KABIR OPENS THE DOOR FOR NAZIA, his arm still around her shaky figure while he holds most of her weight. Nazia's eyes widen seeing Sahibha in the driver's seat. "What's happening?" she asks. "Why were you guys together?"

Ah, his ever so blunt Nazia is back. "It's not like that," Kabir promises. "I overdrank a bit and buttcalled Sahibha. I was sleeping on her couch when your phone came."

Nazia begrudgingly nods, her eyes still narrowed on Sahibha. She slides into the seat and Kabir kisses her on the temple before he sits down. Out of comfort, she grabs his hand and puts it on her lap. "So are you guys good friends?" she quizzes.

"Kabir is really mean," Sahibha finally laughs. She turns to look at Nazia, her eyes settling on her mascara stained cheeks. Even in this terrible lighting, Sahibha radiates beauty with her rosy cheeks and pink lips. "I'm glad you're safe. Kabir was so upset."

Nazia nods, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She doesn't know what to say to Sahibha that wasn't rude. Although Nazia is aware that Sahibha did drive Kabir all this way out, Nazia wasn't too excited to see Sahibha. After all, Nazia still remembers this photos of Sahibha and Kabir kissing and the fact Abeer left her for Sahibha. In Nazia's eyes, Sahibha is a homewrecker with somewhat of a moral compass when it comes to lunatic almost-murderers.

When no one says anything else, Sahibha awkwardly starts up the car. The car starts to move quickly and Nazia is grateful for that. Every now and then under the green hues of go lights, Kabir mutters a direction to Sahibha.

At a red light, Nazia finally speaks. "So nothing has ever happened between you two, right?"

Kabir scroffs. "Sahibha is just a friend." He look over at Nazia, his eyes tired with all the events of tonight. If Kabir had a choice, he would've rather been at home and this talk would've taken place many hours later. Right now, he feels so faint and dull compared to his usual self.

Nazia tugs her hand out of Kabir's. She brings out her phone from her pocket and shows it to Kabir with faked confindance. Nazia's foot is tapping reputedly on the floor and her eyes are darting around the car. Kabir doubts she wants this talk to happen right now either - but something is pushing her one the edge of her comfort zone to ask.

When Nazia pulls up the photos of Sahibha and him kissing, Kabir gasps. His eyes widen and quickly flash to Nazia. Although her arms are crossing over, tears start to pool in her eyes. Ever the tough girl, Nazia coughs into her hand and quickly wipes the tears away.

Kabir slowly shakes his head. "That was so long ago. I was drunk, it was hours after we broke up and I wasn't in the right mindset," Kabir fumbles, his words awkward and fast. His eyes meet Nazia's with a plead. "It's not what it seems - I promise."

Nazia laughs, shaking her head. "Oh wait, you were just giving CPR to Sahibha in middle of a nightclub. My bad!" She stops laughing to look straight at Kabir. It's as if time slowed down for a moment and all she could see was Kabir and everything he meant to her. And for that long moment, all she could think was about how he was everything she had left and how idiotic she was to think she could fall in love again. There's always someone prettier, smarter and better than her. It was dumb to fall for someone like Kabir; for his soft laughter and hands, his brown crinkled eyes and sweet voice. She should've known that he would find better.

She tries to look away from his eyes but like a moth to a flame, her eyes flicker back to him. Something about his shock draws her back in even when she doesn't want to. Her fingers tap against her thighs, a lame attempt to distract herself from the tears pooling in her eyes again. This time, she allows them to fall onto her cheeks in streaks.

"What's happening?" Sahibha nervously asks, her eyes flickering to the review mirror. Her perfect mouth is agape in shock and Nazia scroffs. Nazia pulls her right leg to her chest and hugs it close.

"It's not what's happening. It's what happened already. Kabir, Abeer - You just can't keep your hands off them, right?" Nazia asks, tliting her head as she watches Sahibha. "What do they see in you, anyways?"

"Nazia," Kabir steely says, his eyes meeting Nazia's again. "It's not her fault -"

"- What? Did Abeer kidnap her and hold her against her will? Did he force her to tell me that he doesn't love me? Did you force her to kiss you even when you were drunk?" Nazia asks, raising her eyebrow. "Both of you are so ridiculous."

Kabir tries to say something but then he turns silent. Instead, he pulls out his phone and turns it on. Like Nazia, he doesn't speak until he pulls out some photos from his gallery. He tlits the screen to Nazia to allow her to see a photo of her leaning onto Abeer's shoulder as she smiled a dazed grin. The eye liner and lipstick makes it obvious that it was a recent photo. Kabir swipes to reveal a photo of Nazia kissing Abeer. He turns off the phone then, knowing he made his point.

"Don't you dare act as if you have a moral compass. At least we were broken up when I kissed Sahibha - What about this photo?" Kabir says, holding his chin as he looks at Nazia with curiosity. "Some random number sent it to me after you came home drunk on our fucking anniversary."

Sahibha couldn't help it - she gasps. "What?"

Kabir rolls his eyes. "Techincally it's not really our anniversary but it was the date our wedding was scheduled on. I was planning to propose again but Nazia never came," he admits. His eyes fall back to Nazia who looks at the screen with horrified eyes.

"Pass me your phone," Nazia states and holds out her palm for the photos. He hands it over begrudgingly. She swipes through them and frowns. "I don't remember kissing him at all - " she zooms into the corner onto a face. It was a photo of a young man with gleaming eyes and mischievous lips. For a moment, Nazia stares at the screen with confusion until she begins to think faster. With widen eyes, she starts to speak again "- holy fuck. That bartender! My drink tasted weird and my head felt awful."

Nazia looks back up at Kabir. "I swear I didn't remember kissing him at all. All I remember was that Megha texted me that she was in danger, drinking something that should have in no way gotten me drunk and then fainting - it was so weird. I thought I fainted into your arms which was the weirdest part."

Sahibha drums her fingers on the steering wheel, her eyes glued to the front as she speaks. "Do you think he drugged you?" she asks with concern. Nazia nods slowly, her eyes moving to Kabir.

"I think so," she frowns. "I don't think Abeer would be crazy enough but nothing else makes sense. Maybe it was two different people?"

"So like someone hates both of us enough to stalk Abeer until he drugs and kisses you, and then send photos to me? I think it'll be just Abeer's doing," Kabir points out. "It's Abeer."

Alternatively, it was just an excuse of Nazia's but truth be told, Kabir is desperate for Nazia. He misses her. It felt as if there was a broken jag between his heart and it seemed as if that was all he could think or feel. Kabir doesn't want to think of Nazia not loving him, so it was easy to fall into his fantasies about how Nazia will always love him and has never loved anyone else.

Nazia bites down onto her lip. Somewhere, deep within her heart, she really wished Abeer was a good person. It would have given her peace knowing Abeer learnt to treat people with respect instead as if human life was an ornament. Although she does believe Abeer could pull it off, she was hoping all of his statements about 'games' and winning Nazia over was all just lies. She was really hoping Abeer would have gotten over her, and moved onto the next pretty thing silently.

"That was his plan, wasn't it?" Kabir coldly states rather than ask. His voice is made of steel. There isn't a hint of warmth or softness that Kabir usually holds. His eyes meet Sahibha's in the review mirror. "You kiss me, Abeer takes the photos, calls you a whore while nearly breaking my nose, then he shows the photos to Nazia. Great fucking idea."

"Why are you blaming Sahibha?" Nazia frowns. Her eyes glare at Kabir with a certain fire of curiosity. "This doesn't add up."

"I was flat out drunk when I was kissing Sahibha. It didn't go any further than that," Kabir tells her. "Abeer was behind me the whole time and I didn't even realize."

"How did Abeer know that you and Sahibha were there?" Nazia quizzes, placing her chin on her fist. She leans in closely to Kabir, watching him carefully. Now, all the anderline runs out of his body and he looks at Sahibha with pale cheeks.

Sahibha drums her fingers on the steering wheel. Finally, she breaks the silence. "He's blackmailing me with some stuff he has," she finally says. "I have financial problems so I asked him if he could out as he has a ridiculous sum of cash. It wouldn't be too hard to lend a little cash, right? Instead, he asked me this."

If Nazia wasn't so tired and didn't suffer a near death situation a few hours ago, she would have yelled at Sahibha. However, we didn't have th energy to do so. The only thing keeping her awake at this hour is her curiosity and her refusal to think of how close she was to death a few hours ago.

Nazia leans back into her seat. She bites her lip. "Why not a loan, though?"

Sahibha shrugs. "I can't afford it. I have mortgages, college loans and I'm still paying off the loans I took for my mother's chemotherapy."

Nazia glances over the car. On the floor, she spots pink heels made out of silk. She could almost swear she saw it on some designer's page off instagram. Obviously, Sahibha loves classy and expensive objects. She doesn't seem like the type to be suffering bankruptcy or anything along the lines of that - but then again, maybe Nazia is wrong and she's just judging Sahibha off her distaste for her.

"So let me get this straight - Abeer blackmailed Sahibha into kissing you, took some photos and then called his beloved Sahibha a whore? The same guy who cheats like it's breakfast? That Abeer?" Nazia frowns. "The audacity of that cunt."

Sahibha laughs. "I'm definitely not his beloved Sahibha. The rest of the statement is true though." She taps her finger on the steering wheel. For a moment, the car goes dead silent.

Kabir's eyes are lost in thought and he licks his lips. "Megha dropped you off after you were drugged by Abeer," Kabir answers, his eyes glazing over. He presses his lips together. "Megha would never be involved in this . . . unless, he's blackmailing her too."

Nazia gasps, but nods regardless. "She probably knows more about this than we do. No wonder why she's been acting strange recently," she adds. Nazia almost tells Kabir that she doesn't think Megha ever liked Nazia but that wasn't the point of this conversation. It was more of a "Abeer is an awful man" type. Her head is spinning with all of this knowledge. "No offense, but all of this would take so much planning to do. No one sane would ever do that."

Sahibha bites onto her cheek. She looks straight ahead as she makes a left turn. "Is Abeer sane though?" she softly asks. "He's done questionable things in the past."

With a raised eyebrow, Nazia leans back. "The worst thing Abeer has done is cheat on me. He doesn't seem like a lunatic at all."

The conversation quitens down. The raw energy of chatter and conspiracy all die down. All three of them think, trying to link up the connections together. The last few months have been utter hell for all of them, and it was so easy pinning all these problems onto one man instead of all their flaws.

"When I was talking to Bella, she told me someone is helping her," Kabir states. He tries to normalize his encounter with Bella, playing it off as a small conversation rather than a life threatening moment. "As in someone is paying her to harass me."

Nazia shakes her head furiously. "No way - he can't be that evil," she says. There must be something wrong. The Abeer she knows can be stonic and calculating, but he can also be sweet too. All of these strange encounters sound rigged and perhaps could have been pulled off by Abeer - but paying Bella to harass Kabir is somewhat next level of evil that Nazia doesn't expect. Although Abeer is cruel, he is human. Humans have sympathy, they have humanity - and Abeer isn't a monster.

"I think we're all really tired. It's been a long night and I think we're going a bit crazy with conspiracy theories here," Sahibha pipes up. "We'll talk tomorrow."

Kabir laughs and looks at Nazia with warmth shining in his eyes. "Nazia has the best conspiracy theories. Once I woke up in the middle of night to only see a ghost like figure beside me bidge watching theories on how 9/11 was faked."

Nazia starts to smile. "You screamed so hard," she laughs. "He literally pushed me off the bed and then when he realized it was me instead of a demon, he spent the rest of the day apologising."

"No one that's sane watches conspiracy theories!"

"Kabir, we've literally watched every single crime show on this planet," Nazia sighs. "Our FBI agent assigned to our camera thinks we're serial killers."

He rolls his eyes. "The only decent one was Brooklyn Nine Nine. Do you remember that time when I tried to pull a Netflix and chill on you while watching Criminal Minds? We were making out and then suddenly someone was screaming because they were being burned alive."

The memory of Kabir on top of her and his widen eyes when he saw the screen makes Nazia laugh again. "Nothing puts you off the mood like people being burned alive," she states as Kabir chuckles. He wraps an arm around her shoulders and squeezes it.

Meanwhile, Sahibha is shriveling up her nose. "Is this what it's like to be an uber driver for couples?" she asks. "Thank God your stop is nearby."

"Thank you for the lift," Nazia acknowledges. Sahibha smiles a bit, glad that Nazia is warming up to her a bit. "Where's your apartment by the way? If it's far, you're more than welcome to crash at my place."

Sahibha shakes her head. "I'll be fine. I doubt I'll be getting any sleep tonight, anyways."

It's hard to close your eyes and sleep when the father of your child is an awful man. How is she supposed to tune out all of these conspiracies and confessions about Abeer? How is she supposed to protect her son from the world when his own parent is a monster? There's no way she'll be sleeping tonight, even though she's dark undereyed from all of this fatigue.

□

How was it? I know it's slightly on the terrible, cheesier and dumber chapters, but please be honest! It's also slightly unedited.

Sorry for the late update. I've been so busy this year. How have you all been? Recently, wattpad has been really sea and it makes me sad. It used to be such a great community.

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- maya