"Fiance?" Laila question in a pure British accent, her eyes wondering at Sanari in a pure inquiry.

"Yes, fiance. Isn't she remarkable?" Haani stated back at her in a voice full of humour. Laila pushed him back and got up from her seat, placing her things on a side table. She walked to where Sanari was standing, her heart reached up to her throat on seeing the lady approaching her.

She paused before her and took a moment to eye her in suspicion; "I'm more than surprised to see my nephew bringing in a girl that is fully covered head to toe and calling her his fiance. At this point, I'm wondering if something has possessed him. What is your name?" Haani rolled his eyes at her statement and Sanari seemed to have frozen on her spot.

"It's Sanari, she's a Muslim and stops scaring her off, Laila. What did you expect though?" He questioned her intriguingly.

Laila turned her head to eye him, "I didn't expect anything more than some barely clothed blond bimbo who didn't even have ethics to talk properly to an elderly woman." Sanari didn't know if she was taunting or disapproving.

Haani rolled his eyes in frustration at the memory, "That was just one time and the event required it or else I couldn't bear her a second as much as you couldn't." On seeing the nephew and aunt argue like this, Sanari suppressed a laugh. She never imagined someone who could have enough guts to irritate and taunt Haani Fateen like this.

"Yeah, great you just made her laugh at me." Haani pointed out. Laila turned to face Sanari with a smile, "I like this one, I hope she's not an act like your previous date to the event, are you?" She asked with a soft intriguing smile.

Sanari liked the way Laila was so welcoming. Instantly she eased up to her. "Umm no actually, he blackmailed me into marrying him." Sanari eyed Haani mischievously. "Did he?" Laila asked in an amused voice to which Haani shook his head in disapproval.

"Enough with both of you. Laila we had a long flight, we need to rest." Haani closed the case but she didn't seem to let go of the topic. She wanted to know what her nephew was up to this time and mostly she wanted to know why a girl like Sanari would tag along with his plots.

Haani entered the dinning after freshening up and saw Laila chopping some vegetables. She loved to do her tasks herself that's why she never agreed on getting maids to work for her. She noticed his brooding presence and at once thought of inquiring his plots, "How was your flight, did the girl settle in all fine?" Haani murmured a yes lazily.

"What are you up to Haani?" She questioned him without bothering to look up at him.

"Nothing" He shrugged. Laila put down her knife and eyed him curtly "Spill the beans." He loved her easy going with everything. Maybe that's why she enjoyed life even after too many tragedies.

"She's the daughter of Abdul..." He gave her a passive hint and waited for her chain of assumptions, "...who passed away and so you decided to pity his daughters by engaging one of them to yourself? As well as I know you, you're not that generous. What is there in it for you?" She stared at him in disbelief and taunted his grimness.

Laila knew everything about Haani's life and even about the people that were present in it. She'd keep tabs on him because he seemed to be the only family she was left with and she didn't want to lose him at any cost. That was how she knew about Abdul, who had worked for him for ages and recently passed away. She had even met him in person while she was at the villa once when Haani wasn't in the best of his health. They had talked about their lives, he had told her of his daughters and she had seen the quantum of love he had for them.

"I won't let you do that to her." She pointed her thin finger in Haani's direction, indicating pure disapproval. Haani dragged a chair and seated himself with ease.

"I'm not marrying her out of pity, she has a fair share of advantage in it." He obstructed her assumptions.

"That girl seems too innocent to be agreeing to any kind of such deal with you." She shook her head. Haani sighed and gave in into telling her the truth.

"That girl is important to me, I can't tell you why. But all I can tell you is that she's been in a lot of trouble lately and I couldn't find any other way to protect her than to make her marry me. I just can't let her out all alone anymore, it won't let me stay in peace..." Haani continued to tell her Sanari's entire story and how he made her agree to his proposition but hide the part where it benefited him. He knew Laila would plainly think he's using her but he didn't want to believe so. He felt a pang of guilt from hiding half of the truth from the only person he trusted with his life and who knew of his every dark secret. "...she reminds me of her." He finished.

She looked at him dazed, refusing to judge his intentions, "You have developed feelings for her haven't you?" She questioned him and wished he'd confess it.

"I've buried such feelings a long time ago and you out of all the people know that too well." She noticed pain and anger breaking his voice. She moved forward and placed a warm hand over his. He turned his hand and clasped her wrinkled one in his. "It still hurts." If only he could cry like old times, he would have.

"I know it does. But sometimes you've got to open your heart to someone who may have the ability to heal your previous wounds and stick back your broken pieces. Don't snatch away your chances at it, you deserve to heal." She assured him with warmth.

"And what if instead of healing me she does more damage?" He asked her with glassy eyes.

"Then don't let her do that because it's we who decide it. Whether we want to get healed or want to get wounded by the people we love; we control it." He looked at her in surprise, "I don't love her, I cant-" shaking his head to somehow let loose the thought.

"You'll realise soon." She finished with a smile and got up to leave. He stayed there shaken to the brims. He cared for her but he possessed no feelings. She was nothing more than a mere game to him. He tried to make himself believe that.

"I'll be marrying her within two days, I want you to look after the preparations and rituals." He called after her and made her stop in her tracks. She turned to gawk at him with suspicion. There was something he was hiding and she could feel that.

"I hope you know what you're doing and what you're putting yourself and her into." She let out her concern. Haani tried to push away her words and focused on his plans instead, "I know what I'm doing. All this time I've learnt how to stay strong and make things go my way, how to chase things I want and make the winds turn in my favour. I've experienced a lot so, nothing can damage me now." Laila wanted to warn him of Allah and how He can damage him if He willed but what use was it to reek fear of God in someone who didn't even believe in God.

"You'll make a handsome groom." She informed him of her defeat over the argument. She knew she could do nothing to stop him from doing what he wanted.

They ate dinner in silence. Haani didn't speak and Sanari noticed the tension between them both but didn't feel right to speak of it to them. Haani pushed his plate and marched out of the dining room in silence, leaving behind Sanari to an intrigued aunt of his. She sighed in frustration. What more embarrassments was he planning on to make her suffer, she wondered in pure annoyance.

"Why are you marrying him?" Laila's voice interrupted Sanari's oblivious train of thoughts. She shrugged in ignorance. "I have no other option." She heard her sigh.

"I noticed you praying earlier, you're a practising Muslim and that offers my heart little peace in knowing that even unknowingly Haani is marrying someone who believes." Sanari didn't understand what she was getting at.

"He's had suffered a lot in life, so he's completely lost his belief. To him, everything is in either black or white. He's stopped living, he's been only breathing for ages now. Everything is a game to him. He looks for his benefit in everything he pursues. He's gotten used to staying at the top." She paused to consider her next words to make her understand her point, "I'm a woman of age and experience. I've noticed the way he looks at you and it's a different look. He's scared to lose you." Sanari blinked at her.

"Maybe he's not." She argued.

Laila smiled at her, "Men are in trapped in the delusions of apparent beauty." Her comment made no sense to Sanari.

"To them everything that glistens is gold. Maybe that's why they aren't capable of looking beyond a void and the real lavish is a matter of oblivion. That's why the apparent matters more to them than what's inside. And when they find something that doesn't spike their interest, they tend to trash it away. Haani might be in trapped in your apparent beauty but my experience tells me about how much it'll manipulate and alter his entire existence once he reaches your inner beauty, he wouldn't be able to trash you away." Only Laila understood the depth of her words for only she believed in the inner beauty of a woman she just met.

"Make him believe again." She classed close her case and left it on time to teach Sanari the true accords of her words.

"Believe in what?" Sanari seemed too eager to know.

"In God and in love." Sanari sank in her seat and devolved within her thoughts. The question was, did Sanari even believed in love herself? And was her faith in God that strong to make Haani Fateen believe in Him?

The staircase creaked beneath her foot. She made her way towards her room that was parallel to Haani's. But before entering she remembered she had brought non of her stuff along and so sudden embarrassment sank in. Now, she had to ask Haani for it.

She saw his door ajar but still considered knocking. No reply came from the other side. She still tried but it went vain. Finally giving up, she pushed open the door and stepped inside. His room felt warm and welcoming with no traces of Haani. She called out for him, "Over here," he called back. She followed his voice towards the window and took her head out in confusion. Staring into the dark night. "Down here," Sanari tilted her head down and to her surprise saw Haani Fateen laying on the stony, slightly sloped rooftop in the open night chilly breeze. She rolled her eyes.

At this point, she could expect almost anything from the all famous and mighty billionaire artist, Haani Fateen. He was capable of doing and being almost anything. He was a child at the heart and at the same time a madman if he wished to be one. His polar character amused and scared her at the same time.

But somewhere with an unknown spectrum of her being, she had started to trust him. She had started to believe that he was different, no matter how repulsive and reckless he may turn during times but he never meant to hurt her. Such emotions tug at her heart. Closing her eyes to silence her shrieking worries, she decided to let herself go with the flow. If God had already fated him to her, what use was it to plan on escaping her fate? What's already written, always happens.

She walked back into the room towards the bed. Took off a pillow and the blanket. She threw it out of the open window and atop of Haani's head, "Woah, what the-" he tried to remove the blanket off his face. "Thought you might catch a cold which won't end well if you're planning on to sticking to your proposition." She couldn't help but smile on his wide-eyed reaction.

She swung her leg across the huge window pan and then another. Her skirt was obstructing her way in doing so. She sat on the pan for a moment and leapt onto the roof the next. Her height made it hard for her to easily reach the solid surface of the roof. Haani watched her in pure awe. At such times he appreciated her carefree nature since he had always been around of numerous self-obsessed women for quite a long time now.

Sanari came towards him, bent a bit to pick up the pillow she had thrown earlier. She motioned Haani to raise up his head, when he did, she partly placed the pillow under his head. Unfolding the blanket, she spread it out over both of them, tugging a little of it under her. She laid down and placed her head over the remaining pillow and stared at the dark sky above her, deep in thought.

Her body heat invaded his private space and that didn't bother him at all. For a moment he forgot who he was, it felt like travelling into the past. Where he used to be such a carefree person, full of life and it's indulging colours, with no high status or media always trailing behind him. Lying on the rooftop with the girl of his life. He closed his eyes at that thought. Neither was he that Haani anymore and neither was she the girl of his life. He felt a weight over his chest.

"Aren't they mesmerizing." Her voice plunged him back from all the pain. He turned his head towards her, letting his humour setting in. She was still staring up at the glistening stars in the jade black firmament. "Did you leave behind your religious limits back home?" He mockingly asked her with a smile imprinted in his husky voice.

"Considering I'm to marry you within two days, maybe yes." She replied to him with the same mocking tone. His smile enlarged upon his face. He snuggled in more closer to her, wrapping the blanket around him more securely. "By that, I didn't mean I give you permission to do anything you want." She warned him and earned herself his carefree laugh.

They laid there in silence for many moments to count and both wished for the world to stop at it. It was soothing and peaceful. Listening to each other's soft breathing soothed down their tangled souls.

"I was a kid when my parents died in a fire at one of their stores." His voice sounded lost somewhere in the cold night.

"My uncle, he manipulated and corrupted the legal papers and managed to transfer all of my dad's shares in the business to his name, after his death. He even told the court that he had nothing to do with me and I was better off in a foster home. My own uncle sent me to an orphanage." He let out a bitter laugh. Sanari felt the pain and rejection radiating from him. Out of nowhere, he decided to let out his past, let her know how he's become the infamous Haani Fateen. The late hour of the night compelled him to let out the burdens of his soul.

"He was a heartless man I guess." She concluded, dragging all her concentration towards him.

"He was a greedy man. And greed can turn you into anything, make you do anything, even murder your own brother and his wife." At this, Sanari recalled Behlul's words; Men are in slaved to their desires. And a slave tends to do anything and everything his master commands.

"I know he killed them, the fire didn't just start, he made it start right when he knew both of my parents were there. I saw it in his eyes, I'll never forget it. I'll never forget each day in that foster home. It killed me too." He closed his eyes to push away the emotions that were gathering up to find means of evaporating the surface.

"And your Aunt?" She wanted to know more about him, maybe it'll help her understand his demons.

"Laila is my dad's sister. When she was seventeen, she eloped home to marry a guy she loved who was twenty at the time. They married and settled down immediately but to my family or whatever they are, it was a disgrace. So they disowned her, threw her away like trash. Something they're quite good at doing." Sanari didn't comment and stayed silent for him to continue.

"She wanted to adopt me from the foster home I was in since years ago the doctors had already given her an answer, she was incapable of having her own kids. Me being her own blood seemed true blessing to her and even Ham was willing. But my uncle proved to the foster home that she wasn't fit to adopt a child for he feared that if she adopted me, the court might find an heir to my dad's will." He opened his eyes and stared above him.

"But she'd visit me regularly and assure me that I was loved. I came to Laila and Ham as soon as I turned eighteen and started college here. They were the parents I longed for all those years. At times I think to myself that she made stupid choices. But she was in love and you tend to do stupid things when you're in love so it all made sense. But then time showed me that her mere stupid decisions showed her the real faces of people around her, who loved her for real and who only claimed to do so. When I look at both of them, it makes me envious at times." He smiled at the sweetness of such memories.

"I was passionate about art. I started selling my art on the streets to earn money to pay for my college tuitions. I wanted to make something out of myself, I was eager to prove to my uncle that I didn't need my dad's share to live the life I was destined to. My paintings caught the eye and after I graduated, I was offered a job in New York art gallery. I was a rising artist. I worked like a clock, ticking by every second, painting for too many exhibitions. Finally, I had enough saved to start my own business and so I did. Media caught up on my name and the rest is known to the world already. I literally started from scrap to where I stand today. I understand more than anyone else can, how it is when fate isn't in your favour at times." With a satisfied smile, he finished his life story but not quite completed it. He left apart and he knew too well why. He didn't want those memories to unleash and find a way to his emotions and most of all his heart.

"Well you may not believe in God but I'm sure you believe in Karma. Your uncle thought he'd have wealth all to himself by snatching it away from you but fate destined you to achieve greater heights and it required for you to suffer a bit along the way so you won't lose sight of your destination. I'm sure now that he sees you with such a name and status, and he hadn't left himself with even the right to call himself your uncle, it'll burn him." She twisted in her place and turned towards him, he did the same. She patiently heard entire of his broken past and felt it twist a chord within her heart.

"It doesn't matter to me, I'm past taking revenge." He told her.

"I'm glad about that." She answered back. Tonight she had seen Haani Fateen the famous artist and billionaire peel off his too many coats of dark secrets and reveal himself to her in the rawest and crude form. It warmed up her heart with emotions she didn't quite recognise yet.

Staring onto her perfect face, he noticed the fading scar on her cheekbone. He reached out his hand to touch it. A feeling tugged at his heart. He wanted to kiss her but refrained to do so for it might ruin the moment of peaceful bliss between them.

~~~~~~~~

A pebble hit him on the head and made him shuffle inside the blanket. He peeled off the planet of his face for the glistening sun to hit him right in the face and make him blink with blindness. What was going on, he thought confusedly.

"HAANI FATEEN. IF YOU DON'T GET OFF MY ROOF RIGHT NOW, I AM SO CALLING THE COPS RIGHT THIS INSTANT, YOUNG MAN." Came in a male's shrieking voice and instantly Haani recognized it.

"Oh shit!" He abruptly sat in place, stirring up a sleeping Sanari with him.

Ham looked onto the grass of his front yard to search for some more pebbles. He bent down to pick one and hit Haani with it again.