Match Made In Moonlight ✓

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"She isn't going to live with us forever, Unaiza," he murmured, earning a suspicious look from her.

"What do you mean?" Unaiza asked in confusion.

Haider narrated everything that led to their marriage and till today to her. Unaiza's eyes got widened with so many revelations.

This wasn't a real marriage. It was a contract marriage done only for the sake of family. The hatred for Nisha wasn't subdued. It was the basis of this relationship. Ishmal wasn't Haider's friend's sister and someone whom he liked. Instead, she was a hopeless, helpless, and innocent girl who got bumped into him in the moonlight of the night when she was trying to escape from her stepfather. Then how Haider behaved with her by letting out his resentment against Nisha upon her.

"Haider Bhai...what are you saying? It's unbelievable," Unaiza whispered.

Haider sighed. "I am saying the truth, Unaiza. I was a jerk who used her and her helplessness to get myself away from the pressure of getting a wife. She is right in her place; what did I do for her to feel any better from me? From using her for my own motives and then taking out the frustration of that woman on her. She wants to go now and I won't stop her because she deserves better than this."

Unaiza closed her eyes to calm herself down before opening them again. "Allah, Haider Bhai. What have you done?"

"Something really pathetic. I know it, Iza," he said, twisting his lips.

"Now what are you going to do?" Unaiza questioned, straightening her glasses.

"She wishes for freedom. And that's the least I can do to make up for what I did with her," he said painfully.

Unaiza's jaw dropped. "Freedom...divorce? You aren't going to do that Haider Bhai. Isn't it?"

Perhaps it was difficult for him to do that as well. He didn't want to let Ishmal go. But how could he break that mountain of ego situated in him? The hurt man in him who didn't want once again to lean in front of women. Who didn't want another girl to know that she was his weak point and that he liked her? That was what he did in the past. He made himself so open and honest with Nisha that she misused his pure emotions. Using any means to let Ishmal stay seemed better than confessing to her and making himself unarmed again to a woman.

"That's what it is, Unaiza. I just let you know because I wanted to tell you this as someone with whom I could open myself up without worrying about anything," he confided to her as he got up from the bench.

"Haider Bhai, that's not good." Unaiza too stood up and came in front of him. "You can't let her go. Where would she go now? And what about everyone else? What would you say to anyone about where Ishmal Bhabi has gone?"

He paused at her first statement. That was true. Where would Ishmal go? To her house where that lecherous stepfather of hers lived? But certainly, she wouldn't like it for him to care about it. When he had decided to let Ishmal leave and she wanted it herself then that didn't matter where she would then go.

"She will go from where she came from, Unaiza," he announced. "I like your coffee. Thanks for this. It was much needed." He smiled before walking away, leaving Unaiza stunned at this weird information.

When Haider came back into his room, he found it empty. He looked around but Ishmal was nowhere to be seen. Where did she go?

Haider stepped towards the washroom and stopped there. But when he couldn't hear anything from inside, he pushed the closed door open. His mouth remained wide open seeing Ishmal sitting on the floor near the vanity. Her back was pressed against the wall and her eyes were closed as she was hugging her knees to her belly. Covering herself in her own dupatta, it took a minute for Haider to realize that she was sleeping. Taking a relieved breath, he crouched down before her. She had dried marks of tears on her cheeks.