I just couldn't wait till morning, who's awake?

Fahad walked into the Shaheed’s dim lit apartment, the occupant was asleep if the pin drop silence meant anything, he didn’t bother turning any lights on as he slowly walked to the bedroom opposite Shaheed’s own, he was exhausted and sleep was what he needed.

He tossed the tie that he carelessly threw around his neck when he returned from the hospital, he proceeded to remove the suit jacket he’d almost forgotten in the car then walked to the bathroom for a much needed hot shower, though scorching hot showers weren’t his thing, he found he needed a skin numbing bath to be able to sleep.

He changed into a pair of sweats and a light t-shirt then settled in the king sized bed, he wasn’t a fan of large things but having grown up with everything big, he’d gotten used to it. His phone has been blinking with incoming messages and missed calls, he hadn’t bothered to check most of them, only opening work related ones, besides most of them just wanted gossip and he wasn’t in the mood to deal with humans, much less nosy ones.

Their family PR relations manager asked if they were going to make a comment on the rumors of Huda being rushed to the hospital because they were live on instagram when she had the attack, he replied with no. He didn’t want to expose her to that much publicity. That was a part of living in Australia that he definitely hadn’t miss, the media and tabloids would drive a person to suicide.

He replied to some of the people he thought were important enough and wouldn’t go running to the press with news, when a text at the bottom caught his eyes, he scrolled and tapped the name, his lips involuntarily curved at the sides, it was nothing special just a straight forward message, even if he hadn’t seen the name he would’ve been able to tell who it was. It read;

Hey, hope Huda is fine now, may Allah grant her quick shifa.

He checked the time, half past two, if it was Layla he would’ve called, she rarely slept at night, after deliberating for a minute he replied with a simple, are you awake?

He didn’t know why but since he couldn't sleep he realized it was better than being left to his thoughts, they were threading on dangerous grounds, instead of a reply his phone rang which shocked him a bit, but she was Layla’s friend and they had to have things in common right, she has been surprising him the past week if he was being honest with himself, spending time with her, he’d seen a glimpse of the person he’d heard about before whatever it was that happened to her and he decided he liked the sassy sarcastic one more over the rigid always looking over my shoulder (literally) one he’d met in Abuja.

“Are you awake?” her voice came, soft and firm with a tinge of a smile.

“Yes.” It came out throaty which, he cleared his throat and tried again, it sounded more like him.

“How is Huda?”

“She is fine, probably binge watching the originals.”

“In the hospital?” he heard the surprise in her voice.

“No, she was discharged.” She replied with o, after a minute of awkward silence he called her name, “Can you tell me about your sisters?” he told himself it was a perfectly normal question, he couldn’t sleep and what better way to distract himself than by having someone tell him a story, he would’ve asked anybody, if it was Shaheed he would’ve asked the same, he nodded to himself, perfectly normal.

Khadijah stopped a second, who should she even start with, she had two sisters but the stories in between, that was much.

She started from what she could remember, Sadiya was the fighter, at one point it had been her but she was tamed even though she wouldn’t admit it, there was a time she’d lost the fight in her, not even that, at some point, she’d lost herself.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep after she woke up from a nightmare an hour before she received his message. It had been happening since she was discharged, she would be walking in the neighborhood she lived in when she’d first gotten married.

Their neighbor was asking if she heard screaming the night before and of course she’d said no, the lie slipping easily between her lips, she heard because it was her.

Suleiman had been angry about something and as usual vented his anger on her, he threw the hot bowl of peppersoup he made her cook in the night, the bowl had broken on her legs though her skin didn’t peel, it just felt like she was being prickled with multiple hot needles, he hadn’t cared of course and pushed her on the broken shards.

She would try to sidestep the woman but she would hold her arm and ask if she was being maltreated, she would say no and the woman would start telling her she was lying, at some point she would turn to Suleiman, his face livid with anger, he would open his mouth and that was it, she would wake up with a start, trying to catch her breath. She was thankful though that she didn’t have to relive whatever it was he would have done to her.

Khadijah shook her head getting rid of the image it conjured up in her head, the familiarity of it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

“Dee? Are you still there?” she nodded then muttered a small yes, “Is everything alright?” she heard the drooping of his voice and the accent that wasn’t very obvious, like Layla’s, she learnt how to control her accent.

“Yes, I was just lost in thoughts, where was I or do you want to sleep now?” she was speaking fast, like she did when she was trying hard not to have a panic attack, she shook her head and tried breathing exercises.

“Dee, are you sure you’re fine?” he asked again, this time she heard worry in his voices, she wanted to talk but words failed her, her breath coming out in short pants.

Fahad sat up on the bed and proceeded to switch on the light, he was getting up and looking for his shoes when he realized there was nothing he could do, since it’s not like he could storm into her parents house in the dead of the night, he willed himself to calm down, short breaths, he noted, maybe a panic attack, Jawad used to have them, he wracked his brain trying to remember what they used to do to help him.

“Khadijah, listen to me okay, try and take a deep breath,” when he was sure she was breathing normally, he told her to count to ten backwards, they did together, when she was fine and back to her right state, he talked her into getting to bed, he prayed to her over the phone and told her to hang up when she was sure she’s fine, he heard when she switched off her lights, her soft voice came later, a little shaky.

“Goodnight,” she started to say thank you but he told her not to worry.

“It’s alright I’m here.” She mumbled incoherently as a reply before the line went dead.

Fahad held the phone for five more minutes after she hung up before keeping it on the bedside table, he tried to comprehend what happened but stopped short, his brain refused to function deciding he would wait until morning.

They were talking normally, she’d been telling him about her fights with Sadiya as a child and how she would force them into giving her sweets to stop her from telling their parents when they did something wrong when she went quiet, at first he thought she was reliving the moments, it was a happy memory, he didn’t understand what must’ve gone wrong.

Layla, he nodded to himself, he would talk to Layla in the morning and find out.

~~~~~~~

Assalamu alaikum, how are you how is your Eid going?

Did you notice the new beautiful cover? It was made by TheOmoope thank you so much sis, I love love it

Anywho, it's a short chapter and I don't even really know how Sha, we'll meet soon insha Allah

PS this book isn't edited only quarterly proofread so please ignore typos and grammatical errors or point them out nicely

You know the drill, don't forget to vote comment and share oh yeah thanks for 12k reads
Means a lot

Goodnight

Amyrah