Must Read: The Silent Lover - Season 1 - Episode 77

Episode 7 years ago

Must Read: The Silent Lover - Season 1 - Episode 77

“Madam,” On Deeba?s distant call, Hijaab stopped at her place and turned back to find Deeba approaching toward her with quick steps.

“I’ve someone for you.” Deeba said aloud and waved her hand to her right.

Hijaab followed Deeba’s gaze and saw a handsomely built man walking slowly toward her. His black eyes met hers for a second, and she almost fell to the ground in shock. She must have let out an audible gasp for Deeba swirled around to see what was wrong.

The man continued toward her. Paralyzed at her place, she could do little more than drink in his well-remembered physique.
She knew her mind must be playing tricks on her, because there was no way on earth he would be in front of her.

Yes, She decided, she must have been having some sort of crazy hallucination. Her desire for him mixed with the fatigue was making her see things that weren’t real. Her mind was playing cruel tricks on her. It couldn’t be him. But this man, dressed in an impeccably tailored black dinner jacket, black slacks, a black shirt, looked exactly like him and appeared too solid and real to be a mirage.

On the other hand, Aariz’s condition was not much different. Although the woman’s face was still covered up to her eyes but even those eyes were enough for him to make him believe that it was none other than her.

He would know those eyes anywhere, he thought. Through those eyes, he could recognize her in billions.

How could he forget her?

She’d snuck up on his blind side as well, found a soft spot in his heart and wormed her way into it.

“Zeest!”
The sound of her name on his tongue shocked her.

Her throat still blocked by emotion, wouldn’t let her utter a sound.

Reaching in front of her, he stopped as if he couldn’t go on.

Their eyes continued to hold. Both remained motionless, frozen in time as they stared at each other.

“Zeest!” He took another step forward and stopped.

The typical lazy drawl of his voice was a caress, touching her and assuring her of his existence.

She stiffened at the sound of his voice, and turned to face him fully, her posture rigid.

Taking one last step, she stopped short of him, able to make out his lean features and the pain carved in them.

For a breathless moment they both looked at each other
“Do…I…… I deserve you?” Words came out of his mouth with difficulty. His gold-framed glasses giving his face an ascetic quality as he spoke.

Her breath came in sharp gasp. Her throat muscles were so tightly constricted she couldn’t speak.

“Please Allah, don’t let her reject him.” Deeba prayed, watching them from the distance.

Zeest’s only response was a murmur.
She was shaking a little.

And Aariz…
His own condition was not much different. He couldn’t believe his eyes, and couldn’t believe his fate.

“I just ask for one thing from you now.” He took a shuddering breath. “Forgive me, if you can, for all the things I’ve done with you.”
Just for a second she hated his male ego that had always stopped him to accept her, and wanted to hurt him as she had been hurt, deep and wounding.

Aariz swallowed hard. “There’s one more confession from me.” He looked at her with pain in his eyes, as she closed her eyes, guarding them through her long, curvy trembling lashes.

“And that is…” He left his sentence unfinished to read her inner feelings through her eyes, but she still kept them closed.

“I respect you.” He said softly. “Respect, that is foundation of ‘love’.”
The sudden, unexpected words caused her to open her eyes against her will and she watched him with disbelief, thinking if it was a dream or something.

Unable to gaze anymore into those fiery black depths of his eyes, she closed her eyes again, her legs shaking and her lips trembling, showing her weakness.

“Look at me, Zeest.”
His tone became affectionate.
“Please, look into my eyes.” He pleaded.

Her lids felt heavy and she had to force them open.

“I love you not because I need you… I need you because I love you.” He whispered the words
softly.

A m0an came from her throat, so soft that it was barely audible, a tiny cry of utter longing.

“Don’t think I wish any favour from you.” He shook his head regretfully. “Perhaps, I don’t deserve that.”
She kept silent, her mind going blank as he spoke.

“But you could at least forgive me, right?” He looked into her eyes with request and plea.

“I’m sorry.” He said and meant it.

She raised her eyes to him, an aching regret sweeping through her at the defeat in his expression.

“I didn’t want to hurt you.” He couldn’t look into her eyes. “But I know I did.”
“But know what?” With force, he took his darkly haunted eyes to her face. “There’s someone else too who was as much hurt as you were, and that was me, myself. “
A sob caught in her throat. Her lips snarled and quivered. Yes, somehow she knew what he was saying was true.

“Zeest?” He called her.
“I’m still here, aren’t I?” He said aloud. “You can get mad at me, Zeest, and it’s still alright. Don’t you see that? It’s alright.”
She hadn’t said anything yet.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” He muttered at last, rubbing the back of his hand across his cheek, looking at her rather shamefacedly.

“I wish those times could come back once again.” His voice was husky as he continued. “So that I could make up for all the hurt and loss you suffered.”
“But I am not time!” Her voice was shaking with emotion, as she finally answered. “I can come back.”
He couldn’t believe his ears. Was it really her saying this? Was it possible that she could come back to him?

Could it be possible that God would grant him twice the magic of falling in love. He thought he was going to spend the rest of his life alone.

As for those tense moments she just stared at him, he saw the glitter of tears on lashes several shades of colours.

They stared into each other’s eyes for what seemed to be an eternity. Then, with a muffled m0an, she flung herself into his arms.

She held him so close, so tight like she wanted to devour him within herself. She was shaking.

He could feel it.

He didn’t push her away and In fact gripped her tight against him. Her tears dampened his chest, as his own arms tightened about her, crushing her soft body to his. His hands roamed up and down her back, pressing her closer and closer. In that moment, he was surprised to discover he never wanted to let her go.

He wanted to hold her and protect her against everything in the world outside.
His strong arms wrapped around her, completely binding them together in an unbreakable lock.

A violent shudder racked her frame as his hands touched her shoulders. The touch of him opened a wound so deeply painful that she started trembling.

Opening her eyes, she blinked through the wall of tears to see the absolute certainty of his ardent expression, the searing fire of his back gaze.

Deeba watched while tears blinded her and her heart swelled with love for the soft woman and the tough man. Yet she was afraid to move or even breath, for fear she’d start crying and not be able to stop.

The wind gently picked up as they held each other, crying for what seemed like hours though only minutes passed. The sun rose for them both, bringing the promise of a new and loving day, which they would spend together.

It cast a bright beam upon them, illuminating the hope that they both held as if it were something tangible.

Aariz held her in his arms, feeling the cold now blowing against his own body as it drew near them. Their tears met the wind together.

Leaning over him and gripping the smooth strength of his broad shoulders for support, Zeest began to sob heavily
“Don’t cry!” The roughness of his male hand was on her cheek, wiping them away, although he was crying himself.

“For God’s sake, don’t cry.” His voice held no anger, only a kind of anguished regret.

“I can’t help it.” She honestly tried to check the flow of tears, but it was unstoppable.

“I swear to Allah I never meant to hurt you on my own will.” His voice was gentle as he said.

“I know.” She murmured gently and a little sadly, as she held her tear-streaked face tight against Aariz’s chest, sobbing as though her heart was broken.

“It isn’t your fault. You didn’t ask me to fall in love with you.” Her voice trembled, then steadied. “Maybe if you had, I’d be able to hate you, but I can’t, I don’t.”
“Have you ever wondered which hurts the most?” He asked in a low voice.

“No,” Zeest whispered, her eyes flowing with tears.

“Saying something and wishing you had not, or saying nothing and wishing you had?” As he spoke, she felt the warmth of his breath against her skin. He brought one of his hands to dry a tear from her cheek.

“It took me a while to realize it was your voice I heard whispering in the breeze, calling to me.” Aariz told her.

“You were the shining warmth I felt when I walked in the sunlight. There was nothing over the next hill that was better than what I’d left behind. The best thing with worst experience had already happened to me, and that was you.

Anything else would only be a hollow echo of what I’d known. I was surrounded by emptiness, Zeest, and the bitter-sweet memories of you!”
The gentleness of his tone was too much for Zeest; she dissolved into tears, her shoulders shaking, her face covered with his chest.

“I loved you so much that it became a physical and mental hurt.” He said as he pulled her to him and held her close, his chin resting on top of her head.

Their tears poured over their lips slowly, finally ending. They were still in others arms and none of them wanted to break the nearness and intimacy.

Gently, he pulled the scarf from her hair and let the curls drop softly to her shoulders, running his fingers through her hair.

There was this girl, with angelic face and innocent features, a girl who had changed his life, a girl who was his wife.

“I wish you could be my first love.” He murmured regretfully as he pulled her close, his wrist so close to the lobe of her ear that she could hear the tickling of his watch.

“It doesn’t make me sad.” She slid her hands around his waist, as her ear pressed against his chest. “Lucky is the man who is first love of a woman but luckier is the woman who is last love of a man.”
“I was stupid and blind.” He stroked her hair lightly in gentle comfort
She wanted to tell him not to say that. But when he looked at her like that, as if he could see into her very soul, her knees weakened and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath.

”If you knew how much I regret my stupidity!

You were the best thing in my life and I let you go.”
She caught her breath at the sweet, unexpected words, and she pulled back to gaze at him in wonder.

“When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.” She said and rested her head on Aariz’s chest, at ease with herself and him.

He saw she was smiling, although her eyes still filled with tears, happy tears this time.

“No smile is as beautiful as the one that struggles through the tears.” He thought.

“But…” He muttered painfully. “I even ignored you. How could you still love me then?”
“Do you know what’s great love?” She asked back softly and then answered herself. “It’s when you shed tears and still you care for him, it’s when he ignores you and still long for him. It’s when he begins to love another and yet you still smile and say I’m happy for you.”
“Sometimes the one you love turns out to be the one, who hurts you the most,” She went on gently.

“Love is when someone hurts you. And sometimes you even get mad but you don’t yell at him because you know it would hurt his feelings.”
A few feet away, Deeba gloried in the precious moment she’d been privileged to witness and knew she would treasure this memory long after both Aariz and Zeest had forgotten her existence.

“What I did to you is something I can never forget.” He was saying with his eyes closed.

“Apology accepted.” Zeest laughed and chided softly, as though she’d read his mind.

“I feel so warm, so safe,” she whispered; letting her head, rest against his shoulder. And it was true. This was her place, in her husband’s arms. It was him whom she loved, his touch she longed for.

She sighed and curled closer, her eyelids fluttering shut.

“I…I thought, our love was over.” He stammered weakly, running his fingers through her fine hair.

It was true, he’d never expected to love again, much less so strongly.

“Yes, it was over, but not finished.” She smiled through her tear-filled eyes. “For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it, for every truth there is an ear someone to hear it, for every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.”
“It would be alright.” She whimpered and smiled, trying to convince herself, as much as him.

Her smile wiped out all the pain and torment.

“You remember something?” He asked, his index finger playing with her soft curls.

“What?”
“We’ve not consummated our marriage yet.”
“Hmm?”
“We’re already married ‘religiously, legally and theoretically’. We were not, however, married ‘practically’. But tonight, we will make our marriage ‘practical’ too.” There was a naughty smile on his lips.

She flushed, suddenly self-conscious but deliriously happy. Heat rising in her cheeks, she snuggled against his chest.

Her secret wish had come true. Now, and for the rest of her life, there was someone for her to love; there was someone who loved her back.