Dangerous Territory [Completed]

7. Daily Newspaper

I stared at her, though not really seeing anything, eyes wide and unblinking. There was a blurry face swimming in my vision, there yet far away, nothing except a figment of the past. Joyful cries, laughs and silly taunts echoed in the air - voices that suddenly sneaked into my today after having been trapped unconsciously for years in my yesterday.

I could feel my heart hammering inside my chest, like a bird wanting to break free of its cage, unable to persist functioning in its harrowing state of reality. My mind jolted restlessly, denying the fact with wild desperation, its screams a silent anguish.

No doubt he looked familiar. Lustrous black waves, long straight and arrogant nose, lean figure, he looked so much like his younger self, so much like Uncle. But why would he want to kidnap me, why would Uncle let him? And his mother he was talking to? She was Aunt Maha! And Adil was assuring her he was bringing good news? Did she not know what he was upto? Did even Uncle know? All the words I'd exchanged with him came back to me like strong gusts of a stormy wind that doesn't let you properly breathe.

"I want to see you working through the fact that your absolute trash of a father is a notorious tight-arse."

"How do you know my name?"

"You're hurting me."

"I'm getting us back something that was ours to own."

"Shareef got biryani. It's still warm."

"I doubt you wouldn't want to know what he did to my family."

"I am not a monster."

Why? What did father do to him that he'd want to have revenge?

I did not realise I'd said that out loud, so when Bisma spoke I looked at her somewhat alarmed, her face coming back into focus. I'd totally forgotten I wasn't alone.

"Uncle was arrested for corruption charges in the company in addition to being accused of trying to illegally transfer a majority share of the company's wealth to himself. He thought, being his brother, Father would back him up, get him out of the mess. But he didn't. Later, Father split up the inheritance and gave him his fair share but I think Uncle believed that since Father thought his arrest was warranted and got him locked up, he couldn't be trusted to be honest with the property. He thought Father took more for himself and only gave him a quarter of the whole fortune."

It was too much information to digest instantly. I shook my head as if that would somehow ease the burden on my heart and my mind. "And all this time you knew everything?" I asked the only question that I had the capability to pose.

"No." Bisma said, her voice low and sombre. *Father wasn't home when the documents were sent, so I received them. I read the names on the contract, one thing lead to another and the whole story was out before I could really comprehend it. I thought then that it was Uncle who planned the whole kidnapping, but Father later told me that the voice on the phone was young. I couldn't believe Adil would personally make it all happen."

My heart constricted, swelled in despair. Tears struck. I took in a long breath and stared at the swaying blades of grass, half concealed in shadows in the night, my vision blurring from the moisture in my eyes.

"I know you adored Uncle, Mashal. But look what he did. He played us. He betrayed us."

My lower lip was wobbling. "All these years I resented . . ." my voice wavered, "I resented him for leaving us and-and not once turning back. But this, Bisma this is too much. I don't think I can ever cope with this." I broke down, tears streamed from my eyes like rain from the clouds. Bisma wrapped her arms round me and pulled me into a hug.