE HE—!! How dare he think to accuse MY daughter—!!" Dad bellowed and I had to pull the phone away from my ear. I had told him everything from start to finish, leaving out the part about the pictures, which Rayyan didn't want anyone to find out.

I wasn't crying, only pretending to. I was too angry to cry and even if I could've, Dad's swearing and anger had quite frankly frightened me, beyond measure.

"—and you're okay? Did they do anything to you?" I could sense a hint of tremor in his voice. It wasn't anger—but fear; for his child's safety.

More than a decade ago, I was accused of a crime I never committed. Everyone ridiculed me, looked at me like a person without any respect or honour. My entire life had become a free show for their amusement and leisure. Just one lie had turned my life into a living hell. With just one word, instantly all my truths had converted into lies. I was innocent but treated like a criminal—and lived like a criminal.

But today I was finally liberated of all those accusations. Over there, Rayyan was lying in the hospital bed, hanging between life and death, only because he was trying to protect my honour. And here, Dad was ready to fight against the whole world to protect me and my life. Only a year ago, I was so close to running away and turning that false allegation into a reality. If Allah didn't put a stop to my plans then—and didn't help Rayyan to hinder that person's schemes, now—I would have really turned into the dishonourable person they had accused me to be.

The realisation felt like a lump of tears blocking my windpipe, which I had to gulp down before nodding and reassuring him of my safety.

"Okay—you just stay with Rayyan. Take care of yourself and him. Don't worry about anything. Nothing will happen to Rayyan. I will take care of everything." I silently nodded, even though he could obviously not see me.

"I'll call you after talking with Zia—I'll leave with your Mom right afterwards—We'll be there with you before morning. Okay?" His voice was hard with restrained anger but his tone was gentle and dripping with worry.

As soon as he ended the call, I silently begged Allah to forgive me for all of my sins I had committed in disobedience to Him. I sincerely thanked Him for not only protecting my virtue but blessing me with so much honour in front of all these people who had once plotted against me. Yet, Allah foiled their plans and blessed me with a life full of respect and dignity, way beyond their imagination and what I actually deserved.

Just then, Ahmed's voice had put a halt to my self reproaching.

"Man—bhaabi—I mean this with all due respect but, WOW—You're so cunning. Remind me to never mess with you." Ahmed remarked stupefied, while shaking his head in amazement.

"You still need a reminder?" I asked instead, after wiping away my tears. His response came in a queasy smile. However, before I could say or hear anything else, my phone began to ring.

;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;

"I can't believe you, Ismail—! I thought I could trust you—" My voice was shaking more with fear than anger.

I had woken up a few minutes ago and the first thought that flashed across my mind was of her. My fears were worsened when I didn't find her by my side and instead came to face, Ismail.

"I told her that you would know—!" He muttered under his breath and I had a good mind to shake him, until he could get his thoughts straight.

"No more lies, Ismail—What did you tell her? How much—" The Doctor had just left after checking up on me and it took all the wits in me to not strangle him, infront of everyone. On asking about her, he told me that she had gone to Haveli to get her stuff—which I didn't buy for a single second. There was no way that she could've left me alone with only Ismail, after finding out about the shooting. I could figure out as much that she must've found out about the fraud case, by now. Hani might've spilled it to her. But no one besides mine and Ismail, knew about the other thing.

"You told her didn't you—?" I asked again, when he didn't say anything.

"She threatened me, Rayyan—your wife—" He tried saying but I couldn't hear anything else.

"And Harris? Where is he?" I felt my voice coming from somewhere afar, as I fixated my gaze to my feet on the floor.

"On bail—" He answered after a pause and I felt myself releasing a long tired breath.

"Give me your phone." I asked him, after hearing everything.

—————————————

By now, I was beginning to lose track of time. Has it been an hour?

"Zaira—sweetheart—" I tried saying but she wasn't willing to let go of me. Thankfully at the very least she had stopped crying. With a sigh, I pulled her even closer to my side, so that my chin rested over her head.

"I am sorry—Rayyan—I am sorry—I didn't know anything—" Once again, she was repeating the same thing that she had been saying since I had called her, almost 2 hours ago. Even though she was weeping over the phone, but for the first time, rather than misery, her cries were bringing me a sense of relief.

'Atleast, she is safe and on her way to me, with Ahmed. Although, there's no one that I could really trust with her safety.' I kept thinking while counting down the minutes until she came in and was safe in my embrace.

"Zai—I didn't tell you because I wanted to protect you from all this. You shouldn't have gone there—He could've harmed you. You don't know what he is capable of—and God forbid, if something happened to you—Did you think what would become of me?" I couldn't help but lay out my worries in front of her.

At my words, she pulled away from my hold and looked up at me through tears.

"I know—I know—that you were protecting me—but—but—what do I make of this guilt—You got shot because of me—" She sniffed while rubbing her tears with the back of her hand and without meeting my eyes, when I cut her off.

"No—Don't think that way, my love—It's isn't because of you—I did it for you, Zai—and I would still do it every single time—" I couldn't go on because she cut me off.

"Don't Rayyan—! Please—! I know that I am unreliable but—but—I can't live in your cocoon forever—Rayyan—I—I need to learn to fight my own battles—I can't have you protect me forever—!" Her eyes watching me were filled with pain alongwith tears. I didn't know how to explain it to her that she couldn't even fathom, what she meant to me.

With a sigh, I brushed away her tears and took her face in my hands.

"Zai—You can't expect the impossible from me, sweetheart. There's nothing more important to me than you—" I tried explaining but she only shook her head and pried my hands away from her face, but didn't let go.

"I love you Rayyan—I swear to Allah, that I do—but I can't just stay oblivious forever, Rayyan—I can't just sit back and watch people I love fight the battles that I started—because I am so incapable to deal with them myself—" She kept saying and I could only watch her unblinking.

"I am not letting anyone hurt the people I hold dear—I am NOT willing to be the reason for their misery—I won't let anyone hurt you—I am going to protect you too—" She murmured softly through a sob before cupping the side of my face.

"I am really touched by your consideration, Rayyan—but I don't feel good at all about being kept in the dark through it all—I know—I know, I wouldn't have been able to change anything, either way—but if you had let me know, then I could've learned from my mistake. Maybe next time, I maybe able to see through their schemes—You can only protect me so much, Rayyan—What good is my being happy in oblivion while you clean up my messes all by yourself—Please—I know I might not be upto the mark, but I want to be your support too—Even if that means just staying by your side—Atleast, you won't be fighting battles for both of us, all alone, by yourself—" For a long moment, I couldn't say anything.

"I am sorry—I didn't mean that you couldn't handle it—I just wanted to protect you from the hurt—" I whispered and she had once again dropped her face in the crane of my neck.

"I know—I know—" She murmured through tears, while tightening her fragile yet strong and firm hold around me.

———————————-

"I am never leaving your side for a moment ever again, Rayyan. All the time when I stayed away from the hospital, I kept thinking, what if—! Astaghfirullah! Someone came from behind and hurt you again—Astaghfirullah—I didn't leave until Ismail bhai had managed to get a guard inside the room. It was against the Hospital policy to keep a personal guard, so I had to get him to sneak one—I was so worried that the second I let you out of my sight, you'll get in trouble again—" She laid curled up in my arms on her side; close to my heartbeat. She fit so perfectly in my embrace as if it was engineered just to fit her.

I kept watching her with a small smile; my one arm resting on the side of her frail waist and another on the small of her back. She kept her hold on the front of my shirt, as if this would allow her to protect me from whatever it was that she thought was going to harm me. Just then, she abruptly looked up to meet my eyes.

"—-Is this what you felt—? Scared every single moment of your life, that something would happen to me if you so much as blinked?" She whispered in disbelief. Instead of replying, I pulled her against my side with a smile.

"I am sorry, I never listened to you. Sorry Rayyan—Sorry for being so oblivious—I am sorry for never understanding anything—" She gasped, while I gently stroked the top of her head.

"It's alright. Your oblivion to so many things—Mainly, other people's flaws is what lets you treat them so kindly—and even though it might be killing me slowly—" I couldn't go on, because she lightly slapped the top of my shoulder.

"Rayyan—!" At her protest, I shot her a sly grin, before taking her hand and placing a kiss on it's inside.

"But—I don't love you inspite of your flaws—I love you with them—I would never dare to leave a single part of you behind—Everything about you is precious to me—More precious than the most precious thing in this entire world—You're my jannah of this world—" I peered down at her shocked face, illuminated by the light of the lamp; when she quickly hid her face on the side of my chest.

"HOW—! How do you say such beautiful—cheesy things—! Without batting an eye—! You stupid, idiot—! I love you so much—!" Her muffled cries made me chuckle and I tightened my hold around her.

"Because, it's the truth?" I returned simply, at which she pulled back abruptly and took my face in her hands to slap a bruising kiss to my lips.

Assalamualaikum!! Hope you liked it—! Almost nearing the end. InshaAllah!☺️❤️Do vote and let me hear your thoughts which make me immensely happy! ❤️❤️❤️