Teji looked at her daughter. After six hours of labor pain, Sehmat looked tired. The pregnancy and depression had taken a toll on her daughter. She was broken. Teji's heart broke as she looked at the infant who was staring at her, his eyes wide. His eyes, they were so like his father's, soft and comforting.

She caressed his cheek, and he held her finger in his tiny ones. Teji's eyes were filled with tears.

"Ammi," Teji wiped her tears and looked at Sehmat, who was trying to sit. She helped her sit using the support of the headboard of the bed and picked her grandson in her arms. Sehmat looked at her son. "Iqbal?" She murmured. Teji looked at her daughter in surprise.

"He isn't Iqbal, my child."

"I know Ammi, Iqbal will never come back, I know. It breaks me, every day when I remember that I have lost him, forever."

"You have to be strong dear, the baby needs you. You have done a lot, struggled a lot. Now it's time to come back, to be the Sehmat you had always been,"

"It's hard Ammi, I have killed, I have seen death. I cannot be the old Sehmat. I have broken hearts and trust, I have deceived people. I am not a good human being,"

"No my child, you aren't bad. You are strong. Whatever you have, you have done it for the country." Teji handed the baby to Sehmat who hugged him to her chest.

Iqbal's questions came back to her. His soft and innocent touches, his soft eyes and smiles, his comforting eyes, all seemed to haunt her, for a few seconds. She wished to go back in time and see her husband. She wanted to introduce Iqbal to their child, watch him play with him, tell him that she loved him.

She wished her Abbu was alive and imagined him smile at his grandchild. She wanted a normal life, a normal family. She knew to move on from the bloodshed that she had witnessed was difficult and honestly, she didn't want to. She knew her only punishment for deceiving Iqbal, killing Abdul and Mehboob was her guilt.

Her thoughts were broken as the baby wailed. She hugged him and softly hummed an Indian classical song that Iqbal had played for her. He calmed down. Teji instructed her to breastfeed him and left the room.

"You look like your father, and I will raise you to be a man like him. Honest, loving and a patriot. You will never make the mistakes I made. I am sure, you will grow up to be a beautiful human being, Sameer."

She kissed his forehead and closed her eyes. A smiling Iqbal's flashed in her mind. A blissful smile made an appearance on her tired face. Her husband's love was enough to help her survive, for her child.