18th March, 2021

Kinza looked up when she heard footsteps aproaching her. She was seated out of the operation theatre on the chairs placed in the corridor. The doctors were still performing the surgery on the unknown man, and she sat there tensed, praying for his safety.

As she looked up, she saw her parents approaching her and she quickly stood up, walking straight into her mother's arms.

"I was so afraid." Kinza muttered, closing her eyes tight shut.

"But you showed great courage. I'm proud of you, Baba ki jaan." Her father said, caressing her head lovingly. Kinza turned to look at him and gave him a tight lipped smile.

"I didn't know what to do. I'm sorry, I worried you both." She apologised.

"You went with Shahmeer but how come you were returning back alone in a cab?" Her mother asked, her forehead wrinkled with worry and confusion. On the mention of Shahmeer, Kinza's head snapped up to her mother and all the events that had happened that evening came flooding her mind. One part of her was worried for him and another was afraid on the thought of telling the truth to her parents. She didn't know what to answer to her mother's questions.

"I...uh...I.." She began to stutter.

"What is it, Kinza?" Her mother asked with a pointed look.

"I'll tell you everything. But, can we first go home?" She requested to get away from the questions. She looked at her father with hopeful eyes and he nodded his head, giving her an assuring look.

"Ohk let's head home first. It's already so late." Her father said.

"What's going on, Kinza?" Her mother questioned again.

"I'll tell you everything, Mom." Kinza sighed. "But lets go home first." Her mother looked at her pointedly but silently gave in to her request, shaking her head at her. They began to head out but Kinza stopped midway. "Maa, you both go ahead. I'll just return these belongings of the guy and come fast." She informed and took steps back to head to the reception.

"Hey Hi!" She greeted the receptionist and gave her a polite smile. "These are the belongings of the person who's being operated in the operation theatre right now." Kinza said, placing his overcoat which was covered in his blood, his cellphone and the ring.

"But isn't he your husband, ma'am?" The receptionist questioned, looking at Kinza through furrowed eyebrows, making Kinza go silent.

"That..It's like.." She stammered, having no answer to her question.

"Any problem, ma'am?" That brought Kinza out from her trance and she quickly shook her head and giving her a smile, she began to walk out taking all his belongings along with her. Stepping out of the main exit, she spotted her parents and she began to take steps towards them.

"Why did you bring all these things along with you? Weren't you going to return all these?" Her mother asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah I went, but since I had.." She stopped mid sentence, looking down at her feets, avoiding her parents eyes.

"You had what, Kinza?" It was her father who questioned this time.

"I swear I didn't wanted to but I had no other option." Kinza began to reason.

"You had what, Kinza?" Her father questioned again and she went silent for a bit as she looked down at her feets, nervousness suddenly seemed to grip her. Her palms began to get sweaty and she wiped them against each other.

"The doctors weren't ready to operate on him without the consent of his family, and his condition was getting worse with each passing second. I didn't know how to contact his family and having no other option, I signed the documents as his wife so that the doctors can operate on him as soon as possible." Kinza answered.

"You did what?!" Her mother exclaimed with widened eyes and Kinza's eyes closed in fear. "You think its some joke?" Her mother questioned and Kinza could sense the shock and anger in her voice.

"Mom, I'm sorry.." Kinza tried to say but her mother cut her off.

"This is a police case, Kinza! Do you even realise? What if the police hold you accountable for all this?"

"That was the only way I could get the doctors to perform the operation on him." Kinza said. Her forehead was wrinkled and she looked at her parents with worried eyes and almost immediately her mother's gaze softened as she looked at her. Her mother turned to look at her father and he gave her an assuring nod.

"I'll handle everything. For now, what matters is the thing that you saved a life. Don't worry about anything." Her father smiled and Kinza's face lighted up quickly. All her worries flew right out of the window with just a single assuring look from her father.

"Lets head home."

~*~*~*~

Kinza stepped out of her wardrobe, changed into her warm pyjamas, and stared at the blood soaked garments in her hands, folding them neatly before walking into her adjacent bathroom and dumping them into the wash basket. She made her way to her bed after exiting the bathroom, but the mystery man's possessions on the couch attracted her eye, and she moved up to it.

She took the mystery stranger's cellphone in her palm and pressed the power button, only to discover that it had turned off owing to low battery. She grabbed the outerwear in her hands and stuffed the cell phone and ring into the inner pocket before folding it neatly and putting it in a bag.

'I'll give these back to him tomorrow. I wish him a speedy recovery.'

She slid the bag to the side of her desk and went to her wardrobe to retrieve a shawl, which she wrapped around her arms and carried out of her room. She began walking to her parents' room by taking steps down the stairwell. When her knuckles made contact with the wooden door, a knock sounded, and she opened and glanced into her parents' room by twisting the door knob.

"Can we have a talk, Maa?" She inquired, her tone courteous.

"What's the big deal about you asking if we can? Please come in." Her mother muttered and she went into the room, a slight smile on her face.

"Where is Dad?"

"He's most likely in his study."

"Oh ok!" Kinza said. Her mother noticed the uncertainty in her voice and cocked an eyebrow at her as she saw her shift her weight to her other foot.

"What happened? Everything alright?" Her mother questioned.

"Maa, I need some time." Kinza spoke up, already anticipating her mother's reaction on the topic that she was dreading to discuss, but anyhow had to.

"And what exactly you mean by this?"

"I don't want to marry just yet." Kinza stated, more like tried to. She looked up to meet her mother's gaze and saw her eyebrows scrunched in confusion, and Kinza knew she had a lot of questions to answer.

"Now that you started with this talk, tell me what happened between you and Shahmeer?" Her mother questioned. Bringing her hands in front of her chest, she folded them and looked at Kinza with a pointed look.

"Nothing happened, Maa."

"Stop lying to me, Kinza. You know I can tell when you're lying to me or if something is bothering you."

"Maa." Kinza sighed out and stepping closer to her, she took her hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Believe me. It's nothing." Kinza tried her best not to let her voice quiver. She was trying her best to hold everything in her.

"You can't convince me on this. I know there's somethings that's affecting you, and its something related with Shahmeer, I know that as well." Her mother said.

"You've always given me my space. Please don't force me this time as well." Kinza requested.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Tell dad to call off this engagement. Believe me, its best for both the families."

"Shahmeer doesn't like you?"

"Maa!"

"Okay fine! I'll try to make your dad understand." Her mother said and began to take steps to walk out of the room.

"I'll come with you." Kinza began to follow behind her.

~*~*~*~

Dressed in a white blouse having balloon sleeves, a high collar with a ribbon bow and pairing it with a floral maxi skirt that reached below her ankles, and also having an oversized overcoat around her petite form, she walked as gracefully as ever with her hijab pinned right in place. The ankle strap heels that she was wearing were making a clicking sound as she walked on the hospital's tiled floor, the next day morning.

The aura around her was captivating and she knew she was catching attention of the people around her but still trying her best not to do that, she made her way to the reception.

"Hello." She greeted.

"Hello, Ma'am. How may I help you?" The receptionist inquired.

"An emergency patient was brought yesterday night. Can you tell me which room was he shifted to, after the surgery?" Kinza asked.

"Can you please let me know the name of the patient?"

"Umm I don't really know the name but the patient was stabbed in the ribs and he was immediately sent to the operating room. Can you please check of any such patient?" She requested, not really sure if what she was saying was even making sense. The receptionist gave her a nod and began to check through her records.

"Ma'am, the patient have been discharged already."

"What? Can you please check again? When did he get discharge?" Kinza questioned, her eyebrows furrowed with confusion.

"Yes ma'am. His family came to see him. On their request, it was an hour or so ago, that he was discharged." The receptionist informed.

"Oh okay. Thank you." Kinza looked at his belongings in her hand and with an upside down smile plastered on her face she walked out of the hospital. Getting in the driver's seat of her car, she looked at the bag in her hand and with a frown, she placed it on the passenger seat and starting the car engine, she got the car out of the parking lot.

Lost in her own thoughts, she began to drive to get back home but it was around an hour or so later that she realised how absentmindedly she had driven to a certain familiar street. She was shocked on herself. Her shoulders slumped in defeat and before she could get weak, without a further thought, she put the car in reverse gear and began to drive out of the driveway of the Edrisi empire.

It didn't take her much time to reach home and as she drove in the gates of the Malik mansion, she parked the car to the side and got off. Getting the bag from the passenger seat, she headed in.

"Maa, I'm back." She called out to let her mother know, and began to take steps towards her room. Twisting the doorknob open, she entered in her room only to stop dead in her tracks. She could feel an intrusion in the room and her senses went on active. Looking around, her eyes landed on the shoes that were trying to hide behind the sofa couch and she recognised them in an instant.

Her lips formed a grin and she tiptoed to the side of her room to get her nerf gun. She had two of them and one of it was missing. She knew who had the second one.

Kinza sneaked around and found a corner to hide. Peeking from her hiding spot she aimed the gun in the direction of the person.

"You think you can win against me everytime? Not this time." And she shot. She missed the target though. A loud laughter boomed through the room and her lips were in a grin as well.

"You caught me!" The voice said. A bullet came in her direction but missed her.

"I saw your shoes. You can't use the same trick twice to scare me!" Kinza said, dramatically flipping her hijab.

"I still recall the incidents of last time and I crack up every single time remembering it." The voice teased and this time the bullet fired at Kinza hit her. Kinza fired a bullet as well and that hit the person's chest. The person was standing facing Kinza by now, holding the gun by his side.

"And I hate you for doing that to me." Kinza's lips curled down in a cute frown.

"Such a cry baby."

"I'm not!" Kinza denied.

"Oh yes you are!"

"Bhai!!" Kinza exclaimed, taking a shot at him. He laughed when he saw her aiming at him and pulled his gun up to take a shot as well, and that's how they continued to play among themselves, like kids, enjoying in each other's company and trying to score a hit at the other.

Assalamualaikum!!

I know! I know! No update for 8 months! That's a lot I know but I had my reasons!

To those of you who don't know, I got engaged 6 months back Alhamdulillah and also I had a few stuffs going on in life that kept me from writing. Also I was having a huge writer's block for the first time ever!! I had the story in mind but had no appropriate words to jot down!

I would request you all to keep me in your duas. It will mean a lot.

Coming back to the story. How was the chapter? The mysterious injured guy was already discharged? Who all had thought that he might be the main lead?

Can you guys leave behind some beautiful comments? They might help in making me feel good and also energise me to write again?

I don't promise quick updates now and I'm telling this to you all beforehand. I'm still going to try my best and end both of my stories in this year if possible In Sha Allah but no promises though.

Until next time...Ma Salama!