"I'm going to lay out some rules for you, which if you fail to follow them, I'll surely kill you myself. Because as it is, I'm so tired of having to deal with you, being constantly afraid that somehow my secret will get revealed to the world and all I'll get from you is this?" He hissed and pinned the gun to her head even deeper that he heard her sharp intake of breathe. "First, whatever I ask you to do, don't you ever ignore my commands. I'll emphasize on this, don't ignore my commands and do what I ask of you right away."

He watched her nodded her head before she quickly gulped down a lump in her throat and she trembled the 'Yes' out of her lips. All the rules he had laid out for her had gotten a breathless yes from her and he began to wonder if she had really listened to him well long enough to understand what he had meant. He slightly lifted the gun from her head and got down from the bed, "Now, go to bed and sleep! And one word from you, a whimper or anything that shows you're alive, I'll be here with my gun to end you for good." She quickly laid down on the bed and pulled the blanket over her whole body.

Na'im watched how she kept on shivering in fear and even though he knew she was crying, there was no sound coming from her. He felt like beating the life out of her whenever he remembered how her palms got in contact with his cheeks but he restrained himself, because he knew if he tried beating her to get his anger out of his chest, he might kill her like he had threatened to. He stomped out of the room and banged the door so hard that Maryam flinched at the sound and even though she knew he was out, she didn't make a sound.

Na'im had barely slept for the rest of the night and when he saw that the anger he felt wasn't going to subside, he went to the gym in the house and got his punches out and lifted some weights to get his mind off things. He didn't know how many hours he had spent in the gym until he heard the adzhan for Subh being called and he went back to his room. He showered and after he had said his prayers, Na'im decided to call Hafiz, his anger a little bit down.

"Morning, Sir!" Hafiz said, knowing so well unless it was duty call, Na'im wouldn't have called him when it was still dawn.

"You have to come early in the morning to pick me up, Lieutenant. And also, bring a doctor along with you. Someone who's into psychology, this girl needs her brain to be checked." His voice came out with a tone of finality that gave no room for questions or any argument and he ended his call after he heard Hafiz saying, 'Yes, Sir!'

He tried to go back to sleep and was glad he had gotten a few hours of sleep before his phone rang and he woke up with a soft hiss. "What is it, Lieutenant? Are you outside already?" He was getting down from the bed when he asked and the discomfort he heard in Hafiz's voice was enough to tell him that something had went wrong.

"I'm at the hospital, Captain. But the only doctor available that can come home with me is Dr Nafisa Babagana, and she's among your ex-fiancées." He heard the word as though it were foreign to him. Funny how it had never occurred to him that he would one day bump into his series of ex-fiancées and might even need something from them.

He brushed his fingers through his hair and sighed, "Which date?" He asked, because just saying her name wasn't enough for him to know who she was. He had forgotten them all and wouldn't remember them even after they met, not to talk of remembering just after he heard the name.

"28th December." Hafiz said, aware of how she was still clinging onto him. He knew this wasn't a good idea, but he might as well wait to see what was wrong or what judgement Na'im would make about this before he advised him, even though it proved that he wasn't in a good mood today.

"Oh no! How about we get a new doctor, Hafiz? This won't do, she claims that she'll still waiting for me in the Eid message she had sent to me." If things were okay, if his voice was light enough to give enough room for joke, Na'im knew Hafiz would've laughed this off.

"She's the only psychologist available, Sir. The rest are professors, men and we all know we need secrecy in this. Does she have to see a doctor?"

"She has to, unless we want her dead and I'll have to be the murderer, then she might keep on staying as she is. but her head isn't straight and if I try to set it with my gun, she'll die, Hafiz." No matter the situation at hand, he heard Hafiz chuckled at how enigmatic his voice had sounded before he quickly sobered up.

"Then I think to save a soul, we definitely need Dr Nafisa. I'll make up a story to her and will let you know of the main facts I've told her on our way there. I've got you, Captain."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. And I'm starving." Hafiz laughed before he ended the call and Na'im slumped on the sofa. Was this the reason Abba kept saying he treated them good? Because he might someday need something which they had and Na'im had never thought it would come this close. He tried to rake his brain to see if he had treated her right when they 'dated'. He quoted the dating part in his mind because he doubted if it had ever happened.

But when it became certain to him that he would never get to remember anything, he stood up and went into the bathroom. He showered again, because he was still not over from his anger and maybe if he showered, it might help. He was getting ready in the khaki Hafiz had sent to him yesterday when he heard the doorbell ring and he immediately picked his phone. A message from Hafiz.

'She's a refugee whose father has been taken abroad for medical purpose and her brother begged you to keep her for sometime because they have to leave together. You can't take her to the camp because she's suffering from a mental illness none of them know, so you promise to take care of her and find the cure for her illness while at it. Be at your charming, that'll make it easier for her to believe.'

What a weird yet unbelievable story, he thought. But it still made sense and might as well be easily accepted by her. And it turned out, Dr Nafisa was so glad to see him again that she didn't even pay heed to what Hafiz had said, all she was so eager to see was Na'im and when he opened the door for them and mustered all his charm as Hafiz had said, she internally swooned.

"Good morning, Dr, it's nice to see you again." She walked into the house beside Hafiz but her eyes were fixed on his face as he ushered them to seat. "We don't have anything in the house, I would've offered breakfast to you, I'm sorry." She waved her hand dismissively at him with a wide smile. She seemed pleased to be in his company.

"It's alright. Your Lieutenant have updated me in the matter at hand, and I'm so pleased to hear that it was you that needed my service, My Prince." He smiled at that, but internally, Na'im wanted to scoff. Did she have to remind him that he was a prince always? Yet, there was a mistake in her sentence, he wasn't hers and never would be.

"And I'm so thankful for accepting this, Dr. Can you meet her now? I'm sure she's up, I heard the water running in her bathroom on my way here." They all stood up, even though Nafisa wanted to speak more with him, but she knew she had the chance to do that now. Having meet him again this time was a sign from the universe giving her another chance and she would die before she lose it again.

"Yes please, show me to her room." He did, but he stood by the door and she was the only one that entered before he walked back to the living room and found Hafiz already waiting for him.

"What is it? I thought you'd get in together with her?" He asked, bringing the food he had brought out.

"I think I just said I heard the shower running in her room, should I have walked inside when she might've just come out?" He replied sarcastically and it seemed that Hafiz's sense of humor was at its highest today, because he laughed at that.

"Oh, the wife that isn't a wife in some ways." Hafiz sat down as he served the meals in two plates and Na'im sat beside him, "You look furious, did something happen?"

Na'im was silent, he just dive into his meal as he had no intention of answering his question and when he was done, with Hafiz tired of asking him what was wrong and why he was in such a foul mood, he asked. "Is she here with her car? I want us to leave."

"Yes, she is. But how do you know she drives? Did you remember something about her?" Na'im hissed before he stood up, he didn't know how many times they were going to have this conversation with Hafiz.

"You said she's 28th December, didn't you? And we all now the types of girls Alan Gubro gets me engaged with, they're rich daughters of billionaires or politicians or princesses and it's only natural if I guess she drives." He began walking towards the door, "Let's leave, maybe send her a message to tell her that something urgent has come up in the barrack and we're urgently needed. I need to check the palace to see if there are trusted royal guards and a maid to bring over here."

Hafiz stood up and stared between Na'im and the other food that wasn't even uncovered. "Her food, take it to her first and explain all that you've said to me to Nafisa, then we can leave."

Na'im turned with a solemn look on his face, "Whose food? Hafiz, let's leave please. If I set my eyes on that girl again, nothing could stop me from strangling her to death."

"You're the man here, Na'im. I don't know what she did to have you this angry but you have to learn to keep your emotions in control. She's just a small girl that's obviously traumatized, please take it easy on her." He handed the plate to him and with reluctant hand, Na'im took it. "The way you act towards her will give Nafisa the impression we want, and if you ignore her the way you want to do now, how is she going to believe that she's someone you're going to help? No one ignores and treats the one he's going to help this way, Na'im..."

"That's enough. I'll take the food to her." He was already on his way to the room when he said that and Hafiz stared at him with a soft smile on his lips. He loved the fact that Na'im had the kind of heart he did.

He knocked once and when he heard Nafisa's voice ushering him in, he turned the doorknob and entered. His initial intention was to ignore her existence in the room, just tell Nafisa the excuse he had created so they can leave. But the moment he entered, he felt her eyes on him. It was in a way one would when he entered a room full of thousands of strangers and his bestfriend walked in. That look of relief and the feeling of I'm finally safe since there's someone I know.

Her eyes felt like a magnet that pulled his to her until he turned to where she sat far away from Nafisa and she quickly looked down at her fingers when their eyes met. He looked away from her face and stared back at Nafisa with a smile, "Here's her breakfast, Dr. I'd be glad if you help me make her eat, she hardly eats." Nafisa had her eyes fixed on him and she was staring at him with all the attention she had in her that it began to irk him with the way she looked at him.

"No problem..." She began and he gently cut her off.

"Something came up in the barrack and we have to leave before you're done. Please let's communicate later about what's bothering her if you are able to know what is it. I'll call you in the evening." The fact that Na'im had said he would call her was enough to have her giggling, but she held a neutral look as she nodded her head.

"I'll be expecting your call then, Captain." He genuinely smiled at her now that she had referred to him as Captain, and all the smile exchanges and the soft looks shared between them didn't go unnoticed by Maryam and she wondered if he was capable of talking naturally like this, of smiling this way and being soft, why was he so harsh on her? Why was it that the only thing he said to her was he was going to kill her if she didn't do this or that?

Somehow, that thought depressed her even more and she didn't know why she broke into tears. She had always been loved by her father and only sister. He took her sister away to a place she didn't know, or he had killed her since it seemed to be his expertise to kill people, and he was always threatening her life and being so harsh on her. Just when she had thought that it might be his nature to treat everyone the way he treated her and she began to recall all that she had done to him yesterday, which had justified his actions towards her, she saw a different side of him today and it turned out the perception of him that she had only applied to her.

He was about to turn the doorknob to get out of the room when he heard the shrill of her cry and it was as if he was rooted to his spot. Nafisa turned to her and chuckled sweetly, "Oh, dear, it's alright. I'll be here with you, okay?"

Na'im turned, not because he wanted but because he wanted to see her expression while she cried. And it wasn't the kind that said she didn't want him to leave or she was afraid that if he left she wouldn't be able to see him again and she would be all alone in this world. This was a different look and he wondered what she was crying about.

He tried to act casual when he walked back into the room, "Can I please talk to her for a minute? It might help make her open up more." The way he had looked at her was enough to make her give him her world and it wasn't until then that Nafisa realized how she had been chanting to herself that she wasn't in love with him anymore-had been the greatest lie she'd ever tell herself.

"Sure, I'll be outside the door." He waited until she closed the door behind her before he went to take up her seat and Maryam shifted even farther away from him as if there wasn't enough space between them. The body trembling was back and it was only till then that he realized she was sitting normally when Nafisa was there, which meant she was only terrified of him.

"Look here," he said with a very cold and harsh tone, realizing that he didn't have time to waste for her to gather herself around enough to understand him. She turned almost immediately and it was a good thing that she didn't forget all that he had said to her, "She's a doctor, she's going to help you not harm you, okay? You can speak to her, tell her everything you want to know or say. But there are two things you can't tell her," Maryam looked up at him to be able to concentrate on what he was going to say when their eyes met and they both looked away, "Don't tell her your father is dead, okay?" She was about to nod her head when she remembered what he had said and she heavily opened her mouth, "Yes." Okay, this yes was beginning to get him on his nerves. "And don't ever tell her I'm your husband." And now, when she looked up into his eyes, she didn't take them off. It felt as though she was speaking to him through those eyes that unnerved his soul. It was as though she was asking him that he still remembered he was her husband?

"Answer me, you can't tell her I'm your husband." He repeated, because a staring contest while what he had to stare into where those two universes was something he wasn't capable of doing.

"Yes, I won't tell her you're my husband." There was disgust etched in her tone. As if she was disgusted with the fact that he was her husband and she would've loved it more if he wasn't.

"Good," he said as he stood up and the only thing she was left to stare was his retreating back as he walked to the door and closed it behind him. Maryam let out a breath she didn't know she was holding before she broke into tears, she had been holding it in for long. But she hated this man and everything he was!