CHAPTER 27- A HOPE~ Farhan💀

F A R H A N : -

"You all have a better good reason for calling me this late at night." Hajra says throwing her purse on Yousuf before sitting down on the sofa of the main house.

"But Hajr, it's just nine no?" Bilal asked carefully to his wife.

Running a hand in the curly mop of her hair, she glared at her husband.

"No, it's late, your right, my wife is always right." bilal nodded his head, smiling sweetly to his wife.

Rolling her eyes, Hajra muttered "Better."

"It really amuses me to see how the great fighter bilal becomes a scaredy cat infront of his wife." Yousuf snickered beside me, keeping Hajra's purse on the coffee table.

"I bet our FB here, can relate, no?" I give him a glare and he purses his mouth.

"Oh, marital bliss I guess." Yousuf mused.

"Indeed marital bliss, Yousuf. Which children like you cannot understand." Hajra says chuckling.

"Being twenty one is being an adult alright." Yousuf jutted his chin defensively to Hajra.

"Oh, but you still look like one, alright." Hajra snickers.

Yousuf opened his mouth again and closed it, before sulking down in his seat.

"Why do we call her here, everytime?"

"You know, to include some mature decisions, from experienced people." Hajra flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"I think we should focus on the issue on the hand." Bilal jutted in, knowing his wife and Yousuf would bicker all night, if not stopped.

I nod at him gratefully before sitting straighter,

"Please, I never thought we would."

"Does he have to be here?" Hajra asks playfully shoving Yousuf.

"Yes he does." I cut in.

"Anyway," Bilal cleared his throat before Yousuf could retort.

"So, Hasnain somehow landed himself in a situation, which he still has to disclose to us and found that some girls were being sold at an auction of some cheap club." Hajra turned attentively to bilal as he narrated,

"Explains why you called for volunteers." Hajra nods her head.

"And he started a crossfire over there." I added, Hajra looked at me with wide eyes.

"Crossfire? Hasnain? I mean he looked he could but I never thought- where is he anyway?" Hajra asks shaking her head.

"Grazed a bullet, resting in the infirmary right now." Yousuf answers.

"Is he alright?" Hajra sits up in alert.

"Yes, so as I was saying, For the unknown reasons he started it, and then he gave me a call, calling for emergency backup, I called everyone else and we went there." I continue,

"He really has an amazing backup." Yousuf points.

"Right?" Bilal agrees reaching across to give him a high five.

Hajra glared at both of them, Bilal looked at his wife and his smile dropped, clearing his throat, he continues, "Right, So um long story short, after doing the basic things, Farhan and Hasnain rescued a girl, whom we don't know who she is and all we know is that she scared as hell and she has no family."

"What do you mean by no family?" Yousuf asks straightening up from his seat.

"When I asked her about it, even when we were on our way here, she started crying. Nor did she uttered any address of someone she knew." I say scratching the scruff on my jaw.

"She might be a runaway?" Bilal mused.

"What if.. she had to runaway because her family was abusive?" Yousuf reasoned out.

"Could be, but how did she ended up at that place? Was she kidnapped?" Bilal wonders tapping his knee.

"Could be, but I think it's high she ran away, she looks barely eighteen." I say.

"There are many possibilities of what could happen and not. Where is she?" Hajra asks,

"Upstairs, in Yousuf's cabin." I reply, "I thought it would be better if I leave her alone for a while, and from where she has come, I highly think she would be comfortable with all of us."

"Oh, that's why you called Hajra here." Yousuf snaps his fingers.

"Alright," she stands and grabs her bag, "I will talk to her, meanwhile," she rummages in her bag and takes out a little screen, "You three keep an eye on my baby." She says setting up the baby monitor on the table in front of us.

"Our." Bilal called out to her who just ignored him walked up the stairs. "Me and you, I think everyone knows that."

Yousuf snickers while I rest my head on the back of the sofa and kick my feet up on the table, accidentally knocking down the monitor,

"Hey! Careful, you're kicking my baby." Bilal scolds picking up the monitor.

"Apologies to your son." I mumble ignoring him.

All the nerves in my brain seemed like clashing together, in a painful way. And I hate it. I hate headaches.

"Yousuf do we have coffee?" I ask, my still closed under the pressure of my nerve wracking headache.

"We do, I will bring it right away." Yousuf says,

"Bring me one too." Bilal calls out.

"No coffees for dads." Yousuf calls back walking towards the pantry. Which he set it up, which comes in handy for a little coffee break.

"Who said that?" Bilal frowns.

"You should be smart by now, half of the things Yousuf utter can no one say except him." I mumble loud enough for him to hear.

"True that," Bilal mutters.

"Here you go." I hear Yousuf after a while, when I was about to doze off, opening my eyes I grabbed the paper cup from his hand.

"After bringing dozen of pantry items, least you could've done was get some proper mugs." I scowl taking a sip of the coffee.

"That would be too house-wifey." Yousuf says passing a cup to Bilal who takes it great fully.

"Whatever you say." Bilal takes a sip from his coffee and sighs in content, "I swear Yousuf, if this psychiatry doesn't works out, work at Starbucks, telling you, your life is set making coffees."

"Man, I am not going to spend all my life making coffees, I have studied medicine, I am gonna make millions baby." Yousuf chimes plopping down on the seat next to Bilal.

Yousuf always makes some amazing relaxing coffee, but this isn't hitting me like it used too, I am craving something more, something more strong, a tea maybe, similar to which I had few days ago, made by my wife.

I loved my coffee, but man that tea.

The front door opened and we all stare at the two persons walking towards us.

"Shut up." Hasnain groans sitting on a couch, his right arm hung around in a plaster.

"We get it." Yousuf nods.

"Doctor said bro needs Atleast a week bed rest." D says sitting beside him.

"Thank god bro is alive." Bilal pats nain's uninjured arm.

"But how did bro landed his ass in that?" I ask leaning forward, placing my empty cup on the table.

Hasnain glares at me, and his glare intensifies taking a look around him, all of us curiously staring him, "I was passing by, when I noticed something shady, so I followed." He shrugs, painfully clutching his arm.

"On ismet street? You were roaming on ismet street? The hole of illegal business?" Yousuf questions,

"I had business there." Hasnain snaps, he is too touchy about his personal life, barely talks about his family. I know for a fact that he is not in some illegal shit. Had to be something else.

"Alright you had business. But why did you went in there all alone? What made you do that? We don't do missions without backup and team." Bilal asks leaning in his seat.

"It was a irrational decision." Hasnain grunts.

"And even if you did, why did you started a crossfire there? I know for a fact, you calculate your each step rationally, plan every move. And you knew there would be hundreds of gunman in the auction, but you fought alone. Why? What made you do that?" I ask, staring at him, daring him to spit a lie.

"Alright, alright, stop everyone." Hasnain raises his hand, "Listen, it is not important and constant that a rational minded, can't make a off-minded decisions but sometimes, there is a situation, where no planned mind works, no steps are calculated, the panic and frenzy makes you lose control, you only do what your survival mode tells you too. I was there at that place for some other reason, nothing that would effect our group, but it was personal, I saw something, followed it, and I lost my control. That's all I would say, please don't question me further. I don't ask all of you about yours shit, don't ask me about mine."

Silence, we all stared him in silence, that was the most he spoke to us. And whatever he said, the tone of his voice, made all of us quite and we all further didn't tried to instigate him.

Thirty minutes passed, and we all sat in silence, Hajra didn't came downstairs till now, and we didn't utter a single word.

"Is it safe to say that I am hungry?" Yousuf broke the defiant silence.

I turn my head and look at him, he caught my stare and shrugged, "I am."

"Shut up, Yousuf." D muttered.

"I just realised something," Bilal starts, "I had the best thirty minutes of my life, just watching my kid sleeping in silence, but now it's ruined."

"I am glad." Yousuf grins.

Hearing the clicking of shoes against the floor, snapped our attention to hajra, who was climbing down the stairs, wiping the corner of her eyes. We all stood up from our seats as she walked towards us,

"What's wrong Hajr? Did you talked to her?" Bilal asks walking towards her holding her hand,

Hajra nodded, "I talked to her, yes." She says wiping her cheeks, tears still evident in her eyes.

"Then why are you crying? Are you okay?" Bilal asks wiping her tears, holding her face in his hands.

"I am." She nods and looks over Bilal's shoulder catching my eye,

Assuring Bilal, she stepped towards me, clearing her throat she says, "Earlier I thought of sending to her to my organisation, but now I will take her with me, She will live with us now Farhan, I've decided." She says wiping the last of her tears before nodding determinedly.

I stared at her, confused by her sudden change, Hajra was always the one to help others, but I've never seen her like this,

"Is she fine, coming with you?" I ask,

She nodded glancing upstairs.

"I knew as much that we couldn't send her to an organisation, I would've taken her with me to my home, but I couldn't give my wife an explanation on who she is and how she came here, and besides I think Irhaa wouldn't been comfortable with me all the time, so I think you are right." I say sitting back down on the couch.

"Wait- What do you mean by you couldn't give your wife an explanation? Haven't you told her about all of this?" Hajra asks astounded, "About what you really do?"

"Didn't deem it necessary." I shrug it off, hoping she would leave me out of this.

"Not necessary?" Hajra scoffed angrily. She kept a hand on her forehead and took a deep breath, "If we didn't had a matter at the hand, I would've not left you for not telling your wife, Farhan Siddique." She snarls almost reaching for the collar of my jacket before retreating it.

"Thank you." I reply flatly.

"If she is comfortable with you, I think it would be better if she stays with you, I will know she is safe." I add, ignoring her previous statements all over.

"But what happened to her?" Hasnain asked, who was quite all the time.

"I can't tell you that, I've promised her, but just let you all know, that girl has suffered a lot in her life in a very small age, she is just nineteen years old." Hajra replies taking a shaky breath.

"I am amazed to know, how she even survived those crucial people." Hajra mutters as Bilal rubs her palms soothingly.

Always a wife puppy.

Guessing by Hajra's tears, no one uttered a word. No one in these four years had seen her crying. She always portrayed a strong woman, and seeing her like this, we all somehow got the memo, whatever Irhaa told her was definitely unpleasant.

"I think we should get going now, it's already eleven, what say Hajr?" Bilal asks passing Hajra a bottle of water.

"Yes, let me just go and call her, and even daniyal is alone at home, let's go." she sniffed, glancing at the baby monitor.

Hajra went back upstairs and brought a tensed Irhaa along with her, Hajra brought a set of clothes as I asked her for Irhaa, and now in clear lights without that heavy makeup and tore dress, her face looked much clear, her eyes had a constant fear in them, body always tensed, and now that Hajra mentioned she now really looked like a nineteen year old, too young to get corrupted by this world's evil.

She walked behind Hajra, her head down, not making eye contact with anyone, I walked towards her and called her name, slowly she lifted her head and looked at me,

"Don't worry bachey, you are in safe in hands." I assure her nodding towards Hajra.

She nodded meekly, wiping her face with her sleeve.

"Should we leave?" Hajra asks Irhaa, she nodded before looking at me last time and glancing at something over my shoulder, or rather someone.

Glancing behind my shoulder, I notice Hasnain standing near the couch which he was previously seated on, and did not got up at all. His face was contoured in dare I say, restlessness.

Shaking my head, I asked D to drop Yousuf and Hasnain back to their places, seeing Yousuf had no car and Hasnain can't drive his.

I walk out of the main house and towards my car, where at the same time Hajra was making Irhaa sit in her car, and asked Bilal to drive his.

Swiftly dodging Hajra's attention, I walked towards my car, hoping to go unnoticed, my plan was almost successful, until I heard the she- devil call my name.

"Farhan." she called out.

I cursed silently banging my fist on the car door.

"Yes, Hajra?" I turn around, making sure to make my expressions look annoyed as it is.

"You really you can run from me, huh?" She scoffs nearing me.

"Why haven't you told her about this?" She gestured around the main house. Directly jumping on the point, I see.

"Can we talk later about this?" I draw tiredly.

"No. We cannot." She snapped.

"Tell me." she prompted, shaking my shoulder.

"I..." I try to form an excuse, but just sigh tiredly leaning against my car, "I don't know what to say to her alright, it's just that... I don't know maybe she might judge all this..and she might see me as a bad guy." I voice out my thoughts.

"Well it depends on you how you tell her, and how she understands, you can make her understand Farhan, I know that, but you don't even put slightest bit of effort." She says, "Being a woman, I can assure you, if you say her the truth by yourself, she will definitely understand you and support you, no matter what."

"How can you say that?" I scoff,

A small mocking smile formed on her face,

"Well for one, I know you since college, I know if you want to do something you are amended to do it, and if you don't want, you don't even put your efforts in it. And for two, A woman is never wrong with her intuition, specially about another woman. Trust me this logic always wins."

I raised an eyebrow at her, partly impressed.

"Look Farhan, I don't know your reasons for not telling her, she seems a sweetheart to me, but I don't know how are things between you both, you better know it, Being your friend for a long time I am advising you this, you can atleast share your stress with her, I saw that face of yours full of stress tonight, don't even deny it." she points her finger on me, "See this is what a marriage is, a life partner is, to share your happiness, pain, stress, your best friend."

"I think you and your husband should write a blog about married life." I chuckle pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Damn right we should. Now listen, I know all of this because I was with you guys since start, and even if I didn't knew I would have make it spur of Bilal's mouth somehow, about this side business." she rolled her eyes,

"Poor guy." I mutter.

"No uh." She chuckles, "You men are not poor you all are idiots, big ones, who think hiding things from their wives will make them superior, but no, you all underestimate the love and support of a woman."

Hajra punches my arm before I could respond and I wince moving away from her,

"Ouch woman, punch your husband all you want not me."

She punches me again.

"Alright, stop." I say stepping away. Hajra chuckles before attempting to do again but I dodge her.

"Your hands are pretty strong." I say eyeing her hands formed in a fist.

"It got stronger by practicing on you all." she says flexing her wrist.

"Hajr, Come on now leave the poor man alone." Bilal hollered from his car.

"Anyway," she ignored her husband and turned to me, pointing her index finger to me while walking backwards to her car. "Try it. No actually do it." she says before jogging back to her car.

Rolling my eyes I got in my car and drove away from the gate after messaging Yousuf to wrap up the necessary stuff for today.

Reaching my house, I parked my car at the garage and entered inside the house through the garage door,

As I was passing through the living room, I double check, spotting someone curled on the couch.

Shifting blazer to my other hand, I walked towards the couch, looking at my wife sleeping on it.

Chuckling softly I look at her hand wrapped around her phone, even in her sleep.

Last week when I gave her the phone, the smile she gave....I think I never in my life witnessed something so...cute?

I mean people smile, my office employees do, the neighbours do, but the smile on her face? I would do anything to make her smile like that.

It's weird, but somehow I like it.

I lifted my hand to move the stray strand of her hair away from her face, as soon as I touched it, her eyes fluttered open, two seconds pass and she gasps, looking around wide eyed, I moved my hand away and stepped back from her.

Noticing it's me she took a calming breath sitting up, tucking those strands behind her ears.

Not to look like a creep, I glanced at my watch,

"What are you doing here, at this time?"

"You were late." She says looking up at me.

I raise an eyebrow, waiting for her to say more,

"I...I thought to wait for you." She says looking at her lap, her fingers picking up the loose skin around her nails, a nervous habit.

Wait for me?

"But why?" I asked,

"I was worried for you." She says slowly, not making eye contact with me.

She was waiting for me? I don't know how to explain the tinge of discomfort in my heart when she said she was worried for me.

"You are never late, that's why." She says, the dim light of the living room, reflect in her eyes, showing the concern she had for me.

"But I told amma, I would be late and told her not to wait for me and inform you too." I ask remembering texting my mom before leaving my office, and if not today's Hasnain's chaos, was a meeting scheduled at the main house.

"But mama told me no..." she trails off, realisation dawning on her face, she probably zoned out.

"Why did you worked extra late today?" She asks changing the topic.

"Had some business to complete." I replied curtly, suddenly not knowing how to cover up. My best cover up is always being distant, cold. But now it doesn't....feel right.

Is it Hajra's words?

When I got no reply, I looked at my wife to see her gazing at me from top to bottom, I think she doesn't know but she has her eyebrows raised, as if she is impressed by what she is looking.

I suppressed a full blown smirk. Am I...being checked out?

It is when she makes an eye contact, she snaps her mouth shut, her cheeks rushing with blood. Hastily she gets up from her seat and picks up an empty cup from the coffee table before walking past me.

"Ayesha." I called her out,

"Ji?" She asks looking over her shoulder, [yes?]

"Can you make me a cup of tea? Like you did last time?" I asked,

She turned towards me, with an amused look on her face, "Tea?" She asks biting her lips in a smile.

I nod scratching the back of my neck awkwardly.

"I thought you didn't liked tea?" I could hear the amusement from her voice.

"I didn't said I don't like tea, I just prefer coffee more, but right now I really want to have that tea of yours on this freezing night, am I asking too much?" I shrug matching her tone.

She smiled but before saying she will bring it upstairs, nodding at her I went upstairs to my room, and changed my clothes.

On habit, I walk to the balcony and take out the cigarette pack from the empty pot, where I keep it.

After lighting my cigarette, I took a puff from it, leaning against the balcony rail. I notice quite a few new plants, which were not here previously.

Taking another puff, I watch the smoke disappear in the mist of the night sky, I absolutely hate my addiction to cigarettes. It makes me so vulnerable and dependent to take my stress off, I hate it and I can't help it.

When I was in college, and when my brother caught me with a pack of cigarettes in my bag, after the slap I got, I never touched cigarettes again. But after my brother passed away, I totally relied on it, thinking that something connected to him will bring some sort of comfort, but all it brought was addiction.

Few weeks ago, I heard Ayesha talking to the house help, how she despises the people who has addiction, she also said that it's not something they did because they have to, but because they choose to. Choose to destroy their life, their loved ones.

And after a long time, I was ashamed of my choices. Because no matter the world would say to me, I don't want her to hate me for my actions and choices.

One of the reasons I don't want her to know about my other business. No matter what Hajra's says, I don't think I would ever want her to judge me, despise me.

Because with her, now I see a hope.

A hope for something missing in my heart.

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A/N:-

I know I know I did it again. Broke my well maintained one update a week streak.

But anyway, how was it?

If you see any mistake, or typo anywhere in this chapter or any other future chapter, please feel free to correct it in the comments to let me know.

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