Match Made In Moonlight ✓

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He saw as she was putting her dresses in a suitcase again. He didn't know that she would decide to leave as soon as he would give her a permit. But that described how screwed up their relationship was that she wanted an independence as quickly as possible.

At times, Haider wanted to stop her. Especially when he found the last suit of hers coming out of the en suite.  However, he knew he couldn't do so. There was nothing in this marriage and union anymore. He was a horrible man and Ishmal didn't deserve someone like him. The only thing he could give her was humiliation, the scars of his own rotten ego, and nothing else. It would be better if she would leave.

Ishmal shut the lid of the suitcase before turning towards him who was already looking at her. Taking a deep breath, she adjusted the dupatta around her head and pulled the suitcase down on the floor.

"I'll drop you to wherever you want to go," he offered her, seeing her going away.

Ishmal stopped in her tracks and pressed her lips together. "I can go by myself. Thanks for your consideration."

Haider walked in her direction and stood in front of her. Today her light brown eyes seemed more attractive. "Don't argue again, Ishmal. I brought you here and it's my duty to get you back to where you belonged as part of the contract safe and sound."

Safe and sound? She laughed inwardly. She wasn't like the way she was before. She was leaving her heart here. She was leaving her feelings here. She was leaving so many special first moments here.

She couldn't say anything now. He had drawn that contract between them. Haider held the handle of the suitcase from her before taking a few steps closer to her. Her usual vanilla scent hovered in his senses. Suddenly he felt a need to hug her and tell her how much she meant for him. The next moment, he took out his phone from his pocket and called someone.

"Show up to me quickly," he ordered.

Ishmal ambled out of the room. It was the early morning and day of Sunday. Everyone was sleeping till yet. Ishmal quickly went down the stairs when she was stopped by a guard. But soon she realized this was the man whom Haider had called.

Standing near the car, she watched that the guard was putting her suitcase inside it. Haider was already standing beside her. When the man was done, he gestured with his hand to get into the car. Ishmal abided by him without saying a word.

Haider started the engine of the car. It roared and broke the silence of the surroundings before he drifted it on the road. Ishmal started looking out of the window. Her eyes focused on the rapidly moving vehicles.

Her situation had not changed from the time she first came across Haider. She was helpless and miserable then and now as well. She had tears in her eyes then and now too. But the difference was that she wasn't letting them flow like the last time. Whatever it was, she would now see her mother. She didn't even care for her stepfather even. She wanted to see her, meet her, hug her, and hide herself in her warm embrace. The shadow she had left and fell into this dangerous yet appealing turn of events. But of course, her heart and feelings would be void because she had certainly given it to Haider altogether and willfully. 

She glanced at him who was driving the car in silence. He had his one arm on the steering wheel while he had his jaw clenched. He never apologized for whatever he had said and done to her. He didn't even care to explain why he had decided to touch her and kiss her when their contract strictly mentioned that they would not indulge in any physical intimacy. It was all a battle of ego, superiority, and possession for him. He wanted to make her realize that he was stronger than her.

"Guide me where do you want to go," Haider murmured, causing the trains of her thoughts to pull a break.

Ishmal told him the way to her mother's house. When they arrived there, Haider meticulously observed it. It was a very underdeveloped area having a few moderately well-built houses. That didn't seem like any shelter home or girls' hostel. It was a house. Perhaps her own house where she used to live. And surely her horrible stepfather must be there.