I dare you to comment on each paragraph for an update later...

KANO STATE, NIGERIA.

"Alhamdulillah, it is official."

The words rang out and bounced in the gloomy room, earning nothing but pensive looks from the occupants of it. There has never been a marriage where not a single soul is not happy about but this one that just got knotted have everyone's loathe and hatred filled in it which makes the people merged in the connubial to think whether it is ever going to work out. They both did it to save one person or the other, does it mean it will work out? No genuine feelings?

In the room, there are girls inside watching a woman lying on the mattress, unconscious and sick. She won't permit them to take her to the hospital because she wants to stay there with them and even if she dies, she'd rather die in the room than any hospital room. She wants it to happen on that mattress instead of a pearl cot. She is almost hundred percent sure she is going to die too and she hasn't awoken since the night before.

When Amirah got the news after the bachelorette party was over, she lost consciousness. As if the stress had finally caught up to her.

Afaf had went back into the room all pensive and gloomy, it worried Amirah but she told her it was no problem then and she just got the news about their exams starting a week earlier than the given time. Amirah loose herself into the night and danced to her heart's content, as if she knows the next thing that happens would ruin and shatter each bit of that happiness.

Afaf had to agree to the marriage because of so many reasons. Since Imad have the power to ruin them all, she knew ruining Amirah will be easier. They don't have the wealth and mastery to stand against him in court that he should divorce Amirah and Afaf have no doubt that Amirah wouldn't want that divorce. After she finds out they weren't divorced, she won't agree to the real divorce! She would want them to work out again.

Imad is nothing short of a monster living in a Prince's body.

And she can't just let him win like that, he's touched a sister this time around and she will make sure he repays one way or the other. She married Nazir because she don't want the reputation of their family to get tarnished when they were helping them just few weeks ago. They've wasted a lot of money for her to turn down his offer of getting married to him and besides, her love life is empty and nonexistent. Had she been in love with someone, she might consider turning them down.

If she cannot help her sister in this, then what would she do? Amirah dedicated her whole teenage years to them, she definitely would've jumped off a precipice if the chances were there. So why can't she sacrifice her own freedom for her sister? It's not like she can change what destiny has written for her, the marriage would've happened one way or the other. Nazir could just change the name without telling her and then she'd be married to him with no money to go to the court.

She asked him why he won't fight for Amirah's right in getting court divorce that is permitted Islamically but he told her Amirah wouldn't want that. And he is right. Amirah will downright turn them down in getting any shitty divorce so they didn't push it any further than that.

"She is not waking up, doctor." Aunt Azima complained for the nth time, totally disregarding the comment Husna just made about the marriage that has been conducted.

"She won't wake up now. She's still in shock. Initial stage where the cardiac output is insufficient to supply the normal nutritional needs of tissues but not low enough to cause serious symptoms. Give her a few more hours, she will wake up but for now, I think you should all step out and give her more air." The doctor stood up too, leaving Amirah's side.

Lateefa got them her mother's younger sister. Doctor Fiddah, one of the best doctors in Kano State who happens to be working in the royals hospital. They were all in shock but she quickly dialled the woman and she came right then, around ten in the evening and checked on Amirah. She told them not to worry that her blood pressure is high. Darn hypertension caused by the news along with shock? For someone as young as Amirah?

Yeah, it is such a huge news that none of them could sleep a wink and gathered in the room.

Afaf was clever enough to not tell Amirah about the change of plans till after the party was over. As planned, Kamilah and Lateefa were going to stay there for sleepover in Husna's room because their room won't be enough but they wanted to still be with her before she gets married and Afaf couldn't keep it inside. She keeps spacing out then Amirah asked what is wrong, that was her breaking point.

"Ami... Nazir won't be able to marry you. He said he has been in love with me but I turned him down of course. This is not what I expected but God!" She really did turn Nazir down at first and even as she was talking to Amirah then, she didn't accept the proposal.

Amirah processed her words quietly and she seemed too calm for someone who's just gotten the news that her supposed husband been in love with her elder sister all along. Like she's expected something like that to happen which is totally not a good sign. Even Lateefa and Kamilah gasped in horror in her place, they wanted to fight her, she could see it in their stance. There is no doubt those two are real friends, ready to fight an older sister for the sake of their friendship.

Amirah smiled, it was filled with pain and throe but a tinge of relief? "I think you should marry him. He is a nice man. We can't always get what we want and the heart will always wants what it wants." And she lost consciousness right after those shaky words left her lips.

"Nazir told you that or are you the one in love with him?" Kamilah had asked in a voice she herself didn't recognise, it was filled with menace.

Albeit hurt with the insinuation, Afaf didn't feel that bad. They are doing that for their friend who happens to be her baby sister. Lateefa is glowering at her but made it to Amirah's side on the bed, moving Najla away from where she is. "It better not be the story or I will forget you both are related." She threatened, checking Amirah's pulse.

She told them the truth but beseeched that they shouldn't tell Amirah about it, their Aunt came just then and heard the whole story too. Afaf called Nazir and accepted his proposal then.

Amirah had mumbled severe headache and chest pain in her sleep. The doctor detected short breathing, papilledema and irregular heartbeat. She's prescribed some hypertension medicines for her too -furosemide, propanolol, prazosin, capropril and amlodipine- which Lateefa and Kamilah quickly left to go get from the nearest pharmacy. The names are weird but the doctor made sure to mention all the uses of each one to them before she left that night just in case.

"Afaf, what are you going to do now?" Aunt Azima asked, her eyes bloodshot. They just stepped out of the room like the doctor had instructed.

"I don't know, Aunt. I don't know." She shook her head, more tears rolled down her cheeks in anguish. She doesn't even know which of her problems to cry for but they just keep gushing out.

She never imagined her marriage to be like this, not that she's had long dreams about it, she was busy studying to entertain such things in her head. But getting married to your younger sister's fiancée? Who would even want to dream about that no matter the situation? Definitely not Afaf Ibrahim Adam, she never would have had that dream and if she did, she would go back to sleep and erase it immediately.

And then her sister is lying there on the bed because of a stupid prince that should be in a rehabilitation centre instead of a palace. How could Imad be so cruel to Amirah? Just to get back at her for a mistake she didn't commit herself? Why won't he just listen to her side of story and end it once and for all? Why keep drawing it like that? Isn't he tired of being in the obsidian all these time?

"You should stay with your sister and after she recovers, you can go to your husband's house." Aunt Azima advised, taking off the huge elephant surrounding them.

Lateefa and Kamilah stood to leave with Husna but she asked them to sit back down. They wanted to give them privacy because it looks like a family matter and they shouldn't interfere. They are considered family too if they don't know that already. Someone who is willing to move the earth for the sake of friendship is worth more than being just a family.

Afaf bend her head on her knees to hide away more tears. How could she pack up and go to her husband's house leaving her sister there? She won't permit that. It is either Imad will come out clean to Amirah or she does that. She won't let him have his way all the time, she knows about their rights and will stand for her sister with the world against them. They already have few people by their side, the royals won't matter at all. That is if they know what their son is doing behind their backs.

"I have a plan." Kamilah suggested, her voice piercing through the quiet place filled with miscellanea of depression. Everyone's attention yawed to her, even a crying Afaf's. "Why don't we go to the palace and tell his parents what he is doing? There is no way they are supporting what he is doing. I feel like they don't even know what he is doing."

"Is that a good thing? I mean, going to meet them is going to be hard and Imad might've thought about that and blocked all passages." Husna chirped like the mature brain person she is. Always thinking about the pressurized side.

"Yeah, you are right." The hope spiked hunched back down and they continue to comb through any modicum chance of them slipping in.

"How about we use Jabir?" Lateefa inquired, her eyes on Kamilah since she is the only one that knows about Jabir's connection with the palace.

"Jabir? As in the son of Talban Kano?" Afaf raised a brow, she's heard his name once or twice from Amirah when she was with Imad during their highschool days.

"Yes, him. He can easily get us into the palace to meet them."

"What are we waiting for?" Afaf jumped to her feet, entered inside the room to bring out a hijab for herself and stopped to stare at Amirah and Najla's sleeping figures.

She made her way there, taking in her sister's sunken face and tired structure. There is an intravenous fluid around her hand, it is dripping slowly. Her eyes zeroed on her eyes as if trying to hypnotize her into opening them but she didn't, merely breathe. She placed a small kiss on her forehead, one filled with determination and promise to fight till all that remains is victory. This is her time to rest, she will take it from there and fight Imad.

"I'm going to make sure he pays." And she left the room to find the other girls ready except for Husna who will stay back to watch over Najla and Amirah alongside Aunt Azima. She is not ready to see her role models while she is looking so haggard, she's said when in reality she is worried sick about Amirah.

Lateefa is also wearing a hijab but Kamilah went for maxi dress and a veil around her. They both look mildly presentable to see the King and Queen but they are not going there for pleasantries. They are subjects filled with complaints and only those two people could wipe away their tears. They have a long screed to endorse that. Their one hope is getting Amirah succored off this trouble named Imad.

"I've already called him. We should meet him outside the palace."

*~*

The Queen narrowed her eyes after listening to everything her son did from the three worried young ladies. She felt lightheaded, if the intake of breaths is anything to go by. Her stomach hardened because she thought after what she's said to him, he'd listened to her and mended his ways but he clearly is as recalcitrant as his elder sister. Only that the sister did it for love while he is doing it for damnation.

The King beside her is also quiet, so unlike him. "Get Imad here." He told the guard closest to him who ran to do as he's told.

The three girls kept quiet like the King and Queen, waiting to hear what their decision is going to be. Who would've known the King and Queen will be disappointed in their son? Well, it shouldn't galvanise them because even they would be disappointed if their son does something similar to this. Ruining lives because of revenge? Is he crazy or did he befriend Satan on his way back to Nigeria?

They should inculcate him further, he needs it more than anyone. His mind is purely on business that each step he takes is on the business side. Only they have the jurisdiction to induce further manners in him. They seem like connoisseurs in that aspect, grooming all the other princes except this last bratty one that is about to go cuckoo. Annihilating lives like they mean nothing to him.

Imad walked in right then. "Yes, Mom?" He stopped in his tracks when he saw the three girls sitting on the carpeted floor in front of his parents.

"Come inside and sit there." His mother gestured with her brows where he should sit, where people get executed or people with crimes are asked to sit. He is no better than a criminal in their eyes at that time.

Imad knew he was in trouble the moment he saw those three colleens but his mother's reaction and the position she wants him sitted spelt doom. He gulped and sat down there, not turning to look at the girls behind him but his parents on the throne. This is going to be anticlimactic, seriously.

"You haven't divorced Amirah?" This time, his father took the rein. He didn't scold him for what he's done three years ago but their relationship was slowly getting back to where it was. Only to end up back in square one again.

Acerbically, he answered. "I haven't, your Majesty." This is time for honorifics, for professionalism. The tone his father used have myriad of peril there.

"And you didn't take her back because?"

"Nothing, your Majesty. I was just waiting for the right time." Lateefa couldn't stop a scoff from escaping her lips then she apologized quietly, not sure if they've heard her.

"This is an indictment!" The King is furious, everyone could see that. "And your mild punishment is, you are going to take back your wife immediately. Which means, in less than three hours. Make sure she is also back on her feet, clothe her, pay all her debts and never give her a reason to complain about you or you get banished from this state forever."

The three colleens weren't happy behind him but Imad was happy with this, he was going to bring her back anyway, just not then. He wanted to make her suffer some more.

And back on her feet? Is she sick? Damn, what has he done? Now that she is sick like he was, what is the good in it? There is no relaxation at all and instead, he feels burdened. And debts? What debts is his father talking about now?

Slowly unraveling the journey of the hearts reawakening...

This Imad needs serious beating, I mean serious one please. Can someone do the honours?

Hehehe, Imad and Amirah are back o. What do you have planned😹