Payal ki Jhankar Ch. 04

A knock got his attention. It was the maid again advising that a phone call was coming for him from the lawyer's office.

Haqnawaz had shared the number with a few people, one being the junior partner at his father's law office. Although the lawyer himself was a close friend of his dad's, the partner had been involved in some shady dealings with Haqnawaz, including the matter of his father-in-law's properties.

"Sir, your father is about to divide the property before he dies and had asked the firm to come over in three days' time."

This information was immensely critical. So the old geezer was going to divide things before he died, significantly reducing any of Haqnawaz's share. It was time to do something. Leaving Naziran asking what was happening, he dressed, jumped into the jeep and headed back.

VI

When the Chaudhry did not wake for breakfast, having not gone to the nearby mosque for fajr prayers, the servants around the house began to get restless. His wife had not shared the same quarters for some time and tended to sleep late after finishing morning prayers. To Payal waking up, it felt like the air had stopped blowing and she could sense that something was not right. Almost on cue a cry went up around the house. Payal rushed to the source of the noise, followed by both Shahnawaz and his mother, who had been awakened by the din. Parveen was standing at the door of the Chaudhry's bedroom, screaming. She had been asked to come to the room by one of the servants who was not getting a response from him and who noticed her go by. Shahnawaz took one look at the form on the bed and knew that his father had joined his maker. No one had heard any sound coming from the room the night before. Payal could attest to the fact that he was perfectly fine when he went to bed, just past 10 p.m. Yet in death his face had a pained look on it.

The funeral and ceremonies were conducted in a manner befitting the person, lasting through to forty days. It was now time for the heirs to lay claim to their shares. There were gasps aplenty as the will was read out. It simply maintained that the law of the land would apply in the division of property and that Haqnawaz, as elder son, would be entrusted with being equitable. Almost immediately the sisters lost more than half of what they expected, Shahnawaz retained almost exactly what he was to get, and almost everything else went to Haqanawaz, including the haveli. There was no provision made for the mother but Haqnawaz made a big show of saying his mother could stay under his roof, forever.

Almost no one was happy with the way events had turned out. Haqnawaz, however, rejoiced in his victory and having averted a major loss of entitlement. After all, the junior partner in the law firm had helped poison his father-in-law. His own father was even less of a bother, just suffocating under the weight of the pillow a paid assassin held over his face, an arrangement also through the same person and in the nick of time. The assassin, one of Haqnawaz's henchmen and thus one with freedom about the house, had taken pleasure in detailing the fact that the murder was being committed on Haqnawaz's behalf as he suffocated his victim, thereby ensuring the father's last memories and thoughts were exceedingly painful. He was not so happy with his handiwork, however, when he met the lawyer at the office to get his payment. Instead of receiving a bunch of rupees, he got a just reward by being taken out to the fields by some of Haqnawaz's guards and tossed down a well.

Haqnawaz was now the lord of the palace, with the only threat to his legitimacy coming from his younger brother. It would soon be time to nip that threat also. The idyll of sorts that Payal and family were having was coming to an end soon.