Sadqay Humare.

Twenty.

Aaina x Zaydaan.

Since the Prime Minister had arrived home late at night after his argument with Aaina, he expected to see her asleep on their bed. Instead, he found an empty bed.

He did not understand why she was not in her room but it worried him. He had expected her half asleep, ready to make things up and actually focus on the real issue at hand.

Instead, she was not even in their bedroom. He found her asleep with Zayla in her arms, in her playroom.

It was pretty much clear from that only, he had managed to hurt her ego as well. Had he gone too far? Maybe.

But years of marriage and understanding, she knew who he was, how his personality was, things that made him mad and angry, yet she had gone behind his back.

To him, he felt like she didn't give a flying f**k about talking to him, let alone seeking his permission before meeting the Chaudhry b***h.

So the Prime Minister went to sleep, not bothering to care about anything else.

The next morning, he woke up and found no traces of his wife. He had his usual tea and got ready for work.

As he walked out of the bedroom, he found Sana, Aaina's most favourite girl out of the entire staff, with a tray in her hands and a frown on her forehead.

He looked at her, questioning the whereabouts of his wife.

"Where's Aaina?" He asked, snapping the woman's attention towards himself.

Sana greeted the Prime Minister with a Salam, pointing at the tray of food and nervously talking to him.

"She's in Zayla's playroom, Sir. Do you want me to call her?"

Zaydaan Ziagil shook his head.

"No. Go inside now." He said to her but Sana bit her lip, not really knowing how to respond to that.

"Madam says she's not hungry and that we don't need to disturb her." She told him, continuing as the Prime Minister's questioning stare was still at her.

"Sir, actually Aaina bibi didn't come down for breakfast this morning so we made breakfast for her and sent it to her but she refused to eat it." She explained.

Zaydaan frowned. It was so unlike Aaina to refuse food, especially breakfast.

"Take it back, tell her that I'm asking her to eat her food." He ordered.

Sana nodded, still nervous and hesitant. She tried to open the door of the room as per the Prime Minister's orders but she was also reluctant.

She inhaled a deep breath. Zaydaan stood there, waiting.

"What?" His tone was sharp as he questioned her about her reluctant behaviour.

"She said that she wants to sleep and we shouldn't disturb her. She must have fallen asleep by now." Sana replied, looking at the food in the tray.

"What about Zayla?"

"She was sleeping on the bed as well."

Zaydaan shrugged, gesturing her to leave.

"Okay. Go." He mumbled, turning around as Waseem came upstairs, greeting the Prime Minister.

"Prime Minister Sahab, aap ki gaari tayaar hai." (Your car is ready, Mr Prime Minister.)

Zaydaan nodded, walking down the stairs with Waseem trailing behind him.

"Theek hai. Where is Sami?"

He hadn't even taken Sami Ullah's name properly that Sami appeared in front of him. He was dropping Raima off, as Zaydaan could see. His wife walked inside with a smile on her face and a few files in her hand.

"Don't let Aaina leave the house today. I don't want any more trouble."

Sami let out a small sigh. Being loyal to the Prime Minister was part of his duty but being Zaydaan's friend, he felt that the man was being hard on his wife.

The officer in him was glad that he had been loyal to his Prime Minister, but the man in him was guilty that he had told Zaydaan about Aaina's plans. Aaina treated him like a brother, it was partially his fault that she was not happy right now.

He leaned forward.

"You're being hard on her. She did it for you. I was there for her protection." The look Zaydaan gave him was enough for Sami to realise that he didn't want anyone to interfere in his personal matters. Not today.

"Sami." Zaydaan took his name, taking his assurance.

Sami Ullah nodded.

"Okay. I'll make sure."

He was about to sit in his car when he looked at his friend.

"And ask Raima to get her to eat something. I know she didn't eat dinner and apparently she didn't have breakfast either."

Even in this anger, there was care.

"Alright." Sami agreed, bidding off the Prime Minister.

---

Her heart felt so heavy this morning, if felt like something really wrong had happened and she couldn't change it.

They hadn't had an argument like this since a very long time, let alone in front of people. Aaina didn't understand how Zaydaan could do that, how could he just lose control like that?

Her glum mood was quite visible. She hadn't left the room since last night and she was not planning to even get out of the bed today. The Prime Minister had stopped her from leaving the house? She was not going to go somewhere anyway. Not when she felt so bad about everything.

Her eyes fell on her daughter who was busy putting block over blocks, something that she had recently been trying to perfect at. She had so far been able to put twelve blocks to make a building but the thirteenth block was the biggest one and it would make the entire building fall down.

Zayla hated not being able to do things the right way, the complete way..so she tried and tried everyday. Aaina loved that about her three year old.

She felt a knock on her door and Raima entered the room. She greeted Aaina with a smile, one that Aaina could not really return.

"Hey." She mumbled, sitting down.

"Hey. I see you brought the documents." Aaina greeted her back, taking the files from her hand.

Raima nodded, sitting down on the bed.

"I did. Let's eat something first. I'll tell Sana to bring breakfast." She tried, ready to pick up the phone and call in the kitchen.

The first lady shook her head. Usually, Aaina was so cheerful in the morning. Always ready to get on with the day and do something good but today, her glum mood was very visible.

"I'm not hungry. Let's just do this." She excused, opening the first file.

"I think you should eat." Raima still insisted.

"And I think we should do something productive." Aaina replied, trying to focus on the papers.

She felt Raima's stare at her.

"Are you okay?" Aaina heard her concerned tone.

"Would you be okay if Sami bhai lashed out at you in front of the entire family?" Aaina asked back and the woman in front of her understood.

She had every right to feel upset.

"No." She answered honestly.

"Exactly."

"He has never yelled in front of people. Not at me. Even when things were not good between us, he still didn't do what he did yesterday."

She told her friend, trying to get the heavy feeling off her chest but honestly, it was not working. Raima didn't really have some words of wisdom, neither did she have the words to make her feel better so she just said the first thing that she felt about the entire situation.

"Disappointment leads to anger, Aaina. He has such high expectations from you that when you get off from that pedestal, it just changes his personality for a moment."

Aaina absorbed what she had to say. Her friend wasn't wrong, she was kind of right.

"Maybe. But yelling at me in front of everyone? That's not the solution. I'm not the twenty one year old Aaina anymore. I know what's good and what's not." She insisted.

"I'm a f*****g mother for God's sake." She hissed, genuinely angry.

"But Aaina..look. You know how the Prime Minister is, better than anyone. You knew he would find out, you shouldn't have gone without consulting him. That's the thing. You're older and more mature, that should help you make smarter decisions."

The first lady didn't have any more energy to go round and round on this topic.

"I know. I apologised for that but I-just leave it."

She put the files in front of her, opening the one that she had closed once again.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Did the others sign this?" She asked, reading the file.

"Yes."

"We have to start advertising our food drive campaign. There's no better time than this. Call the PR managers of the foundation for a meeting tomorrow and we can discuss it." She informed, Raima noted it down on her phone.

"Okay, what about the issues at the sialkot branch? Most of the workers are not happy with the manager, they say that she has employed more than seven people without any qualification, her relatives. Plus, they get paid more than anyone." Raima asked, remembering how crazy things were at the foundation meeting in Sialkot a week ago.

"I don't understand how they can suck so much from a humanitarian foundation. Tell the workers to create a complete document over this and send it to me. I'll look into it right away. "

Once again, Raima typed away on her phone. She looked at her to do list, asking Aaina about another thing that needed to be discussed.

"Okay. Zartaj wants a meet up, she said that she had been calling on your private number but you were not picking up."

The first lady finally let out a long tired sigh. Upon hearing that she had to meet people, actually meet them when her heart wasn't content enough, even the thought of it tired her.

She looked at her friend with glossy eyes.

"Mera bilkul dil nahi kar raha, Raima. Kisi ko bhi milne ka, Mera dil kar raha hai bus so jaun. Kisi se baat na karun, bus ankhein band karun aur baaki sab cheezon ko block kar doon."

(I don't want to do it, Raima. I don't want to meet anyone. I just want to sleep right now. I want to block everything and just close my eyes.)

She admitted. Raima threw her an understanding smile, getting off the bed.

"Toh so jao, Aaina. Hum ye sab kal bhi kar sakte hain."

(Then go to sleep. We can always do this tomorrow."

"Okay. Thanks."

Aaina said back in gratitude, smiling a little at the way Raima had called Zayla outside, bribing her with some chocolate cake. 

---

She was half asleep, half awake when the door suddenly opened. Her eyes were swollen with sleep, hair spread in every direction, skin oily with the way she had her entire face pressed in a pillow.

Sana entered the playroom, finding Zayla's toys on the floor, the first lady on the bed and the dimly lit yellow bulb was on.

She shook her just a little, trying to wake her up. Ofcourse, Aaina was awake already.

Aaina turned around, staring at her with questioning eyes.

"Aaina bibi, it's the Prime Minister's office. They say that they've been calling your phone for hours now."

Aaina frowned, confused.

There was no way in hell Zaydaan was calling her right now. Besides, where even was her phone? She didn't know. She didn't care.

"Why?"

"I don't know. Here." Aaina put the phone near her ear, standing up from the bed as she felt Sana picking up the toys in an effort to clean the room.

She closed the door behind her, hurriedly walking to her own bedroom.

She didn't want to see anyone right now.

"Hello?" She pressed the phone near her ear, mumbling a hello.

"Salam alaikum, madam. It's Hamza."

She rolled her eyes. Usually, she liked to talk to Hamza. He was a sweet person, always smiling, always polite, so respectful. Today, she didn't want to talk to anyone.

"Yes, hamza. How are you?" She still asked, trying to remain polite.

"I'm okay. Thanks for asking. PM Sahab is in a meeting but he left a note for me, I had to call you and ask you to eat your lunch."

She let out an unbelievable chuckle. The audacity of these men. They hurt you and then they want you to eat something. What kind of care was that.

"He left a note?" Aaina asked anyway.

"Yes."

"Read it to me."

"Okay. Call first lady, ask her to eat lunch and don't screw it up Hamza."

Aaina shook her head. He couldn't even write her name down. First lady. How about, call my wife? Call Aaina. How about calling her himself?

"Tell him that I'll eat when I want to eat and the next time he asks his minions to call me, I won't answer." She didn't want to snap or be rude, but Zaydaan was just screwing with her head right now.

"Ma'am, he asked me not to screw it up." Hamza said in return.

"Tell him you didn't. Goodbye, Hamza."

She hung up the phone, looking at her face in the mirror and realising how badly she needed to shower.

She let the cold water take away all the hurt that she felt in her heart.

--

It was around eleven at night when the Prime Minister reached home. The entire day had been so hectic, all he wanted to do was put his head on a soft pillow and sleep.

But coming home reminded him of the situation that was going on. Aaina and him were not talking.

Usually, it was Aaina who always made the first move. Through Ahad or through random taunts, or something that would solve it all between the two.

But now, she had not tried anything. Not even a text message.

Knowing how Aaina was when she got upset, Zaydaan knew that she hadn't ate anything since yesterday night. She had been starving for hours now.

He entered the house, telling the help to prepare dinner as soon as possible. Since dinner was already prepared, they quickly warmed it up and put it in a tray.

Zaydaan walked up the stairs, Sana trailing right behind him. He opened the door to his bedroom, finding his wife lying on the bed, her back turned to the other side.

She was obviously awake. He knew she was.

"Put it there." He told the girl who only looked at the first lady, rambling out the first thought that came into her head.

"She's asleep, sir."

Zaydaan stared at her, an eye raised as if daring her to speak.

Sana quickly put the tray on their side table.

"She's not." He said, looking at his wife who was completely conscious, pretending to be asleep.

"Leave." Sana hurried herself out of the room, closing the door with more force than required.

Zaydaan took off his coat, removed his tie and then took off his shirt as well. He threw the clothes on the couch, staring at his wife.

"I'm going for a shower and when I come back, this plate better be empty." He announced.

He knew she was listening and she also confirmed it when she jerked up, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"What will you do if I don't eat? Will you scream at me in front of everyone again?" She asked, daring him to do it again.

"Will you make the same mistake over and over again? You don't even sound apologetic for what you have done. Your irresponsibility can get us both into big trouble, don't you get that!?" He exclaimed.

Aaina sat up on the bed.

"I know, Zaydaan. I know I made a mistake. I apologised for it and I'll apologise for it again if you want but the way you yelled at me..would you apologise for that?"

Asking Zaydaan Ziagil to apologise was like talking to a wall. He only apologised if he wanted to and right now, there was no bone in his body that wanted to say sorry.

Zaydaan just shook his head, slamming the door behind him as he entered the bathroom.

"Yes. Slam the doors because God forbid, Zaydaan Ziagil can be wrong too." She yelled out loud like a scorn woman.

She looked at the food, her hunger tempting her to get up and eat but the small stubborn bone that she had in her body, it refused her to get up and do so.

So she closed her eyes, hoping that the hunger and the hurt, both would go away. 

--

On the other end of the house, Aaina's mother was on call with the very man that wanted to destroy the entire Ziagil family.

"Did they fight?" He asked her.

"Yes. She's shaken up." Aaina's mother informed.

"Don't you worry, aunty. I'll not only avenge Uncle Imran's death for you but I will also take care of Aaina." He assured.

She smiled over the phone, realising that not every politician was evil.

"You will?"

"She's too used to this life. When Zaydaan Ziagil is destroyed, I will make sure that Aaina becomes my first lady."

He said next, Aaina's mother felt her heart at peace.

"Thank you, Awan. My daughter thinks she loves him when all he does is uses her."

"In me, she will find a man who will love her with all of his heart. Without any manipulation."

He promised the woman. Aaina's mother ended the phone call, ready to see the next plan in motion.