Haroon wiped off his tears. Zoya felt disgusted on what she just learned about her brother in laws’ conspiracy. Ushna, the lawyer continued speaking, “I am being badly coerced by your evil brothers. And they are also offering me a huge sum of money.”

“I just can’t believe it,” Zoya expressed her feelings, “two sons killed their own father. Oh, I just hope there’ll be justice in this world.”

Haroon stood up getting compelled by her words and declared, “There will be justice, and quite soon. Those two animals have killed the father who gave them more than what they deserved. So there has to be justice. First thing, tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow?” Ushna asked.

“Tomorrow?” Zoya also got surprised.

“Yes, tomorrow morning we’re going to get them arrested. Ushna you’re going to give your statement to the cops and then after getting the arrest warrant, my two brothers shall be behind the bars before evening,”

“Tomorrow’s a little too early,” Ushna commented, “Isn’t it?”

“Do you have anywhere else to go?” Haroon asked Ushna.

“No,”

“Do you have any work or activity?”

“No, not really,”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I think so,”

“Then tomorrow morning, you’re going to have to do this,”

“Do what?” she confirmed, “File a murder case?”

“A murder and coercion case. Tell them everything from my father’s murder to forcing you into changing the legal documents.”

Ushna gave it a thought. Zoya spoke up, “Please Ushna you have to help us out here.”

“Or else, they might find out.” Haroon added.

“Ok, alright. I’ll do it.” Ushna finally agreed.

Zoya and Haroon were relieved to hear that.

“Then what?” Ushna asked changing her tone.

“Sorry?” Haroon answered.

“I mean to say, what do you plan to do afterwards?”

“Well, I’ll take the matter to the court,”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Why not?” Zoya asked her.

“Do you have any strong evidence to support your case?”

“Wait, you’re talking about the murder case?” Haroon made it clear.

“Yes,”

“Well, I don’t know, I can use someone as a witness.”

“As, much as I’ve experienced these court room trials, at least two witnesses are required,”

“Two?”

“Yes, one does not make your case strong enough,”

“I’ve got one witness. I mean, I can ask one of our servants to come and give a false testimony.”

“That’s a good idea,” Zoya spoke up, “because I know the servant specifically who was on duty that night.”

“Good, that’s perfect. All I need to know from him is that whether it were either both of them or just one who was in the house at that time.”

“Well, you do that,” Ushna replied, “in the meantime, I’ll gather some evidence on my behalf regarding the forgery case.”

“Perfect.”

Zoya stood up and they prepared to leave but Haroon spoke before leaving, “Alright ma’am Ushna, thanks a lot,”

“No problem,”

“But before leaving, I just need to ask one last thing. You do have the original document of the will, don’t you?”

Ushna didn’t reply as she felt kind of guilty.

“You don’t have it?” Zoya asked getting anxious.

“…I’m sorry,” Ushna replied hesitantly, “the document that I wanted to show you was not an original one. It was a copy.”

“So, where’s the original one?” Haroon asked.

“Those two villains have it.”

“Oh my God!” Zoya uttered.

“Doesn’t matter,” Haroon said to Zoya, “we’re filing a murder case first.”

“But, if we don’t get the original document then how will you get your father’s inheritance?”

“Don’t worry,” Haroon consoled her, “we will get every penny of my father’s inheritance.”

Haroon and Zoya walked towards the exit and before finally leaving, Haroon said to Ushna looking back at her,

“We’re leaving now, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

************

Next day’s afternoon, while Bilawal was walking in the ward of his hospital, a nurse came by from behind and called him. Bilawal turned around and looked at her, “What is it?” he asked.

“You’re being called downstairs. It’s urgent.”

“Who’s calling me?”

“I don’t know, but you need to see it.”

Getting annoyed, Bilawal changed his direction and started walking towards downstairs.

A minute later, when he reached the ground floor, he saw two police officers. One of them came closer to him and asked, “You are Dr. Bilawal, right?”

“Yes,” he replied getting confused and surprised.

“Come with us,”

“What is it?” Bilawal raised his voice. “What’s the matter?”

“You are under arrest!”

A crowd gathered and watched the doctor being taken away. Bilawal was trying to resist but the cops hand cuffed him tightly and pushed him towards the exit of the hospital.

An hour later, Jasim was at his home and was talking to someone on the phone when he heard the doorbell.

“Hang on a second,” he said to the person on the phone.

He went to answer the door and as he opened it, he saw a police officer standing outside.

“Yes?” he asked getting a bit worried.

“We have a warrant for your arrest,”

“Arrest? What did I do?”

“A lawyer Ushna Malik has reported that you were involved in your father’s murder by giving him extra dose of insulin. You and your brother killed him.”

Jasim was speechless. However, he tried to talk, “I... I can explain…”

“Come with us to the police station, now!”

Jasim was helpless, so he sadly held out his hands allowing the cops to put on the handcuffs.

************

That day’s evening, Zoya and Haroon were at their home. They were quite happy and excited about their victory. When they heard the doorbell, Zoya stood up and went to answer the gate.

A minute later, Haroon, Zoya and Ushna were all in the same room. Zoya said to Ushna, “Well Ushna, we must thank you for helping us out the way you did,”

“No problem.”

“Now ladies,” Haroon spoke up, “there’s something I need to tell you. You both are completely unaware about it but you’ll be surprised after what I’m about to tell you now. Especially you, Zoya.”

“What is it?” Zoya asked feeling a bit scared.

Haroon walked towards the closet and opened it. From inside, he took out two papers that were stapled together.

“Remember what I said yesterday,” he claimed, “that we’re going to get every penny of our share from our father’s property that he left behind…”

The two women were quite surprised as to what they were hearing.

“This is my father’s will. The original copy.”

“What?” Ushna uttered.

“How did you get hold of that?” Zoya asked.

“It was with me the whole time,” Haroon explained. “The day, my brothers and I were told about our father’s will in a meeting, we were given two documents by you Ushna. One was kept by Bilawal and the other one by my father. But you didn’t know that father had given it to me before he passed away. So, actually there were two original copies of the will, one was in possession of Bilawal and one was with me.”

“Ah, yes.” Ushna replied. “I remember now, your father asked for one extra copy that he needed to keep with himself.”

“But wait,” Zoya interrupted, “how come you remember this Haroon? Has your memory recovered?”

Before answering this, Haroon smiled and chuckled, “My dear, I never lost my memory in the first place!”

The two women were so shocked to hear this that they didn’t know how to respond.

“It was all fake,” Haroon continued, “a fake drama entirely. No real accident at the beach. No real blood. No real statement of the neurologist,”

“So, why did you play this entire drama?” Ushna asked, feeling ridiculed.

“My dad always warned me…” Haroon began explaining, “that my brothers were not sincere with me. And they would go to any extreme measures in order to attain father’s wealth. I never believed him. I thought he was wrong. One day, while Jasim had come over for a stay and while dad and I were asleep in the same room, Jasim was the one to give dad the injection of insulin. He did it once which was enough. But another time, when dad was sleeping, he injected again. Another heavy dose. I was slightly awake but I didn’t see who it was, the one who entered the room while we were sleeping as the lights were off,”

“Then?” Ushna asked.

“Next thing I knew, dad was gone,” he replied with sorrow in his voice, “and I suspected Jasim for this. Now, in order to know the truth, I had to play this entire drama. After figuring out how much share of our father’s wealth we all were getting, I planned this fake accident only to show my brothers that I don’t remember anything. And as they took advantage of my memory loss and conveyed the false amount of my share, I understood that my father was right. He was right about everything,”

“But why did you hide this from me?” Zoya asked.

“I hid my father’s will from you dear because I did not want you to disclose the truth in front of them. The only way to find out my brothers’ evil intentions was by making them believe that we both knew nothing about my father’s will.”

“I see, but I wasn’t asking that, I meant that why didn’t you tell me that you were faking this disease? I wouldn’t have spoken it out.”

“I’m sorry dear, to make it perfect, I had to do like that. I’m sorry.”

Ushna was kind of shaken up but she spoke anyway:

“Oh God, what a game…”

“For so long, I doubted that Jasim killed my father. So in order to clear that up I had to find out a third person besides Bilawal, who knew the truth about my father’s murder. And I found you Miss Ushna, who was working under them,”

“By being forced,” she corrected him.

“Yes of course, of course.”

“Anyways, what do we do next?” Zoya raised a question.

Haroon clarified one last thing, “The answer to my father’s intentional murder could only be found through you Ushna.”

“Ok, that’s done now,” Zoya spoke raising her voice, “now, what do we have to do?”

“Now, I just need a lawyer,” Haroon replied.

“Well, we have Ushna, don’t we?”

“No Zoya, she’s a civil lawyer. We need a criminal lawyer”

“Oh, but Ushna might know someone,” Zoya spoke and turned towards Ushna, “do you Ushna?”

“I know many,” Ushna replied, “but I’ll have to see who’s good enough to help us win our case,”

“We have two witnesses, by the way,” Haroon spoke. “One is me and the other one can be one of our servants,”

“That’d be perfect,” Ushna replied. “But there’s one thing that matters the most in this case,”

“And that is?”

“How they plead in the court,”

“Who?” he asked getting confused. “My brothers?”

“Yes,”

“If they plead not guilty, which they most probably will, then it won’t be a big issue. Your lawyer can fight the case, present witnesses and evidences. And then win. But if they plead anything else like insanity or something similar, then it’ll be hard for you to win this case.”

“Oh God, you’re right,”

“And, what if they plead guilty?” Zoya asked.

“That’s not likely to happen,” Haroon replied.

“But let’s suppose if they do, then?”

“Then it would be great” Ushna answered her, “you guys won’t have to worry about anything. They’ll be sentenced to life imprisonment or probably death.”

“Wow!”

“But as Haroon said, that’s not likely to happen. Bilawal and Jasim are too cunning that they must be planning to plead insanity or something,”

“Let’s leave that matter to the court” Haroon added. “Right now Ushna, you must go and find a lawyer.”

“Yes, indeed.”

************

Two weeks later, same city, inside the court room, Haroon was sitting with a male lawyer at the plaintiff’s desk. On their right side, Jasim, Bilawal and some male lawyer were sitting at the defendant’s table. Behind Plaintiff’s chairs on the benches, Zoya and Ushna were seating together on the front seats.

The Judge spoke, “Prosecutor, you may begin.”

As Haroon’s lawyer stood up and began his opening statements of presenting the case to the court, Haroon turned around and asked Ushna regarding the lawyer, “Are you sure he’s capable enough?”

“If only, the defendants plead not guilty or less than that.”

Haroon turned his face back ahead, worriedly and looked at the judge. The prosecutor was done with his statement, therefore the judge asked the defence attorney, “And how do the defendants plead?”

The defence attorney stood up to answer. Haroon felt anxious looking at the lawyer. Ushna and Zoya were also eager to know, so they paid complete attention to what he was about to say. The defence attorney spoke, “Guilty your honour.”

Upon hearing this, Haroon got so cheered up that he gave a big smile. Ushna and Zoya were also very happy to hear that. Haroon happily looked back at Ushna and Zoya. Ushna shook hands with Zoya and said, “Congratulations.” •