Its been two weeks since sudais had found out about farida's attempts to kill herself because of him. Every night, he would follow her car home and watch her get inside before leaving. Sometimes, he would stay there and wait until the lights in her room were off before he would leave, unknowing to Farida who kept running away from him at work. Since the fateful night she saw herself hanging on the wall of his house and the awful things zaynerb said to her, she had been avoiding the sagir brothers.
Maryam would be leaving for Dubai in two weeks. Apparently, the sagirs were through with their family reunion and were heading back home. The brothers would be leaving in the following month, their partnership with Elliott and sons was going to end. That was a great news for Farida, she almost jumped in joy when Mr Elliott had announced the ending of the contract.
Farida took a day off and decided to have fun at the beach with ajwad and azrah so that Maryam could have a good time before leaving. There, Farida took it as a chance to ask the questions that had been on her mind since the day she found out that her deceased husband was a part of the sagirs family. Maryam was able to answer only a few of them, the few good moments of the couple that she witnessed when she used to work for them, some of which she puzzled over, thinking whether or not she should tell. Maryam was caught off guard when Farida asked of his name, not in her wildest imagination had she thought that such a simple, yet disturbing question would come up. She came up with the name "Ajaaz", Maryam knew that at that time, lying was the best option. Farida could not feel any sense of recognition to that name, what puzzled her was the fact that sudais's name was all too familiar to her, almost as if he was the closest to her in the family.
The next day was blessed with a cold and heavy rain, something that happened frequently in the UK. As usual, people ignored the tempting whether and headed to work. Farida's car engine didn't want to start because of the regular rain, a large amount of water had gotten into the engine, although her father Ali, was able to fix it that early morning, he told her that there was no guarantee that it would take her back home safely. After several protests and promises that she would take a cab if the car breaks down, Ali eventually let her drive her car to work. Fortunately, she found a space at the parking lot and was thankful that she wouldn't have to get drenched in the rain again.
In the parking lot, there is an elevator that takes people into the building. Farida hated to use it because it was always crowded, she preferred to use the door but because of the rain, she had no other choice but to use the elevator.
When she arrived at their office, she found that only Betty had arriving and greeted her.
"Good morning Betty."
"Good morning Farida, there's a note for you." Betty informed and slid a white paper out of her locker.
"A note?" Farida asked in surprise, that had never happened before.
She collected the note and read.
"Please come to my office, its important.
Afaan"
Her heart beat faster and the paper fell on the floor. Betty frowned at the scene, she wanted to ask what the problem was, but it seemed personal. They all knew since the beginning that she and Afaan had some scores to settle.
"He's in his brother's office." Betty added.
Farida nodded and proceeded to sudais's office, she silently prayed that sudais wasn't there. All through the travel, she wondered what Afaan wanted to discuss. Although, she thought that it could be business relating matter.
She adjusted her white shayla in the elevator's mirror after pressing the big red number one button. Soon she was at his door, contemplating whether she should knock or go back and act like she didn't see the note. She finally decided to knock, not wanting to create trouble for Betty.
Her knock was very light, almost inaudible, one can easily tell that the knocker was reluctant. When she didn't hear an answer, she was happy that she then had an excuse for not seeing him. She would just say that she knocked but there was no answer.
"Come in." Afaan said from the inside immediately she turned on her heels to go. Her heart skipped a beat and she found herself sweating, despite the cold whether and the air conditioner.
She twisted the door knob and pushed it forward. And as soon as she did that, she saw that Afaan was standing by the window, gazing at the cloudy sky. She wondered how on earth he was able to hear her knock from that distance. Afaan at first wasn't sure whether it was a knock, but something told him that his sister in-law would like to avoid the conversion with a fainted knock, and he was right.
"You asked to see me sir?" Farida asked professionally, the last thing she wanted was to discuss anything personal with him.
Afaan turned around and pulled his hands out of his pants pockets. His blue tie was loose and his grey shirt untucked. His hair was very messy, it looked like he had ran his hands through it several times. She frowned at the sight, she had never seen him like that before, he was always so well kept. She found it difficult to resist the urge to ask him what happened to him. He looked very disturbed and Farida hoped she wasn't the reason behind it.
"Good morning Farida. Please, call me Afaan." He replied. Just then she remembered that she hadn't greeted him.
"Good morning to you too afaan." She said nervously. Afaan smiled lightly and walked towards the table.
"Please, sit down." He gestured to the opposite black leather chair. She sat down after him and stared down at her hand, which was now on the white table.
"What I want to discuss with you is about the other day." Afaan began but somehow after hearing that, farida's heart jolted back to life. It had been on her mind since that day and there were a lot of questions on her mind, questions which she could not ask anyone. Truth be told, she wanted Afaan to answer those questions. He seemed to understand the whole situation more than anyone else, not to mention the fact that he didn't tell on her when he caught her in his brother's study.
"Why do you think you were the reason behind your husband's death?" Afaan asked her, his wise eyes observed that the question removed from her shoulder a great burden, it was as if she'd always wanted to discuss it.
"When I was told that he died in the accident, I had always wondered why your family never visited me at the hospital for the whole five years I had laid sick and mentally wounded in there. That day, when you signed the partnership agreement with our company, it was clear that you hate me. When I found out that you were my brother in-law, being the cause of his death was the only reason I could gather for your hatred." Farida explained, each of her heavy burden falling as each word left her mouth. Her eyes were still on her hands as she played with her golden Gucci wristwatch, she found it in her things when she arrived home from the hospital, her mother said that she insisted on getting it for her graduation. She felt sad that her younger self had made her parents spend too much on her, especially when she found the documents of her car and saw the price.
Afaan's voice snapped her out of her reverie.
"I never hated you." He simply said. Farida looked up at him after hearing it.
"I was just surprised to see that you are still alive, after we've been told six years ago that you died in an accident." Afaan made clear and mentally prepared himself to answer millions of confusing questions. The whole thing was like a million pieces of a tiny puzzle.
Farida's eyes were now widely opened. She adjusted in her chair and sat up to concentrate. Her lips parted and closes several times before she was able to make up a sentence.
"What do you mean? I don't understand." She asked, her voice shaking. Afaan wasn't going to say too much though, he knew he could hurt her with the whole truth at once. He just wanted to give her a head start.
"I guess they wanted to protect you." He said.
"From what?" She asked.
"Nothing, so that you would not lose your sanity." Afaan said as a matter of fact.
Farida sighed in relief, for a moment, she thought there was something big her parents were hiding.
"Can I see a picture of him?" Farida asked, startling the young man. Afaan blinked several times as he thought of an answer.
"Uhm..." He started. He was going to tell her that he lost all of the pictures of him he had, but it was an obvious stupid excuse.
Luckily for Afaan, his phone rang before he could answer the uncomfortable question.
"Let's meet again some other time, I have to leave now." Afaan informed.
"Okay sir." Farida replied and stood up, she went out of the office and waited for Afaan to finish packing his things.
When he was done, he strode out of the office and saw her still standing there. His eyebrows rose in question.
"There's something I've been wanting to tell you, Maryam loves you a lot." She said to him, silently praying that she had not crossed the line.
Afaan's expression changed from a curious one to a confusing one. He wondered how she even knew about Maryam, let alone his relationship with her.
"How did you know Maryam?" He asked.
"I searched for her when I tasted her cooking I used to love. Perhaps she was a valuable person to your brother and I." Farida said.
Afaan gave a single and turned around to leave. Seeing that Afaan was not going to have that conversation, she turned around as well and walked away. But she had to pause as Afaan turned around and said to her,
"Try your best to remember everything, it will be best for everyone. For you, and for him."
The last part made her frown. Then, she knew that there was something she needed to find out.