chapter 8
1154 Words
Zulfishan kept the file closed for now.
Something inside her said: Wait. There’s more to learn before opening it.
Instead, her thoughts turned to Mawra.
Lately, Mawra had been acting strange — moody, nervous, and sometimes too kind. It wasn’t like her.
And Mehreen?
She had gone missing.
Two days ago, Mehreen left the office and never returned home. People at work whispered that maybe she resigned. Others said she ran away.
But Zulfishan knew something was wrong.
Mehreen had been kidn*pped.
She saw it on the news that morning — a blurry CCTV video showing Mehreen being pulled into a car. The police hadn’t said much yet. But the face of the man with the snake-shaped ring in the video haunted her.
He looked familiar.
Zulfishan remembered him from her father's past… one of the men her father had once warned her about.
The name in her father's old diary came back to her:
"Azfar. Never trust him."
She didn’t tell anyone about what she saw.
Not even Aabi. Not Mawra.
She decided to act quietly.
That day, she went to work early. She pretended to be reading files in the hallway near the server room.
That’s when she saw Mawra talking to another junior employee. But it wasn’t a friendly chat — it looked tense.
Zulfishan hid nearby and listened.
Mawra whispered, “She knows too much. And Mehreen’s mistake has cost us time. We need to move faster.”
The employee nodded, slipped her a USB, and walked away.
Zulfishan froze.
Mawra is involved. And she knows about Mehreen’s k********g… maybe even more.
Later, at home, Zulfishan saw Mawra talking on the phone on the balcony.
She kept her voice low, but Zulfishan caught a few words through the open window:
“Her file is still with her. If she opens it… everything will collapse.”
Zulfishan stepped out.
Mawra jumped. “Z-Zulfi… I didn’t see you there.”
Zulfishan forced a smile. “Just got home. Everything okay?”
Mawra nodded quickly. “Yes. Just office stress.”
Zulfishan didn’t say anything else.
But her eyes were watching closely.
That night, Zulfishan opened her laptop and looked at the CCTV footage again — the one that had gone viral.
She paused it at the moment Mehreen was pushed into the black car.
There, next to the car door, stood Azfar. His face slightly blurred, but the silver snake ring was clear.
She zoomed in, took a screenshot, and saved it.
Suddenly, her phone lit up with a message:
Unknown Number:
“Don’t open the file. If you want to stay alive, leave Mehreen to us.”
Zulfishan’s hands shook.
Someone was watching her.
They knew she had the file.
And now… they were warning her.
She looked at the file again.
Her instincts said: Not yet.
But now she knew three things for sure:
Mehreen’s k********g was no accident.
Mawra was not innocent — and she was hiding something.
Someone from her father’s past had returned… and he was dangerous.
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Zulfishan sat in her room, staring at the screenshot of Azfar — the man in the video of Mehreen’s k********g.
That snake-shaped ring.
She had seen it before.
Suddenly, her mind flashed back to her childhood — the day her father was furious, his voice trembling with something she hadn’t understood back then.
“Zulfishan, if you ever see a man with a silver snake ring… run. Don’t ask questions. Just run.”
At that time, she had laughed and asked, “Is he a magician or a thief?”
But her father didn’t smile. He knelt beside her and said softly:
“He’s something worse. He knows secrets that can destroy lives — ours too. Promise me.”
Now, years later, the face in the video confirmed it.
It was Azfar.
That night, she opened an old box in her cupboard — her father’s things.
Among his notes and documents, she found a leather diary with cracked edges.
She opened the last few pages, written in faded ink.
“Azfar... the last person I ever trusted. He wasn’t always like this.
He was once my friend. My business partner. My closest ally.
Until he betrayed me for money, power… and something else.”
“He stole our research — information about government systems.
He sold them to people abroad. Dangerous people. When I tried to stop him… he threatened my family.”
“I hid what I could. I went silent. But I always feared he would come back for her… for Zulfishan.”
Zulfishan’s eyes filled with tears.
Her father had tried to protect her from something she had no idea existed.
She now understood the strange fear he had shown near the end of his life.
Azfar wasn’t just a name from the past.
He was a living threat.
And now he had kidn*pped Mehreen.
Why?
She decided to speak to Aabi.
She sent him the diary pictures, the CCTV screenshot, and the anonymous message she had received.
Aabi called her immediately.
“Zulfi, listen to me carefully,” his voice was tight. “Don’t tell anyone you have this. Azfar isn’t just a hacker or businessman. He works with a deep network. He could have eyes inside the office, maybe even in your home.”
“You think he’s working with Mawra?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Aabi replied. “But someone close to you is feeding him information. And if that file he warned you about is what I think it is… it contains everything your father tried to bury.”
Zulfishan stared at the folder again.
Still unopened.
Still dangerous.
But now, she was ready.
Later that night, she couldn’t sleep.
So she went out to the garden behind their house — the place where her father used to walk with her.
That’s when she saw a shadow move behind the trees.
She froze.
“Who’s there?”
Silence.
Then… footsteps.
Zulfishan quickly grabbed a metal rod from the shed and stepped forward.
But the shadow disappeared over the wall.
In its place… was a paper bag, left on the grass.
She picked it up with shaking hands.
Inside was an old photo.
Her father. Herself as a little girl.
And Azfar, standing next to them — smiling.
On the back of the photo, written in red ink:
“We were once a family.
Don’t make the same mistake your father did.”
Zulfishan dropped the photo.
Her heart was racing.
Azfar had been here.
He wasn’t just watching her from afar.
He was close.
He knew her memories.
He remembered the past — and now he wanted something from her.
Was it revenge?
Or was he trying to finish something he started long ago?
She didn’t have the answers.
But she had a feeling:
This wasn’t just about Mehreen.
This wasn’t just about files or secrets.
This was personal.
- Writer
