I've been itching to put one more chapter on here this but between sleeping and recuperating during the weekend, I didn't have time to edit.

Please 🥺 make my work worth it by commenting please.

Alhaji looked out of the four seater helicopter trying to fix it's landing point, the ground, a cloud of dust blew up as a convoy of five cars arrived the helipad's building. 

"How many cars are those?" Alhaji asked Elijah who was seated next to him answering emails to the headquarters. Elijah looked out as well and frowned, "This is too much. I clearly asked them to send the bulletproof bus and a police escort," He slid out his phone immediately from his inner suit pocket and called someone. 

While the phone rang, the Helicopter parked on the Helipad and slowly, the rotors wound to a stop. The person on the other end picked and as though he anticipated Elijah's question, he quickly gave a string of words that explained the unusual event. He ended the call and let his hand drop, the phone still in it. 

"Yes?" Alhaji asked irritatedly, Elijah swallowed before responding, "DSS orders." Alhaji groaned before stretching out his hands to get out of the helicopter. 

He took out his phone from his Light grey Kaftan pocket and called the Director general of the DSS. They exchanged pleasantries before Alhaji showed his disappointment at the treatment. 

"Why am I being treated like a wanted criminal? Five cars? I might as well be president then." The man on the other end laughed a bit, before saying a few words that should have pacified Alhaji, instead it incensed him. 

"It will soon be over? How soon, are you ready to give me a date?" Alhaji pointed in Elijah's direction before putting the phone on speaker. The conversation was heard by the both of them. 

"Ahn ahn, why are you so pressed? Men your stature ask for security from us and they take a convoy of ten cars, stop complaining Bindawa, just accept this thing and go." Alhaji paused, releasing a breath in the anger that simmered in him. He patted his chest and answered with some sarcasm, 

"That's why I'm Abdullah Bindawa, not any other person. Once this farce is over, you guys take your security back." He ended the call and descended the stairs to the parking lot where the cars where waiting. One of the plain clothed officers saluted him and Alhaji stopped in irritation before getting into the vehicle, Elijah entering beside him. 

They took an expressway on a long forty minutes drive to the local government Alhaji hailed from, Chiroma, soon they got into the town that Alhaji hailed from, driving straight to the Central mosque where he stepped out of the car in some more irritation at the people saluting him left and right. 

He had told Elijah to warn them not to blow any sirens or he'd never work with them again. When he finished his ablution, he took out his phone, put it on silent before putting it in his chest pocket.

A video that he sent to Maymunatu about always having one's phone on body parts came to him and he laughed quietly before proceeding to the mosque. 

Just before he stepped in to join those who came late, the son of the Chief Imam waved at him from afar, he reached him in no time and invited him to a space in the front. "My daddy said that whenever you come, you should come to the front." Alhaji sighed before following the boy to the said seat in the front. It was right behind the Chief Imam. 

About forty minutes later, he and the Emir whom he'd flown to visit were exchanging terse pleasantries, waiting to get into a place where no one would hear them to have their conversation. Immediately they stepped into the air-conditioned throne room, Alhaji turned and locked out everyone who was following them. 

"Your highness? What is this behavior? Sending people after me? Surayyah and I left each other over seven years ago, she's married, I'm in a good place, why can't I be left alone?" The Emir adjusted his grey embroidered babban riga, sat on his throne and watched with an indulgent smile as Alhaji expressed himself. 

"It's not for Surayyah. I know Surayyah is married, but you're the best son-in-law I could ever have so how better do I make you that other than giving you my third youngest daughter Farida? She's twenty seven, a doctor and just perfect for you." Alhaji stared at the Emir, hiding his immense frustration at his meddling. 

He remembered a conversation he had with his mother and Na'im and asked, "Speaking of perfection, the plastic packing plant, why are the workers being paid fifteen thousand naira per month when the plan we had was to pay them forty-five thousand each?" The Emir's smile died slowly, twisting into anger. 

"What has that got to do with you marrying my daughter?" Alhaji got up from the two seater sofa and walked towards the seventy year old man that birthed his ex-wife. 

"It has everything to do with it, if it's the reason you're trying to shackle me to your family again. I finally left one of your shaitan spawn daughters and you want to give me another? May Allah forbid all Evil. I urge you to return every single naira you've stolen from those workers or resign from the board of that company. 

You know me, you know me far better than to play this game with me." He picked up his phone that he had left on the sofa and began to stalk out of the large room. 

"My grandson is still your heir. If I want all your money, I could still have it." Alhaji stopped, harshly laughed before turning back to see the man he'd thought to be a father figure for so long. 

"Your daughter fed me methylated spirit in my tea for a whole year, my intestines burned out slowly, I was in a coma for three months, I doubt there's anymore you can do your highness. He who Allah SWT has not killed, a speck cannot touch him. And Na'im? Didn't Maryam tell you? I guess her apple fell far from your tree. Ask your daughter for the full story."

He stalked out of the room, not waiting for the Emir to speak. When he reached the door,  he turned the key forcefully in the lock, his anger coming to play. He took for himself a few seconds and unlocked the tall ornate doors with a smile. 

Elijah got a signal from him and they walked quickly to the car park where his convoy was waiting for them. He got into the backseat and they drove straight to his family house there in Chiroma. 

"I expect that His Royal Highness will resign from the board of the plastic plant before the week runs out. Find someone suitable to replace him, also call Na'im and set up a call with the rest of the board." Elijah typed furiously on his iPad, storing the information Alhaji had said and beginning to do the said tasks. 

Alhaji looked out of the window to the dusty horizons, a long trail of people walking back from the mosque dressed in their best filled both sides of the roads till they took the turn to the house. 

The gates opened mechanically as they drove in, the rest of the security waited outside the gate while Alhaji's car went in. He asked Elijah to go in and get himself some lunch, since he might spend a bit of time with mother. 

In the year Alhaji turned Forty, his domineering father died. Their relationship had been shaky at best, Alhaji seeing how his mother had been treated with sparse affection regardless of how she treated him. 

Alhaji climbed the iron stairs fashioned like an old Turkish house, His father had been obsessed with everything Turkish and even their furniture was Turkish inspired. Alhaji had inherited his love for good tea from his father, it was why his ex-wife had been able to 'punish' him with poison. 

When he opened the double doors silently, Watching his mother sitting on the fuzzy rug on the floor, her back to the brocade carved chair, her index finger on her tasbih listening to Suratul Baraqah. 

He let the words wash over him, giving him a peace that talking to his former father-in-law could not. He made a sound and his mother suddenly looked up. 

Her weathered face with it's lines of worry, of old age gathered into a smile and she lifted the remote tremblingly to pause the sound system. Alhaji moved closer to his mother, squatting beside her to put his whole self at her height. 

"Abdullahi. You're here. You should have told me, I would have had cold fura waiting for you. Come let me look at you." He scooted closer to her, still squatting and let his mother examine his face. She put her hands, her tasbih still hooked to her index finger and rubbed over his entire face. 

"I'm happy. Maymunatu called me to pray for you last Friday, I nearly asked them to drive me all the way to come see you, then she said you had woken up. Alhamdulilah for good health." She raised her hands up in supplication and brought them down happily, the acrylic beads of her tasbih clinking against one another. 

"Alhamdulilah Maama. How are you?" She sighed and adjusted so she was fully facing him, Alhaji turned his knees and sat facing her as well. 

"This old body, you know it's one thing today or the other tomorrow. Though having the people you employed helps, so it's not that bad." She smilingly said in Hausa to him, still slowly searching his face.

"I just left the Emir's palace." He informed his mother. She blinked, bringing attention to the fullness of her lashes inspite of her advanced age, Alhaji always said Maymunatu was everything his mother was when she was younger. 

"How was it?" It was his own turn to blink, trying to find the words to use. 

"He threatened me. But, no one can direct my life for me. No one. He is the one who is embezzling from the foundation Na'im set up in he and Maymunatu's name. I'm not the one paying people peanuts as salaries. He is the one who should be scared of Allah's wrath, not me." His mother nodded sadly, she was silent for a few minutes, they watched each other with familial kindness for a moment before Alhaji stated the Emir's desire to marry his younger daughter to him. 

"Never! I will go to his palace now to show myself if he keeps having such a thought. His first daughter nearly killed you, took your money and now he wants to send another to finish the job?" She began to breathe erratically from the rage that boiled in her.

Alhaji chuckled as he patted his mother's arm slowly to calm her. "Nothing of the sort is going to happen. I told him so already." She breathed out some of her visible anger in a whoosh and called out for her live in maid. 

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An hour later, Alhaji was draining up a glass of chilled Zobo, after polishing off a plate of semolina and dry okra soup. He got up and washed his hands at the kitchen sink, patted his hands dry with a paper towel and waited for his mother to finish eating. 

"Abdullahi." He stopped looking outside the window to see if Elijah was having lunch, before turning to his mother. 

She swallowed a morsel of prepared white maize powder and sipped a glass of water. "When will you marry again? Don't make that face." She waved her free index finger in his direction daring him to refute her. 

"I don't know. I have no idea," He wanted to say more but he kept quiet. "Start looking. Ask your friends to introduce a good girl to you, If you want me to ask around, I will. Your father is not here to dictate who you marry, let it be someone that comes from your heart, you and her will live together for a long time and if you can, have more children." Alhaji sighed and nodded. 

His phone pinged with a text from the aircraft company and he forwarded it to Elijah. "You're leaving?" He nodded again, raising his dark drown eyes to look at his mother. 

"May Allah protect you and your people. Let me finish eating and I'll walk you out." After a few minutes, she dried her hands as well and followed him to the door where he let her stay back. The steps were pretty steep and slippery since it had rained a bit in the time he was visiting. 

Alhaji turned the corner and saw that Elijah was drying his hands excitedly, he shook his head and his hands clasped behind him, he walked to the car. 

Elijah got in beside him and smiled, pulling on his seat belt before asking, "Did those security detail have lunch as well?" Elijah shook his head and Alhaji stopped in the motions of wearing his seat belt. 

"They said they're under orders not to eat while on duty, I gave their boss some money to buy them lunch and dinner from you though." Alhaji asked how much and Elijah mentioned a price that made Alhaji nod in agreement. 

"Let's go then?" They drove out and straight to the Helipad it was and about thirty minutes later due to the weather, they were still waiting to fly. 

Alhaji watched Elijah call his wife and tell her exactly where he was, what he was doing and how he missed her. He chuckled to himself, shaking his head indulgently. He leaned back on the comfortable lounge chair, thinking back to his mother's request. 

He could honestly say that he was not ready to be someone's husband again, not after the trauma and the mess that came with the first trial. He'd gotten used to being accountable to no one but himself and marrying again would change that for him. 

"Sir? They're ready for us." As they ascended into the sky, Alhaji watched as the convoy began their own journey back to the DSS state office in Katsina. 

They sat there in quiet until he got back into his personal car back in Abuja, by then it was already eight pm. Elijah was dropped off in front of his apartment building and they drove straight off to the house. 

Once he got in, he asked Mama Tas to ask Maymunatu to come collect a gift he got her from the helipad's lounge. 

"What do you mean she's not in the house?" All of the geniality from visiting his mother was gone and his tone was as hard as granite, he softened because he as speaking to Mama Tas. 

"She went to Alhaji Maikano's daughter's wedding, sir. She said her friends took her." Alhaji narrowed his eyes and went up to his office, he looked through the invitations drawer that Elijah set out for him, and Mama Tas cleaned out from time to time. The access card to Alhaji Maikano's daughter's wedding was missing. 

Alhaji walked to his room, offered his missing prayers, prayed for his daughter's safety. He took a shower, changed into a white thobe. 

At nine-thirty, the mechanized gate opened and Alhaji watched as Maymunatu walked in, her veil wrapped around her entire upper body. He watched her until she opened the door and came into the house. She bobbed in greeting to him and Alhaji shook his head. 

"Is this how I raised you? To sneak off to places without permission?" She shook her head, tears streaming down her face. Alhaji was surprised, he only planned to flame her for a while but her tears were unsettling him. 

"Daddy, I'll never sneak out again." He narrowed his eyes at her, a lopsided frown framing his lips. 

"I haven't even finished talking. Was it that bad?" She nodded, more tears streaming down her face. He got up from his chair and helped her to her feet, she had been kneeling near the centre rug. 

"What happened?" She whispered how her friends left her behind in the company of people she'd never met before, the said people took her phone and refused to release it until someone saved her. 

"How?" He asked, his ears ringing with fear. He couldn't even punish her now, she sounded like she'd been punished enough. 

"Ya Nadia, The nurse from your colonoscopy." Alhaji furrowed his no white hair brows, thinking back until a teary eyed fair skinned beauty came to mind. 

"She pretended to be my sister and saved me." He exhaled and pulled his daughter into himself, she breathed in the Tom Ford perfume that usually saturated his clothes. 

"That was so nice of her, I'm so grateful." Maymunatu nodded in her father's chest, still feeling the aftershocks of the event. She let go of her father and Mama Tas took her away to bathe and calm down some more. 

Alhaji took out his phone and called Elijah, he picked on the second ring. "Elijah? Sorry for the interruption but I'd like to know all I can about the surgrical nurse at Diezemane Hospital. You know the one?" Elijah hummed surprisingly but he held in his shock to do his job. 

Alhaji leaned back on the sofa in deep thought. If it was any other time, he could have just accepted things for what they were but he was in perilous times, he had no idea who was pursuing him and why, he had to do all he could to keep his daughter safe. 

Maymunatu came back sipping some strawberry tea, she held the tempered transparent mug in her hands to warm them, she took her time, and she was in a peach floor length hijab, so she must have prayed her missed prayers as well. 

"I want you to write the names and phone numbers of the friends you went to the wedding with, your friendship with them and how your friendship came to be." Maymunatu was in a bit of shock at first but she got to work, tapping on her phone for a while before sending a file to her father. 

"By the way, for the next one month, you're grounded. Anything you need, get them delivered to the house." Alhaji got up and went to his room.

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This chapter is for nanaAkabir thank you so much for being you. 💓💓💓

Sooo. Alhaji and his baby didn't meet. Me I don't know why o, maybe Nadia was too shy.

Anyways there's only four days between today and Friday, anticipate chapter nine then. That chapter carried bone and blood from my body.

You people should not forget the agreement we have oo, comment please 🥺, vote abeg, share e joor.

See y'all on Friday 😊

TheOmoope 💙❤️ loves you very much