73.

Murad’s throat tightened as her words brought back memories he had long buried. That night. The night that changed everything for him. He could still feel the cold sting of his father's anger, the harshness of his words, and the weight of the betrayal he had never meant to commit.

He had been eighteen, full of excitement and hope, dressed in a finely tailored three-piece suit that Uncle Hashim had gifted him for the occasion. He remembered standing in front of the mirror, adjusting the collar, the fabric fitting him perfectly, making him feel like the man he had aspired to be. Prom night. He was ready to meet Taliya, to hold her hand and be the person she believed in.

But just as he stepped out of the house, all of that changed.

The moment he walked into the crisp night air, he was met with a sharp, burning slap across his face. The impact had left him reeling, his mind spinning as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. His father stood there, his face red with rage, fists trembling at his sides. The words that followed cut through Murad like a knife.

“How could you betray your betrothal like this? Going out with a stranger? A girl who doesn’t even match our status?”

Murad could barely process it. He hadn’t even remembered his so-called "betrothal" until that moment. It was a promise made in his childhood, a decision between families that he had never taken seriously. But to his father, it was the most sacred of pacts, one that Murad had shattered by simply choosing to go out with Taliya.

The rest of the night had been a blur of pain. His father had dragged him back inside, slamming the door behind them, sealing Murad’s fate. He didn’t get to leave. He didn’t get to go to Taliya. Instead, he spent the night enduring his father’s wrath—punches, kicks, and curses, the words echoing louder than the blows. He had never felt so powerless, so broken.

When the sun rose, Murad’s body was bruised, his mind clouded with guilt and anger. He had failed her. Failed Taliya, who had waited for him, trusting him to show up. He couldn’t even pick up the phone to explain—his father had smashed it against the wall in a fit of rage. The control his father held over him that night had crushed him completely.

That same morning, as he sat nursing his wounds, his father had come to him, a twisted smile on his face. He handed Murad a drink—“medicine,” he called it. Something to “calm him down.” Murad, too beaten down to argue, had taken it without a second thought. But soon after, the haze of drowsiness began to take over his mind, his thoughts slipping away into nothingness.

It was then that his father had taken him to Taliya, had made sure that Murad’s actions would erase any future he might have had with her. The shame and helplessness from that night haunted him still, and the memory of what his father had made him do—drugging the one person he had truly cared about—was a wound that had never healed.

As Murad sat there now, across from Taliya, her question hanging in the air, his heart pounded in his chest. He knew she deserved the truth, but he also knew that the truth would never be enough to make up for what had happened.

His voice was thick with emotion as he finally spoke. “That night... it wasn’t supposed to be like that. I never meant to hurt you, Taliya.” He couldn’t meet her eyes, the shame too great. “My father... he found out about us. He...”

Murad stopped, struggling to find the words. He felt the weight of her gaze, her pain. “He wouldn’t let me leave. He beat me until I couldn’t stand. And then, he drugged me... and made me come to you. I didn’t know what I was doing. I swear, I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Taliya’s breath hitched, her eyes wide with disbelief. It was as though her worst fears had been confirmed, but the truth was somehow more devastating than she had imagined.

“I thought I was protecting you by staying away,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “But I was wrong. I failed you... in every way.”

The room felt cold, the air thick with the weight of everything unspoken between them. For so long, he had held onto the guilt of that night, and now, seeing her face, knowing what she had gone through, it crushed him even more.

Taliya didn’t speak immediately, her hands trembling as she processed what Murad had said. The night that had haunted her for so long, the unanswered questions, the pain—it had all been tied to the very thing she never expected: Murad’s helplessness, his own suffering.

Her lips parted slightly, as if she was going to say something, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead, she just stared at him, her heart torn between the betrayal she had felt for years and the sudden realization that he had been as much a victim as she was.

“I... don’t know what to say,” she finally whispered, her voice barely audible.

A moment of silence passed between them, heavy and suffocating, as they both sat in the gravity of what had been said. The weight of their shared history—the confusion, the pain, the betrayal—pressed down on them, making it hard to breathe, let alone speak. They were both so numb, their minds caught in a whirlwind of emotions.

Murad swallowed hard, his throat tight with the words he was too afraid to utter. But he had to know. He had to ask.

“Did I... did I r—raped you?” His voice was a strained whisper, the very question trembling in the air between them. His hands shook, his heart pounding against his ribs like it was trying to break free from the torment.

Taliya’s reaction was immediate. Her head shook violently, her eyes wide with the force of her denial. “No,” she breathed out, her voice almost cracking. “You tried... but you fainted. I ran away from you.” She squeezed her eyes shut, as if the memory was too painful to relive, but she pushed forward, the truth spilling from her lips. “You didn’t do it.”

The tension in Murad’s chest loosened, but only slightly. The relief he should’ve felt was tempered by the darkness of what had come after, by the violence he had unwittingly caused, and the betrayal that still lay thick between them.

Taliya’s voice wavered as she spoke again, this time quieter, filled with a twisted kind of resolve. “This was the reason I came back...” she admitted, her eyes staring into the distance, as if replaying the scenes of their tangled past. “The anger, the humiliation... it consumed me.”

Murad froze as she continued, her voice taking on a darker edge. “The urge for revenge was too much for me. I couldn’t shake it. That’s why... that’s why I made you my friend again. Why I lured you back into my life... why I pushed you off the roof.”

Her admission hung in the air like a death sentence, the final confirmation of what he had always suspected but had never wanted to believe.

Murad’s mind raced, trying to process the gravity of what she had just said. She had done it. She had orchestrated everything—the friendship, the trust, all of it—just to exact her revenge. And in that moment, he realized the depths of the pain he had caused her, even if it hadn’t been entirely his fault. The realization hit him like a wave, threatening to drown him in guilt.

His voice was hollow as he spoke. “You... you pushed me off the roof?” He could barely believe the words coming out of his mouth, but he knew they were true. The look in her eyes, the regret and exhaustion etched across her face, told him everything he needed to know.

“Yes,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I wanted to destroy you the way you destroyed me. But even then... even after everything, I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. I left you there, hoping... maybe... that would be enough.”

Murad’s chest felt tight, his heart heavy with the weight of her confession. They were both broken, caught in a cycle of hurt and betrayal that neither of them had been able to escape. And now, sitting across from each other, they were left with the pieces of their shattered past, wondering if there was anything left to salvage.

“I’m sorry, Murad,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes as the full weight of her actions crashed down on her. “I thought it would make the pain go away, but it didn’t. It only made it worse.”

Murad didn’t know what to say, how to respond. The truth of their shared pain was too much to bear, too complex for words. All he could do was sit there, the silence between them thick with unspoken regrets.