- What if the world told you 'men never change'. Would you still believe in redemption?
- What if your whole life is shrouded in secrecy. Would you shed your mask for one person anyway?
- What if an avatar intrigued you. Could you fall in love with...
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Zain
"Beta, single men are not allowed to adopt children in this country. So don't get too close to them," Ami cautioned me unexpectedly, while we sat together having breakfast at the small wooden table tucked away on one side of our kitchen.
Of course, I knew that. It had been a handful of days since we had been discharged from the hospital and Fiza was still looking into their background. All we knew so far is what she had been able to find during interrogation of the criminals arrested from the orphanage - the little girl's name was Leila and the boy's name was Rahim.
Their last names and the whereabouts of their parents or other blood relatives remained a mystery.
For now they stayed at the Tariq shelter which wasn't a registered orphanage but Kiran Api had been able to pull some strings in the justice department and get the shelter temporary guardianship of the children. The reason? Both children were severely undernourished children and needed to be in the care of a medical doctor.
Lucky for them, we had a fabulous pediatrician on staff.
Speaking of whom - Leila and Rahim were not the only reasons I couldn't keep myself away from the shelter. Yet, my mother did not need to know that for the moment.
"I am aware, Ami. I've only been going there because Ameerah said they needed consistency in their day as they get used to their new surroundings. I just play with them for a couple of hours every evening," I explained to her.
She nodded slowly. "How long will you have to keep doing that?"
As long as there is a gray eyed doctor there, I wanted to say.
"It will be some time. A lot depends on what Fiza finds out." If I had it my way, I'd just live at the shelter. That, unfortunately, was not possible. Instead, each day I patiently waited till the evening and then darted over to the shelter.
"And Ameerah is there in the evenings too?" she raised a brow.
"Usually."
"I thought Kiran had asked the nurse to check in on them. Bechari Ameerah already works way more than we pay her for," Ami remarked.
It wasn't a question, it was a simple statement that I didn't even have a reply to. Yet, the way my mother's gaze settled on me for an uncomfortably long moment told me that there were plenty of questions in her mind. Some of them made her anxious.
Others were a reminder of why she assumed I'd always be single.
"Have you heard of the TV show called 'Pakistan's most notorious criminals'?" she asked in a hushed voice.
"Yes. Why?" I questioned. It was a docuseries that was fairly popular and the producers had reached out to us in Rangers on more than one occasion for fact-checking.
