As Hannan grabbed his brother’s collar, one of the servants called out,

“Sir, don’t.”

Hannan ignored him and said to Rizwan,

“Tell me, what you have against my father?”

“Excuse me?” Rizwan responded.

“Don’t try to play with me. I’m right on the edge, don’t push me.”

“What do you want?” Rizwan asked holding his hand. “And let go off my collar.”

“Answer me, where were you when my father passed away?”

“First of all, he wasn’t just your father. He was my father as well. And secondly, I have told you plenty of times that I wasn’t at home. I was with Sidra.”

“You are a liar!” Hannan yelled loudly. “That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard.”

“Then, what’s the truth? Why don’t you simply go and ask Sidra?”

“If you are married to her, then why don’t you simply go and live with her.”

“Who are you to kick me out of this house? I’m not going anywhere.”

Hannan got furious and was almost about to hit him but he calmed himself down and said,

“I just want you to clarify the dispute. I know that you and father were in a feud.”

“Whatever the issue was, I don’t think I’m accountable to you.”

Hannan whose anger had crossed all the limits, clenched his fist and hit Rizwan on his face.

“Oh, God!” one of the servants exclaimed.

Rizwan fell backwards and his head hit the wall behind.

“You!” Hannan said pointing his finger towards him, “You and I are not brothers anymore. You are an enemy and not a part of this family.”

Rizwan stood up immediately holding his head. He said looking straight towards his brother,

“Why don’t we let our father decide that?”

“What do you mean?”

“You do know that you are not related to us through blood, right?”

Hannan remained silent and appeared depressed. He said,

“Don’t start this conversation, this is absolutely a lie.”

“Do you have any proof for your claim?” Rizwan asked smartly.

Hannan was silent and he had no words to defend himself.

“You were adopted,” Rizwan said to him, “and you know that. Now, you think that you are entitled to kick me out of this family?”

Hannan was speechless. He was moving backwards; his eyes were filled with tears. He said in a low tone,

“You have no answer to my questions and that is why you are bringing this conversation as you know it is my weakness.”

“It’s not anybody’s weakness, it is the truth.”

“Why are you not disclosing the reality behind your dispute?”

“I will disclose it to whomever I think it is necessary, but you can never be the one, because you are not a part of this family.”

Hannan remained silent and tears fell down his eyes. He replied to Rizwan and said,

“I may not be a part of this family as you are, but I can assure you that I am more loyal to Tariq Yasar’s blood than you are.”

“We’ll see about that. Time will tell that who is loyal and who is worthier.”

“Well, one thing is clear today. You and I are through.”

“Sure, why not? In fact, nothing would please me more.”

One of the servants stepped forward and said,

“What are you two doing? Do you think your father would be happy seeing all of this?”

“He wouldn’t be, because he didn’t know the truth about Rizwan.” Hannan said.

“Listen to me, both of you please. I know that I am nothing more than a servant in this house. But I want you two to end this dispute and live like a family. Mr Tariq would have never liked this.”

“I know,” Hannan said, “But justice is what matters, I think I will have to take this matter to the court.”

Saying this, Hannan left and walked towards the exit of the room.

Few hours later during the night, Rizwan was at a restaurant with his wife Sidra. They were having ice cream but they weren’t talking. Rizwan seemed quite angry which was why Sidra wasn’t really talking to him.

After a while, Rizwan began the conversation,

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with him.”

“Can you please clearly tell me what exactly happened between you two?”

“Hannan needs to know his place. He was a homeless orphan, my father adopted him out of sympathy, and today he thinks that he is entitled to take our father’s place.”

“What really happened?”

“He thinks that I am involved in our father’s death and he is making my feud with our father the base of it.”

“Oh dear, I think he has lost control over his mind.”

“Yeah, that’s true. But I won’t sympathise with him. He needs to know his place in the family.”

“Rizwan, don’t say like that, your father would have never liked these words from you.”

“I know, and believe me, I don’t like them either but he his compelling me to be a bad guy like him.”

“Don’t think like that. He is not a bad person, he just needs some time.”

“Do you know what he did today? He hit me. He pushed me in front of all the servants.”

“Oh, my God!” Sidra uttered getting shocked.

“And do you want to know what’s worse? He is taking matters into the court now.”

“No, he wouldn’t, he’s just trying to scare you.”

“Yeah, I suppose so, but he is not my brother anymore. He and I are through.”

“Your father’s demise has really ruined the peace of this family.”

“No, it hasn’t yet, but it will. One of my father’s prophecies was that a dark time would come.”

“By the way, have you discovered any more of those prophecies?”

“No, I haven’t. But I want to. I am eager to know about them. I’ll talk to Mr Taha about it.”

“Yes, I mean you should. Even, I am desperate to learn about them.”

“Yes, we’ll go together,” Rizwan said.

They kept on talking for a while until it got late and they decided to leave.

There at home, Hannan was packing his stuff as he was deeply upset. Hannan looked at his father’s picture and said,

I’m really depressed father, I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m just fighting for what I think is right. My purpose is your soul’s peace. I don’t want to see injustice around you.

Tears started to fall down and he said,

Tell me dad, am I doing something wrong? Please, tell me if I’m wrong, I will stop everything if you will give me a signal. Through any medium, but please just once. Come in my dream, answer me through your grave, do whatever you like, but please do it for once.

He shut his eyes and remembered his dream when he saw the graveyard getting crushed. He opened his eyes immediately,

I’m so sorry dad, he cried. Probably I shouldn’t have mentioned this dream to you.

He stood up and continued,

Your grave matters to me more than anything else dad. Your grave’s destruction is not something that I can tolerate. I promise you dad, I won’t let anything bad happen to you.

His eyes turned and met the suitcase that he was packing. He went towards it and said,

I’m leaving this house today, but the war is not over yet. I will demand justice until it won’t get served.

He took out a piece of paper from the drawer nearby and picked a pen from the same drawer.

He started writing down something on the paper very carefully.

Next morning, Rizwan was seated on the sofa and was having juice. He was about to leave for his office, but he was feeling a bit upset and uttered to himself.

I think quarrelling this is not a good thing. We are after all brothers and we should not disrespect each other’s emotions… I think we should reconcile and keep aside our differences.

Rizwan called out one of his servants,

“Sartaj?”

Sartaj who was nearby came rushing towards him and said,

“Yes, sir!”

“Could you please see if Hannan is in his room? If he is there, then don’t disturb him, just inform me. I will go and talk to him.”

“Okay, I hope it’s all good sir.”

“Yeah, it is, I will resolve all the matters today.”

Sartaj left to go and look for Hannan.

Rizwan looked at the empty glass and wondered,

This house just looks like this glass without our father, all empty. We hadn’t moved on completely because of our mother’s death and this tragedy took place.

Sartaj came back to him holding a piece of paper and said,

“Sir, he is not in his room and his stuff is also not there.”

“What?” Rizwan stood up. “What are you saying?”

“It’s true, he is not in his room. This note is all that I found in his room, I haven’t read it but I’m sure he wants to say something to you.”

Rizwan walked towards him and took the paper. He read the first sentenced written on it,

My Half brother Rizwan,

Rizwan looked back at Sartaj and asked,

“Do you think he has left this house because of last night’s dispute?”

“I don’t know, maybe. Read the paper.”

Rizwan was deeply upset and he uttered regretfully,

“I think, I shouldn’t have said those harsh words to him. Yesterday, I had lost my control as he hit me.”

“Why don’t you read the paper?”

Rizwan started reading the note silently,

My Half brother Rizwan,

first of all, I would like to apologise for abusing you physically the other day. I admit I was wrong and I shouldn’t have done that, it was against the teachings of my beloved father.

However, things have not settled between us. Our dispute is still a dispute and it won’t be finished unless I would be confident regarding your innocence. I know and I hope that truth will be found eventually, and it will come before us.

If you are not guilty then you shouldn’t be worried but if you are then trust me, nobody can save you from me. I am however, not going to harm you personally but I will take the matters to court and you will be sentenced to death if you are the culprit.

And I promise you that if you will turn out to be innocent, I will apologise for suspecting you and will also openly admit my mistake in front of everyone.

Your half brother Hannan.

Rizwan shut his eyes angrily and said,

“He is doing what he has always been doing.”

“What?” Sartaj asked.

“Over reacting, yeah that’s what he does all the time. That’s his job. That is the only thing, he is good at.”

“What’s going on? Show me the note.”

Sartaj took the note from his hand and started reading it.

Rizwan was much stressed by now and started walking towards his brother’s room.

As Rizwan reached his brother’s room, he turned on the lights. He realised that most of Hannan’s stuff was not in the room so he commented,

He has literally left the house and I was thinking about reconciling with him. How stupid of me?

He turned his head upwards and said,

No, it wasn’t stupid of me. I was just doing what my father would have wanted me to do. He always asked us to forgive others and I was trying to be a good person.

He turned and walked towards the kitchen saying,

I am not doing anything wrong, I have nothing to be guilty of. Our father died a natural death. His death was somewhat inevitable. I am not afraid of him, let him do whatever he wants to.

to be continued...