𝐒𝐔𝐊𝐎𝐎𝐍 - rewritten | ✓

TWENTY SIX

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The girls moved in synchronization. Their moves were practiced and perfect as they moved according to the beat and when they twirled, their dresses made a beautiful circle. Zayaan's eyes never moved from Maham.

It felt as if there was no girl except her. She laughed while occasionally glancing at Aya. It felt like an eternity since he had seen that smile and heard that laugh. He longed to see her again, to make her regret, and then love her again.

He wanted to know whether Aydin was his child. Was it his or Abdul's or someone else's? Zayaan wouldn't have ever believed his wife would cheat on him until he saw that video. It was real. The voices were clear, there wasn't any fault in it. The movements were clear. The camera was kept hidden by an object. 

Zayaan watched it over and over again for months hoping to see a single fault in it so he could know his Maham didn't cheat on her. He watched it repeatedly, hoping to see a glitch even when every watch felt like a stab to his heart.

Zayaan knew that the technology was so advanced that someone could fake anything, but there are always mistakes. There are always glitches in A.I generated videos. But that video was free of them and looked real.

And whenever he looked at her picture or now when he was looking at her her voice from that video would play in his mind.

"I don't love my husband. He forced me to marry him." 

"You're so handsome, Abdul."

Each second felt like a punch to his gut. Each second of his life felt torturous. He wanted to die. He wanted to hurt himself. He wanted to kill himself for what she did.

Zayaan was intelligent and his whole life set until she came in like a tornado and ruined everything. She made him into an alcoholic and a smoker. He wanted to find her and hurt her, torture her, and make her wish she was dead before being the one to love her again and heal her.

And now she was here, a few miles away dancing her heart out and laughing as if nothing was wrong. As if she did nothing wrong.

Unbeknownst to him, she was already punished for something she had never done. She was kicked out of her house with nothing but a few thousand in her wallet and a child in her womb.

She spent months going through back pain, stomachache, nausea, morning sickness, sore breasts, and fatigue. She had Aya and Aira but she couldn't tell them about her intimate pain.

She was supposed to be spoiled rotten by her husband but instead, he lived in delusion thinking that he was cheated on.

Being in the hospital room while giving birth feeling as if your whole body is being ripped apart is not an easy thing to do and not many women survive it. She raised Aydin all alone. Stayed awake the whole night and sometimes days because he would be crying. She had fallen weak in the early newborn days.

Adapting to London wasn't easy either. It was a new city and a new country on the other side of the world. But she did anyway. And now she was getting rewarded for all the pain she was going through by having a simple and peaceful life.

Until he came into it again.

Zayaan turned around and stepped outside taking out the cigarette box out of his pocket and taking a stick out. He lit up before taking it towards his lips. He inhaled and exhaled, slowly, the clouds of toxicity floating around him before disappearing.

Aydin ran out of the building and towards his mother's car. Maham followed behind him, slowly as she was looking for the car keys in her bag, not noticing Zayaan hiding behind the wall. He noticed and anger filled his veins.

He walked towards her and she looked up at him and her face fell in annoyance. She ignored him and was about to walk away when he grabbed her wrist in a painful grip and pulled her close.

"Is masoom si shakal ke saath bana diya na logon ko pagal. Kya kaha tha Aya se aur Raees se? Keh mai ik bura insaan hoon? Keh mai ik kamina insaan hoon?" He asked all while she was struggling to be released.
(You've fooled everyone with that innocent face of yours. What did you say to Aya and Raees about me? That I am an evil person? That I am a jerk?)

"Haath choro, haath choro, Zayaan!" She exclaimed as she glared into his eyes, unwavering but his grip only tightened. "Haan, yehi kaha tha maine. Kyun keh yehi tum ho. Aur sirf unhe kya mai sab ko bataongi keh tum jaise gira howa insaan is zindagi mai nahi."
(Let me go, let me go, Zayaan! Yes, I said that. Cause that is who you are. And not only them I will tell everyone how low class you are.)

"Joh bhi mujhe janta hai woh tumse nafrat kare ga, Zayaan Arafat Agha," She spat his name like poison before getting released by him. She walked down the stairs and to her car where her son was waiting.
(Anyone who knows me will hate you, Zayaan Arafat Agha.)