One look.
One hard glare stopped her heartbeat. The disappointment and anger she witnessed in his eyes made her hands clammy within minutes. All the life left her legs and she visibly gulped. Her eyes widened with surprise and fear as she tightly held both her hand together.
"Bha...ii a..ap yah..an kes..ay" Haseeb stuttered grabbing his attention back.
(Brother what are you doing here?)
"Haseeb," he moved his head towards him, "a week ago, I gave some instructions to you boys which was obligatory for all of you to follow. Remember what were they?" He asked.
'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!'
'None of you will be stepping out of this haveli without informing or taking permission from me. If it is too urgent then take guards along with you. The Osmanis are keeping tabs on us though I won't let them harm any of my family members, you could expect anything from your enemy. They love to strike at your weakest point. If something urgent comes make me a call before leaving the haveli. All of you make sure not to let go of Haya and Dua alone outside. By next week, trackers should be installed into each member of the haveli. And do not wander uselessly outside until the situation does not get controlled. Khurram Osmani wants me to stop the consignment at any cost which I won't and he is doing everything in his power to blackmail me. It does not bother me until my family is involved. And I repeat specifically to you Haseeb, do not uselessly wander outside the haveli with girls. Whatever I say act upon it, if I found out that you are not then you know what can happen to you'
And then another thought hit him, he let Dua and Haya go alone god knows where. He was doomed.
He looked down in embarrassment.
"Get the car out, I'll deal with you in the haveli. Zahra is coming." He ordered, jacketing his rage. He for sure was so good at maintaining a calm composure outside.
"Ok Bhai." He immediately said, eager to just go away from him, and left for the parking lot, disturbed over the fact that Dua and Haya still hadn't reached.
Zahra's heartbeat stopped there. Dread pooled in her stomach. Her life and fate were torturing her over and over. Everything felt so surreal to her. She was in a dilemma about whether all of this is actually happening to her or not. Once again, she had to face his vicious wrath which is almost unbearable for every sane or insane person.
"Up," he flicked his two fingers in the air, ordering her to stand up.
"I am sorry," she shakily said as she shudderly stood up. Her legs were wobbly.
"Sorry for what senorita?" He asked and began to approach her.
Ya Allah!
(Oh God!)
"I am sorry," she repeated, scared. Her paled face mirrored her inner feelings.
"Sorry, for, what?" He repeated, feigning ignorance, and took two more steps toward her, provoking her fear more and more.
She was breathless by now. No thoughts, no lies, nothing was coming up in her mind. She felt like a deer caught in headlights. Her eyes were already shining with the unshed tears.
"I am sorry." Her voice was weak and desperate as she stepped back.
He advanced towards her, covering the distance between them, and stood in her personal space. His eyes pinning her to the spot. She immediately looked down and shielded her face from his pinning gaze through her straight brown hair. His hot breath fanned against her cheek while he placed his hand behind the wall, caging her in between.
His fingers reached for her hair and he slowly, smoothly tucked her hair behind her ear, making her face visible to her. The back of his fingers began to leisurely graze her cheeks. The same side where he had previously slapped her, causing all the incidents to rush back into her mind.
Then her sparkling brown eyes matched his.
Grey to brown.
This was his favorite moment when he could see her mesmerizing eyes. He could spectate the fear residing in her glistening eyes. They only delivered utter terror and anxiety. He could feel the bottling up of her inner emotions. He could feel her helplessness and fear. But he was a selfish bastard and his psychotic mind only wanted to punish her for defying him but something panged at his heart on the thought of punishing her.
She turned her head away. His eyes were emanating pure rage at the moment and she can't stand it. She was so afraid.
"Zahra" he called out her name causing goosebumps to rise all over her body. Her name in his voice always sounds so different and distinctive. No one can call her in the same way as he does. One could spot both love and dominance in his voice.
She didn't look back at him and kept her eyes somewhere else. She already has realized, he will be too despotic and severe towards her after knowing she has disobeyed him but the dire and acute intensity in his eyes always stops her breath. His eyes were beautiful to him but till now those eyes have always shown him rage and anger. She does not want to look back straight into his eyes.
"Zahra" he called out again, his voice soft now, contradicting his demeanor which was emitting rage at the moment. He held her chin and raised her head, indicating for her to look towards him, but she cast her eyes down.
"Sorry" she whispered, desperate to go away from him.
"Look at me" he ordered.
"No" she straightly denied. She just couldn't. She did not know where that courage came from.
"Girl you have a death wish." He said and before he could do anything, his phone began to ring, causing her to internally sigh in relief.
He narrowed his eyes at him making her breath hitch for a second and then picked the call up before getting away from her. She took a deep breath which was stuck inside her throat for so long.
The call was from one of his men whom he has assigned to secretly keep an eye on each member of haveli for their safety.
"Yes?" He asked on the call. His voice was stoic and dominant.
The person on the other side answered making him cuss under his tongue.
"Fuck. If anything happened to them I will slit your throat" he barked.
The man answered again.
"I want those bastards alive. Get them to the nearest warehouse. I will be seeing them in a day or two." Before the other person could answer he hung up the call and immediately grabbed Zahra's wrist, rapidly dragging her out of the restaurant towards the parking lot.
On reaching there, they saw Haseeb standing out of the car frantically making calls to someone. Irtaza left Zahra's wrist and moved towards him and grabbed him by the collar.
"Where the fuck are Dua and Haya?" He gritted. Zahra's mouth hung open while Haseeb looked as if he has seen a ghost. Zahra ran towards them to stop Irtaza. And the very next moment they both saw very troublesome Dua and Haya running in from the restaurant gate towards the car.
They breathlessly reached toward the three of them as they have been running for so long.
"Get into the car all of you and drive straight to haveli as soon as possible. I will see you all in the evening." He ordered. His face told that he already knew what has happened and they all could feel the threat behind his last sentence.
All of them got back into the car while Irtaza canceled all his meetings and went somewhere.
............
Haseeb was storming the car on the route berserkly. While Dua and Haya continued to tell about the incident that happened to them.
"...we already had a hunch feeling someone was following us but we ignored it. We thought that we are being paranoid. And then I don't know what happened and how it happened the very next turn we took, two to three men came from somewhere and lunged at us locking our arms in the process. Their faces were covered with masks and one of them was their boss who was frantically ordering them to place the clothes on our faces. He was extremely fearful of something, I don't know what but he kept on saying, 'do it quickly before he gets here, he will kill us, place the clothe.' We continuously were kicking our legs in the air to protect ourselves but they had tightly locked us and muffled our screams with their hands. Then they placed clothing on our faces, we were about to inhale the chloroform before some men came, and it all happened in a blur, those men came and begin to beat us whilst we both ran and ran till we reach the restaurant. I don't know what happened behind. I don't know who were they. I don't know...." Haya finished her story.
"Thank God they couldn't kidnap us otherwise I don't know what would have happened to us by now," Haya said as if in a trance. The incident had mentally disturbed her so much.
"God forbid Haya. Shut up. Nothing happened to us and nothing could ever happen to us because all of these gangsters know who we are. We are the sisters of the most powerful mafia don in the whole of Asia. They cannot even harm a hair of our head. Get this thing into your mind. And all of you listen no one will be telling anything to anyone in the haveli. It's up to Irtaza Bhai how he will deal with the situation," Dua proclaimed, truly meaning what she said. She knew if even they got kidnapped no one could do anything to them after knowing their identity.
Mentally, she was anxious for Zahra. She went against her brother's order and took Zahra along with her. But if Zahra hadn't come with them then the plan would have been canceled and she didn't want that. She wanted Zahra to breathe freely out of the haveli and create some memories with her cousins but she had no idea the situation would turn out like that. She knows Irtaza will be too harsh with Zahra for disobeying her and she doesn't know how to stop him.
On the other hand, Haseeb was now extremely paranoid. He was afraid of what today's evening will be held for him. His heartbeat was faster and his hands shivered a little bit as he continued to drive the car. He still remembers what his elder brother, Saif has to face failure in his endeavor to protect Haya. And today both of them got nearly kidnapped, furthermore, his hippocampus acted like super stupid shit and forgot all the instructions Irtaza gave to all of them. He was doomed. He tried to brush off all the thoughts but he knew he can't stop the inevitable.
Whilst Zahra's legs and hands were shaking nonstop. She felt nauseatic. She considered herself the culprit of today's incident. If she had listened to Irtaza, nothing like this would have happened. Moreover, he also caught her in the restaurant. She was done for. Every single day was tormenting her mentally and physically. Today's evening will be no good for her and she was already afraid to face the rest of the day.
They reached the haveli at last. No dialogues were exchanged as the atmosphere was thick and everyone went back to their rooms and slept as if there was no tomorrow. By evening, all four of them were wakened up by maids and servants then ushered to the dining table where all the family members were waiting for them.
On reaching the dining table, they found everyone seated there except Irtaza and their grandfather. They move towards their respective chairs and sat over them. Zahra's legs felt heavy moving towards the chair next to Irtaza. She do not want to be anywhere around him but everyone was tying her to him. The feeling of being caged again woke up inside her choking her throat with tears but she tried her best to brush it off.
Soon their dada came along with Irtaza and they both sat in their places. Zahra's nerves were on high alert when he dragged his chair and sat on it. Their grandfather has a deep frown marred on his features like he was disturbed over something.
"Start eating" He ordered in his deep, elderly yet dominant voice and everyone begin to eat. The atmosphere was thick at the dining table. No dialogues were being exchanged. Everyone had that hunch feeling of something ominous being happened. And minutes later the dinner was over.
"Everyone listen to this and listen well," Shabbir Haider Syed spoke, his deep baritone voice striking in the thick atmosphere, "no member of haveli will be leaving out without informing Irtaza or Shehryaar." He announced.
"And Zahra," he moved his head towards her, "you won't be stepping out of haveli without taking 'permission' from Irtaza." He ordered and stood up.
"I hope I have made myself clear." He said and left.
Zahra was not able to utter a single word in front of him. She was gobsmacked and felt humiliated. Then another bomb was dropped on her by Irtaza's next words.
"Dua, Haya, Haseeb, and Zahra I want you all in my office by 9:30" He ordered and then left the table. They all felt like they were being called to the principal's office. Before any once could ask something from them they immediately stood up and left.