Hello my lovelies, how are you all? I truly tried to finish this chapter last week but it was impossible. I had the worst writer's block dealing with me.

But please enjoy this chapter, it's rife with errors I'm sure because about half of my phone's screen is black and  I can barely see anything. Please compensate my efforts with a vote and several comments please.

Happy Reading.

Alhaji watched as Na'im entered his room, in his thick sweatshirt and puffy coat. He watched as Na'im took off the jacket, letting it hang from the warming coat rack by the door. He removed his shoes, and padded into the room with thick socks.

"Baaba, I'm sorry. I should have known this was coming when she asked me for some money." Alhaji shook his head. His ex-wife had gotten a few thousand dollars from him less than six weeks before but she'd suddenly gone broke.

"Why are you apologizing for her actions and not for what you did?" Na'im stopped padding into the room and stared at his father, then he lowered his eyes. It felt like when he turned nineteen all over again and found out that he was not his father's son. The thought alone still brought him panic attacks.

"Na'im you shut me out, you stopped speaking to me, and I had to resort to private investigators to get to know what you, my own son is up to. Not fair at all." Na'im looked up to his father with surprise. He didn't think his father cared.

"I'm sorry. Truly sorry, I just couldn't stop feeling like a lie. It suddenly felt like my entire life was a lie. I lost control of everything except work." Alhaji stared at his son, he had lost most of his healthy weight and bordering on being underweight. Only held up by the bulky light blue cardigan he had on.

"How come you've lost so much weight? What have you done to yourself?" To be fair, Alhaji had known Na'im was suffering, but it did not compare to the way he suffered when he found out that asides trying to kill him, his ex-wife had pinned on him another man's child. But, he had gotten over it and focused on loving his children, and expected Na'im to do the same. He guessed it was too much for the young man.

"Where is she?" Na'im asked his father. Alhaji put down his iPad and wiped his face with his joined hands. He was immensely frustrated by the situation but there was nothing he could do.

"Have breakfast first, then we'll go. You'll do the bailing out while I sit in the car and wait, because there's not telling what I'll do to your mother if I see her face to face." Na'im nodded, sitting gingerly on the sofa with Alhaji. Alhaji turned his head, refusing to look at how sad, tired and frustrated his son had become, if he looked a little more he might kill Surayyah when he saw her.

About an hour later, Elijah opened the door to the police station where Gimbiya Surayyah Aminu Abbas had spent the night and most of the morning. Alhaji blinked as he walked together with Na'im to the counter, with a smattering of french to the policewoman at the counter, they stated their business. She collected their Identity cards, scanned them against a machine and let them in about two minutes later.

Alhaji sat in the waiting area, cross-legged, then he directed his son to go see his mother while he asked for the bail terms.

Alhaji took out his phone from his pocket, calling Nadia almost immediately, and ended the call on the second ring when he realized she had to be busy. They'd talked about each other's schedules earlier that morning, as they prepared for the day and he shook his head as he gauged time, she would be in a mastectomy surgery if he counted well. She had been excited about that surgery becoming an experience for her.

He sat there until he saw Na'im charge out of the jail section of the police station, his puffer coat flying behind him. Alhaji lowered his lips into a sneer as he watched his ex-wife walk mutely behind her son.

"You came?" Alhaji uncrossed his legs and watched her as she stood a few meters away from him. Tears filled her eyes and they dropped one after the other. Alhaji scoffed as he got up, picked up the dark blue trench coat he'd folded over the chair beside him and shook it.

"I didn't come for you. I came for my son. Don't ever forget that." Alhaji let his hands slide into the soft interior of the coat that welcomed him back to the warmth it promised.

"Then why are you here? To gloat?" Alhaji pursed his lips but didn't respond. He took a few strides away from her, then he turned to her and said, "Have I not warned you to stay away from Nadia?"

She refused to say a word as well, only accepting her belongings from the police at the counter and as she stepped outside, she said, "I wanted to see my replacement. I see your tastes haven't changed, fair skinned, petite, pretty, elegant. You sure know how to pick them. Even though she'll never be me, not bad at all."

"That's why you went to disgrace and debase yourself? With a woman your junior? With all your titles, I expected better. Maybe, that's the problem, I always expect you to be a good person when you're not. And," He shook his left index finger in her face, "She will never ever be you." When she didn't respond, Alhaji took out his phone to call Elijah who had gone with the driver to a car park nearby. As soon as he dropped the call though, his phone was slapped off his hand.

"Surayyah, have you gone crazy?" He asked her, disbelief in his eyes and tone. She had to have gone crazy, with her eyes wild and scarf haphazardly tied.

"Yes, crazy. You have no idea how it is to love you, you're a wanted man everywhere. My father wants your wealth, those people want the knowledge that you have but you... You live your life like it's normal to be chased." Alhaji bent to pick up his phone, she was faster though, she placed her booted feet on the glossy name brand phone.

"Surayyah get your leg off my phone or I'll return you to that police station you just left." She pressed further on the phone as though willing Alhaji to touch her. Alhaji raised himself, took a few steps away from her and said, "I won't touch you. If that's what you want? It won't happen." She shook her head, tears appearing at her shut eye lids.

"I loved you so wholeheartedly, fully, without reserve, who am I deceiving, I still do." Alhaji hissed, waiting for an opportunity for her to move her feet off his phone, he needed that phone and he hated that she was in possession of it. But he was too incensed to try to reason with her or touch her for that matter.

"Whatever you felt, that emotion, it was never love. Love would have been you being kind to me, it would have been you telling me immediately your father asked you to start killing me. He gave you a fatal, untraceable recipe Surayyah and you used it on me, you saw me cough blood for several days, months, you saw me go for test after test at the hospital, yet, you said nothing." Alhaji swallowed gingerly remembering all that time.

He hit his hand on his chest as he said, "Surayyah, you pitched my son against me, that boy is a bag of bones because of what you said to him and you call that love?" He laughed maniacally. He had not expressed himself like that in a while.

"Whatever you felt, was not love. It was a mix of hate and satanism that only fulfils your selfish desires. That's all." He stopped speaking, crossed his arms and waited for Elijah and the car to arrive. Parking was a pain in the behind in Switzerland and it was not like Nigeria.

"Then, if I can't have you, no one else will. That little bitch will hear it from me. I promise you." The car came just as she began pounding her feet on his phone, it had none of it's usual cover because he liked how sleek it felt in his hands. She ground it until the screen cracked and several colors appeared on the now on screen.

Alhaji watched her behave with venomous hate in her and just eased himself into the vehicle when it arrived as though she didn't matter. Na'im rushed back and picked up the fragments of the phone, putting it into his pocket.

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

The moment Alhaji's phone finished booting, the first call that came in was Maymunatu's. Alhaji laughed as he swiped accept, his daughter must have missed him. It was the way she sounded that stopped his next laugh and turned it into a choking cough.

"What happened?" He asked her, looking at the phone in hopes that he was hearing wrong. But he wasn't because it was his only daughter's number.

"Three members of Ya Nadia's family have been kidnapped. Daddy, where did you put your phone?" Alhaji's head began to calculate but something occured to him, so he asked her,

"Why didn't you call Elijah or Na'im! For Allah's sake, even Nadia, why didn't any of you try to reach me by email?" His voice rose at the end, filled with righteous outrage.

"We should have, yes, but Sarah's dad thought they could solve it but the kidnappers abducted him as well as the nine hundred thousand naira they received, they now want ten million naira and Ya Nadia is about to report to the police." Alhaji narrowed his eyes, looking to the door where his Ex-wife and Na'im were across the hall in another part of the hotel. He got up, walked to the door, but suddenly came back to seat.

"End the call, allow me reach Nadia. One thing you can do for me? Call your mother, hold her on the line for the next ten minutes. Okay?" Maymunatu's call ended with a loud dial tone and Alhaji got up in a flurry of his light grey thobe and white slacks underneath. He walked to Elijah's room and knocked frantically at the door, Elijah came out, eyes sleepy, scratching an itch near his eyes.

"Get the DSS office in Abuja for me on the phone, second, call our tech guys, third, call the security outfit attached to Nadia, four, get us flights to Abuja if there are no commercial flights, charter one, just get us to Abuja or Kano as soon as midnight today." Elijah who rarely saw his boss in such a rush, ran into his room and picked both his phone and iPad, leaving Alhaji to get ready to leave.

Soon, Elijah brought his phone and handed it to Alhaji who was dialing Nadia's number to no avail. Alhaji put the phone to his ear and heard the voice of the DSS director general.

"Three members of my fiance's family just got kidnapped. Roughly about twenty three hours ago, I don't know the details but what is going on? Why are people getting abducted so easily, what are you people not doing?" He heard his now friend sigh, then he was asked a few details, his questions not responded to.

"So, your people will be in Kano soon?" Alhaji asked, his voice Stony with concealed rage, the DG sighed again, knowing Alhaji was merely keeping his anger in check," My boys in Kano are on their way there as we speak. You can rest assured that with the information we get, we'll get to the abducted ones very soon." Alhaji shook head and ended the call after a paltry greeting.

He handed the phone back to Elijah and called Nadia again, the only thing he got in response was a continuous dial tone that made him angrier. Just as he dropped the pho e unto his bed, Elijah walked in and said he got them a chartered jet to Kano.

"Alhamdulilah. This information, give it to Na'im discretely. Make sure she doesn't hear any of it." Elijah nodded and wearing his coat, he left the room.

Alhaji dialed Nadia's number one more time, on the second ring, Nadia picked. Alhaji was quiet as he heard her scold him. He would have smiled if he didn't know the severity of the situation. He called out her name but he heard her burst into tears in response.

Alhaji took in a deep breath before he called out Nadia's name, one more time. He heard her sniffle before she responded weakly.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there all day. Can you tell me what happened?" She sniffled again and cleared her throat before saying,

"My daddy went three days ago to sell the proceeds from his farm and pick up my grandmother from our village. She'd previously refused to come live in Kano with my parents, until a village next to hers was ransacked by bandits. They were halfway to Kano when they got kidnapped. They last contracted us just as they left sokoto bye-pass road. We lost contact." Alhaji had picked up a pen and noted the key information she said down.

"Nadia, I need you to be strong right now. The strongest you've ever been, for as long as you can, till your father, uncle and grandmother coke home. And I assure you, they will return, In Sha Allah." He heard Nadia's response and ended the call just as Elijah appeared with a phone to his ear, he signaled Alhaji telling him the police was calling.

Alhaji rolled his eyes, they would all call him, they knew what they would get from it, when Nadia and their parents were just ordinary citizens who had no one to protect them, no one rushed to their aid like this.

Alhaji took the phone after stalling for a few minutes. "Assalamualaikum PC." He spoke to the Police Commissioner for a moment, telling them the address of Nadia's parents and receiving assurance that they would reach the house.

Alhaji called Nadia's number again, satisfied that he had more vital information to give her. "The police are ok their way as we speak. Have you prayed Maghrib?" He asked her. He heard her clear her hoarse throat before she said no.

"Well, pray. At this point, nothing will ever beat the power of prayer. We can make all this effort, but a single dua can make it all go as smoothly as possible. Once you're done, call me." She sighed and thanked Alhaji weakly, he smiled and let her end the call. He got up and saw that he had over an hour before Maghrib prayers himself so he packed a light bag.

When Elijah returned to the room, Alhaji had a thought that he wanted to complete. Then he said it out to his eager assistant.

"Talk to our people here, let's get a house. We can't be going back and forth in hotels like this. It's not good for our health. As them to thoroughly vet some house staff and find a five bedroom house. Okay?" Alhaji watched as Elijah excitedly left the room again.

About an hour later, they reached the airport when Alhaji received a phone call on his WhatsApp. He swiped accept and let the head of the security outfit attached to Nadia speak.

"We found their coordinates. We'll liaise with the security agencies for a swift hostage rescue." Alhaji still didn't say a word. He liked how quick they were but he wanted them to stew in silence, he ended the call and called Nadia.

"Qurratul Ayn," He greeted softly after saying the Salam. She answered with a lot of expectations in her voice.

"Their actual location has been found, it will take some time to get them out of there but they're trying to make sure they do it safely. So, intensify prayers, May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala bring them back home safely. I'm on my way to Kano right now, I'll get to you soon." Alhaji heard her gasp softly.

"But you have a lecture in three days time?" Alhaji let a smile bloom ok his face, it was really nice to have someone fuss over him. Though he had been heavily paid for the said lecture, he could pay their money back and never return to Switzerland, but he liked to impart knowledge too much to do that.

"Some plain dressed men just arrived, they said they're from you." Alhaji heard Nadia walk to the gate and hand the phone to the leader of the men. It was the head of the security outfit. Alhaji nodded, though it was almost eleven pm, whoever needed to leave whatever had left it. He thought to himself before speaking that he liked how much power his money commanded at times like this one.

About eight hours, some odd thirty minutes later at around six thirty am, just after Fajr prayers, four cars drove into the Kano residence of the Muhammad Shinkafi family. Carrying the abducted ones, and a car belonging to Alhaji.

****

Hey lovessssss. How was the chapter? Anyways, we'll move on to sweeter things next, I promise..

Enjoy the rest of your week and expect a chapter on Friday. Please don't forget to vote comment and share, as per our agreement.

May God bless you all for me. Abundantly.

TheOmoope ❤️🥰