29.

                                    

                                          
Umeed felt the ceiling of the house descend, caving her in, getting smaller and smaller, her hands clenching onto the material of her kurta. She was suffocating, her breathing becoming difficult, the ceiling was ready to trap her. She watched as Farjaad stared at her, his face shifting from confusion to realisation.
She was breathing loudly, her eyes instantly glossing, but she was not going to cause a scene. No. Umeed was not going to ruin it for the couple. She reached for her purse and clenched onto it.
"E-Excuse me." She threw her folder to the ground on the way out, but was too quick to even hear if fall. There was only the sound of her heart, ringing in her ears, thudding, booming, and sending shrill ringing in her body. 
Farjaad let it sink in, for a second, for a very small second as he looked at his mother in disappointment. it did not last long, it was replaced with panic, utter panic that had him run after her, leaving Nighat and Reena confused. 
This was not happening. He did not work so carefully to let this happen. Nothing was making sense, but he followed Umeed out. He followed with no thought except he was not going to let her go away thinking he meant anything bad. Farjaad was not going to risk having his love get jeoperdized. He loved her, he wanted to show that the love was as strong as it was. Nothing was different. 
"Umeed." He voiced her, she was too quick to catch a hold of. She was not even in control of her feet, she was letting them take her wherever they wanted. And at that moment, they wanted her out of the house, out of the city, of the damn city that brings her nothing but pain. Her body was tired of it. "Umeed ruko, baat suno!" 
Tears spilled down her eyes as she walked out of the gate and towards the car. Her laptop was in his house. Her folder was in his house. Her work which she had put hundreds of hours on was in his place. The laptop she bought by having to cut down on groceries just because it was an investment for her job, that was sitting on the centre table. But Umeed could not care less.
The man who she gave her heart to, the man she called the love of the life, the one who gave her a purpose to enjoy the small things, the one who made her believe in herself, the one who revamped her passion for doing what she wanted, the one who was behind her when she thought she would collapse when facing the biggest challenge of her professional career. This was the man who helped in things he didn't even know he had an impact on, like her anxiety, like her past continuing struggles with a disorder she was diagnosed with but chose to ignore because what was the point? He did not know he helped her, but he did. 
The man she loved.
It was all a game. All a joke. She was played. She fell for such a simple and easy trap. She devoted everything to him. He was preparing to marry someone else. She was just a pawn, a fool who was under the spell of love. An idiot who thought that everything in her life was perfect because she found her partner. She was stupid. 
She was stupid. She was stupid, childish, mischievous. No one would marry her. No one would take her seriously. 
Pasha sahab was right.
And what a fool she was. What an utter, absolute, love-stricken fool. Umeed Pasha, the idiot who was a weight on her own father's shoulders. The girl who ran away from home with a motive that she will do so much because she believed in herself and believed that someone so wise like her father was wrong. In the end, he was right. He was right.
She clenched her jaw, the tears not stopping, her eyes hurting because of how much she was crying as she tried unlocking the car.
Farjaad ran behind her.
"Umeed. Umeed meri baat suno." He held the door, preventing her from opening it. She instantly took a step back, a move that felt like a dagger through his heart.