Rehan asked Kevin, “Do you think he can do that?”

“No, he can’t. I don’t think he can, unless…”

“Unless what?” Rehan

asked eagerly.

“Unless he is accompanied by Abdul Moiz. He’s the dangerous person. He can.”

“Oh God, now what should we do?”

“Calm down,” Kevin said. “Let’s make a perfect strategy.”

“Ok, so what is our strategy?”

********

Few hours later, around 7 p.m., Rehan was standing outside a building. He looked at the small piece of paper in his hand and then looked at the name of the building carved on its walls. It was the same building he was looking for.

His heart was beating fast as he was about to enter the building and finally saw the guy who had kidnapped his wife. Rehan was climbing the stairs and he was never this much scared before.

He finally reached his destination and before he could knock the door, somebody grabbed him from behind, put a black clothe on his face and dragged him towards some other location. Rehan was so terrified, he couldn’t resist much.

Minutes later, Rehan was lying on the ground. He opened his eyes and saw a guy sitting on the sofa. As his eye got used to the light and surroundings, he recognised him; he was Zafar Mohsin. It wasn’t unexpected for him but he was still surprised to see him there. Sitting straight, Rehan asked, “Where’s my wife?”

Zafar smiled mockingly and looked at his right. Rehan followed and found Maria sitting on a chair, tied with ropes.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Rehan whispered.

“You!” Zafar spoke. “You have no idea what you have gotten into. Now because of you and Kevin Rollins, one of you must die.”

“Look please, please don’t do this. We are willing to give up on this case in exchange for our lives.”

“No that won’t happen. Anyone must die. Now you guys decide…”

“It’s going to be me,” Rehan interrupted spontaneously.

“Are you sure?”

Rehan looked at Maria. She was shaking her head in a big ‘No’ asking him not to do this.

“Do what you have to do with me. But first I need your word that you would not harm my wife,” Rehan said to Zafar.

“We’ll come to that later. And if you want things to go easy then tell me everything he knows.”

“Everything who knows?”

“Kevin Rollins.”

“Well, he knows that Abdul Moiz is the guy who is still alive and Ali Athar was murdered by him because his wife misunderstood him for Abdul Moiz.”

“Well that is not the real reason why he killed her”

“What do you mean?”

“This means that even if she hadn’t misunderstood him. We would still have killed her.”

“Oh God,” Rehan got stunned here.

“Want to know why? And let me tell you another interesting fact.”

Rehan paid close attention to him.

“Smashing the face of Ali Athar and switching their identities in front of the media was all my idea.”

“…So you were the,” Rehan began to speak but stopped.

“Yes, mastermind behind the entire plan.”

“You didn’t tell me why you guys were already planning to kill Maimoona Alam.”

“Yes I was coming to that but first let me reload my gun,” saying this, Zafar reloaded

his pistol. Maria and Rehan

felt afraid.

“Abdul Moiz wanted to kill her…” Zafar continued speaking, “because in the case of her death, he would inherit a huge sum of money.”

“Oh no,” Rehan uttered.

“He was about to become a multi-millionaire. This was the reason why he was planning to make everyone believe that he was dead.”

“And what about you? You lowered yourself to his level.”

“I was always at the same level. I had never lower myself down.”

“You’re not a killer Zafar.”

“Now you’re forcing me to make you believe that I am.”

“Fine, kill me. I’m not trying to stop you.”

“Oh no, no, not you. I have to kill someone else if I have to make you believe.”

“What do you mean?” Rehan asked getting tensed and frightened.

Zafar looked at Maria. Rehan realised immediately that he was thinking about shooting Maria. Rehan yelled, “No! Don’t!”

Rehan tried to stand up but fell down as he was tied with the sofa behind him. Zafar stood up holding his gun and walked towards Maria.

“Zafar, don’t!” Rehan exclaimed starting to cry.

Zafar took out the clothe from Maria’s mouth.

“Rehan save me,” Maria shouted.

Zafar held her chair from behind and dragged her towards the room nearby. She cried out, Please don’t kill me!”

Rehan started crying harder. “Zafar we had a deal. Take away anything but please don’t kill…”

He stopped speaking and started to cry realising his haplessness. Zafar shut the door of the room. Even though the room’s door was shut, Rehan could hear Maria screaming for help. She was constantly yelling out until five gunshots were heard. And then there was silence.

Rehan’s eyes were left wide open as he heard the gunshots. He could not move as if frozen. Zafar came out of the room and shut the door behind him. Rehan was lost in his thoughts thinking about his past.

He remembered the moment he was got married to Maria and how she supported him. He couldn’t stop thinking about her.

“So!” Zafar spoke, “Do you believe me now?”

Rehan didn’t pay any attention to him and kept on thinking about his loss. Zafar made a loud noise.

“Did you see what happened?”

Rehan blinked after a long time and moved a bit. After a couple of seconds, he sat up and leaned against the wall. He raised his eyes and looked at Zafar.

“You just saw what I did. And I’m sure you now believe that I can.”

Rehan didn’t respond and smiled a bit.

“What are you thinking?” Zafar asked with a loud voice.

“No, I don’t” Rehan answered shaking his head.

“What? What do you don’t?”

“…I don’t believe that you are a killer,” Rehan spoke trying to provoke him. “I will only believe if you actually kill me.”

Zafar loaded his gun once again and aimed at him.

“Oh no, I won’t. I won’t kill you unless Kevin Rollins shows up here and surrenders himself.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

Zafar had no answer to this, so he remained silent. He walked towards the refrigerator and took out a bottle of soft drink.

“You want some?” he taunted.

Rehan was desperate. He wanted nothing more than just to die. Zafar sat back on his chair and gulped the whole drink down.

Half an hour later, Zafar’s cell phone began to ring. It was an unknown number.

“Hello?”

“It’s me Abdul Moiz”

“Hey, I’ve been waiting for your call.”

“I just called to tell you that I can’t share the profit with you. You’re on your own. And don’t ask me again for your amount of money.”

Zafar got so furious that he yelled out angrily.

“Are you out of your freaking mind?”

“No, I’m not. And you need to watch your language or else I will kill you too.”

“You’re going to kill me?” Zafar asked mockingly. “Do you have any idea about what I did?”

“I don’t need to know.”

At the very moment, Abdul Moiz was talking to Zafar on the phone with Kevin holding him at gun point.

Moiz turned and looked at him. Kevin whispered, “Alright, disconnect the line.”

“Now what?”

Back at Zafar’s place, Rehan was looking at Zafar who had lost his temper. Zafar was throwing away glasses, and kicking all the chairs and tables.

Rehan just shut his eyes and continued crying. He just waited for his death. Seeing Zafar blasting out on everything, Rehan hoped for him to shoot him as well. But Zafar didn’t touch his gun. Zafar was completely unaware of the fact that it was Kevin Rollins who had manipulated the entire phone call.

Perhaps this was Kevin’s plan, Rehan guessed.

Zafar was so out of his own control that he was about to shoot himself with the gun until he heard Rehan’s voice.

“Before you do anything further, why don’t you kill me first?”

Zafar aimed his gun at him and heard his phone ringing again. Before he could press the trigger, he picked up his phone.

“Hello?”

“If you want your share then you’ll have to do what I’ll ask you to do,” said Abdul Moiz.

Zafar calmed down a bit and listened to him carefully.

“You have to meet me at some public place,” Abdul Moiz continued, “and I will hand over your share.”

“What happened to you? Earlier you said something else, now you’re saying something else.”

“I know but you will have to do what you’re being asked to do right now.”

“Abdul Moiz, tell me what is going on? Is someone behind you? Is anybody blackmailing you?”

“No, not at all. You are going to do what you’re being asked to do.”

“Ok and what is that?” Zafar asked feeling suspicious of him.

“I will text you an address and I need you to get there immediately.”

“Ok fine.”

The call got disconnected. Zafar was sure that something was not right. It was not what it appeared to be. He was afraid that if the cops might be involved.

“I can’t go there like this,”

he uttered.

Rehan was speechless and he was only thinking about his dead wife. He just sat there with eyes closed and a hope to die soon.

v v v

Several minutes later at a public place, Abdul Moiz was standing alone waiting for someone. As Zafar showed up after a while, Moiz got alert and started talking.

“Alright listen to me. Whatever I said on the phone, I didn’t mean it.”

“I thought so,” Zafar replied.

“It was Kevin Rollins, he made me say everything. So anyways, the issue is that he has got his hands on our pictures and videos and he is planning to leak them on YouTube to expose us.”

“Damn it”

“Tell me what did you do with Rehan and his wife?”

Meanwhile, at Zafar’s home, someone banged the exit door of the house and broke in. It was Kevin Rollins. He had come for Rehan’s rescue. As he walked inside, he saw Rehan lying on the ground with his face down. He set him free from the chain.

“Rehan!”

Rehan didn’t respond.

“Rehan! Are you ok? Rehan, can you hear me?”

Rehan opened his eyes and got up.

Kevin asked again, “Are you okay buddy?”

“You were wrong,” Rehan replied with an unclear voice.

“Excuse me?”

“You were wrong about Zafar.”

“What about him?”

“Do you still believe that he was a harmless person and he cannot harm anybody?”

“Why are you asking this?”

“Because…” Rehan couldn’t speak further.

“What happened? Please tell me clearly.”

“My wife is dead.”

Kevin looked at him with astonishment.

“Where is her body?”

Rehan pointed towards the room. Kevin stood up immediately and before walking towards the room, said, “I am still confident that he has not murdered your wife.”

Saying this he opened the room and saw Maria tied to a chair. Her eyes were closed and a piece of clothe was stuffed inside her mouth. Kevin released her from the ropes. As Rehan saw Maria coming towards him, he could not believe his eyes.