CHAPTER | TWENTY | FOUR | UMAYMAH | POV

"And I was so excited for you to come home because everything was so boring and I missed daddy's cooking because it's the best thing ever!" I smiled at Laila as she carried on speaking, a yawn desperately trying to make its way out of my mouth.

We had arrived home 20 minutes ago and not 2 seconds later did the toddler run out from the living room and jump into my arms. She had been so excited for us to come back that she begged her aunt to let her come early to see us. Of course I was happy about this, but I was also really tired from the trip.

"Laila baby that's wonderful. We missed you too." I said sincerely and placed a kiss on top of her forehead before she burst into a fit of giggles, in turn making me laugh too.

Just at that moment Shoaib decided to walk through the door with a steamy plate full of macaroni and cheese. It made me laugh how Laila demanded food from Shoaib after just being in the house for 5 minutes - if I didn't know any better, I would say she truly was my daughter. Shoaib couldn't say no to her, like every time, and proceeded to make the dish for her.

"Here you go, dinner served for the princess." Shoaib took Laila from my arms and settled her down on the sofa before giving her, her plate and took a bow, making Laila giggle. "Make sure to blow because it's still hot." He warned her and watched contently as she listened to her father.

Meanwhile I laid back on the sofa and tried to close my eyes for a few seconds of peace. That is until it was disturbed by my husband itself poking my sides. I squirmed under his touch and began swatting his hand away, hoping he would leave me alone, but of course that didn't happen.

"Can I help you?" I asked, aggravated by my lack of sleep. All I wanted was to curl up in bed since the flight back had been long and not forgetting the time difference causing me to have a serious issue of jet lag.

"We need to talk." He stated and I looked at him only to direct my gaze at Laila who he was now watching.

She sat with her plate, blowing every piece of macaroni before putting in her mouth; she repeated this at a slow pace, but it meant that we didn't have to worry about her burning herself. I was confused as to why he was looking at her though.

"About Laila?" I asked, unsure of where this conversation was leading. Looking at her now, half her attention was on the TV while the other was on the plate of food in front of her.

Shoaib said and pulled me closer to his side which in return made me squeal, "yes, about Laila. I didn't realise that with all this going on and her coming to live with us will cause a problem." He turned his face away from the toddler and looked at me. I finally understood what he was talking about and the harsh reality put a frown on my face.

Me being in danger was something I could tolerate, but having Laila at risk by just being here wasn't something I wanted to think about. She's a toddler, barely five years old and unintentionally, she's having to deal with a family that has a number of problems. The thought itself was enough to make me want to regret taking the decision of letting her come live with us.

"What are we going to do? I'll never forgive myself if something happened to her." I noticed how my voice slightly cracked at the end and it seemed that Shoaib noticed too because he was now running small circles on my arm as a mean of comfort.

"We can always send her to her aunt until this is sorted." He suggested.

"But what if they go looking for her there?" I was now in semi panic mode, not knowing how to deal with a situation like this.

Suddenly Shoaibs hands went from around my waist to cup my cheek in his hand, "sh, you're thinking about this too much. If Ross is clever then he'll know not to go anywhere near Laila because we're going to have our best people watching her." He assured me and I slightly relaxed at the thought of my little girl being protected at all times, even with us.

Then a thought raced to my mind as to how we were going to be solving this situation. Shoaib had insisted, much to my dislike, to not talk about the danger I was in while we were on our holiday; but now that we are back, there's no escaping or delaying of what was about to happen. It half scared me, yet I knew I had to be brave about this.

"Shoaib?" I called out to him and in the moment where he was looking at Laila, he turned his attention back to me. "What exactly are we going to do about all this? You must have a plan right?" I sat up at that moment, not wanting the need to stay crouched up on the sofa where it made my back hurt.

He looked at me as if contemplating whether or not to tell me before he released a sigh. "We do have a plan but I need you to stay out of it, okay?" He must have seen that I was about to protest as he raised a finger, indicating me to stop, "it's bad enough that's he's after you, but if he got to you then I don't know what I would do. My temper isn't something I can control and seeing that the plan we made has been messed up because you got involved, will just make things worse." He explained and I could tell he was holding himself back to using some colourful vocabulary.

"But what if he does get his hands on me?" I asked the forbidden question. Even though I had asked the question, the response wasn't something I wanted to hear because I knew that in no way will it be good.

"Well there's no doubt he's going to make you do things that he wants but it'll never happen because he won't be taking you, okay?" He said with determination and I nodded my head, unable to trust myself with speaking about this topic any longer. My sleep was long gone and the fear had slowly start to kick in again. I couldn't dwell on the negative though because in reality, I could be thinking about this way too much than I should.

Just then the sound of metal clattering caught our attention, and Shoaib being the over protective person he is, rushed towards Laila to see what had happened. I slowly got up to see that she had just dropped her fork and that nothing serious had happened to her.

"Daddy I saw someone in the window." Laila's frightened voice and what she had just said made me drop the fork like she had a few seconds ago, to look at Shoaib with a worried expression.

Shoaib hastily handed Laila to me while he went over to the window where a fraction of the curtain had not been covering the glass. It was dark out but from where I stood with Laila in my arms, I couldn't see anybody. I hoped for the sake of my sanity at the moment, that it was just her imagination and nothing more.

Laila now had her face in the crook my neck, afraid to look up and I could hear small whimpers coming from her that made me saddened as I never wanted her to be frightened. Especially not in her own house. I carefully placed her down on the sofa and bent down in front of her to tilt her head up so she was looking at me.

"Baby girl, tell me exactly what this persons face looked like and why you were so scared." I demanded softly and watched Shoaib come back towards us and bend down next to me. He held one of her hand in his own to comfort her and she took it as a sign to talk.

"The man had an ugly scar on his face and it looked really scary. I got scared because he was smiling like the bad people in the movies." Just then she wrapped her arms around my neck while I rubbed my hand down her back in order to lessen her fright.

However, her words played in my mind about the description of this mans face - I certainly didn't know anyone who looked like that, but judging from Shoaibs face, he knew exactly who she was talking about.

This had been too much for Laila today so thinking that it was best to put her to sleep, I picked her up and made my way upstairs to her room. While we were away, our families took it in themselves to decorate the spare room for Laila and it looked like someone actually slept in her now. I slowly put her down, noticing how she was already asleep and kissed her forehead as a goodnight.

Walking out, I stopped just by the door frame and sighed looking at her peaceful self sleeping. "Nothing's going to happen to you." And we'll make sure of it.

* * *

The next morning, Lailas aunt had come to pick her up and luckily enough, she had seemed to forget about her distress the previous night. She happily went with her aunt while Shoaib and I still had school to go to. It was weird how in the amidst of all our troubles, we still had school to go to.

Now as I sat in biology was Shoaib poking me, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the distraction that he was providing me - though he was disturbing me from my learning. Turning around as discreetly as I could, I sent a glare to the boy to which he smirked off.

"I don't want to see a stupid video about a centipede rolling around in dirt." Shoaibs whispered to me but I rolled my eyes and carried on looking at the front, though I myself didn't understand the point of this.

"Don't ignore me!" Shoaib whined, but this time louder and the teacher happened to have heard him.

"Is there a problem you two?" Before I could reply to the bald, ageing man teaching us, Shoaib beat me to it.

"Yes there is. We didn't come here to watch some idiotic video while you sit behind your desk texting Mrs Linda from next door." The whole class sniggered at Shoaibs remark and even though I wanted to as well, I simply shot a glare at him and whacked him for being so rude.

"That's enough!" The teacher bellowed and narrowed his eyes at the both of us, "you two, detention now!" I looked at him in awe since I didn't do anything, but my husband seemed not to mind as he pulled me up from my seat and practically dragged me out the classroom. Having his grip on me was the only reason I hadn't gone back in the room, demanding what I had done to get detention.

"That wasn't even fair. I didn't do anything." Now it was my turn to whine and complain as Shoaib kicked open the door to detention and pulled me inside with him.

He took a seat and I followed him, taking one beside him, "well I'd rather be in here with you than by myself. Besides, would you have really let me come here by myself?" He asked, feigning hurt which I rolled my eyes at. This boy could be too dramatic for his own good.

"Well you are annoying after all, so why would I waste my time being here with you?" I said with an exasperated sigh and pretended to examine my nails as if they were the most interesting things in the room right now.

I had to hold back a laugh at his sour expression before he got up from his chair and strolled over to me. He leaned down and he was now in my face, making it impossible to look anywhere else but him. "I dare you to say that again." He challenged me with a smirk and I couldn't help but mirror it.

"You. Are. Annoying." I made sure to take a long pause before saying each word and that only seemed to aggravate him more as I used all my strength and pushed him away from me. My smirk widened as he stumbled back slightly.

Noticing how he was about to reach out to me again, I quickly got up from my seat, and it was a good thing I needed the bathroom at this moment so that I could leave the classroom.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"Toilet." I said and didn't bother waiting for his reply as I dashed out the room. I heard him open the door behind me and shout for me to come back to the classroom, but I blatantly ignored him and carried on walking.

After rounding the corner at the end of the hallway, I realised just how wrong it was of me to have even left the classroom. In front of me with a creepy smile stood a man with a horrible scar running down his face and in that moment, I wanted nothing more than to scream and run away.

"Well, well, if it isn't the little girl I've been waiting for." Even his voice sounded sickly as he took quick and long steps towards me.

I had no time for a reply as I felt something stab my arm, instantly blocking my vision and forcefully inviting me in darkness.

* * *

This chapter is dedicated to the one and only Innocentmuslim for honestly always putting a smile on my face with her comments and being such a sweet soul ❤️
Thank you to everyone who reads this & leave me your opinion in this chapter ☺️ As you may or may not be able to tell, the drama has officially started! 😼