15

Zaroon went to Mr Khan's office after giving instructions to the caretaker.

He was allowed in Mr Khan's office right away.

It looked like Mr Khan had grown a decade older in a day only. The stress on his face was clear.

He greeted Mr khan and took a seat " Sir, she is innocent, she hasn’t done anything wrong. " Zaroon started.

Mr khan smiled " She is my daughter; do you think I need to hear any justification about her from you?" He said and Zaroon also smiled. Mr Khan's silence from yesterday night hadn’t sit well with him, he knew that there was something going on more than what was being shown.

" Then why .... " Zaroon started.

" You are family now; I don’t think there’s a need to hide anything from you. I have brought up Jannat alone. But regretfully, I haven’t given her the attention I should have. She is so innocent; she can’t even understand when people are using her. Areej and her mother, their behaviour towards Jannat has never been stable. But my naive daughter, she can’t even understand that every person she loves isn’t going to love her back. Yesterday, the venom they were spitting, they won’t have stopped if I wouldn’t have taken any action. “Mr khan said.

" But they can still continue talking." Zaroon raised a point.

" She is your wife now; you should be able to protect her. If you wouldn’t have come with the proposal yesterday, I won’t have called you yesterday. But the determination in your eyes showed me the path, today or tomorrow you planned to marry Jannat. Questions would have raised again, so I decided to end it all for once. " Mr Khan said as if it was that easy.

" Jannat, she is missing you. " Zaroon said.

" I am an old man; I will not stay with her forever. Make her habitual to your presence. I can’t go soft now and meet her right now; she will want to return home. I am going abroad for a month or so, in that time, do what you can to keep her happy. It’s your chance, but while meeting me, she would ask to return I won’t stop her." Mr khan said.

" Don’t tell her about today's meet up. I am trusting you with her, son. " Mr Khan said coming near him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

" I will take care of her. " Zaroon said and got up.

After that, he returned to his place. He saw Jannat sitting on the sofa playing with her fingers.

Zaroon smiled and sat near her." Aren’t you bored?" He asked.

Jannat didn’t reply.

" Let’s go upstairs, you will love the view. " Zaroon said. There was all greenery on the back of his house, it was a thing of beauty.

Jannat got up as she didn’t have anything else to do.

They went to the terrace and Jannat was surprised after seeing the view. The view from his room was good, but she hadn’t bothered going to the balcony.

But this made her regret it, the greenery all around was so peaceful.

A smile covered her lips and Zaroon lost himself in her smile. The soft curve of her lips brought a smile on his face also.

She stood there admiring the surroundings for some time and he stood there admiring her, like there was nothing else worth seeing.