I Want You to Stay

Chapter 23

Hana's POV

"It can not be... How is she here? I saw her... Unconscious and... The blood was_"

"Hana," Sahil interrupts me as he holds my face in between his hands. The tears filled my eyes every time the scene with Nadia replayed in my head. "Nadia is alive. She was never dead. I'm sorry I didn't tell you." Sahil speaks slowly so I could take it in.

My mind starts having flashbacks of the day Nadia supposedly died. I let a man take her. He promised me he would save her, but days after, I heard the news that she didn't make it.
Did the man keep his promise and kept Nadia safe all these years?

I place my hand over my mouth to muffle the sobs before running back inside the house and into my room. I find Sahil's phone on top of the bedside table and although I desperately wanted to know about Nadia's whereabouts, I choose against invading his privacy. I wish I had had more time with her. I have so much to ask her.

I manage to calm down my speeding her rate before grabbing my towel and pyjama to then enter the bathroom when I hear Sahil's footsteps. I am upset he did not tell me about Nadia before. We spoke about her, but he never mentioned that he knew she was alive. He never mentioned that they had a very close relationship after they moved to the same school.

I take my time in the shower since I knew Sahil would be waiting for me. I have so many questions to ask him, but I have the feeling he will try to dodge a couple of them.

After Nadia passed away, I wanted to find her three-year-old daughter to know if she was doing fine, and if not, I would adopt her and care for her, but then I got the news that her daughter had also been adopted and was no longer within the UK. I now know that was to protect both of them, but it still phases me that Sarah spent years apart from her mother and had to get accustomed to a whole different indoor life. Meanwhile, my best friend has been hiding in fear for years and I had no idea.

"I'm going to stay with Sarah tonight." I let Sahil know when I leave the bathroom, after wearing m pyjamas.

"Can we talk?" He questions, walking to me.

"I'm tired, I need to sleep," I respond, walking to the bedroom door. I try to open it, but it wouldn't budge. "Why is it not opening? Did you lock the door?" I look at Sahil in disbelief.

"I will open it after you listen to me. You can ask me anything, I will be honest with you and answer as many as I can." He declares, which I had been wanting to hear all this time, but now that the opportunity is here, my mind is blank with no questions.

"Anything?" I ask him, and he nods. "You can't go back on your words, you must answer." I give notice as he held my hand, guiding me to the bed.

"I will answer." He agrees. I try to search for the questions in my mind to decide what I should ask first.

"Where was Nadia all this time?" My main concern was to know whether she was alright.

"Nadia was in one of my safe houses in Brazil. That's also where she got her treatment after getting shot. She was in a coma for a few months, but alhamdulillah my medical team did their best to make sure she would wake up."

"On the day she was shot, someone took her with him. Who was that?"

"Adeel."

"Adeel, your bodyguard?" He nods.

"We knew if she had gone to the hospital, whoever shot her would go there to finish his job."

"So someone wanted to kill her? The judge declared it as a robbery that ended up in third-degree murder, saying she was not the main target."