tragic romance · love triangle · moral dilemma · traditional attire · anguished · forbidden love · devoted wife · exiled lover · emotional turmoil · drama
Lyari bowed to its king. Fear kept its silence. Nazneen walked beside him, a dutiful wife bound by the promise he'd made to her dead father. He’d given her the walls of his haveli and the weight of his name, but never the love that belonged to Aalia, the woman he’d sent into exile. Inside the silent Khalil mansion, his cousins bickered over a bottle of whiskey while Nazneen laid out a perfect breakfast, her eyes tracing his face for any flicker of tenderness she would not find. Respect, he offered. Affection, he withheld. Then the phone rang, and the fragile routine of his life shattered. Aalia was back.