It was always written ✔️

Chapter 16

The whirring of the car's engine brought Alayna out of her thoughts.

She couldn't believe that she had made it this far, she was expecting her taxi to be stopped after about 10 minutes but it showed that Zunair had taken her seriously.

For once.

And she was going to make sure that she uses this weakness of his to her advantage.

She noticed the meter of the taxi had increased massively, and a worrying realisation had dawned upon her: she had not even a rupee on her.

The first thing that came to mind was the little bank book that she had disregarded, at first when she was going through the different paperworks trying to understand what they all meant and she was convinced that it had very little purpose or benefit, but she was being proved wrong yet again by her circumstances.

She pulled it out, and looked into the book, flicking through the pages until she found the last page that an amount had been printed on.

PKR 5,000,000

That was the amount in the account 19 years ago, there was constant incomings to this account and the amount would have likely doubled or even tripled in this time period.

She leaned forward to get the drivers attention, "Bhai Saab, drop me to the nearest bank."

"Why, bibi? Have you no money?" He asked mockingly.

"What do you mean?" She asked calmly, she just knew that the man was going to say something misogynistic.

"If you ran away from your husband, what can you expect. You will obviously struggle, he is the only one providing for you. I can just tell that your having an affair behind his back." He spat, whilst slowing the car down to a stop as they had reached a traffic jam.

Alayna was unable to fathom the words that her ears had heard.

She flung open the door to her right and exited the vehicle, not missing the surprised look from the taxi driver. He thought she was about to run off without paying her fare, but was shocked when she opened the front passenger door and sat herself next to him.

No woman who was travelling alone ever dared to sit next to him.

He was astounded with her strange bravery but was very quickly brought out of the trance when she snapped her fingers in front of his face with a hard expression.

"Ab bolo na." She said, a threat hidden in the urdu lafz she had spoken.

He gulped, despite being a man, he felt threatened by her.

He had never seen a woman look into his eyes and talk like she was spewing out poison.

"Speak bhai saab, why are you quiet now? You had a lot to say to me when I was at the back, you assumed a lot when I was sat at the back, you were very eager to jump to conclusions about MY life when I was sat at the back. Now why are you khaamosh? Speak, I'd like to know more about what is brewing within your narrow mind."

Silence.

They didn't look away from each other. The cars were still stuck in the traffic. There was no way for him to escape.

"Let me tell you everything that was wrong with what came out of your mouth. First of all, my husband isn't the only one that provides for me. Allah is. Second of all, this husband of mine that you are singing praises about, isn't being cheated on by me. In fact, HE is the one cheating on me. Shall I tell you who with?"

The driver shook his head not wanting to know any further.

"With the maid, he hired for me. And before you say it's because I'm not good in bed, I agree. But that gave him no right to rape me, multiple times, verbally and physically abuse me." She pulled her kameez's arm back to show a scar given to her by Zunair, "You know what he did here? He stabbed me with a glass shard and dragged it down my arm, do you want to know why? Because I refused to cry when he first raped me. You said he provides for me, "He gives me a stale roti with a small glass of water, whilst his mistress is given a banquet. He has never purchased any clothes for me, the clothes I am wearing are all from my previous house, but he could afford to buy the whole of Pakistan and everything in it. So, tell me, bhai saab, are you going to lecture me again on the way I am neglecting my duties as a wife, when my so called husband doesn't deserve such a title."