Life Sentence

CHAPTER 21

Saad looked at the man he’d spent his entire life with less as a friend and more as a brother. He didn’t know what to say. He did know that Yusuf was the one man who always went by the book, and there was nothing he wouldn’t do for justice.

But that was the very thing that had cost them all so much. Yusuf was a fool who hadn’t recognized fabricated evidence. He’d chosen to trust some petty lie than his own brother and the woman that he loved. Sure, Saad hated Yusuf for what he did to Kubra, what she had to endure. But the resentment he held in his heart for him was for selfish reasons.

Yusuf had made it clear to Saad that his judgment, his opinion, his word meant nothing to him. No matter how much Saad had valued Yusuf’s opinion on any case, his meant shit to him. He’d stripped Saad of the only friend he had, the only person he could turn to.

And he hadn’t known if he could forgive him for that. But sitting here in front of him, seeing Yusuf so miserable, he had an urge to hug him and say ‘all’s forgiven’.

But he wasn’t that selfless.

“I don’t know, Yusuf. And I’m not here to discuss your values. I believed it couldn’t happen. But I also believed that you were not a fool. You were smarter than me. Always had been. Where I scored the highest marks by studying my ass off, you danced there effortlessly. So maybe it’s easier for me to assume that you were sold. By fear or something else, I don’t know.”

Yusuf closed his eyes and turned his head to a side, trying to fight the urge that was scratching at him to throw himself over a bridge. He looked at Saad with an expression that was only on his face when conducting business.

“What do you want to know?”

“Well, let’s see. I’ll go easy on you. Why were we all thrown into the crossfire of Wali’s murder? He was our friend, yes. But why was Kubra framed?”

“I’d forgotten that the most difficult task for everyone was the easiest for you.” Yusuf stood up. “We can’t talk here. Let’s go to my office.” Saad would’ve questioned why, but the pointed look Yusuf gave him was clear. There was a high chance that this place was tapped.

And sure enough, the second Yusuf closed the door to his office, he said, “The bastards have tapped this entire building. Now, I’ve had my office checked . . . quite thoroughly actually, but I can’t have the entire building searched without alarming whoever is after me in the first place.” He sat on his chair behind the desk and loosened his tie, smiling as if being a vocal prisoner in his office was no big deal.

“And who exactly . . . is that?” Saad frowned and gripped the back of the chair opposite Yusuf.

“I . . . don’t know. Could be Bajwa, could be some other psycho who’s seeking revenge on me. I don’t know. I haven’t exactly pleased a lot of people.”

“How about you start talking everything related Wali’s and Kubra’s case?” Saad pulled the chair back and sat down, entwining his fingers on the table and waiting for Yusuf to just get it over with.

Yusuf exhaled and leaned back. “The reason Kubra was dragged into this whole mess because of me. And I’m not talking about the fact that I fought against her. She was targeted because some people wanted to threaten me, because they knew that that would hurt me the most.

“Five years back, a month before Wali was murdered, he’d sent me a few files. Only he didn’t send it to me here. He mailed them to my cousin’s house in England, who wasn’t even there at the time. His housekeeper kept it aside, just like every other mail, but it got lost somewhere. Jamal Bajwa knew his son had sent those files to me, but he couldn’t find them. He thought I had them, so he decided to blackmail me. He killed his son and made it seem as if Kubra had done it. Only when he saw that I wasn’t defending her, he must have realized that either I didn’t care for her or that I hadn’t received the mysterious files. So he just let things flow as they were.”