Yahya, there’s something I have to tell you today. This might scar you forever.”

“Ok” he replied walking towards the laptop.

“You need to hear me out patiently. And don’t think that I’m saying this out of…”

“…Where’s my disk?” Yahya asked realizing that the disk was not inside his laptop.

“I hid it.”

“What?”

“Listen to me please.”

Yahya waited for her to speak further. His mother began in low voice:

“The guy you believe to be your father…He’s not your father.”

“I know that. My real father was…”

“…No Yahya! You’re not listening. Hear me out first”

“Your real father did not die. Everything you know about your real father is a lie.”

She began weeping and left the room. Stunned Yahya looked at her and followed her to her room.

Yahya said to her:

“Please finish what you were saying.”

She turned around and spoke reluctantly:

“The person you believe to be your real father is not your real father. He is not related to you in any way.”

“That guy is the picture?” Yahya asked feeling horrified.

She nodded sadly.

“Then who?”

“Your real father dumped me,” she cried. “He abandoned us. He sent me the divorce papers and the marriage was annulled. Which was why the kind person who is my husband now accepted us. Out of sympathy.”

“Hold on here. I need to know who my real father is. How does he look like?”

“Trust me…You don’t want to know.”

“I do! Tell me.”

She walked towards the cupboard and from inside the drawer, she picked out an old hard picture. She uttered:

“I don’t have the courage to tell you who that person is. But if you want to see it yourself then…”

Yahya rushed towards her and took the picture from her. He looked at it.

In the picture, his mother was in brides’ dress. And the bridegroom next to her was none other than Professor Shahrukh Rizwan.

Shattered Yahya dropped the picture. He was left badly shocked. He hardly spoke:

“This…This man is. This man is my father?”

“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“No, this cannot be true” he replied as he started crying.

“It is true. You have to believe me.”

He cried out loud and ran towards his room. He shut his room’s door and locked it. He wiped off his tears wondering:

“Ok, this is nothing but a complete lie. This can’t be true”

He leaned against the door. He remembered his weeks ago conversation with his mother.

“Are you watching Professor Shahrukh Rizwan again?”

“I’m not just watching him, I’m planning him destroy him completely.”

“Yahya, please stop this. This obsession of yours won’t have a positive outcome.”

He opened his eyes and turned towards the door and rested his forehead on it. He then remembered his mother’s words from the past:

“Please don’t watch him. I’m telling you that this man can only leave a bad influence on your mind.”

He opened his eyes again and cried out loud remembering his mother’s warning:

“Mark my words, no good will come out of watching this man Shahrukh Rizwan.”

She had been hiding this. He spoke. She tried to stop me every time.

He opened the door and went back to her room. She was also crying. He asked:

“Did he ever try to contact us again?”

“Only once. He sent me this letter.”

“Which letter?”

“In that letter, he was apologizing regarding how sorry he was…for leaving us like this.”

“Did he know that I exist?”

“I don’t know…Maybe yes.”

Upset, Yahya went back to his room. He sat on his bed and remembered almost everything about his real father that caused him to dislike him.

He remembered how Shahrukh kicked Mr. Ahmad Malik out of his show. He then remembered how he used to insult his guests on the show. Then, in the end, he remembered the traffic signal blast incident.

Oh my God! He spoke out loud. I am a killer’s son. My father is a criminal.

He jumped out of his bed and began crying. He felt disgusted and disgraceful about himself.

How could it be? He cried out. How could I be a son of that disgraceful human being? Life is making fun of me.

He stood up and looked at the wall of his room that was at some distance.

I have no respect for my life now. I deserve to die.

He ran towards the wall and his entire body hit the wall. He fell backward as he nearly fainted.

Next day’s morning, Shahrukh who had just returned to his apartment from the hospital made a phone call. As his call got answered, he said:

“The disk has been stolen. There was some young guy who broke in here and took away that disk. Now I think that either he will blackmail me or he will expose me and Mr. Ghayyur in front of the world.”

After listening to the person he was talking to, he replied:

“No, I will not inform this to the police. The police should never find out about this…Because that disk’s information is strong enough to lock me in prison forever.”

Then after listening to the person he called, he replied:

“I’m just going to wait. I’m going to have to wait for his call. I know he will call and demand something.”

Meanwhile, at Yahya’s room, he woke up from his sleep. He was lying on the same spot from where he hit the wall and fainted. The first thing that popped into his mind was obviously the undeniable fact that he was the son of the most disliked person ever.

He stood up and looked outside the window. He sat on his bed and kept on looking at the cars outside. He was waiting for something to happen. He saw that cars were going on their normal routes and the world was running in its natural course. He asked:

Why isn’t there an earthquake? Why aren’t the roads breaking away? How come like they have always been?

The world must come to an end, he said getting deeply disturbed.

A few hours later, he was at his university. He was sitting at the corridor and looking around at people walking by. He envied everyone who passed by, by saying:

So lucky of them…Not being the child of some two-faced criminal.

He then saw Javeria coming towards him. She greeted nicely as she got closer and sat next to him.

“Hi, how are you?” She asked.

He didn’t reply and looked at the people passing by. She rephrased:

“How are you, Yahya?”

He didn’t respond and kept on looking at the people walking by.

“Is everything ok?” she asked him.

“No,” he replied after a while, “everything is a total disaster.”

“What happened?”

He stood up and said:

“Sharing it won’t solve the problem…I’m sorry, I have to go.”

He left the spot, leaving her alone.

That night in Yahya’s room, he was walking towards his mother’s room. He saw her sitting over there. He asked her:

“Your marriage…Was it a love marriage or an arranged marriage?”

“It was never a love marriage. It was an arranged marriage and I wasn’t happy with it.”

He thought of her words for a while and then left the room.

Next hour, he was in his room. The room was dark as the lights were out. So he anyway thought of doing what he wanted to do.

Suicide.

He picked up the bottle of poison that was kept on his right side. He looked at it and held it on his hand. While looking at it, he cried and read it. He realized that after swallowing it, he won’t be able to survive.

Three hours later, as his stepfather entered his room; he turned on the lights. The next thing he saw was Yahya lying on the bed with his eyes closed. He called out:

“Hey, Yahya! Are you ok?”

He went closer to see and found the bottle of poison. He exclaimed in a panic.

“Oh my God! He drank the poison.”

Meanwhile, Usman who was sleeping at his home heard his phone ringing. He got up and answered the call. The moment he answered the call, he looked at the time. Anyway he said:

“Yes?”

“Yahya just committed suicide.” He heard Yahya’s step father’s voice, “Come to the hospital, quick.”

“What?” he got startled as he heard it. “Why? What happened?”

“We don’t know, just come here, quick!”

Two hours later, Usman reached the hospital and made his way to the operation theatre. He found Yahya’s stepfather standing outside. He asked him:

“Well, how is he? What happened?”

“The doctors are taking care of him. He just swallowed a bottle of poison.”

“What? Oh my God!”

“I haven’t informed his mother about this. She was sleeping and I brought him here secretly. ”

“But what exactly happened? Why did he do this?”

The doctor came out of the operation theatre and spoke as they turned towards him eagerly:

“He’s fine now. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Oh, thank God” Usman said.

“He needs some rest. Let him sleep for a while.”

The doctor left them.

Minutes later as Yahya opened his eyes, he saw Mr. Ahmad Malik standing in front of him. He felt a bit excited but then remembered his miserable life. Mr. Ahmad asked him:

“What happened, son? Why did you do such a thing?”

“I’m sorry sir. But if I tell you then you would completely understand that a person like me has no reason to live.”

“Don’t say like that. Come on, tell me what is it?”

Yahya began speaking.

Outside the room, Yahya’s father said to Usman:

“You know this was a good idea. Calling Mr. Malik here. He is the one who can talk him out of his misery.”

Back inside, after Mr. Malik had heard him out completely, he spoke:

“Come on kid…It’s not that bad. Mr. Shahrukh is not such a bad person. You know two days after he asked me to leave his show, he apologized by coming over to my place.”

“Really?”

“Yes, and from the look on his face, I can’t tell how sorry he appeared to be. He was really ashamed of what he had done.”

“Oh my God, really?”

“And you know what you should do? You should go and tell him that you are his son. And then very politely, you should tell him to surrender himself to the cops by confessing.”

“Why would he listen to me?”

“You’re the only one who can influence him at the moment. You will go and tell him that you forgive him for abandoning your family”

Yahya considered his suggestion and lied back on the bed.

One week later, Yahya was writing a letter for Shahrukh Rizwan in his room. His mother came to his room and asked:

“Are you going to his apartment now?”

“Yes, I have to. I have to bring him to the right path. My mission was also to influence him.”

“Well, I’m not going to stop you…All I’m going to say is that be careful.”

He turned and looked at her mother. He said:

“I’m really sorry for creating all the trouble. I’ll make up to you later.”

He kept the letter inside his pocket and stood up as he was ready to leave.

Next hour, he was outside Shahrukh’s apartment. He gained courage and knocked on the door. Shahrukh came and opened the door.

“You?” Shahrukh spoke furiously.

“I need to talk to you, it’s very important.”

Angry, Shahrukh held Yahya and pulled him towards his left side bringing him inside the house. He shut the door and locked it. Shahrukh then kicked Yahya on his face while he was on the ground.

“You have got to hear me,” Yahya said trying to stop him.

“Do you have the disk?” Shahrukh asked.

“No, I don’t” Yahya spoke honestly.

Furious, Shahrukh walked towards the rack to pick up something. Yahya stood up immediately wiping off the blood on his face. Shahrukh pointed his pistol towards him and said:

“Where is the CD?”

Yahya raised his hands up and spoke:

“I will give it to you but first you need to listen to me.”

Yahya took out the envelope from his pocket and spoke:

“Please hear me out.”

Enraged, Shahrukh accidentally shot him twice on his chest. Yahya got stunned and fell backward. Shahrukh regretted what he just did for a moment thinking how he shot him unintentionally. He ran towards him and said:

“I’m so sorry, let’s get you to the hospital”

Shahrukh held the envelope that Yahya was holding. He took out the letter and the picture inside it. He looked at the picture and got surprised to see his wedding photo with his first wife. Shocked, Shahrukh looked at Yahya who was almost about to die.

“I’m your son,” Yahya said.

“What? Oh my God,” Shahrukh said hugging him. “I can’t believe it.”

He said to his son:

“Don’t worry, I’ll take you to the hospital. Nothing will happen to you.”

Suddenly he realized that Yahya was not breathing anymore. He looked at him and found that his son had just died. Shahrukh began to cry and unfolded the paper, he read it:

“Dear Dad, you don’t know me but I am your son. You left me and my mother. If you want to make up for what you did, you can just do it by confessing your traffic signal crime in front of the police. And accept the punishment you think you deserve…Your son, Yahya Taimoor.”

Shahrukh continued crying remembering his first wife and realizing that he had impatiently killed her son.

Twenty-four hours later, the breaking news on the TV channels displayed:

“Shahrukh Rizwan Confesses his Crime of being Involved in the Traffic Signal Blast Incident.”