Nadeen was about to stumble upon a riddle. One that'd take years just to land on an infertile perception.

The day began with falsehood.

Breathing had become a felony under their innate home, Mama made sure of it.

Custody had been denied to Nadeen and Walid's maternal family, the strings tying them to the scene of the murder too grievous to allow their overpass guide on the children. The only individual capable of cutting corners, Laura, was detained in a foreign country for details undisclosed to them.

A minute proved to be a long time. Long enough to rain insults and abuse capable of breaking the hoarded, ugly sobs from Walid's vocal cords out of their shackles without regard for his age or lack of emotional stability.

"Maye dan mayya qanin mayu." Accompanying the words were Mama's finger pushing Walid's face to the side, the kid unbalancing and almost losing his weight to the floor.

The faint sound of Nadeen's foot across the floor proliferated, thumping replacing them and equal detrimental words hiking to the tip of her tongue, awaiting a signal.

"Leave him alone," she said.

Narrowed slits jet over to Nadeen's glossy ones, "What? Your sister killed my husband and you want me to leave you in peace?" Mama's cheeks had a light blush to them, make up or her worries, Nadeen didn't know. "You will never have peace in this house." Her index angled at the floor, disturbing sounds of heavy breaths increasing in the berry-scented lounge.

"Why won't you let us go?" Nadeen spoke so softly when war was ragged inside her. "What have we don-done to you?" Her shoulders drooped.

Pure exciting fuel to her stepmother. Mama crossed over as she shook violently, "What have you done? Is that a-"

Nadeen grabbed Walid, entertaining Mama wasn't going to make him stop crying. "Shh-" she cooed, rubbing the back of his head as she pulled him into the cotton housing her body and dragged him away.

"Kuje. Go! Shegu." The door to Mommy's door shut the screeching taunts of the unfortunate woman.

"Don't listen ...she's a liar," Walid's back suffered the aggressive rub of Nadeen's palm, her innate attempt at not breaking down either. "We'll stay away from her, kaji?"

"I just want Mommy." Walid's aching eyes rose to Nadeen's, her lips jammed against each other and eyes everywhere but his. So, this was how Amani felt? Cooing others but falling apart herself? Where was the medal for firstborn daughters?

"Me too, Walid." Nadeen nodded, walking them to the bed. "Me too."

Once crouched on the bedrest, she untangled from Walid, headed to the closet, and dragged the first travel bag she caught. Clothes hit the hollow of the bag, each pressed by Nadeen's palms into each other. Once a feeling of satisfaction hit her, she struggled with the zipper against a closure until she zipped it up, sniffing and wiping her ungraceful tears.

"Just wait. I'll get us out of here, we'll be fine." In hopes of her words at Walid to have the same soothing effect on her, it produced the opposite; terrifying her.

Nadeen rose, weak in limbs yet heavy on goals. To get out of that roof under any hinderable circumstance. The weather she hadn't felt in a week was thick and cruel, heat boiling her sun-protectant-free skin under its glaring rage. It was her punishment too, for being a bigot, a liar, a coward. Her sorry excuse was she was a child, she didn't deserve this, and they didn't deserve it all.

"Malam Aminu," Nadeen knocked at the staff quarters. "Malam Aminu," she was growing impatient, the edginess smearing her tone. "We want to go to MVP."

With no choice but to confirm the driver's presence, Nadeen pushed the door to a lit-up room, Malam Aminu, Mommy's driver sprawled on the mattress and pushed against the floor of the room. Their eyes locked, "Ina yini," she started, "I and Walid want to go to MVP."

Silence enveloped the air for preceding seconds before stammers rose, "ai-hajja- mama ta, I am not allowed to touch a car."

"You are not what?" Bedazzlement hit Nadeen in the gut, her palm coming up to hold the other side of the door to keep her spinning head and anatomy balanced.

"The cars, they're all...spoilt."

"All the cars are working." Her palm gestured at her back, the parking lot generous with cars of different brands behind her. "We need to go, Malam Aminu. We'll take Amani's car."

"Kiyi haquri Nadeeni," the nickname had lost its touch, igniting a prolific flame of abhorrence within Nadeen, ascertain in her eyes.

"Please." While her mind wanted to rain outraging slander, her lips acted for Walid's sake. This was for him, for his liberation from that nightmare inform of woman.

"They will fire me."

"You worked for my mother!" Aht. Right there. The raging Nadeen everyone knew. The yell startled both of them. Malam Aminu either did not take offense or did great In handling it. As gently as he could, he latched his door back close, the wood at Nadeen's nose once it shut till the end.

The deep breath expelled out of her lungs expired once she was again at Akram's door. He was back, his spontaneity a blessing in Nadeen's disguise. This time, she knocked and without awaiting a green signal, pushed his door open and walked into his thrashed room.

Atop a pile of pitiful clothes housed Akram's shirtless figure. An arm beneath his head and one across his eyes. The unwelcome sounds took a flight of his arm away from his eyes, the back of his head rising on instinct.

"Please drive us to Mvp." It was a simple request, her only request.

Yet as the seconds pass by, Akram's tension declining, his position reviving from his pre-interrupted one, Nadeen ceased the thought of victory.

"You can't too, ko?" A brutal scoff escaped her lips, her unpacked silk scarf rising with the aid of her hand to wipe the sole of her raining eyes. Reality was barraging her. They had no one. Nothing. And she couldn't do anything.

"Did Mama forbid you too?"

Nadeen's question had the halting effect, it cut Akram's shaking toe fingers.

"To turn against your blood? To let us suffer?"

"This is not about you, Nadeen." The calm to his voice boxed with the storm within Nadeen.

She couldn't help the yell, "Who is it about?" Her aching palms clapped against one another, "Tell me, menene?"

Nadeen was past scared of glares. Akram's responsive glare at her did nothing in scaring her. She stepped further. "Allah ya isan mu."

The curse was enough to surround her step-family for a lifetime, after all, God was our retaliator.

Back at her mother's place, Nadeen struggled at getting the safe lock to open. She wasn't one with the knowledge of the passcode, it was Mommy and Amani.

Her first two attempts were Mommy's date of birth and bank account passcode. It proved to be a dead end. Her other attempts were Amani's date of birth and her bank passcode too, which suffered the same fate.

Nadeen had one strike left, after which the safe was to shut down, an indication of an attempt at theft. It prod her to pace, sniff, and wipe her tears only to bring a finger to her face a second later to find it still drenched. It was torture, hell. Living without their mother? Torture. Hell.

Long, un-motioning minutes went by before she could gather herself, an idea lighting up in her head. She waltzed back to the room, finding Walid dozed in his draining tears. Her eyes left him as fast as it caught him, she would avoid such sights for as long as she could. She wasn't Amani and wasn't strong.

Her phone flashed before her eyes after minutes of rummaging through the sparse room. Hanne's line went loud with unceasing rings before the call failed. Fate applying to every attempt of Nadeen's. The one person who had promised to be of reach at all times chose the wrong time to miss a phone call. Nadeen tried again, Sadiq's digits going unanswered in all her attempts.

Although her guess could be a dooming failure, she'd never know if she never tried. The combination swirling in a pick me, pick me suggestion in her head grew louder by the passing second until she was able to tear down all operations in her head.

Fuck it.

Nadeen collapsed before the safe lock, fingers fleet in punching her date of birth into the digits buttons. Like the diamond castle emerged after its unlock song, the safe sprung open upon her call, only hers was a simple four digit of the year she was born.

Poof.

An internal jubilatory bomb went off inside her, of reasons being; she could pick cash enough to sustain her and Walid's way from their toxic home and her mother's choice of a passcode.

Who would've thought?

Not Nadeen.

The girl had a secret suspicion of her mother's unnurtured hatred towards her. A sickle? An uncontrollable sickle? Come on, everyone knew Amani and Walid were her favorites. The middle child always was obliterated.

"Walid." She called, "I got the money!"

Walid sprung at her words, eyes frantic as if caught in a frenzy. "Wha-are we...what are we doing with it?"

"Going to MVP." She said, sticking a stack of naira notes into a hobo bag and flinging it on her shoulder. "Just act like I am old."

Nadeen gave Walid a swift beam, one incapable of reaching her eyes. Forced. "It's better than living here. Look," she paused to rummage for a key in her bag, "Amani's key."

"Her car?"

"Her house." If she knew anything about driving, she'd take the car too. "We'll be fine before Laura comes back."

Deafening silence settled in, the air thick with uneasiness. Walid and Nadeen had never stepped out of their district without a guide. A first time for everything. Howbeit it wasn't because Nadeen was finally a grown-up, the standpoint called for a different approach. If all things went well, there'd be safely tucked at mvp in less than an hour.

"Help me drag this quietly." Her hands clapped in anticipation, Walid's blank visage revving into a skeptical one before he sniffed, wiping his almost dried face and jumping off the bed.

There existed at least ten workers, over ten cars, and enough funds, and yet Nadeen and Walid had no one but themselves to get themselves to safety. Or peace. As peaceful as things could get.

No one made an attempt to stop them, query them, or inquire why a teenager and a child were dragging a troll on their own in the scanty streets of Area 11.

Nadeen could not take a stand on which was better. That they were left to leave, no one opposing their irate decision, or the fact that Mama had grown to not even retaliate. Was that the end of it all? The end she had prayed and prayed for was here, so why was it not in her wishful form?

The weather possessed an irregular pattern. One step, breeze, the next, the trees ceased to move and the sun punished them.

Nadeen dragged Walid close to her by draping her arm over his shoulder. It was after walking for minutes under the 2 o clock sun of Abuja did a cab wheeze past them.

"Hey!" They called out in sync. The duo sighed once the cab slowed down while they hasten, Nadeen whispering,

"Let me do the talking."

Nadeen made no negotiations, what the driver demanded was what she paid.

Bag safely secured, Walid's hair buried beneath Nadeen's cheeks, the journey to brutal reality began.

***

"Your aunt is worried. Here is my colleague, he is a family attorney. He will get custody of you two to your aunt soon."

Nadeen listened with eerie focus, Mike introducing a similarly decked attorney in matching suits. Mike moved to march in and Nadeen pushed the door closer to herself.

"You can trust us." Mike understood the defenses Nadeen put up, he couldn't blame her. "I," he dipped a finger into his chest, "Represent Amani. And he," he gestured at the short man with warming features, "Monday Adeola, will represent you and Walid. No need to worry."

"I do." Nadeen cut, her lips flat against each other. She was not Amani and did not trust people with her life. More so, Walid's life.

"If we came here to harm you, you have no protector, we could've abducted or done worse already. Do you know that?" Monday reasoned, tone calm as if that was not a threat.

"No," she shook her head, holding unto the pink key holder behind her. "You can't."

"Abeg abeg," Mike waved, pushing past Nadeen.

The subsequent reaction from Mike bedazzled them both. The lipstick taser connected with his groin and he tremored, the waves of shock traveling across his system.

"Oh, my God!" Monday yelled, placing a helping hand on Mike only to revive at the communal shock.

Nadeen revived, visage neutral. Howbeit she had internally celebrated her victory, sending blessings upon her mother's grave for investing her and Amani in pepper spray, taser, and trainers in full disguise of a comb, lipstick, and key holder respectively.

Mike held his groin saucer eyes settled on Nadeen who neither flinched nor gave way to her simultaneous excitement and horror, "You can't come in."

"Are you hiding something? What an imbecile child!" Monday cursed and Nadeen whopped the taser at him, threatening to jam it into his eyes and he yelled, almost falling back through the stairs.

"Okay." Mike finalized, breath wheezing and a hand placed to put a distance between them. "We won't come in."

"I am glad we've all agreed. What happened?"

An answer came after bitter silence, "Laura has temporary custody of you. We're working on making it permanent."

"I'll call someone to come pick us up." No way was she getting into a car with men she had tasered and threatened to taser. She was an old soul stuck in the body of a teenager. "I'll call..." her suggest-ful tone lowered, Akram at the tip of it. He was not an option anymore. She had ignored his numerous missed calls. He was a hypocrite. He could always come to see them-yet he ended it with mere phone calls. "Sadiq." The name rolled out of her tongue. So sure. So confident he'd show up. She was going to overlook his ignorance of her missed calls. He was their best option. "He'll bring-"

"Hanne will bring you. She is coming to pick you up." Monday affirmed and Nadeen shrugged.

"And..." Mike began, "About Sadiq. We need him."

"Why?"

"Amani's Md card is with him. She has evidence in it." Mike explained, straightening his blazer and bending to clutch his briefcase.

"What are we waiting for?" Nadeen asked.

"He is not picking up my calls," Mike said.

"Neither is he picking mine." The situation called for another alternative and Nadeen gave it. "We should go to his house."

"Okay." The lawyers nodded.

"Let's wait for Hanne." By that, she meant, the colleagues should wait outside while she clicked the door lock into place, slamming her back into the door and clutching her aching chest with her hand. It took a minute to stabilize herself, out of breath.

"We're going home." She announced, Walid's attention flying from an iPad to her before he blankly nodded.

It tore Nadeen in half the version taking over Walid. A kid known for mischief. Suddenly, his favorite expression was...blank? Where were the teases? The annoyance? She needed it. Lived for it to feel normal again.

But it was selfish. Selfish of her to want normalcy when her mother was sent to her grave, Amani an even earlier grave all because of one person.

And who did she blame?

Of course, herself. She was the coward. The bigot.

She'd take the pain, the misery off Amani in a second if she could. But again, where was her power in all of it?

Annihilated.

Nadeen sat with the packed bag she had dragged with Walid out of their father's house four days back in wait for Hanne's arrival. It was minutes to 6 when Hanne arrived, apologizing for the delay and rushing her niece and nephew into the car.

Nadeen studied from the tinted Highlander car a conversation running smoothly between Mike, Monday, and Hanne. Whatever it was they discussed, she cared not. The process took almost half an hour before they split, Hanne jumping into the driver's seat, Mike in the front passenger seat, and Monday in Mike's car.

Hanne lead the ride to what Nadeen eventually recognized as Sadiq's mother's home. The gatekeeper mentioned his absence and they proceeded to Maitama, where his father's manse resided. They met the same faith.

As Mike continued to brief Hanne on the case, Nadeen picked bits of it. First, the importance of the Md card. Amani had pictures of mommy's bruises, inflicted by her husband. Cuts, bruises, neck, and shoulders. Enough to build an abuse case, enough to hint self-defense. It was not Mike's magic bullet, but it was a key he couldn't afford to omit in building up to the last puzzle.

In Mike's relentless attempt at urging Amani to remember every atomic detail that could help, the thought had crossed her mind and she had mentioned it. He jumped the opportunity, setting on a mission to find it.

Sabrin and Hafiz had been of immense help that day. Through Sabrin, The crew was successful in packing info about Sadiq's whereabouts. It took a ten-minute drive to the location. One Nadeen recognized too well for its unholy activities.

What was Sadiq doing in a place like that?

Hanne had asked Nadeen to press the central lock of the car after she and Mike had stepped out, the engine running and eyes fixed on the anonymous car that was parked.

It had been proven times without number that curiosity killed the cat and it was going to be what killed a part of Nadeen that day. For starters, she ordered Walid to do the same; begging him to click the central lock once she was out and begging him more not to come out. The kid had protests at the tip of his tongue but didn't utter them. Instead, nodded at her.

Nadeen stepped off, clutching hands underneath her hoodie pocket.

Hood.

The name fitted the scene. The noises filled her eyes once she walked further. Her neck would ache from the amount of looking back she did. Her eyes flew from her route to the car she left, azkhars for protection heavy on her lips, heart palpitating to its brink.

Nadeen surveyed the area, overlooking words she could not believe she was hearing;

"Wassup?"

"Molly?"

It had to be a mistake, yet a part of her could not rest until she was satisfied that Sadiq was nowhere there and was not about to break her heart. Slipping past two giants into the purple dim light disco house. The sound waves pulled through her, ravaging her already diminished and fragile blood cells.

Above the ground she stood encircled a dance floor, a table, and a vertical pole for dance, no doubt strippers.

Nadeen bypassed lounges by the side, the smell of drugs, sweat, and leather wafting her already appalled system. Her palm flew to cover her mouth, the sight accompanied by women in scanty coverings to absolute nudity was about to make her puke.

To convince herself, to sleep better at night, she'd circle the house before leaving, it'd be the liberation from the aching stomps in her chest. Nadeen's feet jammed the floor routing to the third lounge she was counting, her breath seizing.

Accompanying the urge to prove her eyes wrong were her hands as they flew to her hood, unveiling it from her head; maybe that'd help her see better.

"Sadiq." It was a whisper, a confirmation of the victorious monsters in her head. They had won. Their deductions were true.

"Sadiq."

She called again, this time with a trembly voice and hands, shoulders quaking and face deepening in beetroot shade.

Amongst a crowd of five, Sadiq sat at the center of a black leather orbit sectional couch, face once buried in powder snail likely rising to the smoke blown out from the guy adjacent to his right.

"Sadiq," Nadeen whispered, eyes unable to bear the scene and so they shut, hands clasping her arms to keep herself up. No, she wouldn't collapse like her system was threatening to.

The seconds preceding Nadeen's collapse were her arduous and anguished eyes opening to Sadiq's slurred movements as his beatific smile skyrocketed.

"Amani baby..." Sadiq sloughed off every arm of obstacle on his way as he limped like a baby learning to step on its own towards Nadeen, "Was...sup! I miss-"

Silence.

Crawly silence.

And collapse.

They collapsed.

Next update is in 14 days. You'll know why in the next chapter😗