Chapter 18
Winds of change
Arzoo's heart was pounding heavily with a multitude of emotions as she walked out of the interrogation room with Sahir and ACP Rathod, after giving her statement. For the most part, she could not bring herself to believe that it had been so easy after all.
It seemed too good to be true, and she was on tenterhooks, expecting that something horrific would happen, something that would cause those tiny burgeoning hopes of hers to fall flat on their faces, with an earth-shattering finality. Overcome with a sudden fear, her feet almost stopped in their tracks, as though paralysed, but she chose the moment to steal a glance at Sahir, and found that he was looking at her too. And in that moment, as she beheld that sense of unhesitating determination etched on his face, she felt her heart glow with gratitude.
She realised that he had perhaps never averted his eyes away from her. Throughout the time when she had been giving her statement to ACP Rathod, he had been looking at her, silently. He was poker-faced, but his eyes, as always, gave it all away. At times his eyes misted over with the slight glimmer of unshed tears; at times they became bloodshot and quivered in their sockets with suppressed rage; at times they shone with something resembling pride... but they never left her. And strangely, the steadfastness of his gaze upon her, felt physically comforting, in the way that being held in his embrace had felt.
They had reached the waiting room of the police station. Shiraz was there, his eyes widening with shock and confusion, flitting from side to side, as he tried to understand what was happening.
"It's over, Shiraz," Arzoo said, her eyes spitting fire, "I have given my statement to the police. I am not scared of you. There comes a point when one has lived in fear for so long, that the very idea of fear becomes repugnant. But I think you should definitely be scared now."
"How dare you?" Shiraz muttered through gritted teeth, almost inaudibly, as every muscle of his body seemed to shake with rabid fury.
ACP Rathod read over the charges to Shiraz - extortion, assault, assault in attempt to wrongfully confine a person, abduction and criminal intimidation - and informed him that he was under arrest.
And for the first time, Arzoo saw Shiraz's spectacular show of rugged virility give way to the vulnerability of a cornered, defenceless animal - just as she once was. She felt, as she saw the way the tables had turned, as though an infernal weight that had held her breaths captive had lifted itself. Every time that she had debased herself in apologising for the flaws that he saw in her, every moment of her former weakness and gullibility that he had savoured and taken advantage of... every one of those haunting memories came back to her, but they were slowly being vindicated of some of the pain that were wound up in them.
But Shiraz had never been one to accept that he could be anything other than invincible, and in an extraordinary display of sudden vigour, he shoved away the constables around him, and lunged towards Arzoo.
And just as swiftly, Sahir had placed himself between Shiraz and Arzoo, like an indomitable shield, causing Shiraz to stumble in his somewhat.
"Find yourself a good lawyer, Shiraz Ahmed," Sahir said, slowly and deliberately, the threat in his tone unmistakeable, "And tell them that they will be up against Sahir Azeem Chaudhary. My reputation will most probably have preceded me."
"So now you are her... lawyer?" Shiraz spat out in disgust, "From lover to lawyer! I wonder who pays whom? Mind you, don't let her rip you off. From what I know of her, she would throw herself in a bed with anything that moves."
Arzoo hardly felt the sting of his words, for such venom was only to be expected from people like Shiraz, and she had heard far worse. But Sahir's jaw had clenched, and his hands had balled into fists so tight that his knuckles were becoming white. She was standing behind Sahir's shoulder, but even from where she was, she could sense that his nostrils were flaring dangerously, and his eyes were flashing with fiery anger.
"Does that make you want to hit me?" Sahir breathed, his voice sounding laboured with the effort he was making at restraining himself, "I take it that's a yes. Hmm, too bad we are at a police station, and you can't do anything."
Shiraz did not need any further provocation, and in the blink of an eye, before anyone could react, he threw a punch at Sahir's face. ACP Rathod and the other officers immediately rushed forward.
But Sahir raised his hand to stop them from intervening, and he struck Shiraz with a sharp blow to his jaw that seemed to knock Shiraz out for a millisecond. And in that millisecond, Sahir had grabbed the back of Shiraz's head and forced it forward to ram against his knee with a crunching sound. Shiraz faltered backwards, his eyes unfocused, and Sahir yanked him by the collar and sent him crashing against the wall.
Shiraz's body crumbled to the ground, and he stared, in shock, at the small dark red pool on the floor which was steadily swelling as blood continued to drip heavily from his broken nose.
"See now," Sahir smirked, going to him, "You hit me first, so when I hit you back, it became self-defence. And thank you, for giving six police officers what they need to testify about your violent disposition. It will come in handy for Arzoo's domestic violence case so we can easily get a restraining order against you. In the legal circle, they call me Shark. Go figure."
Sahir turned towards Arzoo, his lips curved into a small wink of a smile, and for some reason, she felt her face flush to a flaming shade of crimson.
"Arzoo," Shiraz called feebly as he was handcuffed by the constable, "We were married, and I still believe in the bond between us. I don't understand why you are doing this. I love -"
"No," she interjected, "Don't call it love. That poison that you tainted my life with, cannot be love. You destroyed everything that I had, my relationship with my family, my self-respect, everything. I always made compromises... and you always exploited what you saw as my weakness. But it's over now. You cannot win anymore. So don't even bother with the mind games."
And she walked out of the police station with bitter wrath blazing through her veins. Amongst the worst things that Shiraz could possibly have done to her, was the fact that he managed to make her feel guilty and ashamed for not being a good wife to him... An impression that he had even convinced her parents with, causing her to live in self-doubt for so long. But she had not failed as a wife. He had failed, as a husband, a friend, a human being. Every minute that she spent with Sahir only made it more and more obvious.
Once outside, she turned towards Sahir, frowning, and asked, "Why did you allow him to hit you?"
There was a small bruise deepening in colour below his left eye, which was not helping at all in appeasing her anger.
"I had a message to send," he replied simply.
She rolled her eyes in response, "Yes I know, intimidation tactics. You are the great Sahir Azeem Chaudhary, big shot laywer, bla bla bla. But..."
Her eyes filled with helpless tears as she reached out to gingerly touch the bruise, and the rest of her words were engulfed away by emotions, before she could utter them.
"That was not the message," he replied, choking up ever so slightly, "The message was that he will pay for every tear that you have shed on his account, for every time that he dared to raise his hand on you. I will drag him to hell myself if I have to."
"Why?" she asked, as her heart thumped violently against her rib cage, drowning out every other sound from around them. She did not know what answer she was expecting to hear, why her breaths had been knocked out of her in anticipation of what was to follow... but somehow, inexplicably, the whole world seemed to stand still in that moment, waiting.
But the words that his eyes had begun to convey did not reach his lips. His eyelids blinked lightly a few times, in the way that they always did when he held himself back from expressing emotions that lay stifled somewhere within him.
His gaze had shifted away from her eyes, and had affixed itself to a spot near her the top of her head as he said, with a shadow of a shrug, "For the same reason that you were trying to protect me from him, I guess. It's what... friends do."
Arzoo smiled an insincere smile, and changed the subject so that her disappointment would not come across to him. She was not even sure why she was disappointed at all, but it was a strangely overwhelming feeling whose existence she could not deny, even though she forced herself to remember how Sahir had gone out of his way to stand by her and support her in a manner that nobody ever had. It was ungrateful on her part to expect anything more from Sahir. But she did.
Her heart yearned painfully for him to embrace her once again, for his arms to wrap against her body protectively, for her hands to trace out the outline of the muscles on his back, for his warm breath to tickle her ears with words of comfort, and love.
But for some reason, he felt distant to her. Something had changed, most definitely so. He was considerate and caring, asking her if she wanted to eat, reassuring her that Shiraz would be dealt with severely... but there was an odd sense of formality about it all, that she had either missed earlier, or that had just abruptly crept in between them a few moments ago.
She reasoned that Sahir always had been somewhat stiffly bound to the rules of decorum and propriety. And perhaps the few times that he had let go and breached the physical distances between them had been transgressions that he had only allowed himself in circumstances where one of them had been overwhelmed with emotion. It was true that there was nothing in that moment, as he was driving her to his apartment, that would justify him reaching out to hold her hand or to show affection towards her in any other way.
And yet, as laughably irrational as her unease was, she felt the pieces of her broken heart sting in her eyes all the same, as she struggled to hold her smile and pretend that everything was okay. Because, truly, everything was okay. Why could her stupid heart not accept that?
"There's a surprise for you," Sahir said, as he rang the bell outside his apartment door.
Waiting for her on the other side of the door, was none other than Zaki! In the midst of everything that had happened, she had completely forgotten that Sahir had mentioned meeting Zaki at some point. She had been meaning to ask Sahir when and where and how, but it had eventually slipped off her mind completely. And there he was, her Zaki - just as bright and breezy and upbeat as ever. It had been so long since she had seen him, so much had happened, so many distances had crept in between them, and yet it seemed that they could pick up right where they had left off. Nothing had changed.
She turned towards Sahir, delighted, and thanked him warmly.
Her happiness was mirrored in his face, but his eyes remained as sad and withdrawn as they had been earlier. For some reason, she felt, he was holding himself back. She could somehow sense, from the palpable tension in his throat, the emotions and thoughts that were conflicting and clashing with one another within him.
She wanted to say something, to ease him out of whatever it was that was troubling him, but what could she possibly say? If he had been angry at her, she would have retaliated or apologised. But he was just... distant. Before she could figure it out, Sahir excused himself, as polite as ever, saying that he had a lot of work pending at the office and would probably have to spend the night there, but that Arzoo and Zaki could stay at his apartment as long as they wanted to.
"And Zaki," Sahir said, as he turned to leave, his face suddenly darkening with concern, "Please drop Arzoo to her apartment yourself. It is... not safe... to travel alone."
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