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Thank you for this gorgeous creation, Abut_Ahamed !

I love this so much!!!

I love seeing your various muses, guys.

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Tara

"You should open up your own matchmaking business." Zain muttered, sleepily.

"I know, right?" I got into bed beside him and turned off the bedside table lamp. "I will be the most successful desi matchmaker in London."

"Pagal ho tum, pata hai na tumhe?" He pulled me into his arms.

*"You're crazy, you know that, right?"

"And you're stuck with me." I laughed.

He kissed the side of my head. "I suppose we should prepare for Amir's wedding then."

"Amir and Rumi's. We're technically from both sides." I grinned. I looked up at him. "Maybe I should help Rafia with her rishta as well? She said that her parents had fixed her up with someone..."

"Tara." 

"Calm down. I'm just joking." 

"Are you?"

"Kind of."

I giggled and he sighed. "Good night, Zain." 

"Good night, Trouble. And quit brewing up more trouble in that brain of yours." 

I just snuggled up happily against him, seriously excited about Rumi and Amir Bhai's wedding. Rumi and I were going to be family now, almost. 

****

"Did you know about this?!" Rafia marched up to me in the lecture hall on Monday morning.

"If it's education related, I probably didn't." I shrugged. "I barely focused on studies this weekend."

 And what did I actually focus on?

No, I didn't focus on Zain, like any dodgy minded person would assume. (*I'm looking at you readers!). I focused on discussing wedding ideas with Rumi.

I know, I know. It was still too early, but the excitement of a best friend's wedding was too much.

And Ashi was no less excited. She literally asked her family if they could travel to Bangladesh for outfits.

If I had an option, I would go to Lahore as well, but alas, I was studying, and the date of the wedding hadn't been even discussed yet, let alone fixed.

"Your friend Rumaisa is engaged to Amir Waleed?" Rafia asked me, slapping her hand on the long wooden board that stretched from one end of the row in front of us to the other, serving as a table for us in the lecture hall. 

"What?" I was confused. "How did you know?" 

"Well, my marriage had discussed with Amir." She said. "But his mother called it off saying that he was interested in someone else. Well, the photo of the girl somehow found its way to my Chachi, who happens to be Amir's Phupho, and guess who the girl was?" 

"I didn't know this!" I said, defensively. 

She looked away, frowning angrily.

"Look, Rafi. This is just unfortunate, okay? A huge coincidence..." I tried to speak calmly to her.

"Whatever. And my brother wanted to send our parents over to discuss marriage with Rumaisa." 

My eyes widened. "Excuse me? After one meeting?" 

"He liked her." 

"He barely knew her!" I couldn't believe this. "Look, I'm sorry that this happened to you, Rafia, but nobody's at fault here." 

"Whatever." She shook her head. "After all this drama, I don't think we should be friends." 

What the duck?

She walked off to sit in a different row, leaving me standing there with my mouth hanging open.

I'm a human, but sometimes humans were the most difficult species to understand. I think I would understand the quacking of a duck before I even begin to understand the way some people think.

Whatever. I didn't need friends who ended friendships over silliness like this. I felt like I was in secondary school again.

****

"Oh, what are you making, Tara?" Zain wrapped his arms around me from behind, that evening, as I stood making pasta.

"Chicken pasta." I muttered, focused on mixing up the bits of chicken and chilli sauce into the pasta. 

He began to kiss my neck, moving down to my shoulder.

"Mr Romantic, leave it for the bedroom." I smiled. "I'm hungry right now." 

"Let's go to the bedroom then." He said.

"Remember the rules: food first, everything else later." 

"I think, between the two of us, I have all the romance." He sighed, dramatically. "You are not romantic at all."

I turned and frowned at him. "Romance can't survive on a hungry stomach." 

He just shook his head and headed out of the room.

What does he mean that I'm not romantic at all?

I scooped up the pasta into a dish and carried it into the living room. "Would you mind getting the plates and cutlery, please?" I asked him as he lounged on the sofa. Suddenly, I noticed that he was staring at a letter with a frown, but he instantly folded it up and slipped it into the envelope, before getting up and heading out. 

"What's that about?" I asked him, nodding towards the letter as he came back with the plates and the forks.

He sighed. "It's a court order to shut the company down. I literally just opened the letter and saw it." 

"What?!" I shrieked. "Why?!" 

He looked at me. "Because someone, a Muslim person, claimed that the medication claimed to be halal, but they contained non-halal products. And because the company was selling medicines by giving false information, it was therefore illegal as it went against the health and safety regulations."

"But, that can't be true right? Talha Bhai wouldn't let that happen, right?" 

"The person who complained was a cousin of Lamisa's, who worked in one of the factories." He said, quietly. "I know my Bhai, he would never do this, but the fact is that he is the CEO of this company, so fingers will automatically be pointed at him."

"Ya Allah!" I couldn't believe it. "Do you think Bhai is being framed?"

"I don't know what's happening, but I'm going to Nottingham to visit him and finding this out once and for all." 

"I'll come with you." I frowned. "It's odd that this is the first that you're hearing of this."

"I'm confused as well, but I'm sure Bhai must have known about this legal case before." He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "I have no idea what's going on." 

****

We didn't waste time, and we headed to Nottingham the next morning. I was willing to skip one day of lecture, because I was worried about Zain going up there alone. In fact, thirty minutes into the drive, I asked him to stop at the next services and to let me drive as he was losing focus repeatedly.

The GPS was set up, so the directions were not an issue, and we continued onto Nottingham with me driving.

"I feel bad for Bhai. He really loves his company." I whispered.

"I really hope that he wasn't aware of these products containing non-halal products." He shook his head. "I trust him, and he wouldn't do that to other Muslims by giving them haram products, but..." 

"In Sha Allah, he won't be behind this. You'll see." I was trying to convince him as well as myself.

****

We arrived outside a pretty, modest house and got out of the car.

"Wait...this is Bhabi's family home." He frowned. "We only visited here once, and Bhai drove, so I didn't know the address, but I recognise this house. But Bhai told me that he lived at this address." 

"He lives with his in-laws?" I blurted out without thinking.

"I have no idea what's going on with Bhai, but I'm seriously worried." He said, as we headed up the front path. He rang the doorbell.

We waited a few moments, before the door opened and Lamisa Bhabi peered out at us.

"Assalam Alaikum!" Zain and I greeted her.

"Walaikum Assalam." She didn't move aside, and instead stared questioningly at us, as if wondering what the duck we were doing here.

"Is Bhai here?" Zain asked.

"Zain?" Talha Bhai's voice came from down the hall, and he appeared behind Bhabi. "Lamisa, let them in, yaar." 

"You can speak to them outside." Lamisa Bhabi said, firmly.

What the hell?!

"Lamisa..." Bhai sighed.

"Your shameless brother, who has no regard for his religion, destroyed you, and you want to let him into the house." She glared at her husband.

"What are you talking about?" I am the one who asked. 

"He allowed mixing haram products into the medicines, didn't he?" Lamisa Bhabi had lost her mind. She needed medication, it seemed. "He doesn't care about halal or haram, does he?" 

"What? That's ridiculous." Zain said. "Why would I sabotage my brother's business and be dishonest towards my fellow Muslims?!" 

"Because you're jealous of him, obviously." She shrugged. "It's not uncommon for siblings to be greedy over property and business." 

"I think you should stop preaching Islam if you're so hell bent on false accusations." I snapped. "You have no right to accuse Zain without proof. Surely, you would know what our religion says about falsely accusing someone." 

"Who else would authorise it? Only two people could have authorised this, either Talha or Zain. Are you saying that Talha deceived people?" 

"Lamisa..."

"No, I don't accuse people without proof." I rolled my eyes. "Either prove it, or stop talking about my husband in that manner!" 

"Why is she accusing me?" Zain asked his brother. "Do you believe that, as well?" 

"Zain..." His brother looked away, sheepishly.

"I would never mix halal and haram like that." Zain said, quietly. "If I had completely disregard for it, Tara wouldn't be in my life right now." 

"Let me solve this problem myself, Zain." Talha Bhai told him. "And I think you should step away from the company..." 

"Are you firing me?" Zain asked, incredulously. 

"Not exactly. I just want you to step down for a bit." Bhai replied. "In the meanwhile, Lamisa will take over your position and..." 

"Zain, let's go." I grabbed my husband's hand. "I think it was pointless for you to worriedly drive here to check on your brother. Clearly, he doesn't trust you, and I can see why." I looked at Lamisa Bhabi.

"I didn't even want to join the company." Zain looked at his brother. "I did it for you. But thanks. You've now freed me to do something on my own basis." He looked at me Tara. "You're right. It was a waste of our time and petrol to drive all the way up here." 

We turned and headed to our car, even as Talha Bhai called out after us.

"Zain..." I regretted giving him the car keys back as he immediately got into the driving seat. "I'll drive."

"It's fine, Tara." He shook his head. "I was expecting this to happen one day anyway." 

"Zain, this is unfair. She had no right to say such harsh words to you." 

"I have a beautiful, protective wife. Words don't bother me." He was clearly playing it down.

I don't know what Bhabi wanted, but she was creating serious problems between the brothers, and that was unacceptable. 

****

A few days later, Khalla invited us over to her house, as Rumaisa's family was visiting to fix the marriage date. 

I couldn't go because I had an extra class to make up for a class that the lecturer had been absent for. As it was after five in the evening, barely half of the people in our lecture turned up, and I had an entire row to myself. 

I saw Razi walking up to me before the start of the lecture and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. At least there was no sign of Rafia.

"Is Rumaisa happy with this marriage?" No 'hi', no 'hello', he directly blurted out the question.

"Yes, she is. Alhumdulillah." I replied.

He looked annoyed. "Amir's family seriously played with us."

"Nobody played with anyone." I said, exasperated. "Nobody was dishonest, nobody hid anything. As soon as Marina Khalla found out the truth, she called off the relationship."

"My sister's life was played with..."

 I snapped. I had so much going on in my mind recently, that I lost patience. "Oh, just shut up and go cry about this to your parents!" I yelled, standing up. "Leave me alone!" 

"Tara..." He looked startled.

Have you ever tripped over your own feet?

Well, I just did. Right in front of Razi, as I tried to walk past him. Right down the stairs.

Luckily, it was all carpeted, probably for idiots like me, so the pain wasn't too bad.

But...the aftereffects of the fall definitely were...

****

"He didn't push me." I told the university seniors for the tenth time, after I had been seen by paramedics. 

"You were yelling at Razi, and then you fell down the stairs." The lecturer spoke up.

"Trust me. I tripped. I would have told you if he had pushed me." 

Ya Allah, what is this unnecessary drama?

Another senior lecturer entered the hall, and spoke to the staff already sat there, before the snobby looking lady who had been talking to me, turned back to me. "Razi claims that you fell as you tried to push him." 

"Wait...what?" I stared at her, stunned. "That's ridiculous!" 

"Until the investigation is cleared up, Tara, you cannot return back to classes, both of you."

"You are suspending me for tripping?!" I looked at them, shaking my head in disbelief.

"We're suspending you because a serious accusation had been made against you. You're lucky that Razi is not involving the police..."

I stood up. "He's not involving the police because he knows that they'll smell his bulls**t from two miles away. But whether he involves them or not, I am involving a lawyer, in a case against you all, and Razi." I walked out of the lecture hall, without listening to their nonsense any longer.

Oh, Razi. You have no idea who you've messed with.

****

"What the f**k?" Zain looked at me, incredulously. "Let me go and speak to that little piece of s**t and sort him out." 

I had gone to Amir Bhai's house from university, and I was now starting to feel soreness from the fall.

"I'll deal with him." Amir Bhai said, quietly, leaning against his desk with his arms crossed over his chest. "I have good lawyers, and you'll see, Tara Bhabi. By tomorrow, Razi will confess himself to the university officials that he lied." 

"How?"

"It's a lawyer's job to expose liars and frauds like him." Amir Bhai reassured me. "I'm sorry that you got into this mess because of me, Tara Bhabi, but ttrust me, okay?"

"You're okay, though, right?" Zain asked me for the billionth time, looking at me from head to toe and back again.

"Zain, I'm fine." 

"We'll make sure he loses his place at uni." Zain said. "He doesn't deserve an education if he behaves like such a cunning little monster." 

I had sympathy for both siblings before this, but the way Razi had taken advantage of a bad situation made me feel nothing but great dislike towards them, and Rafia's behaviour earlier was not very appropriate either. 

****

That night,  I woke up with a scream.

"Tara?" Zain turned on the lamp, sitting up with a worried frown. "What's wrong?"

Tears ran down my cheeks. "Zain...I think there's something wrong...I can't feel or move my leg!" 

****

Sorry for the shorter update. I'm sort of slow on ideas for this one. 

Everything seems to be going wrong in Tara and Zain's lives. First their clash with Lamisa, and now this.

Who do you think is behind the company closure?

Some people can't handle rejection well, and I guess Razi and Rafia are two of those people.

Thoughts and comments?

Thank you for reading and don't forget to vote!