The Billionaire's Final Victim | ✓

[43] Past Misunderstandings.

A/N: yesss! I actually have an update this week!

- - -

Dunia looks over at Barqat, he hasn't noticed Furat yet because he's busy talking to Imran and Aamir a little further away.

"Dunia! You look so pretty, Mash'Allah! Barqat's such a lucky fellow." Furat says as her eyes sparkle with joy.

"Thank you! So do you!" Dunia thinks about how Furat looks absolutely stunning in her red gown. She looks like such an angel with her naive face and polite aura. She can't believe Furat's the one who cheated on Barqat, her vibe is so much more different than that.

"Are you ladies enjoying yourselves? Would you like anything to drink? Eat?" Furat asks.

"No, we're doing fine. Thank you for asking." Ashley reassures her.

Furat notices Dunia, who keeps looking over her own shoulders at Barqat. She notices how uncomfortable Dunia's getting.

"Dunia... Can I talk to you for a minute? Personally?" Furat asks.

Dunia pauses to think for a second, then nods.

"Follow me." Furat says.

Ashley leans over to Dunia and whispers, "Put my number on speed dial or something, just in case she tries murdering you."

"Very comforting, Ash. You're great at comforting me, thank you." Dunia's tone dripping in sarcasm.

"No problem." Ashley winks.

Ashley sees Dunia and Furat disappear out of the hall. She feels a tap on her shoulder, it's Barqat.

"Where did Dunia go?" He asks.

"Um... w-washroom...?" Ashley panics, making her statement sound more like an unsure question.

"Nice try. You're not very good at lying." Barqat says. "Now tell me where she actually went."

Ashley sighs, "Mrs. Hiraj took her outside of the hall. She said she wanted to talk to Dunia about something."

"She what? And Dunia went with her willingly?" He sounds almost offended.

"Hey! Don't go blaming Dunia. You know how she is, she wasn't going to flat out say no, she isn't rude." Ashley explains.

"Fuck." Is all he manages to say before he pushes his way through the crowd to find the two women.

Imran stares at Barqat leaving and turns to Ashley, "Where is he going?"

"His ex and his wife are talking privately. So he's going after them, I guess." She says.

"Ah, yikes. Pretty sure he's about to lose his mind." Imran says.

"This can't possibly be good." Aamir adds.

"Should we check up on them and stop the mess?" Ashley suggests.

"It's better to not get involved. We should have them fix their shit for themselves." Aamir answers.

The other two agree.

"Well, a storm's coming, we should prepare." Imran says.

"How?" Ashley asks. "How do you even prepare for something like this?

"You don't." Aamir says.

• • •

"Please, sit." Furat says as she pulls out a chair for Dunia. She brought Dunia to the same sound-proof room Barqat had a mini breakdown in.

Great, if she tries to kill me, no one will be able to hear my screams, Dunia thinks.

"So, I'm going to guess Barqat has somewhat said who I am?" Furat begins.

Dunia nods, "Uh, yes, a little."

"I'm guessing all of it was all the bad things?" Furat asks.

Dunia doesn't say anything, she just stares at her lap.

Furat sighs, "I guess what I did to him was pretty shitty, leaving him in the middle of his life going to shit." 

"Yes, that was—um—pretty awful." Dunia agrees.

"I don't want to sound like I'm boasting or acting like he owes me anything because he doesn't but I stopped him from hurting himself when his mom passed away. Or at least coincidentally walked in on him at the right time to stop him." Furat's eyes are clearly full of grief.

Dunia looks up, "I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"Barqat... He was—he became a little out of it when he found out about his dad and then his mom passed away. It was a big blow to him. He would cross streets without looking, drive recklessly, show up with random cuts on himself, it was getting bad."

Dunia can feel her heart hurting, it was as if someone's slowly pulling hard at her heart strings one by one. She knows exactly where this story is going but also is completely unsure.

"He never confirmed what he was going to do but I know, it was unmistakable. There was two bottles of unprescribed pills on the table beside him. One of the bottles half empty because half of those pills were in the palms of his hand." Furat's eyes darken.

Dunia gasps as her hands fly to cover her mouth.

"I always tell myself maybe I don't know what he was going to to do, maybe I was mistaken and those were actually prescribed to him. But those were a lot of pills in his hand. I knocked out the pills from his hand and threw out the two bottles." Furat sighs.

"Did h-he ever t-try it again?" Dunia asks.

Furat shakes her head. "Not that I know of."

"Why did you leave him? At such a crucial time in his life?" Dunia asks, feeling almost enraged.

Furat doesn't look Dunia in the eye, she stares at her hands on the table. "Because I was weak as hell. Being with Barqat during that time was like walking on pins and needles. Anything and everything could trigger him and I was getting tired of being so careful all the goddamn time. I know, that was so freaking selfish of me but I needed to take care of myself too and I couldn't do that around him. I loved him to bits, I really did but my mind was failing me, I couldn't keep up and be cautious and alert all the time."

Dunia thinks about how Furat does sound selfish but also understands that she couldn't take care of herself, she felt trapped. "Why did you cheat on him?" Dunia asks.

"I didn't cheat on him! Is that what he still thinks?!" Furat's voice rising.

Dunia nods.

"There were bread crumbs on Hashem's cheeks and I flicked them away, that's when Barqat walked in on us. Literally, that's it. He never wanted to hear my explanation! Let me tell you, I met Hashem at school. We clicked the second we started talking but I knew I was loyal to Barqat. I loved Barqat so much that it hurt. But the second he didn't believe me, I knew I had to go, I had to leave us because I realized I was really goddamn tired of walking on eggshells." Furat's eyes are glistening with tears.

"Oh... I didn't... I'm so sorry..." Dunia doesn't know what to say.

"What the actual fuck, Furat! What the hell are you filling her head with?" Barqat's the slams the door shut after entering.

- - -

A/N: uh oh... 😳

Please vote and comment and let me know how y'all feel!!