PROLOGUE:

The Friday Jummah atmosphere was extremely pleasant. Down the road leading to the big mosque a junction away from a dirty slum. The poorest of the poor alone lived there. In there, was a huge rate of infant mortality, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and other criminal activities. It was the home to low class people.

Here in these parts of Pakistan, only the strong ones survived. The rest were either kidnapped, raped or murdered. Especially the ladies. It was a little distant from the junction when a maiden dressed in Niqab walked. Her eyes to the ground and her heart leading her to the Masjid. She was about 4'10 and definitely a very young girl.

Blessed with brown orbs with an intensely dark pupil. Darker than you would ever imagine. It gave her quite a look. A beautiful yet peculiar girl. Very introverted and by every means a maiden. She was walking with meditated steps towards the Masjid and there was no doubt that she knew the road like the back of her hand.

Fortunately, her cruel step sister and perversely step brother wasn't there to stop her. They had to attend a Walima of a friend. She had no friends no doubt. Probably because she wasn't one who spoke a lot.

A street to cross. She crossed neatly and stood on the pavement to quickly brush off the supposed dust she had on her dress.

It was all like a dream. A horrifying dream. A pathetic dream. A dream she knew was nothing but a reality. The screeching of tires came from out of nowhere drawing closer and closer to her. Frictional force was obviously her enemy at that point because, the car knocked hard against her sending her flying into a nearby orange stall owned by a quite hot tempered man they all knew as 'Kapoor.

No one was hurt and just a few damages happened to Kapoor's stall. But the young maiden, she was on the ground struggling to get up.

Lord alone knows how she survived. The Old Man up there in Heaven had decided, now wasn't her time to come home and mind you, He would only call her when He wanted.

The maiden lost her balance when she slipped on an orange and fell hard on her bottom when she tried to get up once more. She let out a soft scream with her cracked yet cute voice. She could feel her hand slightly bruised and a crowd suddenly forming. Their footsteps grew nearer from all directions and made her feel quite vulnerable.

Out of the expensive Cadillac that knocked her down, emerged a fashionable lady. She was dressed in an expensive Lehenga and expensive pearls adorning her neck and wrists. She growled at the maiden who had managed finally to get up and was rubbing gently unto her bruised arm.

She had a bad temper, that was lucid.

"What is wrong with you, you beggar?! Are you insane?!" the fashionable lady Sonia snapped at the meek maiden.

"I-I'm s-sorry..." she apologised to the Sonia, lady. As though, she had asked them to be careless and knock her down when her only motive was to go to the Mosque.

"Shut up you tramp! You are lucky you are still alive, you dirty piece of trash. You idiotic peasants just do this to get money off, we well-to-do people. Shameless slut!!!" she continued to rain insults on the maiden. The on lookers couldn't do anything. Because, even if they tried, it would cause more trouble for the maiden.

Out of the back seat of the car, came another gorgeous lady of about 22. She looked pitiful for the young maiden who was being verbally abused by the other maiden, Sonia.

"Enough with this!! Can't you see that Gabriel's driving almost killed this young lady? We should be the ones apologising to her!!!" the other lady Sara snapped at Sonia in defense of the young lady.

A ferocious growl was heard coming from the car. It was an angry one. One that instilled fear. The driver's seat of the car opened and through the door came a man.

A man of height 6'7, a manbun hair, a long line of tattoes on his neck and other parts of his body, jade green eyes, muscular(almost body builder) physique and an authoritarian aura came with him.

The young maiden's eyes snapped to the direction of the growl.

The next thing, she felt the presence before her. An attractive blow of cologne mixed with sinful deeds almost knocked her off her stance. She knew now that a man stood before her. Not any man. A dangerous man.

"Watch where you going kitten! No one attends a feline's funeral. Open your eyes and don't be a blind little kitten!" he whispered maniacally at her with her eyes staring straight into his eyes seeing just darkness. She flinched in fear. A dark, choking,scary and maniacal aura blew against them all and forced tear of fear down her eyes.

This man seemed to enjoy her vulnerability and her meekness. How she shivered at his voice...

"Bhai!! Stop it! We should apologise for knocking her down and not insult her!!" Sara scolded her older brother while pulling him back away from the frightened girl.

She helped the girl clean off the dust off her Niqab and apologised truthfully to her.

"It's alright Ma'am. I should have been more careful. I'm so sorry" the maiden apologised.

Then a young girl of about 10, held unto her hand and led her away from the growing crowd.

It became obvious only now, that the young maiden who had been knocked down was blind.

Eyes on her. Jade green eyes on her. They looked intensely at her until she disappeared completely.

"She was blind..." a mutter left Gabriel.

****

The whole day in the mansion of the former Mufti of the environ, brown eyes continued appearing in the sight of Gabriel. A veiled young lady. A young lady he almost killed. Curiosity was what killed the cat right? Well it wasn't going to kill him. He was going to annihilate that curiosity.

He was going to find out who she was? Why? He didn't know himself. He just knew he wanted to find out.

'She was blind....' remained on the tip of his tongue the whole evening. Feeling very restless and with Sonia on his neck, he couldn't think straight.

Why did he care anyway? He knew he needed to get rid of this stress. He needed to. He had been away for about 10 years and was coming back for the first time in a decade. He needed to rest and feel at ease first.

Sonia's mother Rama had always wanted him to marry her daughter when they were both older. So she had them both betrothed. Now that he was back, he knew the pressure would be more and more intense. He didn't need this. At least not now. He just needed to get away from this to a more peaceful place.

He changed from his tuxedo into ripped jeans and a tank top. He picked up a Glock 9 and his car keys before stomping out of the house. Ignoring everyone and by that, he meant Sonia especially.

"Where are you going to Gabriel?!!" Sonia screamed as she pursued him who had been ignoring her since they arrived. She had already gathered everyone in the family and was trying to get them to converse about some marriage that she and her mother wished for with Gabriel. He knew they had both been betrothed, but the last thing on his mind was love.

The Benz Biome sped off out of the mansion. The Qarnayn mansion. It belonged to the anonymous eldest son of the famous Mufti of the country. Hamza Dhul Qarnayn.It was literally the family house of the Dhul Qarnayn family.

It was in the late hours after Asr prayers when he ended up at the exact junction where he knocked the girl down. He had his own thoughts and wanted to be left alone to think. With Sonia, aunt Rama, his mother Nawar and his other family on his neck, he needed some space to think about himself and the future ahead.

As his eyes went to the Masjid across the street, he realised how much of a bad nut he had become. From being the once, all brilliant kid in his Islamic school to a bad guy.

A complete bad guy.

"Alif ! Baa !Taa ! Thaa !" he heard the voices of children come. They were reciting the Arabic alphabets joyfully. He could hear their loud voices but they were not yet seen. They were obviously on the other street about to cross the street. Soon the children had crossed the street in their jolly numbers.

"Asalamu Alaikum ma'am!!!!" they children screamed loudly towards a maiden who walked with a tattered brown bag filled with books in it. She waved towards the direction of the voices before muttering softly some words not audible to Gabriel from where he sat.

Gabriel had no idea when, how and why he suddenly got out of the car. All he knew was that, the next thing, he was following behind her. She was oblivious of the fact that, the man who almost killed her hours earlier was walking behind her.

"ALLAHU LAA'ILAHA ILA HU. HAYUU, QAYUUM. LAA TAA KHUZUHU SINATUM WA LAA NA'UM. LA HU MAA FIS SAMAAWATI WA MAA FIL ARD. MAN ZAL LAZII IN DAHU ILA BI IZINI YA'LA MU. MAA BAYNA AYDIHIM WA MA KHALFAHU WA LAA YU HI TUUNA BI SHAY'IN MIN ILMIHII ILAA BI MAASHA'A. WA SIYA KURSIYUS SAMAAWATI WAL ARD. WA LAA YA HUUDU. HIFZUHU MAA. WA HUWAL ALIIYUL AZEEM" she recited the Throne Verse of the Holy Qur'an silently as she walked to her destination. All along, she knew not of the presence behind her.

Abruptly she tripped over a rock which caused her to stumble and fall to the ground. Her already bruised arm from the previous accident had been scratched once again by a sharp thorn that lay on the ground.

"Oh Allah. I'm struggling. My eye sight gone. I may have never set my eyes on anything in this life but I know that one day, you will grant me back my eye sight. I don't mind the number of bruises I get now. I believe that one day, by Your Will, I will set my eyes on this temporary world we live in" she whispered to herself.

Unknown to her, a man stood right beside her and for a whole minute, he couldn't think straight. Gabriel had heard exactly what she had spoken and it just drove him out of the world.

The maiden helped herself up and like magic, she mistakenly dropped her bag again and bent over to pick it up again. Gabriel stood few metres away from her as he watched with fatherly eyes over her, to prevent that perversely looking young man who was walking by, from trying to hit on her.

"Another day with big sister. Let's hurry up my lil friends, lest we get them angry." she spoke to her now dirty duffel bag as she walked away towards her home. The wind begun blowing wildly. It was lucid it wanted to rain.

And before Gabriel could react, she took to her heels in fear not really knowing where she was off to.

Gabriel just stood there for a long while dumbfounded before leaving.

So innocent she was it was so alluring. His demons were attracted. But she looked too young and him, he was too old. He was 32 and she, she looked like an early teenager. He felt like a pervert.

Gabriel drove back home to his family. He had intentions. New intentions in his heart.

HEY GUYS. SO THIS BOOK SHATTERING HEIGHTS IS ONE OF MY FAV BOOKS. SEEMS QUITE SIMILAR TO MAFIA'S PURSUIT. I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS BEGINNING. THIS IS THE STORY OF AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE BETWEEN AN INNOCENT BLIND MAIDEN AND A NOTORIOUS MAFIA LEADER. TIDES CHANGE, HEARTS BREAK, FEELINGS GET CAUGHT AND FINALLY DESTINY DOES ITS OWN BIDDINGS. LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

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