"Is Zayan in?" Maya asked his assistant. She had been wanting to talk to him. Finally she had plucked up the courage to ask Areesha about his office. Ignoring her worried look she just headed straight here in her car.

"Yes Ma'am. Do you have an appointment?"

"I don't need an appointment to see him. Just tell him I'm here." She replied.

"What's your name?" She replied haughtily.

"Call him up and tell him that his fiancé is here." She said to this girl not liking her a bit.

"Ok Ma'am." She said eyeing her up and down with a distasteful expression.

"Sir is calling you in."

Maya nodded and walked into his office without a word to his assistant. She could see how jealous she was of her. Probably because she was his fiancé. But not for long. This girl could have him.

"Salam." She said as she entered his office.

"Walaikum salam Maya. Have a seat please."

"You don't need to tell me that." She muttered.

"So to what do I owe this pleasure?" He asked ignoring the earlier comment. When Sabahat had called him and said that his fiancé was here he was sure that someone was playing a prank on him but then he asked her if the girl wore a hijab and she did so he called her in thinking it could be Maya.

"You owe this pleasure because you bought the proposal to my house without asking me first." She said through her teeth.

"Well thats how it works you see. You propose to the other person and they have every right to reject. You could have rejected." He said ignoring the pang in his heart when he realized that this girl was going to take the place of his wife in almost a week.

"You involved my family. You didn't ask me did you?"

"Thats how every sharif person does. Or would you rather I propose directly to you?" He said as his lips curled into a smirk. This girl really was unpredictable.

"That's not what I meant and you know that very well." She said annoyed.

"Ok on a serious note. Why do you even want to marry me?" She asked him.

"Who said I want to marry you?" He said raising his eyebrow.

"Then?" She archef an eybrow, curious to what he had to say this time. She hated that pity in his eyes for her. 

"I have no other choice. Fawad thinks that I am playing with you. I don't want my sister to have problems with her married life because of me." Zayan replied, clenching his jaw.

"Bhai would never do that." She screeched. "How could you even think that?" 

"Because he said so himself." He replied in a cold voice.

"I don't believe you." She replied in an equally cold voice.

"Then go and ask him yourself." He said and ignored her turning to his laptop.

"Are you even going to listen to me?" She asked angrily, annoyed with the way he was ignoring her. They getting married in a week and he behaved as if he didn't car, but she would mot marry him.

She snapped his laptop shut and Zayan turned and glared at her.

"What?" He snapped in annoyance.

"You just back out of this and reject this marriage." She said glowering at him.

"I am doing nothing like that. It doesn't even make sense that I bring the proposal to your parents and then back out myself. Why did you accept in the first place then?"

"I did not. Ammi thought that I wanted to marry you."

"What? Why would she think that?" He asked in surprise. This was new.

"Because I told her that I wanted to marry someone." She said as all those memories came back to her and her eyes teared.

"Who?" He frowned. He hadn't known that she liked someone, but then why would he know anyway?

"Daniyal." She muttered playing with her engagement ring.

Zayan stared at her in shock.

"Isn't he that guy from the hospital?" Zayan asked trying to choose his words carefully.

She nodded slowly as tears pricked her eyes and his blood boiled.

"You wanted to marry that bastard?" Zayan anything but yelled at her.

Maya flinched at his tone.

"I n-never wanted to marry him. He blackmailed me." She said as tears pricked her eyes.

"He blackmailed you?" He asked surprsied. He had calmed down a little after hearing that she didn't want to marry him. "What did he blackmail you about?"

"I-I can't tell you that." She said shaking her head furiously.

"Tell me dammit! What did he blackmail you about?" He asked, as anger bubbled up in him and his mind imagined the worst possible scenarios.

Maya flinched at his tone. Why should she tell him? He was no one to her. Practically a stranger.

"Maya please tell me what this is about." He pleaded, scared as to what might be going on. Maya was an innocent girl and she was harming herself by not telling anyone the truth.

"H-he has some photoshopped pictures of mine and he said he is going to show them to everyone and then no one will ever look at me." She said as a few tears rolled down her eyes. She didn't know why she was trusting him when he could even use those pictures against her. But her gut told her to trust him and that he would help her like always.

"What kind of pictures Maya?" He asked her clenching his jaw.

"He k- kissed my lips in them. But Zayan, I-I swear he did it f-forcefully. I would ne-" The words caught in her throat as she started crying again. 

Zayan got up from his chair and circled to her side.

"Maya I know that. I trust you. Come on drink this water." He said handing her the glass.

She took it from him with shaking hands and he kept his hand under the glass as she drank the water so she wouldn't drop the glass.

"Thanks." She muttered slowly not meeting his intense gaze.

"Maya look at me." He said to her softly having no idea how to comfort her. He just wished she was his halal and he could hide her in his arms and protect her from the cruel world. He couldn't imagine what she was going through.

She looked up to meet his gaze. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were wet from all the tears

He offered her a tissue paper from the desk.

She took it from him and blew her nose on it.

"Sorry." She muttered embarrassed as she realized that he was sitting right in front of her.

Zayan chuckled at her softly. He liked how she didn't care about the other's opinions and was pure at heart.

"Maya I will get those pictures erased. Don't worry about them."

"You can do that?" She asked mildly surprised.

"Yes inshallah. I just want you to tell me his details. Can you get them from the hospital?"

"Yes I can do that." She said with a smile.

"Don't ever let anyone erase that smile from your face. It looks beautiful on you." Zayan said thinking complements cheer up girls.

Maya tried not to roll her eyes at that. She got that a lot.

"Zayan please don't think the worst of me after seeing those pictures." She pleaded, as fear engulfed her.

"I won't inshallah. Don't worry about them. I wish I had evidence against that guy so I could sue him."

"You would never want to even marry me after seeing them."

"Who said I want to marry you?" He said before he could stop himself. "Don't flatter yourself." He added trying to turn it into a joke.

"So how do we call it off? I can't tell bhai anything. He is going to be very mad."

"You won't tell him anything. I don't want my future wife to be any less in anyone's eyes."

Her eyes widened at that.

"Look Maya. We both need to marry someone given the situation. I am going to have to marry someone soon anyway because of Mama. So why not you. I don't mind. And I can't even back out of this beacause of Areesha. You are the only one who can do anything about it."

"I can't do anything unless I tell bhai."

"Don't say anything to him. You don't know how hard it is for a brother to hear he couldn't protect his sister. It will break him from inside. Trust me I know the feeling."

She noticed how he said that at the end but she was in no place to ask him about his personal matters whether fiancé or not.

"You're right. Unless I figure out something I'm still your fiancé."

"I'm really not that bad. You can ask the ladies here." He said with the shadow of a wink.

"Oh and since we are on the subject, your assistant really has a thing for you." She said seriously.

"Who? Sabahat?" He asked surprised. "How could you even think that?"

"I'm a girl and so I know the way a girl's brain functions."

"No way. Thats not even possible. You are mistaken."

 "And how are you so sure?"

"Because she is happily married and has a child." He said chuckling at her expression.

"Oh." She said feeling embarrassed.

"Yeah oh." He chuckled

"And how do you know her marital status?" She asked raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Because one, I've met her husband and two, being married was a condition for being the assistant here."

"Why?" She frowned at that.

"Because my old assistant would try to seduce me at every opportunity she got. I would rather get some work done instead of having my assistant gawking at me the whole time."

"Gawking at you?" She snorted.

"I understand that a girl has to be jealous but you're not my wife yet." He smirked.

"I wasn't jealous. And I might never be your wife." She said irritated at his teasing. Really she was going to think up an excuse to covince her family to cancel off this wedding. 

She didn't want to use Zayan to get back to life. She couldn't even pick up herself how was she going to take care of a husband?

Before Zayan could reply, the door to his office flew open to reveal a very angry Fawad standing with Zayan's assistant behind him telling him to stop.

"Bhai?" Maya muttered in shock when her head snapped in the direction of her fuming brother. He really had the worst timing. She prepared herself for another scolding.

***

I am not so confident abt this chapter so do tell me what you all think about it! 

I hate exams! I have a physics one tomorrow and I wish it could get cancelled somehow! Wishful thinking..