Life Sentence

CHAPTER 10

~ THE NIGHT OF MURDER (4 ½ YEARS EARLIER) ~

Saad threw the glass on the wall and watched it shatter into a thousand pieces. He was no mathematician but he knew the number of pieces it broke into was somehow less than what his heart was in. He wanted to kill Yusuf for taking Kubra away from him.

He knew somewhere the fault laid within him. Why did he let cowardice rule his mind and let fear decide whether he could risk her friendship or not? He should’ve just said ‘fuck it all’ and poured his heart out in front of her, left it bare for her to do whatever she wanted with it. Instead he had smiled at her while bleeding from within, and congratulated her for finding the love of her life.

What a fucking idiot!

He pulled his hair, enjoying the pain that he inflicted upon himself as he sat on the edge of his bed and screamed. He cursed Yusuf for beating him in the matter of her heart. Never had he been able to defeat Saad and the only time he had to beat him was when he whisked the ruler of his heart away. He couldn’t bear imagining how wonderful she must be looking in that gorgeous white dress, making all lovey-dovey eyes at that bastard.

He hated another person along with Yusuf that night. He hated his sister. He hated Huma for sending him Kubra’s beautiful pictures. He hated her for saying all those true yet hurtful things to him before leaving for her best friend’s engagement.

‘If you didn’t have the guts to confess to her about your love, don’t pull out your bravery from the hat now by hurting her. She’ll be devastated when she comes to know that her favorite human isn’t going to be there for her.’

‘You’ll rather that I die seeing her becoming someone else’s?’

‘No! I’ll rather see my best friend and my brother together, happy and so madly in love, I’ll want to puke seeing them. Since that can’t happen because of your cowardice, I’ll rather at least one of you being happy!’

‘I’m sorry, but I’ll prefer to be selfish just this once.’

And with that Huma had left, shutting the door at his face, leaving him to drown himself in his sorrow.

The sound of phone pulled him back into the reality. Picking up the phone, he cut it once he saw it was Huma. But the girl had been born with the genes of two of the most persistent lawyers in the world, she called again.

Before he could say anything, she ordered, “Bhai. Come to Yusuf Bhai’s place this instant!”

“Huma, I told you I’m not-”

“This is not the time to act like a bratty child who got his toy snatched from him!”

Any other time, had his little sister talked to him such insolently, he would’ve given her a piece of his mind. However, she did what he rarely heard Huma do. She sniffed. His little sister rarely cried! In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he had heard her do so except when she was seven.

“Something terrible happened, Bhai.” There was that sniff again. He was up at once, putting on his shoes and grabbing his car keys. “Wali Bhai . . . Bhai, he’s dead.” His foot stopped midair.

“What?” So many questions swirled in his mind at once, wanting to be asked but he couldn’t grasp any of them and throw it at Huma.

“He is murdered.” There has to be some mistake surely. They had gone to an engagement party not a fucking massacre! “Kubra . . .”

“What happened to Kubra?!”

He was out of his bedroom, down the stairs, out the main door, into his car and on the road before Huma even started explaining what had happened to Kubra.