"Is it? Is it Jaffar?"

Mayra and Faiza froze in horror. Both of them looked at Aamir who was standing a few feet away, his hand clutching the water glass so tight that it was on the verge of shattering.

The phone dropped from Mayra's hand. Never before in her life had she felt such panic because never before was she hiding a secret and now that the secret was being revealed, in front an extremely angry Aamir no less, her mind dropped into a frenzy of fearful thoughts.

"A..Aamir? How.. how do you...?"

Aamir took a menacing step forward towards Faiza at her stuttered question. "How do I know that its Jaffar who is blackmailing you? Oh dear, I know far more than you think. He's been bothering you for quite sometime, hasn't he? Phone calls and all."

Faiza instinctively took a step back, her hand pressed to her throat, her eyes widening, "how do you know all this?"

"Look here, Faiza!" Aamir snapped, walking straight into her face and pointing a threatening finger at her. "You are going to ask no more questions. You hear me? Not one more! I will ask and you will answer! For your sake, I hope you answer truthfully, or there'll be hell to pay!"

Faiza bobbed her head up and down.

"What does the bastard want?"

Mayra flinched at the word. She hated it when Aamir used foul language. Forever had it all been directed towards her. Now, even for someone else, the words still caused her discomfort.

"Money. A million dollars. I told him I don't have so much money. He .. he wants me.. to.."

"To what!" Aamir snarled.

"To ask Mayra to give the money! Now that you gifted her those shares!" Faiza cried out miserably. "He knows whatever is going on! He must be here somewhere. I don't know what to do! If Irfan finds out.."

She broke off in horror at the prospect of her husband finding out the truth.

Aamir stepped back and pinched the bridge of his nose. Breathing in deeply, he tried to rein in his temper. He wouldn't lose it. He wouldn't repeat his mistakes.

Damn it!

Both Mayra and Faiza jumped and he realised he had sworn out loud.

Taking a deep breath in, he said, "we need to talk about this. I want you two to come with me. Right now."

Mayra snatched Faiza's phone from the ground and stuffed it into her hand. They both walked quickly behind Aamir who in stead of going back to the ballroom, walked to the reception.

"A room for the night, please."

While the receptionist arranged for the room and handed him the keys, Aamir made quick calls to Zaheer and to Khalid to join him in the room he booked immediately.

Mayra belatedly realised what he was doing. He was building up his army. He was pulling in his forces to tackle whatever Jaffar threw his way. He was trying to protect his family. Tears sprung into her eyes as she watched him take control so that no harm would come to her or to Faiza.

Aamir grabbed the keys and turned, almost running in to Mayra. He saw her tearful gaze upon his face but knowing that he was hard pressed for time he simply grabbed her hand and pulled her along to the elevators, leaving Faiza alone to follow behind them miserably.

Faiza wrung her hands nervously. She was deathly afraid of what was going on. Everything was going to spill out now. Everything that she had tried to hide was going to be out in the open for all to see. Tears flowed down her cheeks when she thought of her future. How would she live without Irfan? How would she survive? And their baby? How would she bring up her child all by herself?

She leaned back against the wall of the elevator and pressed her hand to her small baby bump and the other hand to her face. She was sobbing uncontrollably now, her shoulders heaving.

Mayra looked at Faiza's weeping form and pulled the crying woman into her arms and gave her hug. They held onto each other, not knowing what to do and not knowing what was going to happen. Whatever had happened between them had somehow forged a bond so strong that in the time of deepest anguish, they held onto each other for support and comfort. More importantly, they held onto each other for reassurance that all would be fine.

Aamir looked at them, utterly and completely confused. What had Jaffar done? Faiza had hated Mayra, she made her life a living hell. Now they were behaving like sisters?

Every time! He thought angrily that every single time he and Mayra would be getting ahead, moving on with their lives with all the difficulties they already had, Asshole had to mess everything up!

Aamir punched the wall of the elevator and both women jumped apart, surprised. They looked at him fearfully.

The doors slid open silently an Aamir ushered them down the carpeted hallway to the room on the farthest end. He held the door open and they walked in quietly, Faiza sobbing hysterically.

He walked in and shut the door behind him. He turned and gestured Faiza to sit in a high-backed chair while Mayra got her a glass of water.

"Faiza," Aamir began as Faiza sipped at Mayra's insistence. "Listen, you have to tell me everything. If Jaffar is blackmailing you, I need you to tell me what he has as leverage against you. You have to give me all the information for me to get him once and for all."

Faiza nodded her head and began. "It was during your wedding. I was very angry that.. that you two were getting married.. I hated it. I hated.. hated Mayra.."

She looked at Mayra apologetically but Mayra nodded at her to continue.

"I had gone outside the hall to take a breath of fresh air. I was standing there.. when he.. he walked out and bumped into me. We.. we spoke for sometime and he told me that - "

A knock sounded at the door and Aamir got up. "Must be Zaheer and Khalid."

Aamir opened the door and the men walked in with extremely serious looks on their faces. Aamir quickly shut the door and resumed his seat opposite Faiza.

Faiza looked at Zaheer hesitantly.

"He's my friend, Faiza, don't worry. Please continue."

"Umm. Ok. J..Jaffar and I had exchanged our names and he told me he was Mayra's friend. I was shocked as everyone had said that Mayra was very shy and all. I didn't pay it much mind but a few days later, he sent me a friend request on my social network profile. Out of curiosity.. and.. and to know more about Mayra to.. to hurt her, I.. I accepted it and we started chatting.

"He told me that Mayra was a very bad girl, he said that she was very manipulative. He fed me lies about Mayra and kept instigating me against her. Half the things I did were originally his ideas. I should've paid it more attention but I was so blinded by my infatuation with him and with my anger with Mayra that I continued."

She leaned back and sighed. "I revelled in Mayra's pain. Whenever you hurt her Aamir, I rejoiced! I conveyed it to him, word for word. He loved it when we spoke of you two. He seemed to enjoy Mayra's pain, as if.. as if Mayra's hurt gave him a high. A sense of euphoria. I ignored that too.

"Then one day, Ammi told me that she had a very good proposal for me. The aunty who had brought Mayra's proposal for you had gotten a marvellous match for me. Irfan. I was furious! I couldn't possibly tell Ammi about Jaffar. She would never accept. So.. we.. we planned to elope."

"It was you!" Zaheer gasped. Everyone turned to look at him in confusion but Aamir gave him a look that conveyed his annoyance. "Sorry, please continue."

"Jaffar and I met secretly. We worked out all the details, each and every fine point of it. We were to elope on the night that you would leave for America for the Mark International deal for the confusion would give me time to slip away. Three days before your departure, Mayra found out what we were planning.

"Mayra convinced me to stay. She convinced me to stay back and marry Irfan because he was a far better man than Jaffar."

"Go away," she had said that night. "Go away and your mother will never get to gloat of her daughters' superiority to me ever again. Go away and I will look down upon your sister, forever. Go away and Irfan will be rid of the risk of marrying someone like you, who couldn't be loyal to her own mother. Go away."

Faiza wiped away a rogue tear at the memory. Mayra had used snobbery and arrogance to drive her point, and Faiza had understood. She had broken down and confessed everything to Mayra.

Wiping her tears, Faiza continued, "I've no idea what was Mayra and Jaffar's history and he never gave me the details but when I told him that I couldn't marry him, he immediately asked me if Mayra had convinced me to stay back. I was shocked, I asked him how he knew. I'd never seen him so angry before. He was shaking, actually trembling in anger, his face had gone so red. I was afraid for my life at that moment. He got up, pointed a finger at me and said, 'you'll pay for this, bitch. You and your precious Mayra'.

"I knew in that instant that I'd made the right decision by not eloping with him but we had spent so much time together. The messages, the emails, the calls. He had so much information to prove that I had been involved with him but I was determined. I was going to start a brand new life with Irfan and hope that Jaffar would remain a memory.

"Then, your accident happened Aamir. I don't know if your remember much of it but it was such a freak accident that Mayra and I knew someone had planned it. Before we could go to the authorities, Jaffar called us. He said he wanted to meet us, we refused. He threatened us, especially me with all the messages and emails that he'd show them to Irfan and Ammi. I dragged Mayra along with me. We met in a coffee shop.

"He sneered at Mayra for having a paralyzed husband. We didn't react. He called her names, abused her. We still didn't react. Then Mayra simply asked him why he tried to kill you. He was shocked then calmly replied that he hadn't tried to kill you, his target had been Mayra. He said he had wanted revenge because she had messed up his chances of marrying a rich girl and living of her money, twice. Sameera and me, so he wanted Mayra out.

"I was disgusted, but he had those messages. He said he wanted to strike a deal. That he'd delete them all if Mayra and I didn't report him to the police. My marriage was on the block, Aamir. I would be disgraced. Ammi would die of the humiliation. He offered to delete all that and never to return to our lives again. We had to agree, and we did.

"I never saw him again after that. Never heard of him until after You became so successful and Mayra got alright. He wants money now and he says that he has.. he has.."

"Faiza," Mayra asked softly. "What does he have?"

Shame crashed squarely in her chest. "Photos. Of us. From the coffee shop and other places where we met."

Aamir got up and Zaheer went straight to him. "How much does he want?"

"One million."

"That Bastard!" Khalid roared as Faiza dissolved into fresh sobs. Mayra tried consoling her but to no avail.

"We can't give him the money, Aamir," Zaheer tried to reason. "He'll never stop blackmailing you."

"I have to," Aamir replied. "I'm not risking my sister's life."

Faiza's head snapped to Aamir and she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"There's has to be another way!" Khalid growled.

"Aamir," Faiza began. "You can't -"

Suddenly her phone rang and she paled at the caller's name. "Its him! Jaffar!"

"Answer it," Zaheer ordered."Put in on speaker."

Faiza nodded and did as she was told. "Hello?"

"Mayra, my love. Are you there? You miss me sweetheart?"

Aamir lunged at the phone, Zaheer and Khalid catching him before he did something stupid and panicking very badly, Faiza disconnected the call and threw the phone away.

An ominous silence descended the room while Khalid, Zaheer and Faiza watched an unbelievably furious Aamir stare at a horrified and shaking Mayra.

Aamir took a step towards her and she backed into the wall. "I.. I.. d..don't.. p..please.."

Without tearing his angry gaze from her, Aamir said in low yet very angry voice, "Khalid take Faiza downstairs and tell Irfan that she's staying the night at our place. Zaheer I'll see you at nine in my office tomorrow morning. Please, leave us now."

Horrified Faiza looked at Khalid. They couldn't let Aamir vent his anger at Mayra again. She was already cowering in the corner.

"Bhai, please.."

"Leave Khalid." Aamir ordered and they all left closing the door behind them.

Aamir slowly, deliberately walked towards Mayra, rage dripping from every step.

*****