Rizwan looked at the old man and asked him raising his voice,

“Who sent you to do this?”

The old man looked up and answered,

“Khattab Razaq.”

“What?” Rizwan asked getting extremely shocked.

“Yes, it was Khattab Razaq,” the old guy rephrased.

“Look, I know that guy very well, okay? He would never do that. I know him personally. He is my good friend and was a very close and obedient student of the person whom's grave you were trying to crush.”

“You can call him now, and ask him.”

Rizwan was really surprised on his confidence. He had no other option but to believe him.

The SHO asked him,

“Would you like to ask anything else?”

“No!”

“Are you sure? We can call him if you’d like.”

“I don’t think that would resolve the issue. Anyways, thanks for your help. I’ll leave now.”

********

Hannan’s son Jafar was seated on a chair at a garden. He had four friends around him who were more of his followers. These four companions were standing in front of him and were showing respect for him.

“Money matters to me,” he said to his followers.

They nodded. He asked them,

“What matters to me?”

“Money!” they all spoke altogether.

“Yes, now I want you all to tell me one by one. How much money have you guys gathered so far?”

One of them said before anyone else,

“I need to confess. I need to apologise. I have nothing, I couldn’t earn a single buck.”

Jafar stood up and looked at the other three. He nodded his head slightly as if he was giving a signal. One of the three guys took out his gun, loaded the chamber and shot that guy on the spot. The victim’s scream echoed,

Jafar claimed,

“The first rule of our gang is that, there is no place for apology.”

Jafar turned around towards his team and said,

“We are one person down now, we need more members. Who will arrange them?”

Meanwhile at Mr Taha’s house, he was talking to his wife,

“I am growing really old. I might not appear as old as I am, but inside my body is tearing apart.”

“How old are you? You’re not below eighty.”

“I know, but I have the strength to stand and walk.”

He felt his cell phone ringing. His wife commented,

“Well, you are rich enough to own a cell phone.”

Mr Taha felt a bit annoyed seeing the caller’s id and said,

“I don’t know, what’s the matter with this guy.”

“Who is it?” his wife asked curiously.

“It is Hannan, he has been calling me for quite a long time.”

“Who is Hannan by the way?”

“He is a traitor. He stole the land that belonged to his father, Tariq Yasar. He captured it illegally. He was exiled. He has returned back to this city and now he wants to make things right.”

“Make things right? So, what’s wrong with that?”

“He is trying to fool us. I know he is. He cannot be an honest person and I simply do not trust this man.”

“Why don’t you just attend his call and hear him out once?”

“Because I don’t want to.”

“Is that your answer? I don’t want to hear it.”

“Yes.”

Mr Taha replied firmly as if he ended the conversation.

********

Maqsood and Sirtaj who used to be Rizwan’s servants once, were seated in a junk yard of broken vehicles. The two of them were having a conversation regarding Khattab,

“This guy needs to know his place,” Sirtaj said.

“I know, I agree. He kicked us out of the family. I mean who is he? Who does he think he is?”

“He was not even at the funeral.”

“Yes,” Maqsood agreed. “He didn’t even attend Tariq Yasar’s funeral.”

“Look, we need to break these two apart.”

“You mean Rizwan and Khattab?”

“Yes,” Sirtaj responded.

“Don’t worry, I have planned it already.”

“How?”

“I hired two men. I asked one of them to go and demolish Tariq Yasar’s grave.”

“Oh, my God! Really?” Sirtaj felt a bit shocked.

“Yes, don’t worry about it. This will be justice.”

“But Maqsood, that guy hired us when we were jobless. He granted us a lot more than we demanded.”

“Yeah, so? I am not doing any harm to him. I am just crushing the tombstone of his grave. That would not harm him or his soul.”

“Be that as it may, you are still disrespecting him, and causing mischief.”

“Yes, I am,” Maqsood said confidently, “I am causing mischief. Mischief between Rizwan and Khattab, isn’t that what you just asked for?”

“I did, I know I did, but how is crushing Tariq’s grave leading to the dispute between those two.”

“It’s very simple,” Maqsood responded. “While, I hired those old men, I told them that my name was Khattab Razaq. And I didn’t even show them

my face.”

“Oh, dear!”

“And while the two were going there during the night, I made an anonymous phone call to Khattab. I told him that Tariq Yasar’s grave was about to get demolished. So, he simply asked for the address and reached there.”

“Wait a minute, you sent Khattab there yourself?”

“Yes, so that the cops would believe the story I wanted to create.”

“Cops?”

“Yes, I also informed the police. So, as there was a confrontation between Khattab and those two old men, the police arrived. What happened next was something that turned out to be favourable for me. Khattab escaped the place, but the cops saw his face. Now, the old guys are in the police station and they are most probably mentioning Khattab’s name, because they think that the guy who hired them was Khattab.”

“Oh, dear!” Sirtaj said feeling amazed.

“Yes, now when Rizwan will discover this, he will do everything he can to expel Khattab from this family.”

“Wow, what a conspiracy!”

“Yes, now we don’t have to worry about Khattab. He will be out of this family for sure. I called you here today, so we could have this conversation.”

They had a little more talk and then Sirtaj left.

********

Next evening, while Rizwan was reading a book in his room. He saw Rahman entering inside the room. Rahman was holding an old paper and he asked his father showing that paper to him,

“Can you explain what this is?”

Rizwan was a bit confused but as he paid attention, he realised that it was the first paper he ever wrote on his father’s prophecies.

Rizwan stood up from his bed and asked him,

“From where did you get this Rahman?”

“I found it, but I want you to tell me what is it.”

“Look Rahman, you are too young to learn this stuff. We can’t talk about this now, just wait for few years and I’ll tell you everything.”

“It is mentioned here that your daughter would face a lot of pain and torment in her life. Well, it turned out to be true.

She was forcefully married to someone she didn’t know. Her passion of studying medical science was totally ruined.”

“Rahman, you don’t know a lot of stuff, okay? You need to clear your mind. Don’t keep grudges against your family.”

“I won’t, but I want to know the truth that you are hiding.”

Rizwan closed his eyes getting irritated and replied after opening his eyes,

“Can you give me two days? I need to think over it. I’ll talk to your mother, we’ll decide if you are capable of learning this or not.”

“Capable? Can you define it?”

“A lot of people are not. I was once married to a woman named Sidra, who passed away. She was not capable of learning this stuff. So, she left me.”

“Oh!”

“So, you would only be capable of learning this if we would know for sure, that you wouldn’t break away from us.”

“No Dad, I would never,” Rahman said spontaneously.

Rizwan smiled and then said,

“Alright, just wait for two days. I will let you know everything.”

Meanwhile, inside Hannan’s room, his son Jafar had entered while there was no one else. He went towards the closet and after unlocking it, he took out a big set of jewellery. He made sure that no one was watching him, so he immediately shut the closet door and locked it.

After hiding the jewellery set inside his jacket, he rushed towards the exit and finally left the room.

********

Next morning, while Alia and Rizwan were seated alone at the dining table, Rizwan began the conversation,

“There are two issues that I need to discuss with you today.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“First of all, you need to know that you have done a blunder.”

“Excuse me?”

“The diary, the diary with my father’s prophecies, it had a piece of paper. You dropped it.”

“So, is it lost? It must be around somewhere.”

“No, Rahman has seen it, he found it. Six prophecies were mentioned in that. You have leaked them before someone who wasn’t supposed to know that.”

“Oh, my God!” she responded feeling guilty, “I’m so sorry.”

“Now, I’ll handle that myself.”

“I’m really very sorry about it.”

“It’s okay, no damage has been done,” Rizwan said gently. “The second issue that I need to discuss would be a serious one.”

“Okay, I hope that I’m not in trouble.”

“Alia listen to me,” he said and created a horrifying silence.

After a few seconds, he began,

“Yesterday, I was asked by the area’s SHO to show up at the police station. I was not in mood and I wanted to postpone it, but he told me that there was someone who had nearly crushed my father’s grave.”

“Oh, God! Really?” she asked getting worried.

“Yes, and when I went inside the lock up cell, I met the convict.”

“Oh, so what happened?”

“What happened afterwards was something unbelievable. But it appeared to be true. I don’t know, but there was something in his eyes, he seemed to be speaking

the truth.”

“So, what did he say?”

“He said that he was hired by Khattab Razaq.”

“Oh, my God! No,” she said standing up and moving away from the dining table’s chair.

“I know, I felt the same.”

“Oh, my God, Rizwan! Khattab, can he betray us?”

“You know, I’ve been thinking that he had nothing against my father. There is no motive. The question is why he would do this.”

“Exactly, so what is your answer for that?”

“I don’t have an answer.

I am as confused as you are.”

Alia looked at him with an expression of grief.

They both were speechless and had no words.

********

Next afternoon, as Rahman was coming home from school, he heard some woman screaming. He looked at his left and saw two men trying to snatch something from the adult woman. He picked up a rock that he saw nearby and rushed towards the two goons. He threw it towards one of the goons, and fortunately did not miss the target. The other goon and the woman were distracted as they looked towards him. Rahman then, came closer and held the other goon. He punched him as hard as he could.

Both the criminals were on the ground now. Rahman respectfully asked the woman to leave.

The crowd of few people, who were watching was quite amased and they admired his bravery.

Few hours later, while Rahman was seated in his room, he saw his father coming towards him. Rahman greeted him and said,

“Sorry,I’m a little late.

“It’s okay, today

I am going to share with you what you wanted

to know.”

“Really?” Rahman asked getting excited.

“Yes.”

“So, shall we begin?”

“We will, but first you need to remember that these prophecies are not meant to be leaked among the family. Very few people know about these.”

“Okay Dad, no problem.”

“You know the first six prophecies right?”

“Right.”

“So, now I am going to disclose the remaining four before you.”

“Yes!”

“So, the seventh one is…”  

to be continued...