Continued from the previous chapter...

Suddenly, a gun shot was heard making Areesha flinched horribly.

"NO!" A yell escaped Areesha's mouth involuntarily.

Then one of guys with the mask  took the motorbike while the other took their car and sped away. Areesha rushed to Fawads side and her hand flew to her mouth.

Fawad was lying on the road with his arm bleeding. Areesha kneeled down to to see him withering in pain.

"F-fawad?" She stammered and she didn't know when tears started spilling from her eyes.

"Don't ....cry." Fawad said faintly and slipped into unconsciousness.

Areesha was paralyzed with shock. What was she supposed to do? There was no human in sight and their car had been snatched away and they were stranded in the middle of nowhere. She sent a silent prayer to Allah help them.

Suddenly she felt her purse and hurriedly rummaged through it for her phone. She found it and turned it on with trembling hands.

Thanks God she had charged it before leaving. 

She quickly speed dialed Zayans number and waited for him to pick up. She couldn't even see properly through her tears. She kept muttering duas for Allah to help them.

She waited for Zayan to pick up but the call disconnected. Where was he when you needed him so much?

She speed dialed the next number in the list without even seeing who it was.

"Hello? Areesha?" She recognized this as Aamirs voice.

"Aamir.. F-fawad... shot.... snatchers.." she whimpered. She was not good at handling such situations.

"Areesha what happened to you guys? You need to tell me clearly where you are." She heard Aamir's calm voice from the other end.

Where were they? Fawad had said it was a surprise and she hadn't even payed attention to the where they were going.

"I-I don't know."

"Areesha calm down. I need you to share your location with me. Can you do that?"

Areesha nodded as no words came out of her mouth. She ended the call with trembling hands and turned on her 3G.

She opened Aamir's whats app and shared her location with him.

The phone started ringing again and she picked it up and put it on loudspeaker.

"Areesha I am on my way. Can you tell me what happened?" His voice drifted to her and she felt comfort.

"Fawad has f-fainted. He got shot in h-his arm." She sobbed into the phone and kept Fawad's head on her lap.

"Calm down. You are the only one who can help him right now." 

"Yes what shall I do. He is b-bleeding non stop." Thank God Aamir was a doctor.

"Ok listen to me. Do you have a cloth? Your staller maybe? Wrap it on his arm and apply pressure on his inner side of his arm opposite to the elbow on his brachial artery. Can you do that?"

"Y-yeah." She replied as she wrapped her hijab in his arm and applied the pressure as he said.

"Ok now elevate his bleeding arm."

She followed his instructions.

"Check his breathing? Can you hear him breath?" He asked over the phone.

"N-no his breathing is very shallow." Areesha said as another set of tears made their way through her eyes.

"Ok listen to me.There are no hospitals in the area you are in so I am coming. I am only a few minutes away. You need to calm down."

"Ok." She said trying to calm her breathing.

"Pinch his nose with you fingers and till his head backwards opening his mouth slightly and hear his breathing."

"Yes he is slowly breathing." She replied

"Ok good. Did he stop bleeding?"

"There is b-blood congealed on his wound."

"Ok that's a good sign. I am almost here now." 

On cue she heard a car approaching and saw it was Aamir's. Never in her entire life had she felt so much relief seeing him.

Amir got out of the car and hurried to where Areesha was kneeling against Fawad on the floor.

"Come on." Aamir said to her and together they supported Fawad and made him lie on the back seat of the car. Areesha got in beside him and Aamir started driving.

Aamir opened all the windows of the car. 

"Areesha hold his arm upwards."

"T-thank you for helping me." Areesha said to him through tears.

"He is going to be fine. He needs your prayers Areesha." Aamir said to her through the rear view mirror and his heart clenched to see her like this.

Areesha nodded and wiped her tears.

Please Allah. Help us. Don't take him away from me.  She prayed to him her tears pouring down her cheeks endlessly as she held Fawads unmoving hand.

"Areesha this is a test from Allah. You need to calm down and trust Him to out everything right. He is testing your faith. Don't let shaitan win. Don't despair or lose hope. He is going to be fine." Aamir said as he pressed the accelerator and honked repeatedly to get the cars out of his way.

Areesha nodded taking in the truth of his words. She would not lose hope. She recited every dua and surah she knew and blew it over him.

In a few more minutes they reached a hospital and the staff put him on the stretcher and wheeled him inside.

"No. He is my husband. Let me stay with him." Areesha cried to the staff as they took him inside the ICU and wouldn't let her go in.

The nurses looked at Aamir helplessly and he pulled Areesha back. She was getting hysterical.

"Amir they are taking him away from me." She whimpered in his arms.

"Let the doctors do their work Areehsa." He said to her rubbing her back soothingly."You love him a lot don't you?"

Love? Her? Fawad? Hell yes. Yes she definitely loved him. More than anything in the world. She didn't know when that happened but all she cared was for him. She didn't care about herself in front of him. She had left her somewhere way back when she had fallen in love with him.

"Then believe in your love. It will bring him back." He said reassuringly.

"Y-you know at first I thought that you were a bad person because you were trying to create misunderstandings between us, but I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't come today." She said to Aamir as they sat down on the cold metal chairs that were lined with the walls.

"I am sorry about that. Dad didn't tell me the whole situation back then. I just knew that your father had exchanged you for money and that you were mine. Later I found out that it was Dad who was at fault since the beginning. He took away your father's business and then threatened him. Your husband paid that money because my father threatened him. Not because he was purchasing you. I am so sorry for making you go through all that." He explained with a regretful tone.

Areesha tried to digest this new information. She hadn't known this part of the story as she still hadn't confronted Fawad about it.

"I-It's okay. It's in the past now." she said reassuringly more to herself than him. It was fine.

"Thank you. But I am so happy for you. That guy loves you a lot. You two surely deserve one another." He smiled trying to keep her mind away from Fawad being shot.

"I know. And I don't want to lose him now." Areesha said as another lone tear escaped her eye and fell on her cheek. But she wouldn't cry. Fawad had told her not to last thing and she would respect his wishes.

"Have faith in Allah. You won't lose him."

"Insha Allah." She said and an unknown emotion passed through her by uttering that.

"That's like a good girl." he smiled.

"Thank you so much for being there when I needed you the most." She said meaning every word of that.

"Don't mention it. Can we remain friends?" He asked her hopefully

"Yeah sure. After all you've done so much for me."

"You're more like a sister that I never had." He declared.

"I will be glad to be." She said smiling through the tears. Who would think that she would be having such a conversation with her ex-fiance. Now when she looked back at how she had harmed herself just because she thought that he was the one for her she almost scoffed at herself.

Allah's plans were indeed the best. And this was Allah's plan too. It was meant for the best. And dua could change destiny. It was her best weapon right now. This conversation with him made her discover newfound faith in Allah's divine wisdom.

***

It has been three hours they have taken Fawad in the ICU. Areesha's lips were moving soundlessly as she prayed for him. Fawad's parents, Maya and Zayan were with her and Aamir. There was a deadly silence that encompassed them. 

Areesha was trying to stay strong for Fawad's mother who was crying uncontrollably with her head on Maya's shoulder who looked devastated herself. She had to stay strong for them. Because if one of them wouldn't be strong they would all break and no one would be left to pick up their pieces.

Her eyes snapped up as she heard the ICU doors opened and Areesha and the rest of the family got up from the chair and rushed to the doctor.

The doctor had a grim expression on his face and Areesha braced herself. When her own father had died she had been at home and her mother was the one who had broken the news to her so this was a completely foreign feeling to wait to see what destiny had decided for your loved ones. And she hoped that she would never go through it agan. Heck she prayed that even her enemies would never be in such a situation.

***

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