Chapter 110: The Dreaded Phone Call

She had gone to the washroom to take a shower when her phone rang with an unknown

number. The phone was placed beside Amna, who was reading a book.

She frowned upon seeing Sheharzaad's phone ringing with an unsaved number. She

wondered who was disturbing her at this point.

"Sheharzaad! Someone is calling," she called in a loud voice. Sheharzaad couldn't seem to

listen when Amna called her out again.

"Sheharzaad!"

"What happened Amna?" Sheharzaad answered, nearing to the door of the restroom.

"Someone is calling. Shall I pick up?" Amna asked, holding her cell phone, going through the

screen and read the number.

"Who?" she asked from inside the washroom.

"Unknown number,"

"What are you saying Amna?"

"It is some unknown number! Shall I pick up?!"

"I'm coming, Amna. Just two minutes. You can pick it and ask them to hold on. It might be

important," Sheharzaad said, so Amna picked up the call.

"Hello. Assalam alaikum. Kon?" Amna asked, with a frown.

(Greetings. Who?)

"Where is Sheharzaad?" the man asked from the other side. His voice was quiet, dark,

sending her heart racing. She was scared the moment she heard his voice. She didn’t want to

think who it was. She hadn’t heard his voice before, but there was something malicious

about it that hinted at the terror of the man she'd heard so much about—the cause of their

misery. Shoving her thoughts aside, she asked the caller.

"Who is speaking?"

And she heard him chuckle. Her frown deepened.

"I'm surprised. She deleted the number of her fiancé," the sentence alone caused the phone

to drop from Amna's hands as she crawled away from the bed and lunged towards the

washroom door, lightly knocking on it.

"Sheharzaad! Sheharzaad!" Amna called out. Her confused mind couldn't understand what

to do next, so she picked up the phone again and placed it to her ear.

"She-she-she is n-not at h-h-home." Never in her life had Amna stuttered so badly as she

was doing now.

Amna heard the tick of a lighter on the other side of the phone, and she knew then he was

smoking. After a moment, in which she assumed he was puffing the smoke out of his mouth,

he spoke, "I have my men stationed outside. They told me she is at home. Isn't it...I guess she

has learned to lie," he said with a smirk.

"Amna," he said her name, and thankfully, on cue, Sheharzaad appeared from the

washroom. Amna signaled with her eyes that it was him. Sheharzaad's eyes narrowed, and

then the truth dawned on her. Her worst nightmare. Why was he calling her? Had he found

out about her? These thoughts clouded her mind, blurring her ability to think clearly. Her

body was shivering, and Amna could see Sheharzaad's face paling, which paled Amna

further. She was scared for her, for their lives.

"Oh. So... you're Amna," she heard him mutter, meanwhile taking another puff.

"Yes, I'm Amna, and sh-she is not at home," Amna quickly said and abruptly ended the call

before throwing the phone away.

"I don't know what I've done, Shehar, I couldn’t understand what to say, I could not talk to

him," Amna said as soon as the phone was cut off. Even Sheharzaad looked confused.

"He...he is scary."

They both suddenly started when the phone began ringing again. They both knew it was

him. Both had started to sweat profusely.

"I will pick it up, Shehar."

"No. I will handle it," Sheharzaad assured her and proceeded to take the call, a scary thought

running in the back of her head.

Why was he calling? What if he knew?

"Assalam alaikum," she uttered.

"Wsalam, Sheharzaad. Wsalam," he muttered, and her heart pounded incessantly in her

ears. There was something off about him. His voice was calm but dark, enough to send

shivers down her spine. Her mind started filling with thoughts of the punishment he might

give her if she was caught.

"Planning to run away, eh?" he asked, and she tightly gripped the phone to her ear. She felt

the ground slipping beneath her feet. A flash of dizziness passed through her head.

"No. Why?" was her abrupt, calculated response. She tried to control her stuttering.

"I've been informed of your recent activities."

"What activities?" This time it was a whisper. A whisper of shock. She asked the Heavens to

guide and protect her.

"Don't you know? Hmm?"

"Ohhh, that," she tried to act as if she recalled something. "Actually...I...I forgot to tell you

that Ahmed Bhai and Amna...they are getting m-married and...so...so this is why," she

explained. She was trying to hold her confidence and sound carefree, though internally, she

was imagining the worst scenarios.

"Oh. So your brother is getting married?" he pressed on the word brother, and Ahmed's fake

proposal came to her mind. She didn't say anything.

"Nevertheless, I hope you are not going anywhere," Shehryaar mentioned, and her heart

skipped a beat. Danger bells began to ring within her. Within seconds, her face paled. Her

subconscious mind alarmed her that he knew something. And even if he didn’t know about

her escape plans, he might be suspicious of her.

She closed her eyes, attributing what her subconscious told her to overthinking. She knew

her mind had become like that—abnormally fearful of him.

"No. No. I'm not."

"Good. Good, Sheharzaad, or in case you are entertaining other plans, then I won't hesitate

to break your legs. But before that, I would definitely need to do something with your pretty

head that entertained the idea of going away from me," he just heard her ragged breathing

from the other side of the phone, which confirmed his suspicions. His little lady was

brewing some plan in her mind. Let's see where it takes her. "Best of luck," he said and hung

up. The cigarette he had lit was thrown under his shoe and crushed as he walked inside the

haveli.

He would go back tomorrow as the wedding festivities were over. But before that, he

needed to handle some issues.