"Nana, will you please call the nurse for me? The fluid will soon finish and I can't have it drawing my blood." She said with a soft and sleepy voice while she stared at the IV attached to her body. It wasn't late at night, if she looked at the clock then it would probably be around 9 at night but she wanted to go home, be out of this hospital if she could. There was nothing she hated more than the hospital and that was why she made sure she evade from it at all cost.

Nana whose head was ducked down staring at the burner they were brewing the tea from looked up, "Sure, Ya Fareeda, I'll be back right now." And without another word, she left.

Fareeda stared at his back, how he was calmly doing his work as though he were a woman working comfortably in her kitchen. She rolled her eyes at him and decided this might be the right time to talk to him about it before Nana came back because there was no way she was going to stay in this hospital by tomorrow. "Can I talk to you?" She hadn't forgotten about the slaps he gave her but she wasn't going to talk about them either. But whoever knew her knew so well that she would likely find a way of revenging on him.

He ignored her, even though her voice was the last thing Mujaheed wouldn't hear even when spoken in the loudest of places, and he wondered how that happened. Sometimes when she was fighting with one of her sisters and he was walking around the house, he heard her voice. He didn't know why as long as he was within a reasonable parameter, there was no way Fareeda will speak without him hearing and not that she was always loud. She was hardly ever loud. But there was something magical, something sultry and soothing about her voice that made it stand out.

If one will only hear her voice, no one could say she could cause as much trouble as she did in the Kamal Sardauna's mansion. "Mujaheed, I'm talking to you, as you can see there's no one left in the room." She spoke again through gritted teeth, hating the fact that she had called his name, adhered to the unspoken rule between them. He had never told her this before, that if she were to speak to him, she had to call his name lest he was going to ignore her for as much as she didn't.

He turned his eyes to her and lifted a single brow, "What is it? Do you need anything?" She tried to scoff but controlled herself. Changing his mind will be something so difficult but she will try to do that, not add more fuel to the fire.

Not looking into his eyes, Fareeda began to speak, "It's about what Alhaji said before he left, I know you just said yes to him to either annoy me or console him, right?" With so much hope brewing from her eyes as though the now sizzling pot of tea in front of him, she looked into his eyes.

He softly shook his head and went back to his pot. She had already given up a reply from him when he spoke, "None, I did because that's the right thing to do to a father like him."

'Who are you to know what's the right thing to do to someone like him and not?!' She wanted to bellow the words out but went against it. "But you know that that's never going to happen, right? I mean, just take a good look at you..." she let her words trialled off and wanted nothing but to smack the living daylight out of her lips. Why would she never control her anger for the sake of the almighty? What was she doing? Setting things right or damaging them even more?!

She cleared her voice and spoke gently now, even though upon hearing her voice, both of them knew so well that tone was forced out of her, that wasn't what she wanted to say. "I didn't mean that. But on the clearer side, Mujaheed, you know that's not right, right?"

"Tell that to your father." This man, first, she hated his arrogance, he was so full of himself that she wished killing someone wasn't haram in Islam, he would've been the second person she would kill in her life. And second, she hated how he spoke with so much confidence, and his voice always carried an air of command and masculinity she often found unnerving, which was unlike her.

"He won't listen to me, that's why I want you to talk to him." She said and when it took him nearly a minute without replying her, she stopped the pretence, "Can you drop all this I think I'm someone habit of yours and listen to me let's talk?! I hate this with every might in me, I wonder who the hell you are to think you're so important to be ignoring me whenever I talk to you!" She palmed her face and softly muttered, 'Ya Allah!'

He fully turned to face her and the first thing he saw on her face was the way her eyes were rolling themselves at him in such a way that one wouldn't find it hard to notice her hatred for him, her annoyance and anger. That was why he always found it so hard to believe she couldn't see without her glasses because man, her eye looked so normal. And beautiful.

"What do you want?" He asked, his voice sharp and straight and she softly hissed.

"Tell him that you can't do that anymore, you've thought about it and it's not right, that's all."

"At what cost will I do that for you?" Will he please stop talking as though he used his flesh and blood to buy the words he was allowed to speak with? This was frustrating her even more.

"Oh, you want money? I can give whatever you want to you. Just say the prize, I can even add a tip for you. Tell me, how much?" She said with a smirk playing itself on her face. Do you see Fareeda? It wasn't as hard as you thought it might be. She mused to herself and prayed they would be done with this conversation before Nana came back.

Something changed in his eyes, it was anger, she could point a finger at that. But he swiftly suppressed it as he had always done and she wondered why he had never unleashed his anger, he always acted nonchalant to whatever it was he was feeling at the moment but surprisingly, she could always see his real emotions in his eyes. Letting it out or not, that was his choice, but what mattered to her now was that he was ready to say no to Alhaji.

"Are you so narrow-minded that you think I can do something with your money? You're so wrong. If you want me to say no to Alhaji, you have to go and apologize to him first, of course, Nana will be the witness and also, mend your ways."

She cut him off even before his lips closed with a voice so angry at him, "There's no way I'm going to apologize to that man, what the hell are you thinking about?! Think of something else, but an apology will never happen!"

He shrugged off his shoulders and went back to his pot, "Then get ready to get married to me in three months." Was this Allah's way of punishing her? How could a gateman have such confidence and arrogance? That was something Fareeda believed she would forever be ignorant of.

"What do you mean? Look, if by chance you're already daydreaming about me being your wife, then I'd like to advise you to stop, Mujaheed! There's no way I'm going to get married to someone like you and expect me not to do anything about it, do you think that way?"

"Get married to who?!" She heard as a voice echoed through the room and when she looked up, an infuriated Adam was staring at her. "Fareeda, are you getting married?" He repeated his question and all she did was shook her head, unable to answer him straight. Why did this always happen to her? Things tend to go sour whenever they should be moving smoothly for her.

"Who are you?" Mujaheed asked with a straight face, not minding the look on Fareeda's face or the fact that he had seen Adam's face in front of the house times he didn't care to count to the point that he nearly cringed whenever he saw his face.

Adam ignored him, he had always hated this gateman and wondered what he was doing in Fareeda's room, alone. He took a step forward to the bed but Mujaheed stopped him, "Where do you think you're going, Mister?"

"Get out of my way," Adam said through gritted teeth and kept his eyes pinned on her, she was slightly shivering. She didn't know what she said to him, tell him what he heard is wrong or what?

"No, but I'll rather you get out of the room instead." For the first time, Adam spared him a glance and hissed afterwards. He had always known that Mujaheed was a gateman that acted as though he were a king.

"Ya Mujaheed, who's here?" Nana asked as she quickly went to the pot to take a peak. She had always wanted to see how Mujaheed brewed his tea but he had never allowed her because he always did that outside the house and it was morally not right for a girl to sit with him outside and watch as he brewed his tea.

"Who are you? Will you please get out?" The nurse said as she picked up her phone to call whom Adam clearly know would be securities to take him out. She had seen the way Mujaheed was looking at him and knew that whoever he was, he wasn't welcomed there.

Adam turned back and walked out of the room without a single word and Fareeda immediately went for her phone to call him, but it was dead. She turned to Nana as the nurse began her work, "Have you taken my charger for me, Nana?"

Nana looked up and shook her head, "I forgot to tell you, Asma'u was using the charger when I was coming so there's no way I will ask her to give it to me." Asma'u was the second daughter of Alhaji after Fareeda and then Dahlia. Fareeda had never gotten along with any of her sisters and it was a miracle when Nana was brought, she liked her at their first meeting.

"That girl, didn't I warn her to stop using my things? Who gave her the key to my room?" She asked with anger evident in her tone, already imagining how she would deal with her when she went back home.

"I think she used the extra key that was with Ummah, I'm not sure though."

"I told them I hate it when they have an extra key of my room, who do they think they are? They're going to have it from me, a bunch of idiots." She hissed loudly and laid back on her bed. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep now but that was the only thing available for her to do.

"Are you going back to sleep, Ya Fareeda?" Nana asked, looking at the way Fareeda meticulously took off her glasses and placed it beside her where she can always reach for it when she woke up.

"Yes, Nana. Ask that man to get out of the room when you're done taking that ritual liquid you have there."

Nana threw her head back and laughed, "It's not a ritual liquid, Ya Fareeda, it's a tea. And his name is Ya Mujaheed, not that man."

"Nana..." there was a warning laced on her voice and Nana knew better than to say one more thing.

"Goodnight, Ya Fareeda." Better, she mused to herself and welcomed the splash of her thoughts through her mind. They were chaotic, full of darkness that she wondered as everyone said if, in her life, there would be light at the end of the tunnel because she had been walking in this pitch darkness for so long that she gave up on seeing that light.

✥

"I don't think it's safe for us to discharge you, Ma'am. Won't you wait for a few more days so we can see if you're fine?" They had been arguing with the doctor for more than five minutes now and Fareeda wasn't getting a word out of it.

"I've been in this hospital for three days now, will you please let me go already? I'm tired, and what's more important is my health, I'm fine, I told you. And I promise that if there's something, a slight pain I'll run back to you. Please, I'm begging you this time, let me go." Even though her facial expression was saying a different thing from what her lips were saying, the doctor sighed in defeat.

"Please you have to take care and rest so well, okay? The nurse will bring the discharge letter and for the hospital fees, your father's PA has paid everything." She nodded and watched as he left the room, thanking Allah that Mujaheed and Nana weren't back until they were done with the doctor. She had told them that she had been discharged and they were taking their things to the car, what if the doctor said otherwise? And she was sure if he heard that she shouldn't be discharged this early, there was no way she was going home today. No, the word home wasn't a word in her life. She had a mansion to live in, but never a home.

"Are you all set, Ya Fareeda?" Nana asked as she came to help her and they walked out of the room, meeting the nurse on their way to the parking lot.

Nothing had changed in the house, she had secretly wished that even a pint of her darkness could be splashed upon this house and she would love to see how they will all survive, but it was still the same she had left it four days ago. Beautiful, exquisite and magnificent mansion of Kamal Sardauna. Nana helped her into her room and she immediately rushed to the bathroom to take her shower and take off those clothes, it had always felt nice to smell rid of all those antibacterials.

She came out of the bathroom and met her food on the bedside drawer, had she ever mentioned that Nana was a sweetheart? She got ready into a comfortable cotton gown and left her hair to dry itself. She was halfway into her food when she remembered she had to charge her phone and call Adam when she stood up with the spoon in her hand and directly walked to Asma'u's room. She banged the door open without knocking and met her chatting with the phone while it charged.

She walked to where she was and carelessly flung the charger out of the socket, aware of the fact that the phone had fallen and might've possibly cracked. "What have I told you about my charger, Asma'u? Wallah this should be the last time I'm warning you about it unless you want your mother to take you to the hospital today."

"What do you mean? You weren't home, away in the hospital and just because I'm afraid of you I shouldn't use it?!"

"Will you keep that annoying mouth shut?! As it should always be? Don't think I'm weak because I'm just back from the hospital, teaching you a very good lesson would have been a pleasure of mine. Idiot!" And the next thing Asma'u felt was the spoon Fareeda was holding mercilessly spanked on the crown of her head and she walked out of the room.

She had already put her phone to charge and was back at eating her food when her door got banged open and she inhaled softly, that's what she had been waiting for. "What do you think you've done, Fareeda?!" Ummah asked angrily as she threw the now screen-smashed phone on her bed. "You've smashed her phone for a charger that wouldn't have to exceed five thousand Naira."

She turned calmly from where she sat and sipped her drink, "Have you heard yourself, Ummah? For someone out there this five thousand would make his or her entire month, that's a huge amount of money, you know? And I was also coming to you had it been you aren't too impatient to wait for me, who gave you the right to have an extra key of my room?"

"Because I'm the woman of the house and I can do whatever I want to do. If you like, you can change your lock every day and I'll still have an extra key of it. And for her phone, get it repaired before today ends."

She threw her head back and laughed, "You of all people should know that I don't take orders, Mrs Kamal Sardauna. And about my room's extra key, before I do something you'll certainly regret, give the one you have back and stay out of my business. Her phone?" She chuckled and looked at Asma'u that was fuming beside her mother, "Girl, if you still like your phone, take it out of my room or there are thousands of people who would kill to have its kind. Not even to take it far, I can give it to Nana and let's see who can collect it from her."

"Asma'u, take your phone and ignore this girl, I'll tell Alhaji to put some senses into her," Ummah grumbled and Asma'u took her phone before they turned to leave.

"Shut the door on your way out and please I need to rest, no one should disturb me. Ummah, don't forget about the extra key." They left the door open and she softly smiled before she stood up and closed it herself. Walking back to her bed, she slumped on it and wondered what she was going to say to Adam and what would be of their conversation with Mujaheed, did he mean what he had said? But she'd rather die than apologise to her father.