As Hannan grabbed his brother’s collar, one of the servants called out:

“Sir, don’t”

Hannan ignored him and spoke to Rizwan:

“Tell me what have you against my father”

“Excuse me?” Rizwan responded.

“Don’t try to play with me. I’m right on the edge, don’t push me”

“What do you want?” Rizwan asked holding his hand. “And let go off my collar”

“Answer me, where were you when my father passed away?”

“First of all, he wasn’t just your father. He was my father as well. And secondly, I have told you plenty of times that I wasn’t at home. I was with Sidra”

“Lie!” Hannan yelled very loudly. “That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard”

“Then what’s the truth, if you know it? Why don’t you simply go and ask Sidra?”

“If you are married to her, then why don’t you simply go and live with her”

“Who are you to kick me out of this house? I’m not going anywhere”

Hannan got furious and was almost about to hit him but he calmed himself and spoke after several seconds:

“I just want you to clarify your dispute. I know that you and father were in a feud”

“Whatever the issue was I don’t think I’m accountable to you concerning it”

Hannan whose anger had crossed all limits, clenched his fist and hit Rizwan on his face.

“Oh God!” one of the servants exclaimed.

Rizwan fell backwards and his head hit the wall behind.

“You” Hannan spoke pointing his finger towards him, “you and I are not brothers anymore. You are an enemy, you are not part of this family”

Rizwan stood up immediately hold his head. He spoke looking straight towards his brother’s eyes:

“Why don’t we let our father decide that?”

“What do you mean?”

“You do know that you are not related to us through blood?”

Hannan remained silent and appeared quite depressed. He spoke trying to become strong:

“Don’t start this conversation, this is absolutely a lie”

“Do you have any proof for your claim?” Rizwan asked smartly.

Hannan was silent and he had no words to defend himself.

“You were adopted” Rizwan spoke pointing his finger towards him, “and you know it. And now you think that you are entitled to kick me out of this family?”

Hannan was left speechless. He was moving backwards; his eyes were filled with tears. He spoke with tender voice:

“You have no answer to my questions and that is why you are bringing this conversation as you know it is my weakness”

“Its not anybody’s weakness,

it is the truth”

“Why are you not disclosing the reality behind your dispute?”

“I will disclose it to whomever I think it is necessary, but you can never be the one, because you are not a part of this family”

Hannan remained silent and tears fell down his eyes. He however replied to Rizwan’s comment:

“I may not be a part of this family as you are, but I can assure you that I am more loyal to this Tariq Yasar’s blood than you are”

“We’ll see about that. Time will tell who is loyal and who is worthier”

“Well one thing is clear today. You and I are through”

“Sure, why not? In fact, nothing would please me more”

One of the servants stepped forward and said:

“What are you two doing? Do you think your father would be happy seeing this way?”

“He wouldn’t be” Hannan replied. “Because he didn’t know the truth about Rizwan”

“Listen to me both of you please. I know that I am nothing more than a servant in this house. But I want you two to end this dispute and live like a family. Mr. Tariq would have never liked this”

“I know” Hannan said, “But justice is what matters. I think I will have to take the matters to court”

Saying this, Hannan left the spot and walked towards the exit of the room.

Several hours later during the night, Rizwan was sitting at some restaurant with his wife Sidra. They were having ice cream but they weren’t talking. Rizwan seemed to be quite angry which was why Sidra wasn’t really talking to him.

Few minutes later, Rizwan began the conversation:

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with him?”

“Can you please clearly tell me about what exactly happened between you two?”

“Hannan needs to know his place. He was a homeless orphan, my father adopted him out of sympathy, and today he thinks that he is entitled to take our father’s place”

“What really happened?”

“He thinks that I am involved behind our father’s death. And he is making my feud with our father the base of it”

“Oh dear, I think he has lost control over his mind”

“Yeah, that’s true. But I won’t sympathize with him. He needs to know his place in the family”

“Rizwan don’t say like that, your father would have never liked these words from you”

“I know and believe me, I don’t like them either. But he his compelling me to be a bad guy like him”

“Don’t think like that. He is not a bad person, he just needs some time”

“Do you know what he did today? He hit me. He pushed me in front of all the servants”

“Oh my God” Sidra uttered getting shocked.

“And do you want to know what’s worse? He is taking the matters into court”

“No he wouldn’t, he’s just trying to scare you”

“Yeah, I suppose so, but he is not my brother anymore. He and I are through”

“Your father’s demise has really ruined the peace of this family”

“No it hasn’t yet, but it will. One of my father’s prophecies was that such a dark time would come”

“By the way, have you discovered any more of those prophecies?”

“No I haven’t. But I want to. I am eager to. I’ll talk to Mr. Taha about it”

“Yes, I mean you should. Even I am desperate to learn them”

“Yes, we’ll go together” Rizwan spoke.

At the graveyard, Hannan was sitting by his Tariq Yasar’s grave. He was looking at his father’s grave as if he wanted to talk to him. He began the conversation with the grave for his own satisfaction:

“Dad, our family matters are not getting any better”

He paused for a moment and then continued after taking some deep breaths:

“I never demanded anything from you dad, but I need you to guide me today. Tell me how should I get my hands on your murderer”

Hannan got a bit emotional, so he spoke further:

“You were such a peace-loving person, people were so proud of you, they admired your virtues, they followed you whenever they needed guidance. And today, those people have killed you?”

Hannan wiped off the tear falling from his right eye and continued:

“These people are not your well-wishers, they never were. But I don’t get it, what did they have against you? What did they demand? You had no wealth, nor were you a threat to anyone of them, then why? Why have you been wronged like this?”

He waited for a while hoping he would hear something from the grave of his father. He was left hopeless so he uttered:

“Dad, those prophecies, I don’t know much about them but I do know that they must be true”

He changed his sitting position and spoke:

“I can assure you dad, I am confident about the fact that you are not wrong. My analyzing skills are not that strong but I do know that whatever you have claimed before your death is not going to be proved wrong. It shall happen, it shall. It most definitely will happen”

He kept on sitting for a while until he had this feeling that said:

You shouldn’t sit like this, you should go and take some action. Go and discover what your father’s prophecies were.

Hannan stood up as he heard the voice of his conscience and decided to leave the place. But before leaving, he said to his father:

“Dad, I’ll be back soon. But I will take some necessary action. I promise you, I will not step down unless I found out your killer”

*************

Next day’s morning, one of Rizwan’s servants Maqsood was holding a bottle in a transparent forensic bag. While looking at it he was wondering:

I didn’t know I would find this one day, but whoever is the culprit, he will be in jail soon.

Two and a half hours later, Hannan was seated at some restaurant as he was waiting for someone to show up. He saw Maqsood making his way all the way from the entrance of the restaurant. As Maqsood came and stood by him, Hannan asked a bit angrily:

“Where have you been and why have you called me here?”

“I’m sorry I was stuck I traffic”

“I’ve been waiting for almost half an hour, you said it was very urgent, that is the reason why I came on time”

“I am sorry sir” Maqsood replied sitting on the chair opposite to Hannan, “I have something very important to share”

“Ok, you better start now”

“Yesterday, I was cleaning the kitchen at our home. I started cleaning the backside of the stove, can you guess what I found?”

“What?”

He showed the forensic bag to him and said:

“This bottle”

“Oh my God” Hannan uttered while taking the bag from him.

“Yes, I was shocked as well”

Hannan kept on looking at it for a while and then opened the bad to get the bottle. Maqsood stopped him saying:

“No sir don’t”

Hannan looked up at him. Maqsood responded:

“Sir don’t touch it like this, your handprints will get on this evidence. Use a tissue paper”

“Oh, you’re right” Hannan spoke closing the bag again.

Hannan kept it on the table and asked:

“So, what do you think it is?”

“I think it’s poison, I smelled it when I found it so I had a strong feeling that it is a poison”

Hannan’s eyes opened wide as he was getting angrier.

Maqsood added:

“The bottle doesn’t seem so old, but one thing that makes me sure that your father’s death is involved here is…”

He stopped speaking. Curious and impatient Hannan asked:

“Why have you stopped? Finish what you were saying”

“I was just saying that two days prior to your father’s death,

I cleansed the spot behind that stove. And I did that because a lot of oil had slipped from my hand. The interesting part is that there was no bottle behind the stove that day”

Hannan felt amazed for a moment and listened to him impatiently. Maqsood ended his sentence:

“And it has been around two weeks only, and this bottle was found”

“Oh dear”

Hannan gave his words a thought and spoke:

“And its not two weeks, it is less than two weeks”

“Yeah, maybe”

Hannan asked quite reluctantly:

“Whom do you think is responsible?”

“I don’t know, I don’t want to create any trouble by accusing anybody”

“I know, I understand. I’m just asking your opinion”

“I’m sorry I cannot make such a claim”

Hannan didn’t push him any further. Maqsood spoke any way:

“But the person who had personal grudges against your father would be responsible here”

“Responsible?”

“I mean the one who would be a beneficiary of your father’s death”

“I see” Hannan replied listening to his opinions calmly.

“But I would strongly say that Rizwan is not the culprit here”

Hannan nodded his head and replied:

“I’m listening”

“It’s because I have observed depression in your brother’s tone. He doesn’t cry much about it, but he is deeply upset”

“Him and I are not brothers”

“Yeah, I heard that day something about it.

I don’t know what is the exact truth though”

“The truth is that Tariq Yasar only had one wife and one son. One day he found a baby who was physically abnormal.  

to be continued...