Far Away Love ✓

√chapter twenty five

Zainab's POV

If I were, to be honest, I didn't know at which thing I should be reacting at this point. Whether on once again getting a vivid and intense confession of love from Shaiq or him hinting at he would divorce me on my own wish and also end our friendship.

When he first time claimed that he had fallen for me five years ago, I let it slide away since I felt he was being impulsive just for his best friend's sake. He was trying to divert my mind by saying this so that I would not waste my life; more like, my family wouldn't get a chance to put me at stake by getting me married to Shakir or his likesome once again.

I was sure he was lying since he could never fall for me; his childhood friend whom he never saw other than a sister. I remembered he once said that he didn't want a bubbly and fun-loving girl as his wife otherwise she would be just like him. He yearned for a life partner totally opposite of himself who could let him experience an entirely different angle of his life. And he just needed only one person who would be the replica of his himself; his best friend Zainab.

"You know what Zainab, I want just you to be the reflection of my personality forever. I don't want our bond to break or fall into any so-called relations of this world which can separate our emotional bonding. I wish I could tell this whole world when we will grow older that look she is my best friend; we became besties when we weren't even a year old and we have been together for fifty years, sixty years, or maybe hundred years."

He chuckled out loud at this and I could hear his same laughter in my ears. A tear trickled from my eye when I realized it was been so long I last saw him laughing.

But the condition of mine was different. Even while in a relationship with Armaan, I always felt the home feelings with Shaiq, not him. Whenever I used to be in any difficulty, I consulted Shaiq. Whenever I got some achievement, the first person I used to tell this was Shaiq. Whenever I was sad, Shaiq used to console me which caused my emotional bonding with him to went on a completely different level. I subconsciously started to like him more than a friend which I always brushed off under the cover of thinking of him as a brother. My feelings got revealed when he became my husband and then I realized, my admiration for him was more than what I used to believe.

The old Shaiq's niceness when him without discerning, got mingled with husband-like actions, he finally grew over me, and then I didn't know when my fondness changed into love for him.

And when he once again came back to me when I was in my parents' house after leaving his farmhouse, he again said he loved him. At that time, I felt that it would have been some instant attraction or him surrendering his own choice for my sake by accepting me as his wife and professing to start a normal marital relationship with me. After few years, he would regret it since I was never what he always wanted to see in his life partner. And it would hurt both of us. When he also would find his "Zara", as Armaan got, he would also leave me as he did. And frankly speaking, at that time, I had no courage to see another Armaan.

But now the deep confession of him left me off guard. After this many years, he had absolutely no reason to lie or to compromise his life for my sake when he constantly got a rejection from my side. The Shaiq I knew would never force anyone or himself as well. After five years, the circumstances were different. There was no cruel Daniyal or heartless family of mine who would again try to destroy my life if he would leave me. The sole reason he married me and lied about being in love with me was this so now, there was no reason for him to still apparently fabricate it.

So it meant he really had fallen for me? And he was right all along. Just like how I started to love him, he also reciprocated my feelings, and all this while, I was thinking that he had been lying for my sake. My heart was sinking at this moment and my whole body was shaking in fear.