My Ruination

Chapter 22.

~Zaeden~

"He is ready to give you Portville for merely nothing in exchange?" Sikandar sipped his non-alcoholic beer, the condensation seeping down the bottom of the bottle. "To have this marriage annulled after one year so she could go marry someone of her father's standards." I completed, the admission stirring up a new sense of rage inside me. The isolated balcony from the 50th floor of the building provided a clear view of the city, the silence along with it welcoming.

The wind whistles and Sikandar's white hair with slight tinges of leftover black blows with the wind. I have seen them when they were perfectly black, when he was not a man in his seventies, and when he could stand for long hours with me in this silence without breaking a sweat. Now he was seated on the expensive settee and I leaned against the railings, avoiding his narrowed gaze.

"But this is not just about that, you know right? No sane person gives up Portville for nothing. People have murdered for that land and he is giving it to you to protect his child of haram." He said and my palms closed into fists. "He is hiding something, something he wants to keep hidden from you. It's like throwing an ugly blanket on a spill. Everyone will be focused on the blanket but no one would think to look under it."

"I know." I have known for quiet for some time now that Keshav Damani was harboring something very deep and dark. Hiding Maahira's identity from the world wasn't just about his treachery, it was something more. Something very buried and dead like skeletons in closets. "You had an idea about this and I am sure you had a motive for this marriage too. Do not get distracted." He said, his voice low but daunting.

I found her, still with Gromov, his wife and sons, looking thoroughly entertained. Sikandar knew exactly what I have been looking at but he does not call me out on it. "It is easy to get distracted by a woman like her- strong, feminine yet lethal in her ways. A woman who knows her best instruments well and applies them when the time comes." He placed the beer bottle on the glass table, "But the fact remains unchanged that she was not meant to be with people like you. She is just a temptation you have to resist long-term."

His words cut deep and bleed out something ugly from within. It makes me want to kill him. But I remember the hands that picked up my shattered pieces, the hands that worked on those pieces to build my foundations, the guidance that made me the sharpest tool in the shed, that made me so invincible and unattainable. I was here because of him and I do not bite the hands that once fed me.

He was right, undoubtedly. But I knew my obsession with Maahira had surpassed the usual parameters. She was like this unmarred soul who had walked into my darkness and instead of chewing her up, I wanted to play with her, to know what light feels like.

"I want to meet her." Sikandar claimed out of the blue and I snapped my gaze away from Maahira to look at him, "Talk to her and get a measure of what's going on in her mind. But unfortunately, that day can't be today." He said, conviction in his eyes for me.

"And why is that?" I asked, purposely provoking him like he did to me. This is what could summarize our bond, we teased and provoked until one of us would break and make a faulty move but none of this was aimed with any evil intentions. Besides, there was nothing about us we didn't already know.

"My daughter, Nafisah went and took a liking for an asshole and his cute son but he told her to get the fuck out of his house before he throws her out. So I am going to be taking her to a dinner now." He said and smirked like an idiot. The only reason Nafisah was ever allowed in my house was because of her blood relations with Sikandar and his wife, Shama. He was my mentor but she was just a pain in the arse, too superficial and airheaded. Sikandar had bowed down to every one of her whims, even if force required except forcing me to get close to her. She might be her father's princess but I preferred my father's warrior.

I do not bother defending because as much as Sikandar liked me, he wouldn't wish a man like me for his own child, especially after knowing what I've put Maahira through. Sikandar left with an unspoken reminder of the contract and I returned back to the party to find the guests taking up their seats on the table as the servers are gathered to begin the dinner. Gromov Antonelli is sitting on the either side of Maahira as I clenched my jaws so hard, they could have snapped my tooth.

Maahira was usually a listener, a silent observer adding small details about herself mid-conversation to make you think she is sharing but around Gromov, she had started talking his ears off. It was a brief conversation, something animated that had Gromov all dreamy-eyed and I fucking hated that. I fanned the flames as I took the empty seat on the either side of her.

She hadn't noticed me arrive yet but I didn't wait for her to. There was enough space between each chairs for a person to stand and I grabbed the bottom of her chair, pulling her towards me and closing the gap. "Can you stop being so disrespectful to someone who has been nothing but kind?" She seethed through her gritted teeth, giving an apologetic smile to them before facing me, glaring me down.

I had taken people's eyeballs out for daring to ever look at me like she did but right now, I felt victorious. It was judgemental and holding me accountable like a prisoner. "I don't think he deserves a second of my time."

"And who does? Nafisah, the woman who you were supposed to have dinner with?" She said bitterly but her voice held no hatred or disrespect for Nafisah. She was so fucking noble, I just wanted to see her snap for once, curse once or humiliate someone for petty reasons. I remember her arguing with Harrison back at the fair, when he had offered her money for helping Darsh and how she did it so respectfully, wrapped in aristocratic dictionary words.

I closed my mouth around her earlobe, inhaling her mesmerizing scent, "No. If she were, she would have been the one I stalked for 6 months, the one I would have threatened and blackmailed and killed for. She would have been in my bed every night and in my mind 24/7." I bit the top of her ears, digging my nose into her hair, acutely aware of the stares of the people trying to watch discreetly. Maahira was flushed red, the red creeping up her slender neck and up to her cheeks.

"And she isn't?"

"I can slowly choke her to death and proudly host her funeral at my mansion." That was true. Sikandar was going to explain that to her tonight surely. He knew I wouldn't tolerate any bullshit against my wife ever again. Someone as pathetic as Nafisah held no competition against Maahira.

Maahira chuckled mockingly, nodding her head in disappointment and a strand of short hair escaped out on her temple. "You have murderous thoughts for everyone except Darsh, don't you?"

I do not answer anything to that question anymore. If she knew what were my thoughts for her, murder would be a very trivial concern for her. The dinner passed as well as a formal one could and we were the almost the first ones to leave, going back to London by car this time. Halfway through the 45 minutes drive, Maahira had fallen asleep, resting her head on the door.

I picked her up in my arms and carried her to her bedroom. The mansion is desolate as I walked in but I am positive Neerja is with Darsh, sitting by his head as he slept. I kicked her door open and laid her down on the bed. I needed to remove these boots from her feet. They were hot but as I begun unlacing them, I realized they were a pain in the ass. Removing them felt like a physical and mental workout but I removed them and turned around to leave, her mumbling caught my attention.

She was fast asleep as she said, "Don't...sign the papers...don't..." The words died in her mouth. It was time to end the whole ordeal of the papers and it was a good thing we were on the same page, because there was never going to any divorce ever. This will end when both our bodies were cold in the grave.