Assalam-o-Alaikum and hello everybody! :)

Though it is a late update, but I would highly appreciate if you like this chapter.

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◇Chapter#4◇

"How much sugar will you have Shehzad?" Holding a teaspoon with its end in the sugar caddy, Sumaira questioned him.

She noticed that he looked everywhere but her during his conversation with the parents. She quickly took a spoonful from his cup of tea and dropped the hot tea on his foot.

"Ah." He stood up as quickly as he could and looked at his foot, wondering what could have caused that agitation which he was feeling.

"What happened Shehzad?" The voice of Alina struck his ear drum.

His eyes fell upon a smiling Sumaira and the cup in her hand. He instantly took in the matter.

"Nothing mom. I just dropped some tea on his foot. Nothing much." She simpered, replying in his place.

"Sumaira." Her father's voice boomed.

"Yes dad?" She looked at him.

"Is this the way to behave with your elder brother?" Strictness laced his tone.

Shehzad had sat on the couch and started rubbing his foot.

"What? It was just a little act that I had done. He wasn't replying me when I asked him about the sugar, so I just poured a little tea on his foot dad." She smiled.

"Dad it's fine. No problem." Shehzad spoke up.

"No it is not. Her acts are getting childish day by day instead of getting mature."

"Dad it's not like that." She pouted.

"Sumaira, enough. Make sure you don't do this ever again." He was frowning now and she very well knew the meaning of it. He did not appreciate her point of view a bit.

"Okay fine." She stood up, straightened her clothes and left the room as tears started making their way down her face.

"I don't know when she will grow up." She heard her mother sigh.

"Sumaira!" Shehzad called her out, wanting her to stop, but stopped from proceeding when he was held back by his father holding his arm.

"Leave her for now." He heard his father say.

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There was a knock on the door. She knew who was it, but did not bother to get up and open the door. She wanted no one beside her at the moment. She buried her head further in her arms as she sat on the bed with her back towards the headboard.

"Sumaira." His muffled voice came through the door.

There was a knock again. She sniffed slightly.

The door slightly opened and she felt his presence beside her by the depression of the mattress as he sat on the bed.

He placed his hand on her arm. She yanked it away.

"Sumaira. Please. What did I do?" He took a hold of her arms and tried to remove them from both the sides of her face as she struggled to not let him succeed in what he wanted to do.

"No." She tried her best to resist his forceful impact on her arms. She did not desire him to see her puffy face after she lifted it up.

"Yes!" He said when he was finally able to make her look up.

He noticed her puffy eyes and red nose.

"Aww. Why did you cry this much Sumaira?" He placed his hand on her cheeks and rubbed her cheekbones with his thumbs, wiping some of her tears.

"Why did dad get so angry about this? It was nothing that bad." She looked into his eyes, asking about her ignorance.

"Just like that you know. Actually he is old enough now, so maybe he thinks we aren't supposed to do things that he is also not considered appropriate for, keeping in view his maturity and age." He shrugged and smiled.

"What a lame excuse is that Shehzad!" She slapped his arm and giggled.

"At least you should praise it. It made you smile." He rubbed his arm slightly.

"Yes of course." She folded her legs. "I praise it and I praise you, Shehzad bhai." She adopted a teasing tone.

"Un huh. Really? Then give me a hug, my little chipmunk." He spread his arms open.

She moved ahead and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him.

"Just this time I am forgiving your calling me chipmunk. You know that I don't enjoy it. I am grown up now and my height is increasing like anything."

She broke the hug and looked at him sternly.

"Oh right. That's why I was wondering why I couldn't find you so easily in the house. All I could see was a pair of sticks in the kitchen. Thanks to Allah, when I looked up, I saw them leading towards your face. Alhamdulillah." He smirked.

"Hey! I didn't mean that." She cried.

"So what's with that bhai? You won't stop calling me that even if I don't like it that much. I am just few years older than you." He retorted.

"That-" She stood up and picked two pillows. Aiming one of them at him, she threw it at his face and started running with the other one to defend her in case he attacked, which she was sure of. "I don't know." She continued as she started running out of the room.

"Ow! How unexpected Sumaira! Oh right." He picked a pillow and went after her.

Shehzad knew that she had been childish. She always was.

While the Malik house rang with the childish shouts of Sumaira, they ran after each other, not caring for the scolding given by their parents. She made it sure to live every moment with her only brother.

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"Papa, I ate chocolatesh today!" Gurya screamed in her father's ear, attempting to deafen him at the pack up time when he bent to kiss her on the cheeks.

"What?" He rubbed his ear and straightened himself. "You ate chocolatesh. Really?"

"Yesh papa." She smiled widely. "Tashty tashty." She tilted her head sideways in excitement.

He couldn't help but smile at his sweet daughter.

"Who gave you the chocolates?" He asked as he held her hand in his and walked to where his motorcycle stood.

"Uncle Shaahi." She replied.

"Uncle Shaahi?" He asked and thought to himself whether he knew of any such person. He got no clue.

"He came to our shchool today and gave ush chocolatesh. He shaid he will come again and again." She beamed at him as he lifted her to adjust her on the front of his motorcycle.

"Hmm. Okay, make sure you don't eat more chocolates Gurya. I won't give you any kiss if I see your black teeth due to chocolates." He said and started the motorcycle on their way home.

"Okay papa. Pinky promise." She looked back at him and smiled before turning around to enjoy the cool air striking her small face during the ride.

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"I just don't want you to go there, all right?" She was washing the dishes when she heard some voice behind her.

She wheeled about and witnessed a man instructing a little girl.

The girl nodded. "Okay papa."

Though the little girl agreed, but Sumaira found it a bit unusual. There was something in the way that the little girl had nodded, which made Sumaira to fall in a suspicion about something being dubious. Something wasn't going the way it was required to be.

Once both the father and the girl were out of the kitchen, she wiped her hands and planned to follow the girl. She stepped out of the kitchen and was surprised to see a big hall before her. A beautiful chandelier made of gold hung from the ceiling in the center of the hall whose walls were covered with padded scarlet cloth giving off a magnificent look. Looking at the far end of the hall, a staircase with its banister coloured red and engraved with elegant designs awaited her.

There was more to see but she had already seen the little girl running up the stairs. She decided to satisfy her aesthetic love some other time.

There was no other person in the hall. She quickly made her way towards the staircase with ease and followed the girl, making it certain that she remained out of the view of the girl, in case the girl changed her plans on seeing her.

The girl took a left turn and walked through a long corridor. Sumaira stopped herself from going into it. She had to wait for the girl to take another turn. She hid herself behind the wall at the entrance of the corridor and tilted her head slowly to watch the girl. The girl reached the end of the corridor and stared at the wall bounding the corridor from exceeding further. She then placed her hands on the wall and moved them on it, as if searching for something. Sumaira narrowed her eyes to enable her to have a better view.

Suddenly one of her hands stopped at a place. She pressed something on the wall and Sumaira could hear a creaking sound, somewhat like the opening of a heavy door. The girl turned right and moved ahead.

Without any delay, there was an alarm ringing loudly in the mansion. Sumaira covered her ears as her head pounded due to the uproar of the alarm and ran quickly towards the end of the corridor. There was a recess in the wall to her right at the end. She quickly entered it and opened the door in the recess which led her to another hall of enormous size.

The thing that caught her attention was the loads of chocolates which had filled the room. She saw the little girl carrying some of them in her arms jovially but hurriedly. She instantly realized why the man had been restricting the girl to come here.

In the spin of a moment she was covered with fire and black smoke all around. She started coughing and began to make an effort to search the girl and leave the place. The next she knew was that she was out in the corridor with all the maids and servants panicking about the little girl. Someone held her by the shoulders and swirled her around to face him.

"Where is my daughter?" The man was frowning.

"I-I-I d-don't kn-" She stuttered but he cut her off.

"Tell me where is she! What did you do to her? " He yelled at her.

"I am sorry. I-I am sorry please. Please. I-I don't know. S-s-she was inside." Sumaira had started crying.

"Why don't you know? Why?!" He shook her once again, taking the life out of her.

"I don't know. It's not my mistake."

The shaking continued.

"I don't know." She cried.

"Sumaira baita. What happened?" Another voiced greeted her which snapped her back to reality. She peeled her eyes open to find a worried looking aunt Noori beside her.

She sat up straight and noticed the unusual palpitations of her heart. She sat still, dumbfounded yet after the realization that it was all a dream. Aunt Noori took a step close and placed her affectionate hand on her shoulder.

"What happened Sumaira baita?" Sumaira looked up at her with an unreadable expression.

"What happened Aunt Noori?" She replied with the same question.

"I don't know baita. I just came to wake you up because your mobile phone was ringing. I tried to wake you many times by shaking you and telling you that you had a call but all you replied with was an I don't know. Then you finally woke up." Aunt Noori explained everything. "But what is this baita? You are sweating." She took a close look of her face. "The air conditioner is on and the room is cool enough but-you seem to be afraid too. Did you had some upsetting dream?" She looked around hoping to find anything unusual that scared the hell out of Sumaira, but returned her gaze towards her after finding nothing.

"I think so. I don't really know. Maybe." All she replied with was an uncertain answer as confused as herself.

"Okay baita. I am leaving. You should take some rest." She watched Aunt Noori leaving the room and closing the door behind her. She then remembered about the call.

Unlocking the keypad, the screen revealed Natasha's name. There were seven missed calls from her side. She waited for a few moments and took deep breaths to stabilize her heartbeat. She then clicked the call icon and held the mobile phone to her ear, waiting for Natasha to pick it up. She picked it after a few rings.

"Hey hi Madame! Where were you? I have been calling since ages and you didn't even pick up let alone send a message. Are you busy somewhere Maira?" Her best friend's voice boomed through the phone. That helped to freshen her a bit.

"Umm. Uh, sorry I had taken a nap actually. I didn't hear the phone ringing. Sorry for that." She wiped off some of her hair that had clung to her forehead due to the sweat.

"Oh wow Maira! What a nap that you weren't able to hear seven calls by your friend. That was uncalled-for. Was that really a nap? Are you serious Maira, because I highly doubt it." There she had started with her chatter.

"Yes I am serious. I don't know what the reason for my deaf ears is, but yes it was a nap because I am not lack of sleep, my dear friend." She replied.

"Okay okay. I believe you." Natasha surrendered.

"So, why did you call seven times? Is there something urgent?" She asked slowly.

"Umm yes. My documents have been processed already. So I am going to Chicago this year bestie!" Natasha almost yelled with happiness.

"Really? Wow, congratulations. I am really happy that you finally get to go there to study after a whole year of waiting." Sumaira beamed with happiness."But make sure that your stay there is worth the money of your parents that you are going to spend, or in a sense waste."

"Hey!" She chuckled. "I am not an extravagant person all right?"

"Yeah, I know." She rolled her eyes.

"But I am going to miss you a lot Maira." Her tone saddened. "We've been best friends for nine years. I don't know how I am going to do without you." Sumaira could easily imagine her pouting face which she often made when she was upset about something.

"I know." She sighed. "You are as social as anybody. It won't be a big thing for you to adjust yourself in a new place, of course with the support of your aunt and cousins there. The problem is with me; I am not that social Nats and that's what scares me when I think of the moment I will be separated from you." She spoke worriedly.

There was an awful silence between them before Natasha continued,

"But don't you worry Maira. I am always there for you and you know that. Though your parents do not allow socializing with friends outside school but still, I know that God has kept something best in store for you, I mean a lot. You just have to wait for that and Kaboom! It's already there before you."

"Thanks for cheering me up, or maybe us. By the way, when are you leaving, any idea?" Sumaira questioned while playing with a button of the shirt that she was wearing.

"It must be around one and a half month more over here before I leave for Chicago. It actually depends on the finals. They are starting after almost two weeks right? So that makes six to seven weeks until we are finally done with the exams. I would be leaving by then. And oh, I remember by the finals. Have you started your preparation? I am way too lazy to start studying something. I am unable to apprehend the fact that I have to give the Islamiyat paper as well, so I better get to studying or else I'll fail. But-" She let out an exasperated breath. "You know. I am me and I don't think I can change that ever. How stupid of me! I should have had chosen Civics instead of Islamiyat in order to not let me end in such a trouble. I find it so difficult to study Islamiyat and learn the ayaat and everything else. I should have had listened to Shanza. It's difficult to study this when you belong to a different religion."

A memory replayed in Sumaira's mind as Natasha went on. It was optional for the non-Muslims to go for either Islamiyat or Civics. Natasha, being the friendly person she was, decided to choose Islamiyat so that she could earn more time to spend with her best friend; against the advice of another Christian classmate Shanza. She was regretting it now. Sumaira smiled.

Once Natasha, Sumaira finally spoke,

"It's okay Natasha. You are finally going abroad now. Don't think much about it. Even if you score an average, it's fine." She tried consoling her.

"Yeah right say. I am going to follow my learning schedule from today."

"That's the spirit girl." Sumaira cheered.

"Yes and don't worry. You'll soon find a friend good enough to deserve your trust and friendship. Trust me. You won't feel lonely without me girl."

"I hope so. Okay you get to studying. Break a leg. See you on the first exam."

"Obviously I will. Take care and don't stress yourself out. You are a topper even if you don't study Maira."

Sumaira let out a stifled laugh. "Now it's not that Nats. You too take care. Bye."

With that, she hung up. Natasha had lightened her mood to much extent. She checked the time on her phone. It displayed 7:00 pm. She couldn't help but wonder how she could call it a nap from four to seven.

Nevertheless, a thought clearly lingered in the back of her mind; the thought of what she had been experiencing since months. These were her dreams about a man and a little girl. She felt that she needed to do something about it. What could she possibly do to remedy it or finish it all? That was the main question and it was still left unanswered.

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"Umair, would you like to have toffees?" Hira stretched her hand out in front of him to give him a view of the confectionary in her hand.

"Yes. But-" He leaned in to whisper. "Who gave them to you?" The eight years old boy asked.

"Who else can it be?" She smiled gingerly.

"Aunt Ameena! I will go get some too." He got the implication and ran out of the playroom.

Few minutes later, they were both sprawled on the floor, peeling the wrappers away from the toffees and stuffing them into their mouths one by one.

"Did you give any to Amir?" Umair asked, chewing a chocolate-filled toffee.

Hira shook her head. "He always teases me. I didn't offer him."

"Hey, that's mine!" Hira got up at once when she saw a toffee disappear before her and noticed Amir running away with it.

Umair also ran after him because he was well aware of Hira's sensitivity. Once he was able to corner him, he said,

"Amir, please give that toffee. It's Hira's. You know that she will start crying. Please give it back to her."

Amir tilted his head, only to see a sour look on Hira's face. He turned his attention to Umair.

"No." He refused. "Don't you see? She already has two more toffees in her hands."

Hira clenched her fists in anger. She knew he would not give up so easily, but she was not one to surrender too.

"Listen Amir. Just give that back. She got those from Aunt Ameena. You go get some for yourself too instead of snatching it from others." He tried to talk in a calm manner.

"No, I won't." Amir still held up his ego. "If she could get the first time, then why can't she take the second time too?"

"Amir." Umair took up a strict behavior. "Just wait till I get back after complaining to Aunt about you." Umair took few steps the other way but retreated when he realized the ineffectiveness of his words on the other boy. He seriously wasn't one to complain of petty things to others. Amir very well knew that.

"Please." Umair showed his palm for Amir to place the toffee on it.

Amir sighed. "Okay, you give one of yours to her then because I am not going to do that mercy."

The idea appealed to him. He was surprised why he didn't think of it. He quickly gave one of his toffees to Hira.

"Here, take this as a substitute." Hira smiled at Umair, not forgetting to throw an angry look at Amir before that.

"Thank you." She squealed as he put an arm around her.

"Welcome." He then turned to Amir. "Don't tease her that much. She is starting to get fed up of you."

With that, he walked away with her, leaving Amir to stand alone in the corner with a smirk on his face. He unwrapped the toffee and popped it in his mouth before joining them.

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"HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY DEAREST, SWEETEST AND LOVELIEST PARENTS OF THE WORLD!" She yelled, announcing the anniversary wish to her parents for the fifth time in the day.

"Thank you so much my dear daughter but isn't it enough for the day?" Alina gushed as Sumaira gave her a peck on the cheek.

She put a finger on her chin. "No, I don't think so. You and dad deserve all the love that I can give, or maybe more than that. I can't thank Allah enough for giving me such loving and caring parents." She grinned from ear to ear.

The door of the attached washroom in the room opened and in came her father.

"Dad!" She took hasty steps and hung by his side. "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!"

"How many anniversaries am I having today?" He asked jokingly.

"Just one dad, but you deserve to be wished every now and then." She beamed at him but then scrutinized his appearance.

"What is this dad?" She looked at him from head to toe. "You are supposed to be at Pearl Continental by an hour. Shehzad and I have booked a special dinner for you two, then why are you still in this casual dress dad?"

"No problem baita. It won't take time to get dressed up. What say Alina?" He turned to face her and got the shake of a head in reply.

"I don't remember if you have ever dressed quickly." She laughed.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"See? Okay, come on dad. Get dressed soon or else I won't be talking with you." She started persuading him to get dressed by playfully pushing him towards the washroom.

"What about your studies Sumaira? Huh?" She heard Alina speak and bit her lower lip. "If you are so excited about this, who is going to study for you? Your exams are near."

"You, my dear mother." She threw a flying kiss in her mother's direction before running out of the room yelling, "But don't forget to enjoy mom and dad."

"She won't ever change her immature attitude, throwing childish tantrums still." Alina mumbled before glancing at her husband who smiled at her in response, agreeing with her views.

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How was the chapter my dear readers? :) I know it wasn't taht good and I did not put up much in this but I just wanted to update. :)

This chapter is dedicated to @HaFsA_JaN as she is a sweet reader of mine and a continuous supporter. Thank you a lot for being there as a reader for me sis! :) May you always be smiling.

What do you think of this story as well as its characters? Do share your views in the comments section....

I am extremely sorry for some writing issues. Wattpad isn't allowing me to edit anything. I will correct eveything whenever I get the chance too. But I still hope that you get the story in spite of these flaws. :/

Till next,

Love,

Noty ♥