The Divine Beauty-Apsara {Zayn Malik} AU (Under Editing) #MissionDesi

44. Trump Card

"What!?" The King yelled at Mariam.

"You haven't mentioned about your marriage to me even once..." He said.

"Isn't she just a maid, Your Highness? " One of the minister piped in to the tension between Zayn and Mariam.

"You're right, Haqim, " Zayn breathed.

"... she is nothing but a servant" He turned his head away from her. His fists were balled in sheer anger. He clenched his teeth to speak, "Leave! The palace will run without you too... " He ordered, while his elite subjects looked at each other in perplexion as they couldn't understand the hidden reasons for his sudden shift of temperament.

Mariam wailed as the King said those words. She ran back through the same way she had come earlier.

........

"I thought he would come to bid farewell to me...." Mariam cried, while hugging Jamila, who was the only pillar, though weak, that supported Mariam at this moment.

She had all her things packed, her destiny unknown ... she left it to the supernatural being in the heavens to lead her to some place safe and sound, where no one, including her family couldn't find.

They walked towards the entrance of the palace, no one even cared to look at Mariam who was cursing herself for being the person that she was in the past.

"Something told me that he'll come, and call me back, and I would tell him everything that's happening to me... and he will accept me ... but that hope is now left somewhere hidden in the corners of my mind." She sobbed.

"Men don't care, Mariam. .. and they never will.."Jamila explained.

"It's us foolish women who fall for them.. it's us who ultimately will be the only people who would take care of their sore pains and illnesses. .. my husband abused me while he was well and fine, he even abused my innocent little children! But then, when he became ill and bedridden, I became the breadwinner for the family, I took care of the man that hurt me and gave me and my children sleepless nights... d'you know why? Just because he is a man. " Jamila breathed the last word with loose tear escaping her eye as she slowly blinked.

Mariam had never known that Jamila had faced many bitter situations , but yet she stayed close to her faith and ethics, unlike Mariam.

"I guess this isn't the right time to be telling you my uninteresting story, am I right? " Jamila forced a smile through her tears... this was the last day of Mariam in the Lahori palace. And she didn't want to worsen Mariam's pain by adding hers to it.

Mariam smiled back understanding that Jamila was carried away by her past.

"Jamila, I want to go and meet some people" Mariam played with the end of her dully coloured scarf.

......

"Why in the world would you leave, Mariam? Don't you want to be with King Zayn?" Zafar asked, shocked, on losing a trump card that they always used in their game against Zayn.

"I don't want King Zayn, Your Highness! ..." Mariam widened her eyes, looking at the Prince.

"What happened to your farfetched dreams? Was it too late till you realised that it was too big to fit into your pea-sized brain?" Zafar grinned devilishly.

Mariam couldn't comprehend the words that Zafar spoke, whose tone showed nothing but mockery.

She stared at the Prince with an unreadable expression as she analysed Zafar .

And she finally understood that the Devil embodied in him...

"What are you staring at? You worthless tramp! You thought I gave you a love potion, isn't it? Too bad, he didn't drink the poison !" He laughed evilly.

"What do you mean? You gave me poison to feed the King?"

"What else would I give to King Zayn through you so that Mother and I could escape cleanly, putting all the blame on you!?" He spewed his tricks to her.

"You're an evil man! I believed you and your mother! It was all your plot, wasn't it? And you used me to execute your filthy plans!"

"Yes... my excuse for doing this to you and Zayn is simple... I want to be the King of Lahore! " He roared in arrogance like a lion.

"Disgusting man, you are, Your Highness! How could you even wish to kill your brother?"

"You! You're calling me disgusting?" He scoffed.

"And a person like you, Mariam calling me 'disgusting'?" He chuckled.

"You have no right to! Since your occupation has been nothing but a whore's"

"But nothing can beat your deeds, my Lord!" Mariam screeched.

"You must consider yourself lucky that I am going to tell people about you and mother!" Mariam warned.

"Well they would definitely not believe a person like you!" Zafar sardonically smiled.

"I'd come to bid farewell to you!... only a farewell, and I want nothing more or less!"

"Good bye then, it was great exploiting you for our needs!" He laughed as she walked away crying.

.....

A warning. She just needed to give a vague warning to someone, just a reminder that they weren't safe under the Prince and the Queen.

Telling about this to the King would be the worst mistake she would make... and Mariam, slowly learning from the mistakes she had made, understood that the best person to warn was someone who seemed insignificant, but cast a bold influence on the royal family....

It wasn't Zahar Mahmood. ... it was Apsara Devi....

And that thought lead her to stand in front of her, with head bowed as Apsara stood perplexed.

"Apsara... I am sorry. ..." She said.

"What for, Mariam?" Apsara smiled genuinely, though she was shocked at Mariam's sweeter behaviour towards Apsara.

"For ill- treating from the first day you set foot on this palace, for being jealous towards you and above all stealing something that actually belongs to you" Mariam softly said.

Apsara couldn't understand that the last reason that Mariam said was actually about Zayn.

"You don't mean to say that you stole some thing of mine, right?" Apsara giggled, clearly joking.

"Obviously not... It was not meant to be taken literally... " Mariam smiled too.

"But I am indeed very sorry for what all I have done!" She said.

"I came to warn you... don't trust anyone here... don't even trust the water that you're drinking, the air that you are breathing...."With that she left the room, leaving behind a confused Apsara.
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NO TIME FOR AN A/N !!!

xoxo
Sweetdreams199
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