****

Shorter than usual.

Jumu'at Kareem.

Don't forget to recite suratul Kahf and send a lot of salawat to our noble prophet. May Allah's peace be upon him.

****

"Uh, welcome." Sadiqu stuttered.

"Thanks. How have you been?" Sadiqu grimaced. Okay, he's going to be blunt to be honest.

"I'm fine. Inna is not around. She went to dan Zakara with Yusrah. You can come back some other time."

"I actually came to see you regarding us. We... I..."

"I even forgot to say I got married a week ago."

Leek's bag dropped to the ground. "Marriage?" Sadiqu picked up her bag and dusted it off.

"Yes, marriage of course."

"Hey what's taking you long? Who's at the door?" Mimi shouted from inside.

"I think it's time for introduction." Sadiqu flanged his hands sideways nonchalantly.

"Wifey come and see our guest." Mimi rushed to grab her hijab from the room.

"You mean you can get married without telling me? You mean you're over me while I'm there nursing my broken heart? You mean it, really? I mean, for real?" Leek sniffed and cleared her spilled tears with the hem of her veil.

In no time, the mascara on her brows smudged her face. And she continued.

"I have been waiting. Why would you do this?" She asked with a whimper.

Sadiqu ran his hand up and down his face. He doesn't like seeing people at their weakest point. Yield point means the person have reached the capacity they could help.

"Listen, Maleekah. Listen." He tried to explain almost resting his calming hands on her shoulder.

"Who's there?" Mimi creaked the door open and right on cue, Leek lifted her eye towards her direction.

"Mimi!" Mimi's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach and rose to the pipe of her throat all at once. She wasn't ready for this. By Allah, she's totally forgotten about the story between Maleekah and Sadiqu. Mimi suddenly felt guilt washing her all over.

Maleekah rose up and clapped then humourlessly laugh.

"History has repeated it self."

"What?"

"I have been avoiding this. I've been planning against this but yet you managed to marry him. Congratulations girl, you've won the betrayal medal. Once again, accept my felicitation." Mimi opened her mouth a numerous times but she felt the words empty.

"I will let you know. I have to. Since I noticed the way you look at him. The way his name slips off your tongue. The way you smile, I tried my best to make sure I have him. Because, I don't want to feel the pain Ya Nusy went through." Maleekah turned around, such that, she's backing the duo.

"It's the story of our cousin and Ya Nusy, my step sister who's late now. She died of heart attack. Our cousin, Aliyyah was her best friend." Sadiqu and Mimi exchanged a look.

"Ya Nusy got married to Usman. He was someone she cherished with all her heart. She gave him her all. She trusted him with every fragment of her heart. Our cousin was her best friend. The second person she trusted after Usman." Leek took a deep breath and exhaled it.

"Aliyyah was her personal assistor. She tells her everything and seek advice from her. On holidays, Aliyyah will go to Ya Nusy's house. When Ya Nusy is sick or at work, Aliyyah was there in her house to take good care of the house."

"Although it was Ya Nusy's mistake, I don't blame her. Usman takes Aliyyah to school and picks her up. He always involve her in their family affairs. Ya Nusy was not suspecting anything until one day..." Leek coughed.

"She found Aliyyah talking to him on phone. Aliyyah was cunning, so she managed and convinced Ya Nusy that all was well. Ya Nusy confronted him too, he assured her that it was nothing. She gave them her trust."

"Until when Aliyyah began misbehaving. In a rush, Ya Nusy found out that Usman is going to marry Aliyyah. That was when the trouble began. She was pregnant, and she had miscarriage. From there, she started suffering, high blood pressure, over thinking and whatelse. All in silence. No one stopped Usman from marrying Aliyyah. Within a little span, they tied the knot. Ya Nusy was silent. She let them be, while she nurtured her broken heart. Unknown to her, she was cheating herself because she chose to be silent." Mimi walked to Maleekah.

"That's so sad. I get it, please don't continue." Mimi wiped her tear.

"She was always alone in the room, and dying. I went to the house. That time, I was twelve. I saw her wrangling in pain and clutching her chest. With the help of the driver, I took her home where she was taken to the hospital. After some days, she got discharged. Ammi asked her to stay with us. And she did. All of this were happening while Usman doesn't even know she was sick. In fact, he thought she's just inside her room."

"She never gave up on him because she always calls him every night but her calls went unanswered. Two months passed and she started recovering which made us so happy. On a Friday morning, she called him and he picked. She was very excited."

"But..." Leek covered her mouth with her palm.

"He pronounced her divorce. There she fell onto the ground. And all I can remember was the announcement of her death in the afternoon. It stuck to my brain. I decided to be cautious. And still it happened but listen." Leek abruptly turned and pointed her left forefinger at Sadiqu and her right forefinger at Mimi.

"I'm not Ya Nusy. You two will not kill me. You will not! You're both betrayers. I'm done with you two." She smiled.

"And you, I have something to tell you." She pointed at Sadiqu.

"Mimi give us some space." Mimi was hurt but somehow she got it. They deserve a little privacy. With no objection, she left their sights.

Leek moved towards the gate, far away from Mimi's room.

"The end of the story was actually not like that. I just have to omit it because it carries our secret. Well, Usman actually started misbehaving after Ya Nusy found out she was expecting. He asked her to know how to get rid of it because he does not want her to loose her shape. When she didn't complied to his wish, he went ahead and married Aliyyah. Well that was why I behaved insanely when i found out about Yusrah, thinking that you would do the same."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"You may never believe me."

"I thought you're wiser than this. You're so naive. Life doesn't happens that way. We all have different destinies. You see, despite your efforts, I ended up with.... Erm, with her."

Leek felt her heart swinging. "The incident somehow found a way and settled on my heart. I then, developed strategies to avoid all those. Wrong strategies of course. But there's one thing I want you to know. I didn't want you to marry Mimi not because of that alone. Remember the time she was in need of blood? I knew it was coming even before then. And I was informed that as long as you give her that blood, in the long run, you two will enter a mess. So, I tried to make sure you avoid that. You and Mimi are those people I cherish. You will never understand. I did everything because of you guys. But you will never understand. I didn't say this in Mimi's presence because she's a jitterbox. And I can't let her understand. Even if I tell her, it will make no sense to her. So it's better for the matter to be left as it is. Just keep on praying because we all are in danger. You just won't understand." Maleekah opened the gate and left. Sadiqu didn't went after her.

Sadiqu leaned by the wall and closed his eyes.

He will never understand what? None of what she said was making sense at all. She was just talking with no direction. Sadiqu performed ablution and went to the mosque directly.

When Leek entered her car, she glued her forehead to the steering wheel. She knew it. Sadiqu would take her as a nuisance. But by Allah she was making sense. It will take her a few seconds to make him understand but she was afraid. Afraid of the outcome, and what will happen to them. Her heart throbbed when she remembered the warning.

'Don't let them know. Else you will loose them both.' Maleekah let her tear flow down her face.

*****

Two months down, Mimi was used to village life. It was very difficult at first but after the third week, she warmed up to it.

"Inna, Yusrah and Asnah must have close from islamiyya by now. Let me go and get them." Mimi said, while she turned on her heels.

"No, I will get them. I know you want to run away from turning this tuwo. When will you learn?" Inna laughed.

"Oh Inna! Please now." Mimi whined and quickly went out. Inna shook her head with a smile. Something has been on her mind. She wanted to ask Mimi about whom her parent were. Inna knew people would regard her as a negligent mother if they learnt that she hasn't met Mimi's parent yet.

"She's the former governor's daughter." She heard Sadiqu say. He had been looking at her since he entered the house. She didn't even heard his salam.

Inna's hand flew to her chest. "Kaji dan banzan yaro. I'm not your grandmother, you better stop playing with me this way." She warned.

Sadiqu sat down and held Inna's shoulder.

"She's. You see what uncle did? And no she's not the one that snatched our farm." The transparency of his lie was clear but because that was what Inna wanted to hear, she didn't sensed the lie.

"That's a little relief. But it's confusing. How?" Mimi's salam interrupted them. Mimi was crying seriously whilst she held Asnah's almost lifeless figure on her hand. Yusrah was crying.

"Abba, we were walking. Then we saw an icecream seller. Then we bought it. Then we held our hands and went back to school to wait for mummy. And we finish drinking, and Achnah starting beating her chest. Then she fell down." Yusrah poorly explained the scenario.

"Innalillahi!" Mimi handed Asnah to Sadiqu and fled to her room. She called Noor immediately and in no time, he sent the house driver to her. It was the driver that brought her, on the day of the wedding.

Thirty minutes later, they were at the hospital. Maama and Baaba had rushed there too. Asnah was taken to emergency. When her breath was steadied, the doctor sought to see Maama.

She went into the office alone.

"Hajiya, after all the series of tests conducted on her, we found out she's a sickle cell patient. Care has to be taken and several measures are to be considered. I will also like to see her parent and advice them on something." Maama burst into tears.

"Hajiya its not a crying matter." The doctor explained. Maama didn't wait to hear anything. She left the office and fell to Baaba's shoulder when she sighted him.

Mimi's feet went cold as she silently approached them. She could heard Maama muffling her cries.

"Now I'm a truthful believer. A believer that, whatever Allah ordains, it must happen. General Aliyy divorced Mimi with our consent. It's our doing. We offer him the advice, thinking that we've escaped it." Baaba's running hand behind her back, stopped.

"When Mimi gave birth, she was tested to be AS. And when General Aliyy was tested he was found to be AS too. The doctor suggested separation. Because there's high tendency that most of their children would be sickle cell victims. We chose to hide this from Mimi because I know her so well. She might say she has given up conception in order to stay with Aliyy. That's why he divorced her and Allah made it easier by taking his life. The bitter news is, Asnah is a sickle cell victim. How will I reveal this news to Mimi? How?" Maama cried.

The last sentence hit Mimi's eardrum with an immeasurable velocity. She felt the words resonating. The last thing she remembered was seeing Sadiqu and Inna asking her what happened before she slipped to oblivion.

****
Leek kept repeating... "You won't understand." To Sadiqu. You, are you understanding?😂😂😂😝

So General Aliyy divorced Mimi to avoid such.😭😭😭

Part two of this chap is coming soon.

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