•Bashir

A month ago...

"Bashir I need you to give someone a package because I can't be in Abuja right now."

"Ok, what is it?"

"Inteesar will bring it to you first thing tomorrow morning. It's a small package."

"Alright. Any more instructions?"

"Yes, a man will meet you at Tantalizer's. Just give him and turn back. Make sure nobody sees you."

"Insha Allah no one will see me."

"Also I want to ask a favour from you."

"I'm listening. There's nothing I can't do for you friend."

"Thank you, it's about Inteesar. I know she has been in love with you for a long time and I don't know if you can try to reciprocate it."

"That's something that—I'm sorry, it just can't happen. Goodnight, I'll not forget to take the package."

"Ok goodnight. Remember to leave it under the table. We'll talk about this tomorrow.

The next morning...

It isn't even 07:00am and Inteesar is already downstairs waiting for me.

I'm beyond tired and still angry about yesterday's revelation.

She's watching tv when I arrive and is eating something in a little bag.

She kneels to greet me as if she's really my wife and smiles effortlessly. Her yellow jilbab made her look pretty.

Her smile reminds me of the other night she came and the smile on my face fades into a neutral look.

"Good morning Inteesar."

"Bashir! Good morning." She shyly looks at the ground.

What could she be possibly shy about after everything that she has done? She adjusts the top of her jilbab so it covers her frontal hair and she continues to smile.

"Where is the package?"

"Are you in a hurry to send me off? Sit, let's talk."

In my own house. She's telling me what to do. Ok, this should be interesting.

I sit—a good 6 meters—away from her and prompt her to speak up with a wave of my hand and the clearing of my voice.

"So," she smiles again, "About the other night."

"Yes?"

"You look angry. Please calm down."

"What do you want me to calm down about? I told the security guard to never open the gates of this house for you because of that same issue." I begin to shout and reduce my voice immediately I notice the terror in her eyes, "You know what you did. Do you know that I hate you? You have forced me to perform an act I can be cursed forever for?"

"It wasn't like that. I just..."

"You just what? You thought if you did that I'd love you? Well you're deceiving yourself."

"What do you mean by that? Despite all the love I've shown you you still hate me. What is it you don't like? I can cook, I can clean. You've seen everything underneath this." She touches the hijab.

I suck in a breathe of realization as I start to see snippets of that nights activity. I always believed it was a dream and that it was all in my head. What my security guard told me that morning only made me paranoid and now she has testified to us really engaging in it.

"You're a devil! Do you know that? How can I love you after all that has happened? You know your brother will not even listen to me when he hears this. I wish I never met you that day in school."

She starts to cry and I leave her to wallow in her tears of unrepentant despair as I make my way upstairs. I enter my room and minutes later she's standing by the door shivering with tears covering her face.

She kneels before me, holding my legs, "Please Bashir, you can't say that you don't love me. I begged my brother to speak to you and forced him to send me on errands to your house just to see you, cooked food and sent it here but you never saw all that."

"Don't touch me." I move backwards and sit on the edge of my bed.

"Please listen. At this point there's nothing you can do."

"I've already rejected you. Tell your brother what you did so that you all can just leave me alone." I hiss loudly.

"I can't leave you alone!"

"Get out of this house and out of my life! I hate you and everything about you."

"You can't kick me out like this. I'm pregnant."

"Pregnant? For who?"

She wipes her eyes and stares at me squarely and confidently, "You."

It's almost as if she had sucked out all the air in the room. I struggled to fathom what her words meant and she smiled bitterly, knowingly.

She knew she had me in the palm of her hands. Using the arms of her jilbab, she wiped her nose and eyes before rising up from the ground—and as if nothing had happened—she said, "We can take a paternity test when you're ready. You can pick the hospital."

She swiftly exited my room and I begged her to return. She ignored me and continued to walk downstairs. I followed her and stopped her at the door, holding the edge of her jilbab.

"You wanted me to leave, I'm leaving. What's wrong? If it's your package, I left it on the coffee table in your living room."

"For how long have you been pregnant?"

"I haven't been to the hospital. I just saw symptoms and google confirmed it for me."

"Prepare for a trip to the hospital later this week. I'm not accepting the child's responsibility unless he's mine."

"Aren't you going speak of us getting married?"

"Get out!"

I slammed the door in her face and climbed the staircase, back to my room to take a bath before it was time for me to meet with the agent.

I punched the walls in the shower and yelled at myself for such a big mistake. Now I really had no choice but to marry her if this child was ours.

Her manipulative smile said it all. She had this all planned out from the start. Her brother doesn't even know he was also a pawn just like I was.

If her parents hear this, I'll be casted out of this town or forced to marry her to save the family's image.

I came out of the shower and found clean clothes to wear. As I was wearing my clothes, the door of my room flips open and that same voice that keeps speaking to me began talking.

"I told you that once you left that house trouble would keep following you." The womanly voice laughed and the room went silent again.

"Who are you?" I asked but no answer.

I continued to wear my hoodie and dragged my beanie from the bed and made my way downstairs.

****

"Where are you?"

"I'm outside sir."

I drop the envelope under the table and make my way outside the restaurant. He leaves his car as I'm walking outside and we pretend to not have a preliminary motive for being there.

We make eye contact but nobody speaks. I continue to my car and he calls me once he has gotten a hold of the package.

"Sir I've gotten it."

"You know what to do right?"

"Yes—"

"Don't worry. I just wanted to know if you knew what to do."

I didn't know what his job was because Jameel refused to disclose his plans to me saying that it wasn't important but I knew it had to do with a man. I felt a picture inside the envelope and some money but I didn't think much of it.

If he's getting this man murdered I'd snitch because I didn't want to be jailed for association or being an accomplice to the murderer himself.

I turn the keys and the car starts. I get out of the restaurant's parking lot and drive out without a place in mind.

The music sends me into a frenzy and I'm calmly singing to the lyrics of Deno Driz's Drizzy,

"I'm with Amira my habibty,
would your abo mind if I gave you a pickne?
Swiftly swiftly how much for the mehr?
I'll drop 250."

I hear a laugh and suddenly my lips lose their ability to speak. The Ayyatul kursiyy is the first things that I wish to spill but the fear in me doesn't let me open my mouth.

"You can sing but can you dance to the tunes of Inteesar's song?"

I almost forgot about that witch. The music had helped me forget her issue for as long as it'd been in my head and now this... womanly spirit had forced me to remember.

Despite the number of times she has spoken to me I still can't get used to it and now I think I'm about to wet my sweat pants.

I'm breathing in and out and sweat is pouring down my face as if water had been poured on my head.

I try to open my mouth again but I'm unable to. I don't even remember when I pulled over but I know she keeps speaking and I'm unable to move or say a word.

"I'll help you this once and never again. Find a man named Rayyan."

"How?"

I'm surprised that my lips are moving and I'm able to ask her questions. I feel like a child who's just seen a creature in the horror movies.

"I don't know where he is but I know you've met him before. Trace his family or friends. They'll be of great help. I will try to find him too so one of you is able to find the other.

I catch her eyes from my rear view mirror in the backseat. She has catlike eyes and they're the prettiest I've ever seen.

Another look into them and a chill runs down my spine, forcing me to look away. I look again because she's very beautiful and doesn't sound like she normally does but she isn't there.

The atmosphere has an evident shift and the song had long ended. The car starts on its own and a new song begins to play just as I try to change the current one playing.

I pretend that I haven't just met the lady that has been scaring the daylight out of me but change the frantic tunes of Luh Kel's Wrong to the ataractic verses of the holy Quran as I drive into the darkening sunset with a new mission, a newly attained vision with no plan to actualize it.

A while later, I finally find myself at home after making a few stops at KFC and the dry cleaners at Posh Wash to take my ironed clothes home.

After praying Isha, I started to bing watch Peaky Blinders till I fall asleep and a call from Soldierboy wakes me up.

"Were you able to dispatch the package?"

"Yes, it's has been done."

"Thank you." He cleared his voice, "About Inteesar, I know that you just look at her like a sister but please just do this for me. Love her the way she should be loved and marry her for the sake of Allah. She doesn't want all the men that have come forward and she keeps talking about you."

"I'll think about it."

"Thank you, old friend."

"You're welcome."

"Are you alone?"

"Yes, why?"

"Oh nothing. I didn't want you speaking about this with people there."

"So where have you been?"

"I've been in Morocco. I'm trying to make an offer to this company to sell me some of their assets."

"That's amazing. When will you be back?"

"Soon."

I decided to poke at his insecurities to see if he'll break.

"I've been seeing on the new that Basma El-Nafaty was kidnapped. I'm also just finding out that she was once your wife."

"Yes, that's true. Poor girl, I loved her with all my heart but she didn't want me back."

I hear yelling in the background,
"That's a lie." And the line goes dead.

He claims a text came in and says he'll call back tomorrow morning so we can finish this conversation.

And that was when I knew I had found Basma!

So Basma was with him all along. What kind of set up was this? First he helps me and then betrays me by kidnapping my favorite and only person I trust in this world before offering his sister to me.

I'm definitely going to get back at him. I've been following the story of their marriage and it seems that it was a major scandal but because I didn't even have any means of using social media I never got to know.

It looks like an amiable separation but that's not the case. I'm seeing that an Aaliyah and her foundation helped her.

I need to save her before he kills her. All this couldn't have been known by the public. His family probably used their money to cover the mouths of those ready to expose them.

I decide to sleep—with a heavy heart—hoping that tomorrow I can figure out how to save her.
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-Aisha Safiyanu XO💚