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𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓒𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮 𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮

He walks forward. Everyone stared at him astonished and knew he was walking towards Maham. "No. There's someone else who knows about the GK project."

"Who?" Azeem asks.

"Samreen Faruqi."

The silence in the mansion shifted to a more baffled corner. Rizwan whimpers slowly sitting up. Asfandyaar does not stop in front of Maham, instead he walks forward towards the dining table and stands in front of the person who has looked after him his entire life.

Lily.

He holds her hand and drags her towards Rizwan. "Who is he, Lil?"

"What do you mean by who is he? He is Zubab's ex husband. We all know th-"

"For god's sake, Samreen Faruqi! He is your son!" Asfandyaar yells. Rizwan looks up at Lily. "We are doomed, Mom. Let it go," there's guilt and regret in his voice.

"So basically what happened is. Thirty years ago, my biological mother Aliza had an assistant, Lily Martinez. She was working for my Mom. As usual you never cared Dad." Asfandyaar says to Azeem. He was keen to hear what Asfandyaar wanted to say. "After ten years, when my Mom died. Lily died as well, it was a murder. Nobody cared so nobody knew. My father hadn't encountered Lily ever, so he barely knew who she was. But after her death and after you got married for the second time, Lily came again to my rescue. This time, she came as my Nanny. You didn't give a shit about who came, Dad. You just wanted someone to look after your first dead wife's son."

Everyone in the room stayed rooted to their places, not knowing what was happening. The income tax officers, commissioners, constables realised that it is never easy even in the royal family, sometimes it's the worst.

"If Lily Martinez died then who is she?" Zubab asks.

"She is Samreen Faruqi. Rizwan's mother who registered the real and actual Lily's death with her name and stole her identity to come in the Shah family."

Lily was looking down. She had no words to form. After all the truth was out, so was her identity.

"Why? Why in the world would you do that? You looked after me for twenty years! You never taught me these disgusting things. Rape, theft, using women for money. Why would you force your son to learn it?"

"Not everyone is born in a royal family, Asfandyaar. We have to be cruel to survive. To learn what needs to be ours!"

"Yours? Lily was not someone for you to kill and take her place. You snatched her identity, her place in here and her life for god's sake this is not a joke."

"Lily?" Azeem called. "Is it true whatever Asfandyaar is saying? You have looked after my son for twenty years. He isn't the way your allegations have been. Tell us the truth."

"No, Azeem sir. There must have been some misunderstanding."

"I have evidence, Dad." Asfandyaar walks towards the income tax officers and stands in front of the head one. He handles him a few reports. Asfandyaar passes it to Azeem, he looks into the papers.

"These papers have the exact amount of details on how much slush funds, embezzlement on property papers, cash and many more had been taken illegally from Shah business to a registered paper company of Samreen Faruqi when Samreen Faruqi's dead but looking in the registration of death, Samreen Faruqi's death had never been officially registered. Rizwan couldn't get anything from Saba's father nor from Zubab's father. It really struck me how there can be so much money then. That's when we started hunting for Samreen Faruqi when her death is not confirmed yet. We got to know that the actual Lily Martinez had been dead and the lady here is Samreen Faruqi."

The colour drained from Samreen's face like she never imagined herself to be exposed. No one expected Lily to be a traitor.

"This is not true-"

"Stop it!" Asfandyaar yelled. "Stop stooping lower than you are. It disgusts me to know that you are the person I have looked up more than anyone for twenty years. It disgusts me to now realise I gave my mother's place to you."

"Asfandyaar, you are still my son. I looked after you-"

"Do not call my son as yours, Samreen. He is my blood and I regret each and every part of myself to give him to you for looking after." Azeem yelled at Samreen.

"No Azeem sir. I never made Asfandyaar to look up at bad things. I have always considered him as my son-"

"Mom please, stop. It's over. Stop being so greedy for money. It's all over. Let's stop it here, please." Rizwan begs, sitting straight, choking on blood. Zubab walks towards him as he screams in pain. She looks over at Moosa. "Call the ambulance now, Moosa."

"Let him die, Zubab. He killed you, didn't he? Let him die." Asfandyaar says as his eyes hover at Rizwan being restless in pain. "Ma'am, he is under arrest now. We can't let him go over to the hospital." The commissioner says.

"He needs medical help for god's sake. As a doctor I can never let someone die so ruthlessly in front of me."

Rizwan holds his mother's legs slowly crawling towards her. "Mom, let's stop it here. I am tired of living alone. Let's go. This isn't our place. I am your son, Mom."

"Why?" Asfandyaar looks over at Samreen. "Why did you have to do all of this? Why you?"

"Because money brings everything home, Asfandyaar. You were my only ticket for a luxurious lifestyle and Rizwan had to prove himself for any use to me but he never did. After all, he wasn't as intelligent as you."

"One time? Only one time you should have asked me. I would have given every property that was under my name to you. You shouldn't have played with lives. You told him to play with Saba Irshad. You told him to play with Zubab and now you wanted him to play with Tahmina Jaffar. Are other people's lives a joke to you?"

"You must carve your own house, Asfandyaar. No one's gonna help you to do that." Samreen says, making Asfandyaar laugh. "Irony, I thought you were better than my step mother!" He pauses, inhaling. "At least she didn't kill my mother just to have her place. At least my father didn't kill my mother just to marry another woman. I admit all the pain my mother was asked to go through was because of them but she wasn't physically abused like my wife was once upon a time."

He kneels down at Rizwan, holding his collar. Zubab stands behind Asfandyaar incase to stops him if he hits Rizwan. She didn't want him to get involved in Rizwan's pain though he was the one to beat him black and blue for raping his wife.

"Consider yourself thankful, Rizwan. If my wife, the woman you raped didn't stop me, I might have killed you and walked out like nothing happened and still if she tells me to kill you, I will cut off all the pieces of you and burn it in ardent coal myself."

Rizwan coughed more blood when he kicked his face. Samreen sat near Rizwan when he was bleeding so hard. That's when she realised he was her son and only she could help him.

"You must have been happy after all you turned him into a monster." Asfandyaar says. "It's hard to believe that you are the one who looked after Rizwan and I. We still don't have anything in common."

He gets up and walks up the stairs. The ambulance arrived and the helpers took Rizwan in the stretcher. Zubab runs up the stairs towards their room to Asfandyaar and she knocks on the door.

Once, twice and thrice but there is no response. The door is locked. Moosa comes behind her and knocks on the door as well but he doesn't open the door. Azeem takes on the key and opens the door. He looks at Zubab, Moosa and Maham telling, "No one will come behind me."

"But Dad-"

"I said no one, Moosa."

"Let him be, Moosa." Zubab stopped him.

Azeem closed the door. Asfandyaar sat in bed after he had removed his jacket, removed his tie, and opened a few buttons of his shirt. He face palmed himself, might have his breakdown real soon.

His mother was dead. His father barely cared about him and married his mother's maid's daughter who was like a friend to his mother. The one who looked after him for twenty years was a bait all the time just for the sake of money.

His life was a mess except for Zubab.

Azeem sat beside him. Stroking his back. "I know I was the worst father you could have asked for. Worst husband Aliza ever deserved. She could have been living here if I wasn't a coward. Yes, I couldn't do anything when Aliza and I were getting married. I couldn't tell my father that I liked someone else. I was a coward. She was a bold and brave woman. We were matchless."

Asfandyaar heard him but he did not face him. He just didn't want to see him. It hurts him everytime he speaks of his mother. Afterall he witnessed his mother's tears, her pain, her broken heart behind that brave smile she used to give him in his ten years of existence with her.

"Aliza loved a man. He was my classmate but he didn't belong to a rich family. He loved her too but things didn't go as pleased for them. She was ready to fight anything for him but her father's health started deteriorating as days passed by. She needed to agree to get married with me. After we got married she gave up everything and stayed loyal to me but I couldn't because I was so in love with Maham that it hurt when we stayed together but she did. For your sake."

"Why Dad?"

Asfandyaar sheds tears of agony. Trying hard to control his emotions and think about all the times his mother smiled at him like nothing ever happened in her life.

"Why did you ever get married to her when you were never planning to stay loyal and honest with her?"

He was losing it.

"Your grandfather threatened me to remove me from our family completely, Asfand-"

"So, What's the problem, Dad? You could have lived happily with your love without royal virtues if love was more important to you. This royalty only matters in a quench of few words, Dad. The real Royalty comes from Loyalty, Dad. Money mattered to you, Dad. You weren't just a coward but you were also selfish."

Azeem's eyes were getting wet. He now slowly realised how heartbroken he made Aliza.

"Let's keep it there. I was selfish and I was a coward. I was the worst. But about her, all I know is that she was the best daughter of her father. the best woman who had never been dishonest with me even if I was and the best mother who always cared about your mental and physical health and you are her son more than mine, Asfandyaar. Make sure you stay strong till the end because your wife needs you more than anyone else and I am sure you will because you might look like me but your heart and mind, it's all Aliza's."

Asfandyaar knew Azeem was right. He was more of Aliza's son than Azeem's.

"I can assure you, Asfandyaar. Even if I leave you, she won't leave you. No matter what, she'll stay beside you."

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