Assalamu alaikum. Don't forget to recite suratul Khaf.
*****

"Wh... I'm confused!" Sadiqu blurted.

"Don't say a word!" Leek threatened her lookalike. They looked exactly the same except that one was chubbier than the other.

"Stop me if you can." She wasn't scared anymore. She secretively dialed a number on her phone and a police scampered in almost immediately. Sadiqu watched the scenario with folded arms.

The police man cuffed Leek's hand after she had to try to run away.

"Cuff her legs too." She ordered the police. That done, she dismissed him after she had hushed some words into his ear. The police nodded and exited the gate. She smiled and turned to look at cuffed Leek.

She leveled down to where she was sitting and tapped Leek's cheek.

"You don't always win Maleeha. You can win for all the days but the last day will be unfortunate." She then used her hand and dragged Leek to a nearby parlour whilst Sadiqu just watched. He then followed them to the parlour. He doesn't seem to understand anything.

"Maleeha as you can see, the ball is in my court so please don't waste my and your time. Tell Sadiqu what's happening." Leek clapped and lean by a stretcher.

"Who is Maleeha?" Sadiqu interrupted. His eyes had been wandering from Leek to Maleeha and he became puzzled all of a sudden. He couldn't even differentiate them.

The woman smiled bitterly. "She's Maleeha, I am Maleekah." She revealed. Sadiqu's eyes darted from Leek to fake Leek, that's Maleeha.

"I'm in the dark." He sighed. Everything doesn't make sense.

"My name is Maleeha and I am Maleekah's twin." She began to confess, sweeping away the beads of sweat on her forehead. She knew that keeping quiet will trigger Maleekah's anger and maybe the police will go away with her. Whilst there's nothing she hate more than being fixed in one place not to talk of staying behind the bars.

"For all this while, you've been with me." Sadiqu felt his hand itching. He knew his palm wanted to slam something. What? What?? What??? By Allah, he felt his body beginning to shake.

"I am Maleeha, your wife." She cleared once again. At this time, he couldn't explain at which his heart was tumbling. Or how many times his heart was beating. All he knew was, his heart wasn't doing it's normal work. He's just trying to absorb the shock.

"Does it make sense?" Sadiqu asked. They should have warned him to put on shock absorber barrier in his heart lest his heart will explode.

"It does. Maleekah and I are twins. Our mother was Hafsah. After our birth, our father divorced her and she left Maleekah with Ammi while she fled to London with me. I grew up there, all alone with her but I normally visit Nigeria once a year. Despite the distance, I and Maleekah were always communicating.

"I loved Leek so much but it changed on one night. That night, I saw you. That time, you were schooling there. And I obsessively fell in love. As usual when we communicated, I told Leek. And eventually I understood that we loved the same man. I couldn't leave you for her. Not in my wildest dreams. I persuaded her to come over to London. She came but I planned and plotted. Leek was held captive by some men I hired.

Our identical features were those weapons that helped me. I and Leek were totally different. So I began to impersonate her. You can remember all the holes you noticed. All the change of characters and so on. I tried so hard to keep Leek's friend, Mimi, as my friend too to avoid suspicion but I failed. Each time I try, the next day, I fail."

Sadiqu didn't know when he grabbed her neck. He would buy all sort of lies but not this. What did she mean by that? He hate nonsense. If Sadiqu's senses were thousands, he knew all had left him at the moment.

He then remembered the hadith that said one should act kindly to women. So he released her. He remembered the advice the prophet gave someone. 'Do not be angry,' so he sighed trying to remain sane.

The woman smiled bitterly. "Yes, the Maleekah you know is me. Mimi's Maleekah. When they caught me, they put me in a house. They brought food, clothes and all I needed. One thing was, I never knew who's their boss until one day when one of the men put his phone on speaker. I picked the voice immediately. You want to know how I managed to escape?" Leek giggled and looked at her twin.

"I requested for some sleeping pills and your silly men brought it to me. I drugged their drinks and they all slept. It took me all this years to finally execute this plan. However, I am out not to do you any harm but to come and save him and my best friend from your evil. So, Maleeha, game over." Maleeha gritted her teeth.

"So you mean I got married to your twin? And she even gave birth to my daughter?" Sadiqu slapped his face upon asking that.

"Yes you did that. What again? Fact is, you never loved me. You were just fascinated and all. And you felt like you owed me something that's why you thought you loved me. Because if you really loved me, no matter the striking resemblance, you will get it. You will know it's not me. But you never felt anything, did you?" Sadiqu sighed.

All came back to his head like a rush of adrenaline. He remembered everything and those nagging thoughts and feeling in his heart. He remembered when he used to tell Mimi that he's not sure of his love for Maleekah.

Sadiqu never knew he was a nincompoop for all his life. Who does that, if not an idiot? He asked himself. He truly deserved to be called a goat. Or a sheep. No, a donkey suited him more.

He felt like choking himself. Now how would he reveal this story to everyone? They will definitely take him as a psycho.

Urgh!

"Stop insulting yourself. What's destined to happen, must happen even if the whole world is against it." Maleekah said, as if she knew what he was doing.

Without waiting for an answer, she stepped out and called her policemen. They came in and went away with her twin, Maleeha. Who has been impersonating her for years.

Sadiqu sat down and got up.

He got up and sat down.

He paced about and came back.

He wanted to confirm if he's dreaming or he's lost his mind.

"How do you want me to trust you, that you're Maleekah? What if, you're Maleeha and you came to fabricate a lie about Maleekah." Leek chuckled.

"What happened to that well, that you connected electricity to? Where's Nazeer? Is Inna still selling tofu? Where's Fatimah? Answer me Malam Sadiqu." It's now that Sadiqu saw that glint in her eyes. He felt something in his mind. Something he couldn't fathom. He doesn't wanna believe, but his heart was opposing him. His heart believed that the lady standing in front of him was Maleekah.

"I am sorry, I arrested your wife. I will release her if you want." She sighed, having an array of thoughts on her brain.

"We're no longer together."

"What? What are you doing here?"

"The king is dead and..."

"You don't mean it."

"It's true. Get in."

"Who else died?"

"Madaki, some years ago."

"Innalillahi, that's so so so sad." She helplessly spoke.

"Is my father here to offer his condolences? Is Ammi here also?" Sadiqu felt something sour crawling to his throat. She doesn't even know that her mother was dead.

How cruel was that? But for how long was she away?

"For how long were you away? How did you know she's here?"

" I was gone after Mimi's graduation party. When you two went for service. Yes, somewhere around that time."

"And we even have a daughter with her." Sadiqu purred still not believing it all.

"I know. I follow her on social media unbeknownst to her. And we became friends in just few days because I acted like a client that's why I know she's here in Bauchi. And from her, I knew where you reside. I even visited Mimi and I saw two cuties."

"When?"

"Yesterday. I wore a face cover and Mimi didn't allowed me in. I know Mimi will not believe me. She knew I love you. She knew I can't leave you to her. But by Allah this time, I came in peace. To make things alright." A tear spilled out of her eyes and she reached for the door. She loved him, yes. She used to say she would fight with all her might. But not anymore. She's learnt something over the years. That's letting go. Sadiqu was obviously more into Mimi and so, she would let them rock their lives together while she awaited her own partner.

When she stepped her leg out, Sadiqu stopped her.

"Do you still love me?" And she left without an answer. She did and will always love him. But for Mimi's happiness, she would set him aside,

Forever.

Sadiqu beat his head against the wall. He punched the wall until his knuckles hurt. He wanted to get rid of the feeling in his heart. He wanted to just feel like him. Him, that young boy.  He wanted to revive his old life. That life without Mimi or Leek. Just him.

Sadiqu punched the wall again.

"Stop it my love," he heard Xurannah's voice echoing. He ignored it and continued punching.

"Don't you ever come here!" He warned strictly although she's yet to appear in a figure.

"What have I done?" Xurannah asked.

"Why didn't you tell me all this? Why did you allow me to be living in falsy for half of my life?" Instead of the answer he dread to hear, Xurannah laughed.

Sadiqu didn't said a word thereafter.

"I am like you. Whether a human or a jinn, I don't have the knowledge of the unseen. Why are you sounding like an illiterate my love? Me being a jinn doesn't mean I know what happened. How could I? When I wasn't present when it all happened? I don't know someone's past if it happened in my absence. I don't know the future either. Allah is the only aalimul ghayb.( knower of the unseen)." She stopped to breath.

"It's funny how you humans believe in us 'knowing the future' and believing that a man who works with us knows the unseen and will help you out. Can you imagine?" She giggled and appeared in the figure of a young beautiful woman dressed in a long pink hijab.

"What's the purpose? Yes a lot of human folks may disagree with me. Especially those that have ever paid a visit to a sorcerer. Allah said in suratul hijr that when he created the heavens and decorated it for lookers, he also protected it from the expelled devils except one who stole a hearing. And he's pursued by a clear burning flame. That explains the concept. I know you know it my love. Why are you about to commit shirk?"

Sadiqu slapped his head for the ninth time.

"I don't know how... Everything is just not adding up." He sighed yet again.

Xurannah shambled to where he was. "Forget about that, great things await you my love. Forget them all." And she left too.

Sadiqu stormed out and started making his way to his house. On the way he kept thinking and recollecting all Xurannah told him. He almost missed the line. He almost committed shirk. Ya rabb.

What overcame him? It's very evident that the jinns have no knowledge of the unseen. The story of prophet Sulaiman was an example. When prophet Sulaiman assigned some jinns to do some work for him, they kept working until his death. He died but they didn't know until after some days when an insect started eating his staff and he fell down then they knew he's dead. If they knew the unseen, they would've known he's dead.

But they never knew.

Sadiqu sighed.

"May Allah guide us all." He yawned and looked forward to arriving at home.

****

Friday came very fast. The investigation and background check that's supposed to be done in months time was done in couple of days.

The council members and the kingmakers have reached a conclusion. But they feared that the kingdom will be in disagreement for a while.

After the Jumu'at prayer in the palace's mosque, the current wazeer who was the acting king, announced that there's something that needed to be addressed by the kingmakers.

The kingmaker, speaking on behalf of Makama cleared his throat and began. He greeted them and prayed then cleared his throat again.

"As we all know, wannan masarauta tamu mai albarka tana da dimbun tarihi na abubuwan al'ajabi da sauran su. Toh a bisa haka ne... This blessed emirate, our blessed kingdom has a history of things that will surprise you and all. Therefore I will like to brief you again about the history..." And he began the story. From king Muhammad Bashir to king Muhammad Isma'il to king Hanif then to the present king. He explained how the throne will not be inherited by Hanif if not because of the absence of a heir. He then began explaining what really happened and what resulted to such.

"For that reason, the heir to king Muhammad Isma'il has been found." Then he kept mute as the crowd went into an uproarious atmosphere.

A security slave barked order and everyone kept mum.

The man extended his hand sideway and someone gave him the portrait of late king Muhammad Isma'il. He hung it in the air.

"We all know who this is. But I want you to carefully look at him again. Or if you've a phone go to the emirate page and view his image." He left ten minutes for that.

His hand traveled back and caught the wrist of Sadiqu.

"Look at this gentle man," he paused as everyone talked.

"This is Isma'il Sadiqal wa'ad Mamman. I know he's familiar to most of you due to his immense contribution to the masses of this state. He is a cofounder of the most active NGOs in this state." Everyone agreed with that but most of the people there have their attention on the resemblance between him and the late king.

"His father was the son to king Muhammad Isma'il. His grandmother was Ridwanatu, the late king's second wife. Unfortunately, his father died a while ago. May his soul rest in peace." He kept silent for a while.

"And at this moment, I announced to you our new king. The king that's not selected but entitled. The heir to this throne. Today I stand before you on behalf of all the kingmakers and important people in the kingdom." He cleared his throat.

"I present to you, the new king. The grandson of a king. Isma'il Sadiqal wa'ad. Properly known as Sadiqu. The turbanning ceremony will be a week from now."

Neither Sadiqu nor Jameel sitting randomly amidst crowd expected that. But at that moment there were several voices in background. Some were happy, some were sad.

But most importantly, the majority of the masses were happy.

****

The month passed so fast in the world I live in🙂🙂

Now I have only one chap left. But I'm thinking of editing it and adding the turbanning ceremony. What do you think?

The key to next chapter, is telling me what you think about the book overall. You can come to my DM or here in the comment section. Anywhere. Just try telling me sth. Thank you.