Chapter 40: Defiance

This time, her face snapped to the left as he slapped her on the other side.

"You want to know more?" he cocked his brow, rage emanating from his form as he took

heavy breaths.

She turned her head to him, looked into his eyes, and nodded as the tears continued gushing

out, but still, she gave him a nod.

"Fine then," he released her hair, took out the blade from his holster, and threw it on the

table.

"NAWAZ!" he called out loudly, and the man came running down, this time with double the

speed, his hands crossed as he looked down, appearing troubled.

"Yes, sir?" he asked breathlessly.

"Bring that bastard here!"

"Yes, sir," he quickly nodded and ran out of the room.

Shehryaar waited for his men to arrive, taking deep breaths. Anger clouded his senses, and

he felt he would do something terrible as he began rolling up his sleeves, revealing his arms.

When he glanced at her, she pushed herself further away, whimpering.

Sweat formed on her forehead as the anticipation made her heart feel physical pain. She

thought she had made a mistake. She shouldn’t have reacted that way. It wasn’t the right

way, and now, she was becoming extremely anxious.

Soon, some men filled the room with a third man, who was in chains and blindfolded. They

made him kneel in front of Shehryaar, who then ordered all his men to leave, save for one.

With only four of them in the room—Shehryaar, her, the chained man, and one of his men—

Shehryaar proceeded to remove the blindfold from the man's eyes. As soon as the blindfold

was removed, the man looked up, only to find himself kneeling in front of Shehryaar. He

immediately looked down.

"Sire," he muttered.

"Shigri," Shehryaar said.

"Master," Shigri uttered, "forgive me."

"No forgiveness for you. Forget that."

"Please, master! Where would I go?"

"Does it look like I care? Tell me why you killed the minister when I asked you to just kidnap

him."

"Master, I did it by mistake."

"LIE!" Shehryaar shouted, raising his hand before delivering a hard slap that caused Shigri

to fall to the floor.

Sheharzaad, watching him deliver such a harsh slap to the poor man, almost shrieked when

his deadly eyes landed on hers, and she gulped down the sound caught in her throat.

"Get up!" he commanded, and Shigri knelt back up.

He gripped Shigri’s jaw, forcing him to look up.

"You did it on somebody's orders. You knew I needed the minister."

"Master, please! I didn’t!"

This time, Shehryaar punched him, dislocating his jaw. Shigri cried out in pain.

"Is it Khurram Osmani?" Shehryaar asked, but Shigri could barely speak because of his

twisted jaw.

"I d-don't kn-know," he replied with difficulty, only to receive another punch to his jaw.

"Give me your knife," Shehryaar extended his hand, and his serviceman immediately placed

the knife in it.

"Tell me, on whose orders did you act?" he demanded, tracing the knife from Shigri's

forehead to his jaw, leaving a trail of blood where the blade pierced his skin.

Sheharzaad shrieked, closing her eyes and covering her face with her hands.

"Bring his jaw back into position," he commanded his serviceman as he turned toward

Sheharzaad.

She shouted when he suddenly took her hands away from her eyes.

"You are not even allowed to blink, Sheharzaad. Look at the scene I want you to see, and

know that your turn will come as well," he whispered. "Now don’t cover your eyes with

these pretty little hands. I have that blade lying there for you already," he hissed, making

her breathless and anxious, sobs building up in her throat.

He turned back to Shigri, who was wailing in pain.

"Shigri!" he called, "are you going to tell the truth or not?"

"I will, master," Shigri cried out. The two punches were enough for him to realize what

would happen if he didn’t.

"It’s not Khurram Osmani. Minister Afendi has no connection with the dg consignment

your brother is shipping."

"Then who is it?"

"Someone else," Shigri cried out. "He asked me to kill MNA Afendi as he had my family in his

custody. I received a video."

"Why didn’t you come to me?"

"I was afraid, sire. I thought you would think I was involved—"

"You don’t sit in my fucking brain," he sneered.

"I'm sorry, master. I was afraid. I would never make the same mistake again."

"What else do you know?"

"Master...I don’t know much. I just received a call to kill the minister."

Shehryaar contemplated for a second before speaking again, "Who else knew I gave you this

order?"

"No one, sir. I didn’t tell anyone."

"You did. You certainly did."

"I didn't, sir, I swear."

"I'll sort that out. Now, to address your betrayal and violation of the mafia code," he said,

pulling out a gun from his holster and pointing it at Shigri.

"No, sire! Please no!" Shigri begged.

"Thank God I'm not torturing you to death."

And Shigri fell like a sack of potatoes to the floor as the bullet penetrated his forehead.

Sheharzaad screamed so loudly he was sure half the neighborhood would have woken up.

The gun was silenced, so it didn’t make much noise.

He quickly placed a finger on her lips.

"Shhh..." he hushed, signaling her to be quiet, and she silenced herself, sobbing silently as

she looked at him, trembling.

"Take him away," he ordered his man, and soon Shigri’s body was taken away, leaving the

two of them alone in the room.

"Please! Please!hiccupplease!" she cried out, clasping her hands in front of him. She didn’t

know what else to say, and the only word coming to mind was "please."

"Please what?" he asked, tossing his gun onto the bed, making her shrink away from it.

"Pleasesobplease! Please!" she cried hysterically, unable to breathe properly. Her face had

turned red from not breathing between sobs.

"Quiet. Stop crying. Quiet now," he ordered, and she began taking deep breaths to quiet

herself. She tried to stifle her sobs with deep breaths, but each hiccup shook her form. Her

mind was erratic, wild, and disorganized. She couldn't process what had just happened. As

she struggled to control her sobs but failed, she began crying out of fear, realizing she

couldn’t quiet herself as he’d commanded. Her hands began to shake badly. In an attempt to

suppress the convulsive gasps, she drank water. Her eyes glanced fearfully at him as her

trembling hands poured the water. She drank it greedily, but suddenly felt nauseous,

rushing to the washroom to vomit.