When Fire Meets Ice - Completed.

51. S T R E N G T H

I N A Y A

The entire hall was alive with laughter and chatter as we all ate together. Dad and the rest were here to see Ahad and had stayed for lunch after meeting him.

Later, Kinza blabbered on my lap, making everyone smile with her cute antics. My gaze drifted to Dad who was watching everything silently, a small smile playing on his lips.

I suddenly remembered wanting to talk to him. I stood up, handing Kinza over to Asim before I walked to dad.

"Dad! Come with me, I'll show you around?" he frowned slightly before nodding as he stood up and we walked out into the lawn.

The sunlight hit straight to my face as we walked further and settled on a chair under a tree.

"I wanted to talk to you about something!" I stated, looking up at him who was now silent.

"About the attack?"

"Yes! The attack on my mother from ten years ago!" And the way his palms fisted into balls did not go unnoticed by me. He sat straighter, exhaling sharply as he spoke, "I've told you to not dig into more of it, Inaya! Let the past stay where it belongs."

"He called me again, Dad!" I almost whispered and when his head snapped towards me, I knew that he understood what I was talking about. "Yes! The same man from back then... he called me on the day of attack-" I continued with all the details from the call.

He listened quietly, his face unreadable as I continued, "The past is no longer in the past. It never was, Dad! And it was fine until it involved me alone. Now, I can't, and I won't let any harm touch Ahad or the other family members!!" My voice was firm, stronger than I thought it could ever be.

His fingers trembled slightly before his hand shot out with reluctance to caress my head. I sighed under my breath, relaxing a little before he spoke up, "Come to the mansion when Ahad is good enough to travel... It includes him and he deserves the truth too!"

I hummed. "I wanted to know it as soon as possible! Why did you hide it from me?" I asked, letting the disappointment show. His eyes softened, diverting from mine as he said, "I never knew it could resurface like this again... I thought it was over so I wanted to keep you away from it."

The quiver in his tone told how much this had affected him and was still affecting him. And something about it felt so shattering when I looked at him again, those weary and tired eyes that once shone with so much delight. The face that always exuded warmth and liveliness now barely showed an expression.

I had seen how much he loved Mumma! And I knew it hadn't been easy for him. I knew her death had affected him tenfold of what it did to me.

"I have something to give you, Dad." I spoke softly, looking at him with a smile. He furrowed his brows in confusion. "What?"

"It's something I think you should keep! It's in my farmhouse, I'll bring it when I'll come there to meet you!" I said and he nodded his head, muttering okay.

"What do you know so far?" He asked and I explained everything to him. I disclosed the threat calls Ahad was receiving, the information about the hospitals and Haamid we had managed to gather.

I couldn't tell him about the drugs we were suspicious of, because I was waiting for Ananya to still figure them out through the connections in the crime department she holds.

Dad was mildly surprised to know I had found out about Haamid and certainly knew they were somehow close to each other. Because Mumma had written about Haamid pulling pranks on Dad regarding abducting me, which were obviously NOT pranks. So they might've been pretty close for Mumma to believe this.