What's a part without a little Knife action?

" Umar did you get the cake from the store?"

"Yes, I got everything ready Stacy, you don't need to worry, the cake is here, the food is ready and guests will be here soon, you don't think I am going to mess something up on my girl's first party now, do you?"

Pretty soon the bell rang and the first guest of the evening had arrived. It was Jake the helper in Umar's book store, her mom was an old friend of the Iqbal family, Umar somewhat thought of him as his younger brother.

"You know, you didn't have to trouble yourself with that"

"Its nothing, also mom would have pretty much killed me if I had refused to bring this here," Jake set down the big box full of toys , some of which were suitable for a one year old while some could be called as controversial,

"She would have come herself but she wasn't feeling very well today,.... I'll go see if Stacy needs help with something"

Suit yourself Umar replied and went off to put the box somewhere, where people would not trip over it, wouldn't want any accidents today.

Before long everyone had pretty much arrived, the house was full of all kinds of noises, women chattering, men busy complaining about work and their bosses and most prominent of these noises were kids playing around.

Umar had never liked kids, he always thought they were some kind of demons there to haunt the adults and make their lives miserable, that was until he had a daughter of her own. Alice he had named her, what a pretty child she was and as calm as a cloud after rain, he was pretty sure she got both of these properties from her mother. Although he was a handsome man himself but calmness had never been one of his properties.

"Alright kids who wants to play a game of hide and seek before we cut the cake" Jake decided to make the kids busy for a while so the adults could also ease up a little.

Hide and seek, that always seemed to do the trick, always got the kids excited even Umar when he was younger used to play this game.

"Penny for you thought...." Stacy asked Umar handing him a glass of Cola, well of course alcohol could not be kept around in a party which was meant for kids.

"Just wondering how my life turned around after I met you, although our first couple meetings were, I don't know I would say they were not ideal"

" Yeah..... yelling and throwing you coffee on a detective who came to ask you some questions..... that is pretty much non-ideal"

"Hey, I said sorry"

They both burst out laughing at that, that sorry was a big story in itself.

"let's rescue our guests from our cute little trouble and cut the cake"

Stacy took his hand in her own nudging him to get up. Alice was looking happy with all the chatter around her, she and her mom were wearing a same shade of purple today, although Alice beat her mom in looks. Stacy cut the cake, no way she was even gonna let her one year old even hold the knife with her, but hey caution had never hurt anyone. And Umar was not going to complain when the cake was finally allowed to be eaten after hours of wait. It was also her wife's idea to not anything else that afternoon.

After the kids were done with the cake, they took turns playing with Alice, while Jake told them stories.

Adults had their own stories to share with each other, some about when they were kids, some about the teenage years but mostly as suited with the occasion they talked about their kids and how it was spontaneously a joy and a big load of trouble to have kids.

Stacy herself could agree, first few months after Alice's birth were the most tiresome but than it became a habit to have someone around always to love. She was pretty much ready for anything that parenthood could throw at her. She had quit from her former job of police detective as being in line of danger was not only her about her anymore but her daughter as well. She wanted to make sure that she will always be there for Alice, she wanted to be there for her first steps till her grandchild's first steps.

The party was over an hour before midnight and everyone was gone. Umar too had gone to drop off a couple of his friends who somehow managed to drink secretly and what's bad about this is they didn't share with Umar, man Cola was not what used to come to his mind when he thought of parties, but that was also before Stacy. For better or worse she had changed a lot in his life.

After putting Alice to sleep, Stacy was cleaning up whatever she could until Umar arrived and the rest would be left for the next day.

The doorbell rang and not Umar but there was another man on the door, looked younger than Umar was, a little bit too dressed and by the look of the car in the driveway, it seemed he was someone with deep pockets as well.

"You missed the party..... A friend of Umar I assume?"

"Yes, I am acquainted with Mr. Iqbal, I got caught up into something, sorry I missed the party and I feel even more sorry for showing up this late at your door."

The man seemed so polite that Stacy thought she should invite him in at least, maybe offer him something to eat.

" Come on in, I'll get something for you, Umar will be here soon I think"

Maybe that was just Stacy's imagination but the man seemed to tense up a little at hearing that.

"I could not think of anything else, so I brought a box of chocolate with me." He handed the box to Stacy.

Than they talked a while about her daughter. The man was rather excited to talk about her, he was showing almost same passion and worry about her daughter as she would herself. That made her happy somehow. Upon requesting that if he could meet her she politely said no because she didn't want to wake her up but she did shoe him , her picture which seemed to satisfy the man as he didn't ask to see her again nor was he upset about being declined the first time.

"You never told me your name...."

" How impolite of me, I am Hamza"

And after saying that he got up to leave excusing himself saying that he had somewhere to be and he can't get anymore late than he already was. Stacy walked him to the door, and he left in his car with such a hurry that maybe he was trying to prove what he had said earlier that he had somewhere to be.

Umar arrived almost half an hour later the man had left.

" That was some drive... you are not going to believe what we guys did"

That was weird at that Stacy should have said something, that Umar usually regarded as angry noises.

"Hey, no angry yelling at me today, ..... I didn't do anything I was just messing with y...."

His whole body stopped at once, as he saw her wife lying on the floor, blood almost in every corner of the room. Soon as he could move again he started looking for Alice but their was nobody else in the house except him and his recently dead wife.