Happy Birthday my Fave Harunafaree, Thank you for being amazing, I love you. Have an amazing birthday and an even better year. 💙💙

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"Daddy." 

Alhaji stopped reading the document Elijah had sent him at four am that morning, set aside his glasses and let his youngest child kiss him on the forehead. 

"Sleep well?" She nodded, still rubbing her bleary eyes. He smiled, she was just like him, nearly as tall as he was at her age, just as smart and enough to keep the adults around her on their toes. 

"Prayed Subh?" She nodded again. He got up then, and placed the tablet he was reading from on a coffee table to give his undivided attention to his daughter, Maymunatu. 

"What happened?" She stopped smiling almost immediately, knowing the meaning of 'what'. She clasped her hands together, trying to find comfort for herself. 

"Sayyad and his Dad started barging into my bathroom late last year, it started with one simple mistake on my part but now that I think of it, it wasn't a mistake because the door latch suddenly went bad. I thought it was Miss Yasmin, she's the maid, until I saw it was Sayyad who stood there watching me put lotion on my body. Subhanallah." Alhaji got obviously angrier as his daughter told the story. He wished he'd picked her up himself, maybe he would really be in jail for murder. 

"I told mom and she slapped me, saying I peddle too many stories. I felt like it was my fault so I moved a chair to my bathroom and put it under the knob until I was praying the other day in my room and Sayyad was watching me in a leery manner. It wasn't just what I wanted to allow keep going, so I called Ya Na'im." Alhaji felt some of his anger evaporate at the fact that Na'im had beat up the  Sayyad boy until he dislocated his arm and had a black eye in both eyes. 

"I'm sorry. I wish you didn't have to go through that harassment." He said with some resignation left in him. He would have to speak to his ex-wife and that in itself was nothing to look forward to. 

"Daddy, it's not your fault. I'm just embarrassed that mummy didn't stand up for me, instead, she blamed me saying I wore too short clothes around the house. Daddy, all I wear in a house where I'm supposed to be comfortable are baggy sweat sets and long hijabs. I want to finish school and come work for you for a while." Her father beckoned her closer, she got up and sat beside him, allowing herself to be hugged by the warmest arms ever. 

"Everything is going to be fine. I promise. We will sort this out, In Sha Allah and you'll be in a safe place where you can concentrate on being the best that you can be." Maymunatu smiled in her father's arms, letting her forehead rub on white shirt shoulders. 

"Which is why!-" She started with some flair for dramatics, jumping a bit and landing back on the sofa softly, "I'll be spending my internship here in Abuja. I'll be coming home to you! The safest place I can be." Alhaji who had let her go when she wanted to jump, folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. He knew his daughter had made that decision but the trouble that would come after it?

"Did your mom accept this decision?" He asked her, getting up to ring for a cup of tea but settled for a text message, ringing for one would wake the staff that slept late. 

"She lost that chance ehen she took her husband's side over mine. What!" She asked her father when he made a you're-being-disrespectful face to her. 

"Fine, I'll call her and tell her later." Her father nodded in satisfaction. He opened the document again and fixed his glasses back unto his face. He picked dup his pen and made a few corrections on the paper for Elijah to see to once he arrived. 

"So, Daddy?" Alhaji looked up to see Maymunatu watching him so intently. He narrowed his eyes again, the girl was a mischievous skimp, she always had something she'd thought over to be right and would accomplish if not cut short. 

"Maymunatu, whatever you're about to ask for, if it's not reasonable? No!" He watched his daughter lift her hands up in shock and question at the same time. 

"I didn't even think of anything bad. I just want to ask though, am I getting a new aunty?" Her father frowned in confused silence, thinking of her words over and over. 

"You have aunties, Maymunatu, my mother isn't giving birth to anymore. What is an Aunty?" His daughter face-palmed, then she adjusted herself and whispered,

"If you get married, I get to call her 'Aunty' that's what I mean." Alhaji rolled his eyes lightly, some sleep catching up to him so he did it slowly and then shook his head.

"Nothing of the sort. I'm too busy." He watched as his daughter gasped in complete horror as she couldn't believe it. 

"Anyways, as long as she is not younger than I am, I'm good to go. I'll even help you plan dates." It was now Alhaji's turn to express frustration, he raised his hands and dropped them, wondering how he could quickly send out his daughter. 

"When I need your help, I'll tell you, but for now my love life is not your business. Stop being so nosy." She rolled her mouth in response, tiptoeing when she saw Alhaji on the tethering edge of his patience. 

"Have a nice day, I'm going to find my friends and take them to lunch, then we'll go painting and sipping, afterwards I'll return home. All before Mahgrib prayers. Don't stress your voice box. Bye!" She quickly left the room she'd reentered to make her announcement. 

"This child!" He announced to the empty room once she left with an indulgent smile. He went back to his documents immediately, not letting the sadness of his situation overpower him. 

\*\*\*\***"**

"Elijah, did I not ask you to invite this lady to work at the parking plant a month ago?" Elijah stopped typing profusely ok his laptop and stared unblinking at the woman who fanned a pot of stones, sand and hot coal set in a rusted kwalla pot. 

"I told her but I didn't follow up. I'll do that once we return to the complex." Alhaji nodded, still slightly miffed from the meeting at the state department of security. His trips abroad had been cancelled and he was now being added onto, several more security detail. 

They stopped for Elijah to talk to the said woman and about five minutes later, he jogged back to Alhaji's new bulletproof car. All of it was so sudden, he'd gone out with his usual 2018 Bentley, only to return with a bulletproof fitted Mercedes G-wagon. 

"What did she say?" He asked as Elijah settled into his seat, he let a small smile out as he watched his employee pant a bit more from all the running he did. 

"Something about not being sure of what I said. She wanted to be sure it wasn't a scam, so I gave her my card this time." Alhaji nodded solemnly and the driver set off, the other security detail followed after. 

Elijah's work phone rang after a couple of minutes, they'd just turned into the company when he hissed lowly, he turned to Alhaji without even even ending the conversation. 

"We're being followed sir, by unidentified people, they're trying to get a plate number and a picture of the dashboard. They'll send us more information soon." Alhaji stepped off the car, the information buzzing around his head, he didn't want to be scared but he'd been in more dangerous situations than this, in more dangerous countries, even in the United States. 

He reached his office in no time and stripped down to his dress shirt, wore his lab coat and picked up his goggles from a table and left to the small lab he shared with no one. 

He left a message for Elijah for no one to disturb him, he wished life would be like a laboratory, once the doors were shut, nothing else matters. 

"Why do I have to be careful, I'm just a scientist, a mere pharmacist with a gab for creating the right cells that do the job, why am I being marked down?" He pulled on a surgrical mask and changed his shoes for disposable ones. 

He sighed tiredly as he began examining the petri dish. Sadly, nothing was forthcoming from a physical look, he instead, carried the dish carefully to a corner where a state of the art microscope was waiting and slid it into the microscope slide. 

He adjusted the lens and began to look through the petri dish with a tweezer. After he finished, he made a report in a note and closed the petri dish, took it back to the corner where it cultured. 

That was the key to prostrate cancer cure, his goal was to find a cure to early detected prostrate cancer and a few injections could cure the disease from it's root. 

He moved to the newly made HIV booster shot that could be given to children born with HiV to strengthen their resistance against the virus in the near future. After examining the virus that had now died, he worked on it for about an hour straight forgetting about everything else. 

A knock sounded at the door, shaking him from his soundproof work lab. He walked to it and unlocked it for Elijah, he let it open only a crack. 

"What?" He asked bitingly, Elijah sighed before speaking, "We found who," 

"Then hurry on with speaking, young man, I hate being kept waiting." Elijah risked his boss's anger by smiling. "Your ex-wife's father." Alhaji frowned, confusion framing his features into a scowl. He locked the door, shut the microscope down and removed his gloves before walking out of the room to Elijah. 

"What is happening?" Elijah seemingly confused himself told the story of how Alhaji's ex-father-inlaw had suddenly thought of foolproof plan to marry his other daughter to the man who one of his daughters was married to. 

"If that was the case, why am I being tailed?" He asked Elijah, wondering how they correlated with each other. 

"Because of our heightened security, they were found. According to them, the goal was to watch to ensure you're not in a relationship with anyone." Alhaji's face moulded into the most torturous frown Elijah had ever seen on him. 

He breezed past his personal assistant, removed the lab coat and put on his shoes and suit. "I detest being told what to do, surely His Highness knows that by now?" He asked rhetorically as he buttoned his suit up. 

"Set up a call with him tomorrow," Elijah nodded and shook his head once he looked down at his iPad. 

"Your colonoscopy is tomorrow sir. You'd be resting mandatorily afterwards sir." Elijah informed. Waiting on more instructions. 

"Then on Friday, set up a call very early on Friday morning, it should give him time to stew." He walked out, leaving his assistant to pack up after him. 

******
Heyyyyy

I'll see you all on Friday night as usual, I'll update just ONE chapter next week.

My drafts are dwindling slowly so I'll use the time to write Underwater and finish When Stars Collide.

Bye.
TheOmoope 💙❤️

Ps. I have two books for you all to read here on Wattpad. The first is The Other Woman's Daughter by Harunafaree and Unraveling Huda by PreHeatBeauty. They're well above twenty and ten chapters respectively, just get ready to be taken on a rollercoaster ride.