"Tum anjaneme intezar karti rahi mera,
Mai bhi mangta raha hu tumhe Rab se.
Jo shuru hua tha kismat se,
Pohochaunga use mukaddar tak.
Tere dil ke badle diya hai mera,
Ye sawda kia hai jo dil se.
Pyar ka ye safer shuru kia tha,
To zarur pohchaunga use manzil tak.
Mera pyar koi aam chiz nahi,
Tumhe mang lega wo aasma se.
Jo uthegi dhadkane mere dil se,
Pohochaenga unhe tere dil tak."

(You unknowingly waited for me,
I also asked God for you Th
The one that has started by fate, 
I'll lead it till it's destiny,
In exchange for your heart, I've given mine,
as this deal is done with my heart.
As this journey of love was started,
I'll reach till the destiny.
My love isn't a common thing,
It'll for you from the sky.
As this heartbeat will rise from my heart,
I'll make it reach till yours...)

***

"Don't get up rest for a while dear. You have travelled a long journey." Malik Khan caresses Minar's hair.

"Yes, you are right I have travelled a long journey both in life and now." Minar's eyes got filled with tears.

"Shhhh... Don't take stress dear. The doctor prescribed you to remain stress-free." Malik Khan says with a smile.

"Where am I?" Minar looks around as she remember she was at the entrance when everything blacked out.

"In our room dear. I brought you here because even after all these years my Min can't stop falling for me." Malik Khan chuckles.

"How??? How can... How can you behave... As if... As if nothing has happen... happened?" Minar just can't control her sobs.

"How do you want me to react? Do you expect me to shout at you? To turn you out? To do something violent? Don't you know me this much?" Malik says with a sad smile.

"Don't do like this. Please scold me, slap me, push me out of here, anything but please don't behave so normally with me. I've already fallen in my eyes please don't make me hate myself more. Punish me Malik, punish me I'm your culprit, I'm my children's culprit and the culprit of my own life. I destroyed everything that we build up with so much love for years, with my own stupidity. I'm sorry Malik, I'm sorry." Minar hides her face behind her palms.

It's impossible for Malik Khan to see his love, his wife breaking down like this. No matter what she did he cannot put himself to hate her. He lifts her upper half body from the bed and hugs her,
"Kya sochatha aapne ke khush reh paonge humse juda hokar?
Kya mit jaengi hamari hasin yaade wakt ke bhawandar me kho kar?
Koshish to humne bhi thi dil-o-jaan lagakar...
Magar un yadose ek lamha bhi na mita pae tumse barso dur rehkar..."

(What did you thought, you'll be happy living away from me?
Will our beautiful memories just vanish lost in the tornado of time?
I too tried with my mind and heart...
But couldn't even erase a single our memories in spite of being away from you for years...)
- Mushaid Shaikh.

"You didn't change Malik even after I hurt you." Minar says in a broken voice hiding her face in his chest.

"When you left you broke my heart and beside the broken pieces of our love my chest was empty till today. How can you expect a change?" Malik caresses her head from behind.

Suddenly the door opens with Sidhra standing at the entrance with her mouth wide open and Shahid following her from behind. "What is this Mom and Uncle. I respect you as my husband's dad but what you are doing is beyond inappropriate. What will your wife say?" Sidhra shouts and turns to leave but before leaving says, "within ten minutes I want you ready Mom. We are leaving right now no matter what."

"She got your anger dear." Malik Khan comments.

"Your wife?" Minar removes her head from his chest and asks.

"Ammi and I are going to make Sidh agree to delay our departure if you want you can help us convince her, Abbu." Saying so Shahid too leaves after his wife.

"It means you... you... you married again." Minar comments in a shivering voice.

"Look here dear." Malik Khan tries to take her in his embrace again but Minar pushes him away, "no Malik I won't ruin your happiness twice. I'm leaving with my daughter soon. You don't need to upset your new family and anyways I doubts if Sidhra's nikah is valid or not as they are step brother and sister."

"Will you just shut up." Malik Khan shouts angrily and continues after taking a long breath, " I have only one woman in my heart and life and it's you. No one else can take your place. And I never married twice."

"Then how come you Abbu?" Minar gets confused.

"Ok so let me clear the confusion. You remember my elder brother, the one who put his hand on your head and assured you that you won't need to worry here as he's your elder brother from now." Malik says and Minar nods her head in agreement.  Malik continues, "when we came here after our marriage bhabi wasn't here as she went to her parents house as the time for her give birth was coming near. I asked you to accompany me to her house to meet my nephew Shahid but you denied so I took both my son and daughter there."

After taking a long pause he continues, "when you left I just left living. I was numb. I stopped smiling, eating, laughing and ever sign of liveliness. Everyone was worried. Especially bhai. The day we got the news of the birth of his daughter I talked for the first time to congratulate him. He promised me that he'll soon make everything alright. But fate had something else planned for him. He meet with an accident and died on the spot before seeing the face of his daughter for which he was very eager. You can imagine the shock that bhabi may have received when she came to know that the husband for whom she was waiting since morning came but not on foot but on four shoulders."

Malik Khan wipes his tears remembering that day which is still fresh in his memory, "after his death nothing ever became normal. Mom and Dad became like a statue. They neither spoke nor did they eat. I had to feed them forcefully. I hadn't recovered from your heartbreak but still I had to keep my emotions at the back of my head for the sake of my family. Slowly dad's health started deteriorating and within a month he died from a severe cardiac arrest and mom too followed him after some twenty days. It was like death had surrounded our house. I wasn't even the shell of a person that I used to be. Bhabi's elder brother and his wife stayed here with us for a month and tried their best to bring us to our normal self and finally for the sake of my left over family I had to become strong at least from outside."

"So later on you married her, right?" Minar asked in an empty tone.

"No, my Min. After her iddat her family and my distant relatives forced me, tried to make me understand our situation but you know I denied. No one can take your place in my life. It's like God has given only one empty space in my heart and you fit in it perfectly so now there's no space left in it. Even bhabi opposed them. She is my cousin before being my sister-in-law and their marriage was fixed since childhood so one can imagine the love and affection that they both shared. She want only bhai to remain her husband in paradise so she strictly  opposed the idea of remarriage. She wanted to go away from everyone as she knew people will point out and blame her character if we both live in the same house in the absence of anyone but I fought with her and every other relative as I wanted to give my elder sister, my nephew and nice a comfortable life. That's what I did. Shahid calls me Abbu (dad) as in a sense I am his chote abbu (chacha- paternal uncle). Bhabi and I live in a same house but as brother and sister."

"I'm sorry Malik." Malik Khan chuckles and replies, "it's ok you can say your share of sorry all at once in night."

Suddenly Minar remembers Shahid's hatred towards her, "so it means Shahid holds me responsible of all the death that occurred that time."

"What? Did he told this to you?" Malik Khan gets confuse.

"Not directly but his taunts pointed it out clearly." Minar comments.

"When he came to know about everything in his teenage through a distance relative he spoke ill about you for the first time. I tried to make him understand and I thought I got succeed but I guess I was wrong. A few days ago he informed us that he's going to marry a Muslim girl. Bhabi tried to convince him to come back as she didn't wanted history to repeat itself but he somehow convinced her. After coming here to Pakistan he broke the news to me and I was a bit worried and happy too for him but he gave me the greatest shock of my life. He brought back the light of my eyes back which I never thought I'll be able to see." Malik Khan has a small smile on his face.

"But he can take my revenge from Sidhra." Minar comments in a worried tone.

"Relax dear, he's our blood and he can never hurt a woman or an innocent being. I even saw Sidhra's photographs in his cupboard after he left. They both looked so cute in that photo which I took at bhabi's brothers house that day when I went to meet them with my kids. I have a feeling he likes her since childhood and I can clearly see it in his eyes and in the diary that he wrote." Malik Khan replies.

"Thank God." Minar heaves a sigh of relief.

"Ya Allah, what about Sidhra?" Both Minar and Malik Khan shouts at once. Looking at each other they get up from the bed and heeds outside.

They goes towards Shahid's room from where all the voices were coming from.

"I need some time alone, please leave me alone." As soon as they enter they hear Sidhra shouting.

They too leave with everyone else but not before hearing, "I hate you Mom for doing this with me and bhai." Minar wipes her tears and runs towards the guest room where she was resting earlier.

"Do you really hate her so much that you turned my daughter against her?" Malik Khan asks angrily.

"I'm sorry to say it abbu but she is responsible for my dad and grandparents death. If it would not have been her serving as a distraction dad wouldn't have meet with that accident and we all would have been living a peaceful life. Now I want her to suffer the same loneliness. I want her to be abundant by her children, I want her to die with guilt, lamenting the fact how she destroyed our house." Shahid pours out his anger and receives a slap from his mom.

"I never knew I gave birth to a miniac, the son for whom I always felt proud, how can he stoop so low?" Shahid looks at his Mom with wide eyes as she continues, "it was written in my husband's fate to die that day, I never blamed anyone for his death and your grandparents died because they couldn't bare the burden of that mishap. Nobody is responsible for anything. It's written in our fate and it happens. You destroyed your uncle's last chance to unite with his family, the one that he longed to meet more than a decade. Now who is responsible for ruining his happiness and destroying his family?" She leaves angrily.

"I can understand your pain son but maybe now you can have a slight idea why Minar did what she did. But first tell me how you managed to convert a foreigner into a typical Pakistani girl, I mean your wife?" Malik Khan asks.

Both of them goes towards the lawn and Shahid starts to explain how he likes Sidhra since the day he saw her for the first time in their childhood. In his teenage also he couldn't forget her cute little smile and his main motive for going abroad for studies was to find her and make her love him so that he can marry the girl he love since his childhood.

He then told why he stayed at their farmhouse and how he slowly made her comfortable with his lifestyle and without uttering a word how she developed a liking towards the Pakistani lifestyle after getting comfortable here. He explained many other thing too. Malik Khan is amazed to listen this.

Shahid did what Malik Khan himself couldn't do years back. Maybe his nephew is far more understanding then him he thought. Only if he could have done something like this and would have tried to make Minar comfortable with the lifestyle here instead of convincing her to adjust, then maybe things would have been different but he knew know also it's not too late.

On the other hand Sidhra calls her brother and informs him about everything. Both the siblings conclude that their mom didn't do the right thing by hiding the truth and also that Shahid also had a motive behind marrying Sidhra. So they book a flight for him to come to Pakistan and another flight on the next day for their departure. Both the siblings wanted to leave their mom, Shahid and everything here and return to England forever, as their trust on everyone is broken completely. But they were unaware about many other things like why their father never contacted them or what were Shahid's feeling towards Sidhra...

***

After Adi's return...

"Enough of all your lies we are leaving and that's our final decision." Adi shouts at everyone.

"Don't shout at your elders. It's a bad manner." Malik Khan says controlling his anger.

"Look who's speaking. The one who never bothered to know about us all these years, the one who preferred to remain dead for us all these years." Adi spoke with venom in his voice.

Malik Kan looks at Minar with painful expressions as he never expected that she would portrait him as a dead person in front of his children. He expected that maybe she told them that he cheated on her or just left her in the middle but not this.

Minar holds her children hands and forcefully drags them towards the guest room. She makes them sit on the bed. Both the sibblings are reluctant but silently agrees seeing their mom's new found determination, her swollen eyes and a surprised painful expression of their dad on Adi's last statement.

"Let me tell you a long story." Minar then starts telling them a story...

"Ouch! Can't you look where you are going man?" The nurse angrily shouts at a person.

'Listen miss you too have eyes..." The man about but suddenly stops as he looks in her beautiful hazel eyes. Indeed she has a very beautiful set of hazel eyes.Listen miss you too have eyes..."

"Move aside." Saying so the nurse push him aside and leaves.

"Yaar Malik where were you, come let's go towards the dressing room. The doctor has prescribed some medicine and has ordered a nurse to do the dressing." The man's friend tells him and both go towards the dressing room.

The same nurse is standing there who makes a sour face seeing the same person who made her tray fall, right in front of her.

She half heartedly bandages his wounds while he doesn't move his eyes away from her face.

"What came over you man, you were constantly starting at her. How uncomfortable she looked." His friend asks him.

"Yaar (friend) Yasin I love her eyes. I can't remove them from my mind." The man replies and his friend nods his head in disagreement.

***

A week later...

"What took you so long?" Yasin asks his friend as he came late on his friends birthday party.

"Just some office work as usual." His friend shruggs.

"I want you to meet someone, she's coming right behind you." As soon as Yasin utters those words his friend abruptly turns around and collide with someone.

"Ouch! Can't you turn slowly, oh God! My nose is paining." Yasin's friend opens his mouth to apologize but seeing the lady no words come out of his mouth.

The lady slowly lifts up her gaze and furrows her brows in anger, "you, are you stalking me or did you took an oath to collide with me everywhere?"

His friend just smiles like an idiot as no words reach his ears. He gets mesmorised by her beauty.

Later on Yasin interrupts them. He introduces his girlfriend to his friend and he comes to know that the nurse is Yasin's girlfriend's younger sister.

Days pass and Yasin gets married and on the other hand his friend and the nurse develops some feelings for each other during their meetings and get-togethers.

After the birth of Yasin's son Tahsin  finally his friend gathers his guts and proposes the nurse. After a few months they too get married. They have two lovely children a son and a daughter.

Everything went on smoothly until he decided to return to his hometown. He brought his wife and kids back to his hometown but things fell apart. His wife being a foreigner got panic when suddenly found her husband who never had any problem with her dresses or anything telling her to wear dresses which she never wore before, prohibited her to roam freely in his house, prohibited her not to eat her meals on with everyone whereas all his family members ate together including him.

She felt burdened, uncomfortable, confused. She began to doubt his love. She felt insecure with him as if he'll slowly snatch all her freedom. She failed to understand that he's slowly trying to make her comfortable here along with maintaining a good relation with his parents who disliked his wife. He failed to make her understand his feelings that he isn't snatching her rights or trying to change her but he's trying to create a space for her in his parents heart.

Slowly fights started and both of them misunderstood each other. It was very hard for a free living girl to leave her lifestyle completely even if it's for her own betterment or her family's well being. She thought that these people will snatch away her children from her and then they will also hate her like her husband and her in-laws. Lack of understanding and conversation created a rift in her heart and she did what she thought as right. She did the greatest mistake of her life. She left her husband, launched a complaint against him so that he can never return to England.

Upon returning to England she came to know that her sister's husband Yasin is no more. Both the sisters were orphan so they consoled each other and began to live their life like before. As year's passed she regretted her decision which she angrily took in haste but she couldn't go back maybe because of her ego first and later on guilt.

No one could ever take her husbands place in her life or more probably her ex-husband's place as she signed the divorce papers and the law also made her husband sign them before she left to England..."

"That unortunate nurse is your mom and the man is your father. Because of my stress Shahid's father meet with an accident and in that agony his parents died. He hates me but he truly loves you Sidh. He did that thing which even your father was unable to do, you can see the depth of his love. He never tried to change you but loved you till such an extent and made you feel secure and comfortable to such an extent that you yourself changed for him. Please don't ruin your happiness child, it's only once that we get true love in our life. Please don't ruin your happiness like me." Minar joins her hands in front of Sidhra.

Both the siblings feel sorry for their mom. They pulls her up and makes her sit in between them. All three of them starts crying.

***

At night Malik Khan sits with his son and sister-in-law in their lawn. Shahid is busy apologising, convincing as well as romancing with his wife who finally gives in as she knows her husband isn't the one who'll give up.

Minar sits in the balcony gazing at the open sky but gets started hearing a voice close to her, "what's so interesting there?"

"Oh Malik you made me frightened." She keeps her hand on her chest.

"What have you thought about the future?" He directly asks her sitting beside her.

"I guess your Romeo of a nephew will surely convince your daughter to stay here and I'll soon leave for England with Adi. I don't have any other reason to stay behind." Malik Khan senses the pain in her voice.

"Not even me? Will you leave me again my Min?" He asks with a heavy voice.

"You know Malik we signed the divorce paper and we aren't related now so I can't stay here." She snatches her hands from his.

"If you clearly remember, which I think you do then you would know I never uttered those five words which can end our relation (here he means 'mai tumhe talak deta hu' means 'I give you divorce')." Minar looks at him confused.

"You are still my wife Minar. In Islam our divorce is valid only if I utter those words three times clearly that I'm divorcing you otherwise not and I never did so." He holds her face and she happily hugs him.

***

Mai kahaan tha apne andar tuhi mujhme rehti thi...
Sine pe sar rakh ke mere Tu hi mujhse kehti thi...
Milne tujhe aaungi Bin pankh mai udke...

Tere jhoothe waado ki Ye bastiya beh jayengi...
Kaaghazon se jo bani wo Kashtiyan beh jayengi...
Baadal meri aankhon ke jo barse khulke...

(When was I myself, it was you within me...
Keeping your head on my chest, it was you  who used to tell me...
I'll come to meet you flying without feathers...

This village of your false promises will flow  
away...
The one's made of papers those boats will
flow away...
When the clouds of my eyes will burst out
Openly...)

How I love this song!!!😍😍😍

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Assalamalaikum.

Sorry for the late update.

Only epilogue left now...

Sorry for the mistakes as I didn't edited the chapter after typing it in a haste...