Sadqay Humare.

Twelve.

When Aaina tells Zaydaan that she's pregnant and his reaction isn't what she hoped it would be.

She was sprawled all over the couch, grinning to herself as she read her doctor's message over and over again. She was so unbelievably happy. Happy to an extent where she just wanted to jump on her husband and yell it out.

She thought about how ecstatic it would feel to tell him. They had been trying for weeks now and it had finally happened.

She was finally pregnant.

She was going to be a mother. How crazy was that? Years ago, she couldn't even imagine him loving her back and now here she was, bearing his child.

Her grin widened even further as Zaydaan got out of the shower, freshly shaved.

She liked him better with a beard but he was just into a no beard look these days. She bit her lip, eyes dancing with happiness as she looked at him.

He stared at her confused but her contagious grin got him to smile too. He sat on the bed, opening the side drawer and taking out some hand lotion.

"You want to go somewhere this weekend? I'm free on Sunday." He questioned, rubbing the lotion over his hands.

Aaina put a hand on her chin, positioning herself so she could look at him properly.

"Finally taking out time for your wife? What?" She said with a sarcastic tone, he rolled his eyes at her.

"Put your sarcasm away." He warned but couldn't help but smile again as he saw how happy she seemed today.

What was up with her? No one was supposed to look this happy without a reason!

"Fine. It'd be nice to be away for a while. Maybe we can go to the attabad lake that you keep talking about." Aaina replied, Zaydaan nodded eagerly.

Attabad lake was a lake in Hunza, formed due to a natural disaster. It was turned into a beautiful tourism place and since the Prime Minister was a huge advocate of promoting the northern areas of Pakistan, he liked the idea instantly.

"Yes. They have turned that place around. We can go there." He affirmed.

"Okay."

She contemplated on how to tell him.

Zaydaan, I'm pregnant.

You're gonna be a father.

Hey, guess what finally happened?

Do you know I have a child in my stomach now?

I'm preggo, baby.

Ew.

Why did it all sound so awkward? She thought of all the ways she could say it but every line got her to think more and more.

She simply decided to be casual and let him understand on his own.

"Is it going to be cold there?" She asked him, sitting up on the couch as she put her cell phone away.

Zaydaan just shrugged at her question.

"Not too much, why?" She liked cold. Infact, she always felt the heat more than it usually was.

She let out a sigh and stood up. She sat beside him, putting her head on his shoulder as she spoke next.

"I was just wondering if it's fine for pregnant women to stay in cold places." She mumbled but it was quite audible.

She waited for a gasp or a shocked what. But all there was, it was silence. She didn't lift her head up, instead she just gulped in nervousness.

Finally, she felt his movement and heard his voice next.

"Okay. Ask your doctor then." He replied.

She looked up to see him, see his face, if he looked happy.

He looked satisfied but he didn't look happy. Then again, when did Zaydaan ever look happy so casually.

She was confused. Did he not understand what she had really said or was he just shocked maybe?

"That's it?" She questioned, frowning at him.

"What?"

"I just told you I'm pregnant, Zaydaan." She said out loud, waiting for him to maybe, react now.

Zaydaan only nodded.

"Okay, Aaina. I heard you. We've been trying for a while now." He said it like it was just so normal, like it didn't make any difference.

Aaina couldn't help but stand up.

"What even was that reaction? Who says okay?!" She exclaimed, showing her upset.

He clicked his tongue, pulling at her hand as he kissed the palm of it. He kissed her palm one more time and smiled at her.

"Congratulations. We're going to be parents." He softly said, congratulating her.

It didn't satisfy her at all though. Why couldn't he react like normal people do? Was he not happy?

"Oh God." She murmured to her own self.

"What now? Didn't you want this?" He questioned, standing up. As he towered over her, Aaina wondered if he was having second thoughts about a child. If he was even happy.

"Are you happy?" She enquired, Zaydaan frowned.

"Why wouldn't I be? I wanted a child as much as you did." He replied in an instant, without any hesitation.

"Then why did you say okay?" She asked back.

"Because it's not here yet, Aaina. It's life. I am glad that you're pregnant and you have to take care of yourself but there's still a long way to go."

"What did you expect me to react like? Should I have jumped up and down?" He added, chuckling.

"No but you could have shown signs of happiness." She argued.

He thought she was just being dramatic. She knew him so well, how did she expect him to react? 

He let out a sigh, hands on her waist as he pulled her closer. He placed a kiss on top of her head.

"I am happy. You make me very happy, with or without the baby." He whispered to her, voice so low that it felt almost sinful for anyone else to ever hear him.

"When did you find out?" He asked as he felt her smile.

"Just a while ago." She answered.

The Prime Minister nodded.

"Don't tell it to anyone else, I don't want this news to be plastered all over the media." He said it in his typical Zaydaan voice.

"I know."

He knew she still wasn't a hundred percent convinced and he didn't want her to feel upset after giving him a news that would change both their lives in the future. For the Better.

"Aaina.." He called her name just like he always did. Like it was his to take.

"Look, I can't express my happiness like people usually do. But trust me, I'm very happy. You'll be a mother and I'll be a father. We'll be a family. It's a great news." He explained, she gulped and nodded.

"Okay." She whispered.

"Now you're saying okay?" He teased. She nodded.

"Yeah, okay." This time, she was just enjoying the way he was trying to make her believe that he was so happy, that she didn't have to worry.

She bit her lip, looking down..feeling him sigh.

"Tell me." He said in a low tone.

Aaina looked at him, smiling on the inside as she spoke.

"Sometimes, when you react this way..i just feel like maybe you're not happy with me anymore, like you're just-" He interrupted her before she could even finish, baffled that she could even think this way.

"If I wasn't happy with you, I would say it out loud. You can't think this way. You know I love you." He put his hand on her cheek and she stared at him.

"Tum meri jaan ho, Aaina." He assured to her.

She inhaled a deep breath. Those words always had such an affect on her. The first time he had said the same words to her, she had almost felt like she couldn't breathe. And the feeling still hadn't changed.

To be known as someone's life, it was overwhelming.

"Okay."

She replied, not knowing what else to say. She gave him her very beautiful soft smile. The one where her eyes shone and her cheeks got red.

"Phir se okay?" He teased her, cupping her face.

She laughed.

"Yeah, okay." She repeated.

And all was truly okay in their world.

------

Aaina.

As she put Zayla to sleep after an hour of dealing with her tantrums and stubbornness that she had inherited from her father, Aaina decided it was time to go and talk to her mother.

She looked at Zayla once again, finding her asleep as spongebob and Patrick bonded in the television screen placed in front of them.

She switched the television off, turning on the lamp and standing up.

She glanced at her daughter one last time before exiting her bedroom. It was almost ten at night and she still hadn't eaten her dinner. She figured she would eat it with Zaydaan since he repeatedly told her that he would be home soon tonight. He wouldn't be, ofcourse. A text from Sami bhai told her that the Prime Minister had just welcomed the ISI chief into his office, which meant..more and more meetings.

She turned around from the other side of her living area, using the short cut to reach her mother's room.

She knocked before opening the door, finding her mother typing something on the laptop. Finding Aaina at the door, her mother put the laptop away and looked at Aaina.

"Mama, can I come in?" She asked, waiting for her mother's permission. Her mother nodded eagerly, sitting up properly.

"Ofcourse,"

She entered the room, sitting by her mother's side.

"How are you feeling?" She greeted with a question. A soft smile on her mother's face reminded her of how much she truly resembled her.

You couldn't see the resemblence easily but once she smiled, her cheeks and lips and chin, it was all just like Aaina. Aaina truly looked like her mother when she smiled.

"I'm feeling better, I met a few of my old friends today. It was nice." Her mother replied, Aaina smiled in encouragement.

"I'm glad. You have to go back to your normal life."

"I do."

"I know I've been busy but I promised that I would listen to you, so here I am." She started off, knowing that there was alot her mother wanted to say and alot that she had to try and explain to her.

"I want to ask you a few things as well but let's start with you. Okay?" She continued.

Her mother nodded, agreeing.

"Okay."

She let out a sigh, staring at her daughter as she started to talk.

"Alot of times Imran would talk about Zaydaan's party threatening him, he would get upset at the fact that Idrees Ziagil used to be his close friend and now he's worse than an enemy." She stated, remembering the hard days.

Being a woman is hard. Even when the man you love is wrong, you still can't help but support him, fight the world for him..all because of your heart.

"Things changed alot, mama. Father made some mistakes and I'm sure that Idrees Uncle made some mistakes as well." Aaina replied, her mother clicked her tongue.

"And your husband? He was directly involved in getting your father arrested all those years ago." She claimed.

Aaina remembered that horrible day. It was the day Zaydaan had told her that he loved Minal, that he had given all his love to her, that he didn't care about his own wife. She remembered how she had pleaded and asked him to not do this to her father, how he had changed his decision because of her.

"Yes." Aaina agreed, continuing. "And then he released him because I asked him to. He let him leave the country with almost all of his money, despite the criticism on him."

Her mother ignored the words, speaking again.

"When we were in England and Imran would travel around everywhere, he said that he always felt like someone was watching him."

She said next. Once again, her daughter couldn't help but shake her head.

"I don't know about that mama. What I do know is that I asked Zaydaan to keep tabs on abbu because I had no other way of contacting him, of knowing that he was okay, you guys were always in London but abbu was not. He was just, everywhere." She elaborated.

Her mother nodded.

"Fine. What about the day he died? Zaydaan talked to him three days before his death. Do you know that?"

Aaina raised an eye upon that. If Zaydaan had talked to her father, he would have known. It wasn't possible.

"You're mistaken. If he had talked to father, he would have told me. Who told you this?" She enquired, not understanding who had been feeding her all kinds of lies. Awan?

"I have my sources too." Her mother responded.

"Your sources are our biggest enemies, mama." This time her tone was slightly firm. Her mother chuckled in disbelief.

"Excuse me?"

"I know that you've met up with Awan Chaudhry more than twice." Aaina accused, her mother didn't look like she had been caught, infact she looked absolutely normal. Too normal, as if she had been expecting this.

"So what if I have?" She shot back.

"Awan is not a good person. You know that very well-" Aaina tried to say something, explain that siding with Awan or even talking to him was just not any good.

"Awan is better than Zaydaan, trust me. I have known him for years now." Her mother interjected.

Aaina felt like she was slowly losing her temper.

"Yeah, because father wanted to set up a deal, right? That's how you know him. He came to take me away from Zaydaan and put me in the arms of Awan Chaudhry like an object. That's how you know him?" She snapped, standing up from her seat.

Her mother stood up as well.

"I know him because he has protected us from your husband for years!"

Tahira Imran was anything but calm. She didn't like the way her daughter was talking back to her.

And Aaina, she didn't like the way her mother was addressing her husband.

"He could not even protect himself, you think he cares about you that much? He's a liar. A manipulative cruel man. You don't know what you're getting yourself into." Aaina explained yet again.

"I'll do anything to get justice for my husband." Her mother said instead.

Aaina let out a sigh. How many more battles like these did she have to fight?

Why did her own parents talk about Zaydaan like he was her choice, like she had ran away and married him. They had forced her to do so and now, when she was happy and in love with him..they didn't understand.

"Mama...please." She whispered. Maybe, if Aaina truly spoke from the heart, her mother would understand.

"Look, I know you're upset, I can't imagine your pain but please..don't do this. Don't put me between you and him, he had nothing to do with father's death. The agencies are finding out who killed him." She held her mother's hand.

"You can stay here and we can be the way we were before I got married. Yes, we were distant but we loved each other. I want to have you in my life, as my mother." She felt her eyes burn, tears gathering around her eyes.

"I don't want you going against my husband, I don't want you to fight a war that makes no sense. Please, mama. Stop." She pleaded, hoping that her mother would understand, hoping that she would give up whatever motto she had.

Her mother simply patted her daughter on the shoulder.

"You're blinded by your love for him. One day, I'll prove to you how horrible he really is."

He's cruel.

He's horrible.

He's a murderer.

He's evil.

He was the love of her life, the man who called her his jaan, he was the father of her child and he was her Prime Minister. How dare anyone talk so little of him, right in front of her?

"If he is so horrible, why did you get me married to him? If he's so bad and cruel and a murderer, why did you make me sleep in the same bed as him? Why did you both do that?" She finally snapped, wiping the tears that had chose to fall down.

"Maybe he's horrible to you but to me, people who sacrifice their own daughters for the sake of power are much more horrible." She finally said, setting her own mother straight.

She didn't want to be bitter but there was no other choice.

"I will move out of this house. I won't live in a place where I can smell my husband's blood." Her mother replied, voice completely devoid of any emotion.

"I really thought that I would make you understand. I guess I can't." Aaina told her, continuing.

"I'm sorry but you can't leave the house, not until my horrible husband says so."

She said it like an order, not like a request.

She hated it.

---

------------

She was sat in the dark, trying to cover up her tear stained cheeks as the light got switched on. She knew it couldn't have been Zaydaan since he never came home this early.

She heard the soft whisper of her friend's voice and a hand touched her shoulder.

"Heyy..Why were you sitting in the dark?"

Ahad switched another light on, then the air conditioning and then looked at Aaina

"Hey, what happened?" He asked again as he had got no response from her earlier.

Aaina shrugged, wiping away another tear that had managed to fall.

"I talked to my mother and it didn't go well." She told him, he let out a sigh.

"Okay..tell me."

That's what she loved about Ahad. He was always there, always concerned, ready to listen to whatever she had to say. She didn't have to worry about his judgement because he never judged.

"I don't want to, I just..I thought I could change her mind and I couldn't." She didn't want to get even more upset, she wanted to forget it all for a few moments atleast.

"It's okay, people are people. She must believe what she wants to believe." Ahad didn't insist on knowing what had happened, he was just there.

"I guess so. Why are you here at this time?" Aaina changed the conversation.

Ahad let out a small laugh.

"I used to always be here at this time."

He reminded.

Aaina remembered those days, those late night movies, those late night snacking, those endless gossips, she missed that.

"Yeah, and then you got married." She teased.

Ahad raised an eye, agreeing.

"Not the best idea to be honest." He replied.

And now she understood his glum mood. He had a fight with Noora.

"Had a fight?" She asked. Ahad nodded.

"Yes. She just thinks that my world should revolve around her." He responded.

"Shouldn't it? Doesn't it?"

"It does but there are other people in my world and she knows that. She's always understanding, then one particular thing and she'll go crazy on me." He explained.

Every couple was quite literally like that. Zaydaan had told her the same thing in the car a few days ago.

"As in?"

"As in, I didn't pick up her call and then you mentioned to her that you had called me in the morning, bam, miss Noora got mad."

"You should have called her back." Aaina said back.

"I was busy, Aaina. I have other things to do, and she's busy too." Ahad mumbled in annoyance.

She let out a sigh.

"Look, it's understandable. If my husband didn't pick up my call and instead-no..not that example. He does that all the time." She said with a laugh. She had got so used to it that it didn't even matter much anymore.

"It's just that if I were in her shoes, I would have felt really bad too. Just talk it out." She explained better.

Ahad shrugged.

"Bhai isn't home yet?" He asked instead.

"No."

"You want to go out for a walk. Noora won't calm down till tomorrow." He asked her, Aaina shook her head.

"I can't. Your brother has told me that it's better if I don't go out with you for a while."

Ahad stood up, scowling.

"What the f**k? That's confusing." Bhai hadn't told him anything at all. What was this all about?

"I know. I think he probably heard something and wants us to be careful." She didn't know the actual reason but she definitely knew there was something important behind it all.

"Okay then, I'm going to sleep." He bid her off and she stood up as well, ready to go back to her own room.

"Goodnight."

---

Aaina was ready to doze off at any moment, the day's exhaustion was finally hitting her. If it weren't for the book that she had been reading to kill time as she awaited her husband's arrival, she would have been asleep by now.

She looked at the clock which ticked to a two thirty. It was late at night and Zaydaan still was not home.

She picked up her phone, ready to call him when her bedroom door opened and the Prime Minister entered in all his glory.

Except, he didn't look okay at all.

"Finally. I have been waiting for hours now." Aaina mumbled, standing up to greet him.

Her eyes met his and she saw absolute worry, guilt even. But so much worry. She felt him gulp and saw the deep frown etched between his eyes.

She cupped his face, breathing out a sigh.

"Zaydaan. What happened?" She softly asked, hoping that it wasn't something bad, something serious.

She didn't want any more problem.

"Switch the TV on." Her husband said instead, she looked at him, confused.

"But what happened?" She asked again as she looked for the remote.

"Something terrible."

She heard her husband reply and she knew, something truly terrible had happened.