Hey my loves, how are you all doing? Miss me? Miss Alhaji and his baby? I hope you enjoy this chapter. There so much for your enjoyment in it.

Please don't forget to vote and comment. May God bless you as you do.

"The fish has taken the bait, sir." Alhaji was sitting crossed legged in the den of his hotel suite in Geneva, wishing he was in his laboratory, not reading a journal in a cold dreary country far away from the warmth of his family. He raised his head to Elijah who was dressed already in a chocolate brown suit that put his assistant in a class of his own.

"Really? It didn't take that long." Elijah nodded, pushing towards his boss an ipad with a video playing. Alhaji shook his head as he watched the employee in question go into the laboratory, take Alhaji's notes and dash out just as quickly. The employee had forgotten that from the doorknob to even the place where the note was placed was supervised by cameras.

"I love how this is going. We'll find out who sent him soon enough won't we?" Elijah nodded with a small laugh, taking back the iPad to do other things on it.

About an hour later, Alhaji got up, stretched delicately, then began to wear extra layers on his dress shirt and woolen suit trousers, he wore the suit jacket, a black trench coat to complement the black patterned suit he had on, then he wrapped a dense knitted scarf around his neck, leaving no space for the frigid air to get into his body.

Just as he finished dressing up, his phone rang, he walked back to the coffee table and picked the phone up, swiping immediately he saw the caller ID.

"Assalamualaikum, sir. I'm just calling to report that Ms Surayyah Aminu Abbas was just escorted off the premises of Diezemane Hospital. She tried to assault Miss Muhammad Shinkafi, but was assaulted by Miss Nadia's friend instead and before being escorted off the premises." Alhaji put his free hand on his face in second hand embarrassment.

"Thank you for the information, I'll ask Elijah to speak to you soon." The call ended just like that, Alhaji slowly exhaled, he was getting tired of his ex-wife and her antics, and if not for his children, and setting a good example for them, he would have cut her off totally.

Now he understood the importance of having children with good people and good people from good families. A person could manage a bad spouse, bad inlaws however were unmanageable. Surayyah was a result of bad parenting, insufferable family members and a sense of entitlement that didn't go away with age.

He called the culprit, frowning when he heard the dial tone that suggested the phone was turned off. He called again while he waited for Elijah to round up a call, then he sent a text to Nadia, apologizing for the intrusion. Nadia texted back almost immediately saying she was fine but the hospital was thinking of pressing charges before his ex-wife did.

That's a good idea, it will teach her never to try raising her hands on another again. He texted back with a grim smile. He called his ex wife again, when her number set off a dial tone, Alhaji was a little concerned so he motioned for Elijah who just wrapped up his call.

"Immediately you can, get us new rooms or a suite, we need to move out of here by the time we return." Elijah nodded and immediately went to his iPad, fired off a few emails doing just exactly as his boss had said.

They both walked out the door, meeting the Nigerian permanent secretary of the ministry of health in the elevator. Alhaji greeted the older man, then they were transported to the lobby about ten floors down.

They stepped into the lobby and met other members of the Nigerian entourage, they all greeted Alhaji and the permanent secretary and soon began to pile into long buses, Alhaji's car was at the very end of the line so he waited with with a director in the ministry of health that he knew.

"Congratulations on your impending wedding, sir." Alhaji beamed happily, he had found out he liked to be congratulated. Soon, Elijah arrived from the front desk and Alhaji's car reached them on the line, they got in and sat down waiting to drive with the Nigerian convoy.

"Did they agree to move our rooms?" Elijah nodded, he cleared his throat before responding, "They moved us to a bridal suite upstairs, that's all they have." Alhaji laughed, he laughed so hard tears leaked out of his eyes. Elijah chuckled as well, not laughing as much as his boss.

"That's okay as well, I don't want to take any chances, I forgot to tell you to show them a photo of Surayyah and make her persona non grata." Elijah bit his lower lip in regret, he knew by now that his boss's ex-wife was injured in the head, she could do anything.

Immediately the car parked at the conference center where the summit was holding, he stepped off the car to several flashes of hundreds of cameras.

He put a hand in his trench coat pocket and the other hand held his phone that he'd used to call before he stepped off the car, he was called by one of the journalists but he'd been told not to grant interviews by his PR team unless the network interviewing him was a solid and professional one.

Once he stepped into the warm hall, his entire body warmed up some more and he handed his coat to Elijah who tagged it and handed it to the waiting coat staff, Alhaji was whisked away to be mic-ed and prepped for his journal presentation.

When his name was up, Alhaji said a Dua for strength not to mess up his presentation and to have the grace to respond kindly to people's questions afterwards.

He was introduced about forty minutes later to a crowd of university professors, several healthcare providers associations from across the world, respected hospital heads to listen to him talk about his budding cure for early detected Prostate Cancer.

He gave his speech, spanning about twenty five minutes, he tapped on the huge monitor that was hung and showed them how far trials for the drug he was formulating had gone. He saw how several faces changed when they realized he was so close to a cure and all by himself as well.

After answering about twelve questions, he took a sip of the bottled water he had brought with him from backstage and capped it. Then he began to listen to the question, it was said in French so he had to listen from his headset for an English translation.

Alhaji reared back in surprise and it was only an age long practice of refinement taught carefully by his mother and reining in the age long, well-known Bindawa temper that succeeded in putting him back in the present.

If there was a human translator, the translator might have hesitated to speak, they might have selected their words carefully trying to translate, but it was an artificial intelligence backed translator, it could not filter it's words. It said it just as it had been said, convulting, wicked and heartbreaking.

Alhaji looked round the room, seeing surprise and then disgust on the face of the three other black people in the room, one from Kenya and the other two from Cambridge, his alma mater.

He took a deep breath for himself, it was what racism was, it took your breath, it stole the very ground which you stood on right under your feet and if you were not careful, it would take away your self-esteem. Alhaji let out a breath, his face hardened and he made sure to use every energy to pass across his words.

"I would have hoped that because this is a life saving procedure you would have the sense to have tucked your racism at home, but since you've decided to disgrace your entire country, that's good as well." He turned to the next journalist as though be didn't see the mean, racist rabbit looking man still standing.

About an hour later he took a last sip of his water bottle, draining it and began to pack his iPad and sheaf of papers. Loud applause followed him as he stepped off the podium to where his chair was waiting. Elijah handed him another bottle of water and took his iPad from him when he reached him.

"Well done sir. And thank you for putting that mumu in his place." Alhaji smiled a little, slightly lightheaded. He hadn't slept till around past three am and he sorely needed that sleep he had missed now.

"Once they end this, let's get out of here. No one expects us to extend any grace seeing as they let a racist in." Elijah nodded and handed over Alhaji's phone to him. He pressed the power button and saw three missed calls from Nadia.

He suddenly could not wait until the event was over, be wanted to speak to his Qurratul Ayn.

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"Nouru Ayni, light in my eyes." He called out immediately Nadia picked his call. He heard her shuffle a sheaf of papers before she chuckled as response. He knew it would take time for the name to stick, for her to accept that she had come to mean a lot to him in such a short time.

"How was your presentation? Maymunatu sent me a link to watch but I was in surgery at the time, I'll probably catch it on YouTube later." Alhaji rolled his eyes slightly in exasperation at his daughter. She was always lurking around somewhere and somehow.

"My presentation was fine, I only got asked if I knew what I was doing, with the such a short history of Nigerians in Medicine." Alhaji heard her perk up immediately. She hissed slightly as she must have hit something, so he urged her to be careful.

"Alhaji, don't worry about me, why would that racist piece of mosquito leg say that to you? Hasn't he read your work on traditional medicine and how far back it has been in all parts of Nigeria? What a racist thing to say." She said at the end with such venom and anger that Alhaji felt some of the hurt from that event go away.

"Nadia?" She didn't hear him, now typing on her computer trying to find the exact person who had said that.

"Nouru Ayni?" This time she heard him loud and clear and she answered with a low voice. He cleared his throat before saying, "It's not really that hurtful, I'm just wondering what all the younger people I met today will feel, black younger people who it is already hard for to get into these spaces." He heard Nadia hum knowingly. She knew, it was one thing to get into medicine, but it was another thing entirely to be able to get into the inner caucus of deep research because most of the funding went to white people.

"I was given an opportunity, I'll be a fool to not give that same opportunity to other people who look like me." He heard Nadia sigh and answer that she was sure he could do anything he set his heart to.

"The reason I was calling earlier was to ask if you wanted anything specific for our wedding, Ya Allah, there's going to be a wedding." Alhaji laughed at the unadulterated surprise in her voice, then he laughed some more at the way she gasped when she realized what she was asking.

"First off, yes, there is going to be a wedding, In Sha Allah, and no, I have nothing specific. If possible, do whatever you want, I'll go with it." She laughed, a tinkling laugh that made Alhaji settle further into his plush chair in his new room. Elijah was two doors away, tired from the day.

"No, I'm asking because I really don't want any events asides a Kamu and then the Nikkah, nothing more nothing less." Alhaji sat up immediately at Nadia's words.

"Why? If you want a weeklong event, you surely know I can afford it? And you don't even have to ask." He heard a tiny exhale that he would have missed if he wasn't listening carefully.

"I knew you would be like this, but I'd rather we spend all that money you want to spree out into making sure that so many people's lives are better. This is not to say that I don't love large weddings, I absolutely adore them, I go the ones for other people, but it's not for me." Alhaji bit his lower lip, before easing himself back into the chair.

"As I said, you can have whatever it is you want, Nouru Ayni. Anything at all, as long as I can reach for it, I can hand it to you." She muttered thanks in Hausa before asking him if his Babbar Riga had been seen or the fabric sent out.

"No, but I was thinking white for the first day, and light blue for the Nikkah." Nadia hummed, sounding like she was noting something down before she rushed out a set of words Alhaji could not hear.

"Slowly this time, slowly." She chuckled, the sound was such a beautiful thing. "I said that can I return the money you sent to my account? Since we're not having any events?" Alhaji let his lips spread into a smile. His Nouru Ayni was quite the honest one.

"No, that money is from me to you. It's for you, you can cash it out and spend it as you like if you want, you can give it out, but the sole decision over the money is yours to make. It's the same way I'll be trusting you to take decisions for our home in the nearest future, it's solely based your discretion." Nadia whispered a small thanks that Alhaji slowly smiled to.

"Your mom and mine met up at my uncle's house today, they went out to have brunch. Something about taking charge." Alhaji's laughter filled the room. His mother was at the most excited he'd ever seen her and he was willing to indulge her as far as he could.

They ended the call finalizing some details to meet up once Alhaji returned from his trip.

Alhaji let himself look over at the television in the corner that he didn't turn on since he arrived back and wondered how differently he would do things now that he was being married to Nadia after nearly eight years. He almost didn't know what to do with himself.

A knock sounded at the door just as Alhaji ended his prayers. It was the main door to the suite and he was sort of annoyed that there were no mosques nearby, be liked to offer his prayers among a congregation.

He walked to the door still in his jalabiya and opened it. Elijah must have sleeping since his door was shut tight inspite of the noisy knocking.

"Can I help you?" He asked the young man in the hotel's uniform. The man nodded his head at Alhaji after greeting and then told him in accented English that a situation had occured downstairs that Alhaji needed to take care of.

Alhaji narrowed his eyes at the younger man, shutting the door slightly, the younger man shouted and tried to swear his truth.

"There is a criminal downstairs who did something to your room." Alhaji's eyes narrowed even further, feeling like he knew exactly what the concierge was talking about.

He went back into the room and wore the a pair of brown woolen slacks and a white button down dress shirt, he picked up his phone and knocked on Elijah's door. Elijah came to the door in a pair of jeans and cardigan.

"You heard?" Elijah nodded and walked out of his room to pick up he and Alhaji's coats from the warming rack by the door, picking up a few things like Identity and ATM cards as they left the room, following the concierge.

Alhaji's head was swarm with several thoughts. Anything could happen and he wanted to solve all issues as soon as he could.

"Hello sir, I'm very sorry for the intrusion, but one of our staff here gave someone your former room number and the intruder did something quite strange that I thought you needed to see." He stretched out a large ipad in Alhaji's direction, Elijah was holding both coats watching everything with keen eyes. Alhaji have Elijah a look and Elijah responded with another look.

Alhaji felt the headache that had earlier subsided come back with full force as he watched a whole princess of Chiroma land sprinkle a substance to the door of his former hotel room. He shut his eyes and tried very hard to grasp what and where he had gone wrong.

"Where is she now?" He asked with a tired whisper. The manager wrung his hands while he explained that the police had taken her away and she was now cooling off at a police state in the city centre.

"Oh Ya Allah." Alhaji called out to his Lord with a tone filled with the most shame and exasperation he could muster.

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So, what do y'all think? Our ship has sailed but a clog in our ship sails is holding us back oo. Hmm.

Second, thank you so much for 14k reads. Omg! I really never thought we'd be at this point so soon, so thank you all for making my hard work worth every single word.

Also, if I get up to 350 comments, we'll get two chapters. If not, we'll have our usual one chapter by Friday.

See y'all on Friday, May God bless you all abundantly 💘💘😘😘

TheOmoope 💙❤️