Ibrahim let out a slow breath. The first light of dawn cut through the glass door and sliced across his face, making him look both tired and carved from stone. He rested his forehead against her shoulder, hiding his face for a second before he spoke.
"My hands were tied by the promise. I could not kill the father of her baby. But... a promise is not a free pass."
He pulled back just enough to look at her.
"When I found her diary and saw the name... Usama... I paid him a visit. We had a long talk."
The way Ibrahim said 'talk' made it clear it was not a peaceful conversation.
"He looked me in the eye and swore he was not the father. He called my sister a liar. He said their relationship was 'different.' Nonsense. I made sure he understood the price of coming near my sister. By the time I was done, he needed to stay in the hospital for three months to recover. That was the limit. That was the line I could not cross, no matter how much I wanted to erase him from the earth. I broke his body, his finances. I made sure every door in this city was closed to him. But the cockroach survived. He got protection and money from Black Mamba."
"Hold on a second." Ava sat up hurriedly, pushing Ibrahim's upper body off of her. The sudden movement sent her long hair spilling over her shoulders. "Let me get this straight. You found out about Zainab and Prof. Syed from her diary....."
"Not just the diary," Ibrahim cut in, "Her friends too. They had their suspicions. They wondered why a student would spend so much time with a teacher outside of class. They didn't have proof, but the whispers were there."
"But that's the point!" Ava insisted, "You only heard it from other people. You never actually saw them together in that way, did you?"
Ibrahim gave a slow, conceding nod. "In a way, yes. Their meetings were private. Zainab took tuition from him. They met at his home, in his office. It was always behind closed doors."
"Exactly. What if what Prof. Syed told you was the truth? What if he really wasn't the father? Think about it, Ibrahim. If Mamba wanted to plant someone close to Zainab to get revenge on you for that territory, then why would she have been given an abortion right before she died? It doesn't make sense for his own pawn to destroy the 'evidence.' Mamba made sure you could never find the real father. He orchestrated the whole thing. The father could have been anyone. A random man. Someone completely unconnected. Prof. Syed might have just been the perfect scapegoat."
"I've thought about that possibility. It's crossed my mind more than once." He pushed himself up to sit beside her, the sheets pooling around his waist. "But my instinct says otherwise. Usama denied it because he's a coward. He didn't know about my promise to Zainab. All he knew was that if he confessed, I would kill him. So he lied to save his own skin. And they were together for two years, Ava. Two years before she died. There was no other man in her life during that time. The timeline, the secrecy, the relationship in her diary… it all pointed to him."
Ibrahim glanced at the clock. It was five in the morning. They had been awake the entire night.
"Usama works for Mamba." He stated, his voice rough with disgust, "His job is simple. He uses his position, his charm, to get close to his students. He builds their trust. Then, when they are vulnerable, he hands them over to the next link in the chain: Rafi."
Ava's mouth fell open. "Rafi? Rafi Ahmed?"
"Yes. It's a trafficking ring. Mamba doesn't just run drugs. He sells women to other countries. He has buyers and partners all over the world. Here, Usama and Rafi are his local recruiters. Usama is the scout. His position as a professor gives him the perfect cover. He has official access to the university's private database. He can look at student files and see everything: family backgrounds, addresses, emergency contacts. He can find the ones who are truly alone in the world—the orphans, the ones from villages with no support, the ones drowning in debt. That information is his hunting list. Sometimes, he doesn't even need to search for the desperate ones. He simply lures the ambitious students, the ones who would do anything for a better grade or a recommendation letter. Then, he passes the girls to Rafi. Rafi's job is the kidnapping. He takes them, holds them, and 'prepares' them—until Mamba gives the final order. Once Mamba approves a girl, she is shipped out. She disappears into his international network. After that… no one can bring her back. For years, I've been able to intercept some girls from Rafi. But I have never been able to touch the ones who already reached Mamba. Once a girl is in Mamba's main system… she is gone forever."
Ava's hand flew to her mouth, "That means… oh, Ibrahim, no. That means it's true, then. Jessica… she wasn't just lost. She was taken by Mamba."
Ibrahim gave a single and heavy nod.
"What will happen to her now? No girl is safe here. None of them. How can this be happening? You know about this. You know who they are. Why… why can't you stop it? You have to do something."
"Rafi is the only link I have. He is the only part of Mamba's machine that I can see. If I remove Rafi—the chain breaks for a moment. But then Mamba will simply find another monster to do the job. It will be someone new, someone I don't know. It would take me years to find that new link, and more girls would disappear while I searched. Rafi is a known devil. And Usama… that promise ties my hands. I cannot lay a finger on him. I can make his life miserable, I can ruin his career, but I cannot make him disappear. He is protected by my own word to my dead sister. So, I intercept when I can. I save who I can reach. But to cut the head off the snake? That path is still hidden from me."
Just as Ibrahim finished speaking, his phone buzzed violently. It was Faisal. He had been calling all night, of course, to give updates about Samir.
But Ibrahim had silenced every call. He hadn't had the courage to face another tragedy. He needed more time, just until he knew for sure that Samir had survived the operation.
Now, he could not ignore it any longer. He grabbed the phone and walked out of the bedroom, heading near the pool.
Ava watched him go. First, the tension with Samir. And now, after hearing about Zainab all night, her heart felt crushed. Ibrahim had already lost his sister in the worst way possible. What if he lost his brother too? Samir has to be okay. Please, God, let him be okay.
Ibrahim came back into the room a few minutes later, "Try to get some rest. I'm going to the hospital."
He walked to his closet and began to change his clothes.
Ava slipped out of bed and went to him, "How is Samir?"
Ibrahim finished buttoning his shirt, not looking at her directly, "The surgery is over. They removed the bullet. There was some bleeding near the spine they had to control. He's in the ICU now. They say the next 24 hours are critical to see if there's any nerve damage or swelling in the spinal column."
"I'm coming with you. Just give me two minutes to change."
As she was about to leave, Ibrahim's hand reached out and gently caught her wrist. He didn't pull her, just held her there.
"You haven't slept all night. Stay. Rest. You look exhausted."
"You didn't sleep either. And how can I possibly sleep."
.....
Faisal had arranged for maximum security. He had booked the entire floor of the private hospital. No other patients were allowed. The corridors were lined with serious-looking guards in black suits, their eyes constantly scanning. The media could not find out that Samir Rahman had been shot.
"Aunty, you should go home now," Faisal said gently, approaching Aliya. She was sitting rigidly on a bench in the hallway, her fingers pressing into her temples. "You've been here all night. You need to rest. Ibrahim is on his way."
She looked up, her eyes red-rimmed and full of a bitter anger. "Look at the time. His brother has been under the knife all night, fighting for his life. And where is Ibrahim? Nowhere to be seen. It's Ava. She must have told him not to come. She's keeping him away."
"Why bring Ava into this? You know his trauma better than anyone. You know what happened with Zainab in a hospital. Ibrahim isn't here because he can't bear to see Samir lying there like that. It has nothing to do with Ava"
Aliya waved a dismissive hand, "That girl will be the ruin of him, Faisal, and he is too blind to see it! Look what's happening! He didn't even come home after returning from Thailand. He's living in the guesthouse! Why did his father build that mansion? For ghosts to live in? And Ava? She doesn't even treat him like a proper husband. Yet, my son follows her around like a lost puppy. I am fed up with all of this."
Faisal sat down beside her seat, "You have to remember the circumstances. Ibrahim married her by force. He gave her no choice. So how can you expect their relationship to be normal, like any other loving married couple?"
Aliya shook her head, her old-fashioned beliefs rising to the surface like a well-rehearsed lesson. "That is no excuse. Many women enter marriages without romance. It is how the world works. But after the wedding, there are rules. A wife has a duty. She must care for her husband's home and his reputation. She must put his needs before her own pride. She must learn to be the peace in his life, not another storm. A real woman understands that it is her role to build the home, to support him, to be the calm behind his strength. That is how you turn any marriage into a proper one. This girl... she does none of that. She fights him. She wants to live separately. She shows him no wifely respect. What kind of marriage is that?"
"It is not a woman's job alone to make peace. It is the job of both people to choose each other, every day. Ibrahim chose her. But she did not choose him. You cannot force someone to be your peace. Respect is not something you can order, like a meal. It has to be earned, and it has to be given freely. Ibrahim did not earn her respect still."
"Oh, please. All this talk is just an excuse for a wilful girl to do as she pleases. The problem is that Ava has no real responsibility tying her to him. I will speak to Ibrahim directly. It is time he focuses on his legacy. Within a year, he must secure an heir. Once there is a child, everything changes. A child ties a woman to her family. It gives her a real purpose. All this nonsense about 'escaping' will stop. She will have to grow up. She will have to understand her responsibilities—to her husband, to her child, to this family's future. A baby will make her settle down. It will put her mind in the right place."
"If you ever utter that kind of bullshit in front of Ava, I will forget you are my mother."
Aliya and Faisal both snapped their heads up. Ibrahim was standing a few feet away.
She stood up quickly, "Ibrahim! I am speaking for your own good! Think about it. Remember how broken you were when she ran away to Thailand? This back-and-forth is killing you. You cannot live like this, wondering if she will disappear again. It is simple: either you let her go completely, cut her out, and find a woman who knows her place... or you make her stay. Permanently. A child is not a curse; it is an anchor. It is the only thing that will make her see reason, that will make her finally accept her life here, with you."
The look on Ibrahim's face was not just anger. It was the look he gave to men before they stopped breathing. If Aliya was not his mother, in that moment, she would have taken her last breath.
"You will not speak about my wife that way. My life with Ava is my private matter. It belongs only to us. She is not an animal to be bred for my comfort. She is my woman. I am working every day to fix what I broke with her. To earn a real place in her life. That is more than I ever deserved. And she is letting me try. If you drip even a single drop of your poison into her ear or mine about duty or children or 'knowing her place,' I will not stand quietly and watch my second chance burn. I will remove you from the picture so completely you will wonder if you were ever part of it at all."
He turned his head, just slightly, toward Faisal. "Cut her off. From today, she cannot buy a cup of tea without my permission. She will learn what it means to have no power. She will live on an allowance, and I will decide how much that is. Maybe having nothing will teach her to value the family she is trying to destroy."
Aliya gasped, her hand flying to her chest. "Ibrahim! This is your mother! You would make me a beggar in my own house?"
"You made yourself an enemy in my house," he replied, "Faisal. Get her out of my sight. Take her home. She is not to come back here unless I say so."
Faisal quickly guided speechless Aliya into the waiting elevator.
Just as the elevator doors pinged open, Ava was stepping out, putting her phone back in her purse. She had been delayed by a call. She looked up and saw Aliya's pale, furious face and Faisal's tight expression as he guided her into the elevator. Ava watched, puzzled, until the doors slid shut, swallowing them.