Chapter 184: Trapped

Her beige-colored attire was placed beside her as she was now in her everyday clothes. The

night had sprawled in the sky. Her wet hair indicated the shower she had just taken.

That shower was essential to relax her strained muscles after another hectic day of the

walima ceremony. The walima was held after a one-day gap.

There were still some guests in the haveli who had accompanied them to the haveli from the

wedding hall. They included some of her husband's friends, along with family confidants

and some relatives.

All day, a nervousness had again kept her occupied. But after coming from the ceremony, it

transformed into an immense fear. Her heart had been beating out of its rhythm since then.

During the whole ceremony, she tried to maintain a distance from Shehryaar, especially

after what happened that night. Not being able to fulfill her duty towards him had created a

subtle sense of panic inside her, which was slowly rising within her system. She was trying

to ignore that panic, suppress that alarm, but the more she suppressed, the more it grew.

The voice in her head, which had become so active since she had been out of the cell, told

her that the moment Shehryaar addressed her behavior, she would be done. He had not yet

exactly taken any action regarding it, nor punished her, neither questioned her about what

she did last night. And her mind was already preparing answers for it.

All that she could think of was that her reaction occurred spontaneously. She was ready to

fulfill her wifely duties and keep aside the fear, but the intimate moments they shared in the

car, after that, her mind had been continuously recalling the night she spent in his office. As

if a switch had been turned on. And she was locked in those events, in that night when he

was approaching her.

And after that, she had been trying to create a space between them as subtly as she could to

reduce the unwell feeling which would choke her throat with fear whenever he would be

near her. Just like today, in the ceremony, when they both were sitting together, she created

a little space between them by slightly sliding away from him, implicating that she was

fixing her dress. And the other time, he held her hand casually while he was on his phone

talking to someone as they walked around the backyard of the place, which was also lit up

and crowded with guests. She instantly began to cough and looked at the table where there

was a bottle of water, pointed at it while coughing before releasing her hand from his grip

and walking away. With her peripheral vision, she stared at him and did not go back to him

until he himself approached her. His eyes, as soon as they connected with hers, got intense,

and she instantly looked toward the ground, tilting her head down. Praying internally that

someone would show up and he wouldn't get the chance to get close to her.

And her prayers were answered, but in such a way that had her eyes bulging out of her

sockets.

Someone showed up.

Someone she least expected to show up.

"Assalam alaikum," he greeted Shehryaar, forwarding his hand, which he shook.

"Meet my wife," Shehryaar said, and when her grey eyes connected with his blue ones, the

ground began to slowly slip beneath her feet.

"My new business partner, Mr. Wali Khan," This was his introduction.

"Not partner yet, Mr. Shehryaar, just an associate," the man said, slightly laughing to himself

and drifting his attention towards Sheharzaad.

Her face had paled, but she tried her best to suppress those colors.

"Nice to meet you," he said to her, and as if her tongue had tied, she just nodded her head in

acknowledgment. She excused herself, claiming she had not been feeling well, and walked

away.

After that, she just had one single eye contact with him, and he subtly nodded his head to

her as if conveying something.

Was she still on the mission?

In the mission of sabotaging Shehryaar.

Who was now her husband.

'Never tell about the meeting you had with me to Shehryaar. Ever,'

Her mind recalled the one note he had sent to her in the cell. And she skipped him out of all

the truths that she had uttered to Shehryaar when he investigated the whole story. Before

her mental abuse had begun, she deliberately skipped Hannan out of it while keeping Wali

out of the story. Yet, after her mental state had been crumbled, she told him all the truth on

her own, even included the meetings she had with Hannan in her statement, but still, she

kept Wali out of it.

Upon reaching home, she told everyone that she was tired and went to her room while the

family was busy dealing with the guests.

Her eyes were so focused, looking at the bedsheet while her brain was immersed in the

thoughts and questions arising in her mind. Her brows furrowed, lips forming a line, and

lashes not blinking. Her brain, which was hyperactive and nested in a figuring-out phase,

heard someone heading towards the room.

She thought it was Shehryaar, so instantly, she laid down on the bed and pretended as if she

had slept.

The door to her room opened, and her eyes followed the movements of the steps. Someone

came and stood in front of her.

"Madam,"

She internally took a breath of relief.

It was a maid.

She didn't respond and continued the act of sleeping.

The maid tried to wake her up once more, but she didn't, and then left. As soon as the door

was closed, her emerald-grey eyes opened and stared at the window quietly. Through the

window, the moon stared back at her, and the stars glimmered around it. While counting

the stars, she didn't realize the sleeping pills she had taken began to take control over her

system, and she slept.

She had taken those pills purposely to avoid Shehryaar. Because she knew she would act

differently around Shehryaar after meeting Wali, and he knew her like the back of his hand.

He would guess that something was off about her. And if he got to the root of that, then God

knows what he would do this time with her. Also, one reason she was trying to suppress

within her, due to which she had been avoiding Shehryaar, was to avoid any sort of intimacy

between them.

Because whenever he would get close, that one night stand would hit her in her mind. And

she was worried that if it instigated an irrational response out of her around him, then he

might get angry. And she was so scared of it.

She didn't want him to realize that she had been trying to avoid him.