₦airaland Forum

"And then...... I never saw her again."

"Oh God, how awful." Deeba was in a state of complete shock. Her vision clouded with tears. A sob broke from her throat and she pressed her lips together to steady their trembling.

"Well, as you can imagine, I lost my mind." His eyes darkened to a deep stormy black.

She glanced at Aariz again. He looked decidedly uncomfortable, but he kept silent.

A waiting silence fell between them.

"What happened then?" She drew a breath and asked weakly.

"I was arrested on the spot and later sentenced to prison on behalf of a suicidal attempt and for injuring my servant." His voice was barely audible now.

Her heart bled for him, and she clutched her hands to her bosom.

He met Deeba's widened eyes and flashed a humorless grin. "You lool almost as miserable as I felt. But that's not worst of it." He shook his head, continuing in a subdued voice.

"Only then I realized what she had been for my parents, for my home, and for our servants." He added.

Her eyes followed him as he walked over to the window and stood with his back to her. He braced one hand high on the wall.

"Our family doctor told me later, that my heart-patient mother and diabetic father were improving rapidly. He had never seen them that happy. She had changed the whole map of our family and our house. She used to give bed tea to my father in the morning and a glass of milk every night before he slept. She never forgot to give medicines to my mother regularly. Even my servants liked her for her nice ethics and behavior. She helped them alot, aiding and helping our gardener for his daughter's marriage, giving extra vacations to the watchman when his mother got sick." He swallowed, unable to go on.

"But the most hurting thing is yet to come." He said huskily, as he walked back to his sofa and sat down as though exhausted.

When he turned toward her, his features were grave. As though the words were corvered with spines and being ripped out of his gut.

"Can you imagine what made Komal change her mind and come back to me?" He rasped.

Deeba couldn't reply. She just stared at him in silence and shock.

"It was Zeest!"

A huge, gaping hole was blown through Deeba's heart with those words, and she had an urge to scream out her anger at this man who'd hurt that woman so horribly. But she held herself in check, allowing Aariz to finish.

"Are you okay?" His voice was thicker, more uncertain than he would've liked it to be.

"Yes." She whispered unsteadily. "I think so."

"You know Deeba what I want now?" He asked. "I want someone to pick his shoes up and hit my head with them!"

They both knew there was little left to say.

"I don't know what to say to you now. I have no more words that have enough memory. There are no words. There is only loss."

Still, her heart swelled with honor that he had felt comfortable enough to shre it with her.

"Why did you let her go?" She accused in a hoarse whisper, her throat raw and throbbing painfully with awful despair.

"Letting go has never been easy and holding on can be as difficult. Yet strengths measured not by holding on but by letting go." Aariz took a shuddering breath and told her.

"You talk deep." Deeba managed to say. "Sometimes, I understand only a little."

"Better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot." He told her with a mild hint of amusement in his black eyes.

"So you went crazy and sent her away and tried to hate her for what your mother did to you." Deeba offered gently. "But you couldn't hate such an innocent girl. Could you?"

He didn't say a word, but the muscles along his cheek and jaw stood out in sharp ridges, and she caught another glimpse of pain in his eyes. Or had she imagined it?

In a low voice, he said, "She may be dead!"

"Or alive." She said, shaking. "If she is, would you tell her you love her? You will, won't you?"

He shrugged his powerful shoulders but said nothing.

"So, you never saw her again."

"She might be out of my sight, but she has not been out of my mind for a single minute."

A grin lifted his lips, but didn't touch his eyes.

"You never looked for her again?"

He glanced at her as if waiting for her to answer her own question. When she didn't, he said.

"I knew there would be no use." He clenched his jaw, obviously fighting for control.

"Don't sit down and wait for opportunities to come; you have to get up and make them." It was a spontaneous remark from Deeba. She didn't know know what made her say so. Perhaps, she was too emotional at the moment.

Deeba closed her eyes and mouthed a silent prayer that somehow she was surviving. Her throat was closing with fear and hope but she fought the sobs that blocked her throat.

"Let her be alright." She murmured soundlessly, wiping tears from her eyes.

"But......" Deeba stammered. "You just said, that she change Komal's mind to get back to you?"

"Yes." He gave a short reply, his facial unpredictable. "Komal returned from London, a month after my imprisonment after recieving a phone call from Zeest."

He took off his glasses and began polishing them.

"She met me in the prison and told me that somehow Zeest had made her believe that I needed Komal the most and she was my only cure, the only treatment of my sufferings. She also assured her that I've left her and she'll never come again between the two of us." Aariz said, closing his eyes for a moment, memories bringing him back to the day when Komal had returned from London, only to see him, to find out how he was and to discover if he still.......

"Aariz, I'm back." Komal had looked at him through tear-filled eyes.

The young voice had caught him and turned him around.

Aariz's face was forbidding when he looked at her with weak expression. He looked much thinner and weak. He hadn't shaved for days.

She was not good herself. Infact, he'd not seen her looking that bad since he'd met her first.

She had no makeup; her eyes were red and not just from her present tears. She was gaunt, like she hadn't eaten or slept properly for sometime. Her lips were chapped. Her hair was dry with split ends and trendils everywhere.

Komal's heart sank as he refused to listen.

This was not going to be easy. He wasn't going to give an inch.

"What do you want?" He asked ungraciously.

"I need to talk to you. Please." Komal pleaded softly.

His jaw tensed, and he shook his head. "I'm done talking to you."

"Please?"

Implacable and stony-faced, at first he didn't say anything, but finally relented and allowed her to speak few words. But, as soon as she opened her mouth to say something, he turned his back to her.

"I'm listening." He said over his shoulder.

Komal gathered her courage and went to stand near the prison rods. She longed to run her hands freely over his back and shoulders, but she didn't have that much courage and authority.

Her heart raced. Now that she was here, she didn't quite know how to start. But she had to speak soon as he didn't seem to be in a very patient mood.

"I love you, Aariz." At last, she simply blurted it out.

His shoulders jerked as though he'd been taken by suprise, turning to face her, his hands gripped the hard iron rods harder.

"I'm too old for fairy tales, Komal." He clenched his teeth. "A woman doesn't keep turning away from the man she loves."

Komal's throat was dry. Gathering her nerves she reached near him and put his hand on his. As soon as she touched him, he withdrew his hands so rapidly like a nude electric wire has touched him.

"What happened?" Komal asked in disbelief. "What's the matter Aariz? You never act like this."

"I don't know." He said, rubbing his hands.

In his mind he was thinking. "Zeest had never touched any man's hand. She was so untouched. Did I deserve her?"

He then turned slowly and steadied his gaze on her, as if he was trying to commit her features to memory

Alarm escalated to panic. "Why are you...." She paused, the tears she refused to shed ached in her throat. ".....looking at me like that?"

"You're wasting your time."

He said, twisting his lips into a bitter line.

"But at least you can tell me if I still have some place in your heart." Komal begged, blinking away the tears from her eyes.

He glanced at her eyes as if waiting for her to continue. When she didn't, he peered at her as if he was expecting her to withdraw the question. She lifted her chin and stared back, he turned away and said.

"Go away, I've nothing for you now."

"Alright, if that's the way you want it, then I should better go. But I want you to know that I still love you."

As she spoke, her voice turned into heavy sobs. "I always loved you Aariz, and now, when there are no obstacle in our way, you're telling me to go away."

Everything that held her world in place had come apart, and there wasn't one thing she could do about it.

Komal looked at him one last time with dead eyes. She just stood there, stone still, saying nothing, watching him. After a very short time, the pang of his emotional abandonment became intolerable, and she whirled from him and broked into a run. As she lurched away, she covered her mouth with both hands to staunch the sobs of disappointment and regret she could neither quell nor understand.

"My God!" Deeba's soft hand curled into hard fists.

He avoided Deeba's probing gaze. "The days following that were the most hectic I could ever remember." He told her in a low voice. "The weeks of crying, days of yearning, nights of cigarettes and morning headaches were all behind me."

"And then, I met Maulana Uncle. He used to visit the central prison, taking care of prisoners helping and educating them about the ethics and our religion. After Zeest, he's been the most influential person in my life. Without him, I would never have become normal again." He said, his eyes dark with pain.

"The....rest you know." He breathed heavily. "That's the whole story."

"Until now!" She tried her best to smile but she couldn't.

"Although most true stories don't have ends, Deeba." The soft sea breeze tugged at his hair as he left his sofa and came to stand near the room window. Deeba's fingers trembled in her lap. His back was facing her, his hands thrust deeply into the pockets of his trousers, and his broad, powerful shoulders were slightly hunched. "But I suppose that's the end of it."

"Two more years have passed since then." He said softly but strangely, without turning to look at her. "But my wounds are still the same. The pain has only increased with time."

"Don't you cry?"

He then turned slowly and fixed her with his eyes. Tears were in her eyes when she lifted her gaze to look again into his eyes. All the bitterness of agony of those two years were written in their pain filled depths.

Strange she should think of it now, when it happened over hundred days ago, but the memory of it was as clear as if it were yesterday.

"It's more dangerous to weep inwardly rather than outwardly." His voice was taut, tightly controlled.

"Outward tears can be wiped away while secret tears scar forever."He went on stonily.

"Sometimes, I really wonder myself." Aariz let out his breath in a long lingering sigh, not even aware that he had been holding it back. "If she could forgive me so that I could die happily. But, I don't think she'll ever forgive me. And that's what I want. I don't deserve any sympathy or human feelings."

"Why do you say so?" She asked sadly.

"I was like an animal to her. Or maybe even animals are better. Atleast, they don't betray you, some of them even protect you."

On his remark, Deeba wondered and dreamt of what the future had in store for him. Was there any hope at all?

"Don't think like this. You know, a true woman's heart is so big, and I'm sure her heart is bigger than your sin, no matter what you've done." Deeba said automatically, suprised at herself for uttering such comment. He sure had a way with words that often sparked her own creativity.

A look of annoyance flickered behind Aariz's glasses but he didn't let it affect his face or gesture.

"Go now." He said gently, tenderness swelling in his heart. "It's late."

Nodding, Deeba rose from the sofa. She had got enough. Lifting her purse and swinging it onto her shoulder she turned to Aariz.

What had made him so hard and antisocial, now she knew.

Love!

He loved Zeest! He really loves her, and he had let her walk out of his life. He had rejected her.

This wasn't Komal, the woman for whom he had felt lukewarm affection and called it love. This was Zeest, the woman who had stormed right into his life and heart. What he'd once felt for Komal had been such a pale imitation of what he now felt for Zeest that it would have been laughable if it weren't so pathetic.

"But...before I leave I'd like to ask one last thing."

"Go ahead."

"What changed you?" Deeba asked curiously. "I mean you don't look like the same Aariz anymore. I've heard that people's nature is never changed. But here you are, with a totally changed nature and character."

"What do you think?" Aariz said softly, grinning for the first time in the last few hours. "I'm suprised you still ask that question."

"Tell me whom you love." He said gently. "And I will tell you who you are."

Hey guys, NL has been down today bt thank God its back. Av seen all ur lovely comments (Miracy and co ), I will update now and get back to ur comments later, cos dey deserve some replies abi?

Well, back to business.

Aliyeous: Kai!!! Kinji yadda zuciya na ke bugawa kamar ganga...tabbb anyway tnk God dat manaic is arrested n my poor Zeest *sobs* has no way 2 turn 2. #teamzeest al d way

Ganga?? Kace yan gidanku sun sha kida.....lol.

Samtolly4JESUS: Aariz only!!

Pakistani Girls dey vex me!!

I don vex

Abeg noe allow my Aariz go jail oo

I wee buy you Hijab

You wan bribe me mk I no send Aariz to jail?? You don't even know whr to find the kinds of Hijaab I wear sha

harlos: it didn't

I don't even know if i should be happy aariz was arrested or not

Hahahaha....you should be crying and rolling on the floor.

Samtolly4JESUS: Am back to TeamAariz! He's just under psychological pressure!

Wetin dey do komal sef?

Dis ur team is it #TeamAarizandKomal or #TeamAarizandZeest?? I no get it.

Bestluv584: (no comment)

Why na??

harlos: wish you know how much my heart beats when they were wrestling

It didn't burst sha

harlos: The suspense...

It isn't much, is it?

Marytess: Abeg make they no lock ma Ariz for dat their prisonoo #TeamAriz#

Here's a female version of #TeamAariz.......lol

Deiok: Maybe he is trying to recover from a shock, cause these last two update were action pack.

I can see dat

harlos: Hmmmm...

What's on your mind?

SPLENDIDFLOZZY: #TEAMZEEST# had it bin zeest was shot.... U wud av answered 4 it.. Anyway sha my mind is nt yet at rest

Answered for it Abi?? ......why is your mind nt yet at rest??

stefikal: *relieved....
My dear Zeest z still alive...underage wan kill persn wit suspense..

I no wan kill person oo

Deiok: *Takes a deep breath* Ah thank God zeest is alife, but thesame time out of Aariz life.

Ooh ... Dear Aariz have to go to gail, I feel for him.

Shuq29: U can neva imagine hw fast my heart was beating throughout my reading of this update, i even thought it ws going to burst bt thank God it didn't sha..........so intrigue dat i dnt even want to predict anymore. Thanx

Thought ur hrt was going to burst
U r wlcm

Winnie1950: Omg. Thank God o. At least zeest did not die. Aariz should be made 2 suffer 4 his actions. Foolish boy. Mtcheew!

Calm down Winnie

make money now: #Breaths a sigh of relief

Relief for what? He didn't kill her or the fact that he pushed her out of his home

fateemah88: Now i can release my breath i though it wil be zeest.thank God nd also tnxz to u underage....teamzeest

You are most welcome my yaruwa

Up Up #TeamZeest

360prince: . Wow menn i like this your name. Funny how it sounds... Chuckling...

Which name?

He just looked at her sleeping form, as if trying to memorize her features.

Standing near the bed, he stared at her for what seemed like hours. She was his wife. He was her husband. They were each other's spouses, the closest and most sensitive relation between a man and a woman.

She wore a jet-black shirt and shilwar, with no jewelry, no make up at all. Her face was simple, and innocent. While she slept, she represented a perfect picture of the Goddess of sadness.

He then stepped back, slowly and silently. Opening the door, he finally got out.

It was a soft click of the door's knob that disturbed Zeest's sensitive, dreamless sleep. She rubbed her eyes lightly and glanced at the wall clock, which showed the the time was 2 a.m. Then, her glance fell on the side sofa where he used to sleep.

But, the sofa was empty. The dark bathroom showed that he was not there either.

Her mind became alarmed. Something was wrong, something was unusual, and she had to find it out.

Panic knifed through her until she jumped to her feet. She reached near the bedroom window and pushed the heavy silk curtains aside to reveal the front lawn, completely drown with lights at the moment. What she saw there was enough to blow her mind off.

There he was, his eyes closed, standing alone in the middle. His lips were trembling, like he was he was whispering to himself. But that was not what had shocked her to death. It was what he had in his hand that took her breath away.

She stared at him in disbelief, not ever believing that he could think about taking such an ultimate step. She had no doubt that he meant it and had the strength to back up his intention.

Stark, paralyzing pain rendered Zeest motionless. She couldn't think, nor could she move.

"No...no." She shook her head violently. "I can't let that happen."

Without wasting another second, she left the window. Barefooted, she crossed the carpet and opened the bedroom door swiftly but quickly and ran toward the front lawn.

He then slowly brought his right hand up, almost like in a slow motion. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him putting the fore end of the pistol on his temple.

Her breaths stopped and her heart pounded wildly as she saw the scene ahead of her. She fought off the urge to scream, to launch herself at him, to plead, but she knew her words would fall on dead ears. The harsh lines in his face were cast in granite. Her heart shuddered in her body; her stomach contracted to the size of a marble.

There was no time. It was just a matter of thousandth of a second. Without making the slightest noise, she came behind him.

"Why are you doing this?" She wanted to ask, but no words came out, nerves fluttering in her throat.

His index finger trembled as it started to press the trigger.

With her heart lodged in her throat, Zeest swung around and at the same time he continued pressing the trigger, ready to kill himself.

She lunged toward the out-of-his-mind man, caught hold of his hand, grabbing it with all her might wanting to throw the pistol away.

But Aariz resisted. Shouting at her, he wrestled with her hands, not wanting to lose hold on the fatal weapon. But Zeest was determined to fight with him to save his life. She pushed him with all of her body force. The force was such that Aariz toppled backward, his head striking a piece of wood. She picked up the pistol from the floor and threw it away, turning back to look at him.

"Oh Allah!" She cried and watched in horror, as Aariz tried to raise his body up, a thin stream of blood running from his forehead.

"You bloody bitch." He stood up and barked.

Zeest screamed into the deafening silence.

He was now going to kill her. Yes, he sure was.

Blindly, he swung toward her, his eyes flaming with pure anger. Grabbing her by the shoulders, he shook her whole body with full force, his hands coming up to surround her thin neck like he was about to strangle her.

But, before he could hit her more, they heard some sharp gasps. Only then, they both realized that the house servants had gathered around them, watching the terrible scene with horror in their eyes.

He didn't care. He cursed and disgraced her in front of his servants without thinking that this woman was supposed to be his wife, his own respect.

"You bitch, you sick piece of womanhood. If you can't let me live peacefully, you could atleast let me die peacefully." He began in a threatening voice. "I have always tried to control myself. But from now on, Aariz Ali will not do anything he doesn't want to do."

The floodgates of his emotions had burst open and had washed away any restraint he might have put in his tongue.

But before being drowned helplessly under those strong torrents of Aariz's anger, she tried to say, helplessly, just like a drowning person in a voilent sea, in a futile effort to grope for a straw.

"I..... I didn't mean to....."

"Get lost from here." He had yelled, cutting in. "Leave this place forever. I don't want to see your nasty face again. Leave me alone, for God's sake, for heaven's sake."

He caught hold of her hand and pulled her roughly by her arm.

Zeest didn't resist. Instead, she allowed herself to be roughly pulled toward the porch.

"I'm sick and tired of you. You'll have to leave my home. That's my decision."

Zeest's feelings were lacerated by her husband's cold tone.

"I have no wish now, tomrrow or ever, to speak to you again, to see you again, or to have any contact with you at any future date."

Cold dread engulfed her. That was it. She would never see him again. With courageous effort, she hid her despair behind a mask of politeness.

"Goodbye. Thanks for your hospitality." She murmured weakly.

She muttered an emotionally thick 'take care of him' to the servants.

The next moment he pushed her roughly toward the main door.

Her feet left the floor due to powerful push but she gripped the knob of the door for support.

"You are the one who destroyed my dreams and spoiled my hopes and wishes. I'm not going to forgive you ever. DID YOU HEAR THAT?"

His eyes became glittering slits, chilling her with their icy stare. She had never seen that angry glaze in his eyes before, or the uncompromising set of his features. He was almost a stranger to her.

Humiliation scalded her cheeks as she scurried up onto the porch. Tears were burning at her eyes. She felt as if she couldn't breath.

Another push and she was out.

Without wasting another second, he closed the door.

Desolate, she rushed out of the house and out of Aariz's life.

She felt so degraded, so humiliated! But what made it even worse, was the fact that her only fault was that she had tried to save his life.

She sank to her kness by the gate, sobbing.

"I'll see Aariz Ali! I'll wait for the day.....that moment when you'll admit, when you'll confess, when you'll surrender and, when you'll accept me!" She thought bitterly.

She sat down on the ground, dropped her head in her hands and wept.

"See father. I never disobeyed you." She sobbed.

"Sahib." It was his guard's voice, as Aariz turned back after closing his home's door on her. (Sahib: Master)

"Forgive her, Sahib!"

But he was not prepared for Aariz's reaction as he turned violently and grasped his A-K 47 rifle from his hands. He was about to shoot the guard on the spot, when his butler came from behind and caught hold of his hands. Aariz was blind at the moment, totally mad. He wrestled with his servants trying to kill everyone who was in front of him. Suddenly there was a blast, a sound of fire and it brought Aariz back to his senses. But it was too late now. Ahead of him, was the unconscious figure of his guard, lying on the ground. While wrestling with him , the trigger had been pressed unintentionally. The blind bullet had hit the servant on his shoulder, injuring him severely.

"Get him." Came a harsh voice from behind.

Stunned at his place, Aariz looked at the surrounding figures of policemen. While he was lost in the throes of his blind fury, some of his servants had called the police.

"Mr. Aariz, you're under arrest."

Winnie1950: Aariz shouldn't kill zeest even if she has 2 die it shouldn't be by his hands. If he kills zeest i swear i will unfollow.

So many unfollowers if Aariz killed Zeest

Deiok: Its rage.

Tooh........

princesa: err...because i don't live on Nairaland


@underage...am good, being following silently

Good to know u're still here Ma'am

harlos: Is aariz insane

For once i thought Aariz was talking to Komal on phone after she drove off...how then did Aariz want to touch her
or did i miss something

Yes you did miss something because it was the entry phone that rang (A kind of phone at the entry of a house or apartment, which is used to notify the owners that they have visitors, nt so common in Naija shaa ).
So Aariz called Komal thru the entry phone and after a brief conversation, she asked him to come up. Go thru d update a lil, am sure u'll get it.

I Hate 9ja: chai if zeest die,i wld unfollow,coz that gurl as suffered enough,hence the story has lose it awsome taste

Really

Hameenat94: Madam underage...Walaahi me de fear... Is dis hw Zeest would end her lyf 4 somebody dat dnt even care 4 her.. Dis pathetic... Pls dnt let him pull d trigger

I see many people don't want Zeest dead.....

Samtolly4JESUS: If you pull the trigger in your next update, I'll

I have already pulled the trigger

Niela Love: Oh,komal,her envy has eaten deep into her,dat she can't even tink,just becos she saw, i just pray dat zeest won't b a victim of dis envy,underage, i'm so scared,i dnt wnt to miss zeest.

I'm scared too

Shuq29: DESTINY!!!................i sure knew dat this is going to happen bt jst dnt want to be too forward, i knew dat it will be until Aariz lose something of gud siginificance b4 he realise wat a valueless object he has bt like one adage dat says 'Destiny can neva be change'. We meet different pple in live nd they either walk away from us or die wen they av fulfil their purpose in our life nd i guess dats wat Zeest case is nd dats wat we call LIFE. Thanx for d update sis

You are most welcome. Really like the way you speak up things

Aliyeous: Oh NO!!!!!! Pls tel mi he didnt....ohhh Zeest not dis way plzzzz

Deiok: What!!!... Is like that aariz headache has eaten deep into his Brain. if he dares pull that triger i will hate him for life.
Let me reserve my comment till i read the next update

Why the red color?? Is it anger or wetin?