As Maria opened the door, she saw her husband Rehan standing outside with wounds all over his face and a broken leg. She stepped backward with her hands on her face; she was extremely shocked to see her husband alive that she didn’t even utter a single word. Rehan said,

“Hi, Maria!”

“Oh my God, Rehan, you survived?”

“No, I escaped,” Rehan replied smilingly.

“What?”

He entered in the house and Maria accompanied him inside. As he walked in, Maria came and hugged him. She was badly crying and said,

“Oh, God! I’m so happy to see you alive.”

Rehan stood still and was listening to her carefully.

“I can’t believe you are still alive,” she continued.

Even Rehan got tears in his eyes, he said in a low voice,

“I’m glad to see you too, but I’m upset about our friend Kevin. He was truly a selfless person; he died while trying to save me.”

Maria looked at him and asked,

“What exactly happened?”

“I was lying on the ground; my feet were injured. Kevin was sitting next to me, trying to encourage me and asking me to escape. Kashif reloaded his gun and aimed it towards us.”

“Wait, who was Kashif?”

“Abram and Kashif, they both are the same person. So anyway, he appeared before us and was just about to shoot us. I was lying, therefore he probably thought that I was dead, but Kevin stood up and came in front to protect me. Kashif shot him with his handgun multiple times.”

“That is so brutal of him.”

“He fell and died. Kashif left the room as he heard the cops standing outside. He rushed towards the other room. In the meanwhile, I got startled and realised that the cops might put the entire blame on me, because I was expecting that Kashif would disappear somehow.”

“So, what did you do?”

“I stood up with my injured legs and walked towards the window of the room. I realised that I wasn’t going to survive if I would jump outside, but I did because I knew that if I had stayed inside the room, the cops would have taken me to the hospital and after I would have recovered, they might put me behind the bars for murdering Kevin, my handprints were on the ground.”

“I see, well that’s understandable. So, you jumped outside with the intention of dying?”

“Yes, probably.”

“So, what happened then?”

“I landed on sacks of salt and rice. They were there fortunately.”

“Oh, thank goodness!”

“I felt for a moment that God wanted me to survive, I was heavily bleeding and decided to rush to the hospital because more loss of blood could have killed me.”

Maria nodded her head. Rehan continued,

“The moment I stood up, I heard a bomb blast. I was shaken and as I looked up, I saw flames and smoke coming through the window.”

“So, it was the bomb explosion done by the cops?”

“I don’t know, but I knew one thing for sure that everyone inside the apartment must have died.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Anyways, I survived and stayed in the hospital for the whole week. But there’s a lot more that you don’t know Maria, you need to know that stuff.”

“I know but I don’t care, I’m just happy that we are together and as long as we are, our past doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Yes, Kevin told me everything that happened.”

“Oh dear Lord, he was truly so kind to us.”

“Yes, indeed,” Maria agreed.

“When did he tell you all this by the way?”

“He told me when those goons were taking us to the village.”

“Oh, I see!”

“So, Kashif did everything on purpose?”

“No, it was a coincidence, I believe it was a pure coincidence.”

“Coincidence?”

“Yes, he wasn’t expecting me nor was I.”

“So, this guy Kashif was the one who appeared before the world as Abram?”

“Not the world, just that particular village,” Rehan answered.

“Why?”

“Yeah, because he knew he could fool those people easily.”

“Yeah, so what was his actual identity?”

“I don’t know, I think Kashif was the real one, because he used that in the office, and our office required original documents.”

“That sounds right. Anyways, whoever he was, he is dead now.”

“Yes, and he caused a huge loss.”

“I know, I’m just upset about Kevin.”

“This case was probably the worst one. During Yasir Javed, nobody really got hurt. During the Maimoona Alam murder mystery, nobody died. Every time Kevin and I came out of it.”

“Yeah,” she replied with sadness.

“But this time we lost, this time only one of us came out alive.”

“No, you didn’t lose, you solved the mystery. The criminals are now dead, you shouldn’t think of this as a defeat.”

Rehan thought for a moment and said,

“Yeah, you’re right, we came out victorious but he is the one who deserves the credit.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

There was a moment of silence until Maria said,

“Come on, let’s start a new life.”

“Yeah, I really want to do that. I simply want to forget everything and start again.”

“Exactly, what about your job?”

“I don’t think that I should continue it.”

“No, Rehan, this isn’t a bad job. It will give you more chances to seek justice for others.”

“But it’s too dangerous. I don’t think I’ll be able to live longer with this. You might lose me one day.”

“No, Rehan, I will be proud of you. You will be a martyr if you die.”

Rehan admired her and answered,

“I think you’re right. I should continue this job and I will.”

Maria smiled. Rehan continued,

“But before that I have to do something else. I have to tell everybody through my show about who the real hero is.”

Maria nodded her head.

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

Two weeks later, a doctor was at their home. Rehan was sitting on a sofa, and the doctor was checking his wounds. The doctor asked him,

“Do you feel any pain?”

“No, I’m better now.”

“Alright, you need to go easy on this leg.”

“Sure,” he said.

“And what about your back, does it feel better?”

“Yeah, it does, I’m taking my medicines regularly.”

“Good.”

Maria came inside the room and looked at his foot. She was happy that Rehan was recovering. She asked him,

“Are you joining tomorrow?”

“Yes, I have to, they are waiting for me, and even the cops are.”

“Why the cops?” the doctor asked.

“They want me to testify and give a written statement regarding everything that took place in the village.”

“Just the village?” Maria asked.

“Yes, I have already testified regarding what happened inside the apartment that day.”

“I see,” she said.

The doctor said,

“Okay, I better leave now. You’re good to go now, take care.”

“Thank you,” Rehan courteously said.

Next morning, Rehan was standing outside the studio of Crimes at Corners. He took a deep breath before opening the door and entering inside.

I hope this new start will be easy for me.

He opened the door and finally entered inside. He saw around 10 men standing inside and waiting for him. They all cheered and welcomed him warmly. Rehan tried to appear modest and was very polite to them. Mr Zakaullah was also standing among the crowd, as Rehan looked at him, he also read the sentence that was hanging on the wall behind Mr Zakaullah,

Welcome Back Our Hero Rehan

Rehan felt guilty and soon walked towards Mr Zakaullah and after shaking hands with him, he said,

“Look sir, you cannot hang my name here, I don’t deserve this.”

“You don’t? Oh, come on you’re the first person who has resolved the Mujhtaba missing case. Because of you, our show is trending.”

“No sir, it's not because of me. It is because of Kevin Rollins, a selfless friend of mine who had put everything on stake and saved us.”

“I know, I have heard about him, but we want to tell everyone that you did it, so our show can be a hit.”

Rehan got a bit furious and he raised up his hands, everybody got silent and listened to him he said,

“I’m sorry, I can’t work here if you cannot show what the truth is. The truth is that Kevin is the one who deserves the credit, and not just him, the camera guy you sent with me also deserves to be respected. If you guys are not willing to acknowledge them then I simply can’t work for you.”

After saying this Rehan left and walked towards the exit door. Mr Zakaullah said,

“Alright, what’s the big deal?”

He ran after Rehan calling out his name. As he came to him he said,

“Alright, fine, we’ll do as you say.”

Rehan didn’t say anything as he was hoping to hear something else. However, Mr Zakaullah didn’t say further, Rehan then said,

“Are you going to let me dedicate an entire episode to my friend Kevin Rollins?”

“…Sure,” Mr Zakaullah replied hesitantly.

Rehan thought for a moment and then said,

“Fine, I will work here then.”

“Great, perfect,” Mr Zakaullah said while offering a handshake.

Rehan shook hands with him.

Two days later, Maria switched on the television and as she surfed through the news channels, she found the news,

“Rehan Riaz claims that Kevin Rollins was the Real Hero of missing Mujhtaba case.”

She smiled looking at the news and thought,

He is seeking justice, and he can only do that much. I really wish we could do a little more for Mr Kevin.

That very moment, Rehan entered the house he was coming from the studio.

Maria heard him entering inside, she called him,

“Rehan!”

He came to the room as he heard her voice. She said to him,

“Congratulations! Rehan, the thing you wanted has happened.”

Rehan got delighted as he heard this, he paid attention to the news. The narration went on,

“The citizens of Pakistan are claiming that Kevin Rollins is the true hero who selflessly gave up his life to save others. The police have also agreed to give his family a noble reward for what he has done for the people.”

Rehan was really happy as he heard this, he said,

“Maria, this is just great. I am now satisfied that Kevin is getting the reward for what he did.”

“I know, I mean he deserves a lot more but we are doing whatever we can.”

“Yeah, it was really difficult initially for me to convince others, but God made it easier.”

“Yeah, I am sure.”

They watched the news for a while and then they both went to their separate rooms.

Later at night, Maria came out of her room and looked at Rehan’s door that was shut. She knocked on the door and waited. As Rehan came out after a while, she said to him,

“Rehan, I was just wondering…”

She stopped saying, Rehan asked,

“Yes, you were saying that you were wondering something.”

“Yeah,” she responded hesitantly, “I was, I was just wondering what we had separated our rooms long time back, do we still need to stay like this?”

Rehan was speechless. Maria responded,

“You don’t have to answer this question.”

Rehan got confused and said,

“Yeah, I know.”

Seeing his strange reaction, Maria began laughing. Rehan laughed after her and they kept on laughing realising their happy days were back.