A Tale of Hearts

Chapter Forty Four

Zoya's POV:

It was the third day now. I had contacted my family and told them the change of plans. I didn't have the heart to tell them about the thing with the crazy Narejo cousin. Or more like I knew that telling them about it meant signing my own jail pass. It's not like I wasn't going to tell them ever. I would let them know right before my flight to Germany. Germany is offering asylum which is why it's a perfect getaway country. I will take a flight to Greece from there. I had already booked a flight from the Multan Airport.

It was good that I was carrying all my necessary cards and identification documents in my hand purse. If I had left it in the hotel room, God knows what Kamran or that cousin might have done to keep me here. Saad and Danish were kind enough to offer to get some of my clothes delivered to the city on the departure date.

Spending time with Rafay was turning out more fun that I thought. We played Ludo and talked till 3 a.m. on the first day. On the second day, he showed me around the resort and I did a few rounds of horse riding and archery. Today, Rafay had guided me to the sports complex that had a built in swimming pool, tennis court, gymnasium and basketball court.

Rafay promised to drive me to the city on his way back to Lahore. I had told him that I could take some form of public transport but he just grimaced and said he would never allow something like that for people he cared about. He reminded me of my own brothers to be honest. Surprisingly, things were very platonic between us.

He told me he had gotten his heart broken by a girl he had loved dearly and that he had lost faith in love altogether after that. I told him he would be able to find love again. Maybe it will take time but he will. He just gave me a grim smile at that but nodded nonetheless. My flight was tomorrow night so we had to leave by tonight to reach there on time.

I felt bad for taking Rafay's sister's clothes so I ordered some T-shirts and jeans on an urgent basis from a friend's page. They delivered on the second day's evening. There were often times in the day when I was left to my own thoughts and that was when I remembered him. His fluffy hair, his almost black eyes that burned me with their intensity. His lack of expressions. The way his eyebrows would knit together. I wondered how he was doing. Whether he was eating properly and scaring people away with his expressionless face. I almost smiled. Almost. Until I remembered he had Narejo blood flowing through his system.

I wanted to tell him that I remembered everything now and that I had nothing against him anymore. I remembered how close we were as kids. How I would cry whenever we had to say goodbye at 6 p.m. because ammi would come to take me to the house. I remembered how I had pushed the two of us away from an incoming truck and got the scar on my wrist. How I had come to call him Sher because of his hair and because saying Kamran back then was too difficult for little me. I remembered how I had gone to the sea that day because I thought I would see him there but instead saw a scene that left me paralyzed with fear for the next fourteen years.

I wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault that I had escaped from the wedding. It wasn't him that I was leaving behind but I held my life too dearly and didn't want to jeopardize all the effort that was spent on protecting my identity and life. I didn't want to connect with him again because his cousin could potentially murder me at the first chance he could get. I did want to tell him that his sister who I thought was dead could be alive. Although in what condition was beyond me. I wanted to give his parents hope that they could reunite with their long lost daughter but it was at the expense of my own life. Maybe, after a while, once the heat dies down, I can ask someone to drop an anonymous tip to his family about Kainat's wellbeing and potential location.

Had the circumstances been different and he wasn't a blood relative of my biggest enemy, I would have hugged Kamran and told him I missed him too. I would have apologized for breaking the promise I made as a child to him. The promise that I would never leave him and that we would be together forever. I would have told him that he grew up to be a charming and ferocious lion just like I thought he would be. That I didn't regret the scar on my wrist. But alas, none of this can come true.

Fourteen year had gone by. Another fourteen or twenty four could go by again. I just had to disappear from his life again. And that was the only outcome. Some tales are just not meant to be completed. Our story isn't a fairy tale. It is a nightmare. One that we both need to wake up from.

I am sure Sher will be able to move on from it. Once he recovers his sister and finds true peace, I am sure, it wouldn't matter to him. Who I am, where I am, what I am doing. None of that would matter.

Kamran's POV:

It was the third day today. I was beyond agitated. The slightest sounds triggered me. I had been sleeping in her hotel room. It was the only place that calmed me down. Her scent was slowly disappearing. This was frustrating me. I had ravaged her luggage five times in hopes of finding any clue. Any link that could help me track her down.

I had checked the hotels on that road where she had last turned off her phone. None of them had a guest registered under the name of Zoya, Anushay or any of Zoya's family members. None of them were registered under Rubab or Misha's name or family member's names either. I had covered all bases. Or I thought I did. Someone was helping her who wasn't family. I had to find out. I had to make sure she was still in Pakistan too.

I couldn't give up like this. No, I just couldn't. All her social media accounts were deleted. Not even deactivated. She had permanently deleted them to throw me off the path. She had thought this through far too much and it bothered me. Bothered me that she was planning to leave anyway. She wasn't going to stay with me. Not now or ever. All along, it didn't matter to her. Our bond, our memories, us. It was nothing to her.

I didn't want to let go of her. Or more like I couldn't. She didn't have the faintest idea of her effect on me. She kept me sane. She was the rope I held unto when my life was spiraling out of control. She was always my safe space. Getting up from the bed that she once slept on, I threw on a coat and decided to give that road one last attempt. Even if I have to break through every single door of every single room, I will. She is not leaving me.

Every hotel and resort seemed the same. I drove around the road twice hoping for some form of clue. None so far. My hand was on the joystick about to change gears and leave when I saw an all too familiar face. Him? I had seen him before. I didn't need to remember where. I knew the exact details of that day. Zoya's University. He was standing beside Zoya with another guy. Both of them were laughing at something Zoya had said when I had stopped in the parking lot to pick her up. They had given each other side hugs. This was it. This was the place. I looked up at the name of the resort.

I watched as he told the security guard something and then nodded before turning around and leaving. A smile that I didn't even know I was capable of having covered my lips. If he has been harboring Zoya here, he is in far deeper trouble than he can possibly imagine. I followed him, across the security guard who nodded once he examined my id card and let me in.

I watched as he entered an exclusive building that I knew was meant for VIPs. I kept a safe distance as I followed him. He was carrying a parcel of sorts on him. He stopped infront of a door on the ground floor and knocked. She opened the door after a minute and a half. Her smile twisted my heart into a thousand pieces. I had no words to describe the whirlpool of emotions I felt right now. Relief. Betrayal. Hunger. Obsession. Happiness. It all mixed up in a fatal form.

The man handed her the parcel and they talked in a very faint voice for a few minutes before he turned around and left. I didn't waste a second to go to the door that Zoya had conveniently shut off. I knew she hadn't locked it. Yet I knocked. The same double knock that he had done. She opened the door in less than a minute this time. With the same playful smile.

"What happened? Did you forget something?" Her smile vanished the moment she met my eyes. Her body froze.

"Found you, Zoya."

Author's POV:

Hello and Asalam o Alaikum lovelies!

All the comments spam made me want to write another chapter so here we are.

Me as an author: I love this work.
Also me as an author when it gets dark: Mommy I am scared.