KANO STATE, NIGERIA.

THREE YEARS LATER.

"Wake up, Ami. You have work to go to and not to forget about your one hour makeup." Amirah heard her sister, Afaf grumbling at her sleeping figure making her shoot up from the bed like the devils are chasing after her which they are. She needs to be at work and her sister is right, her one hour makeup awaits her. Ugh!

Her life is now a tumble which she is not even going to go deep into. All she can say is, she regrets some decisions she's took which makes her grow much older than her age. There are things she didn't want to do, things she regrets doing and things she hates doing but she had to do it for a person who is now dead. She hates how her life turned out to be, if only wishes were horses.

"Can I just die already?" She grumbled to her older sister whose feet are deep inside a bucket of what seems like cold water. She is writing exams and she won't sleep because of that, Amirah pities her sometimes but the girl is passionate about becoming a great lawyer some day.

"I can kill you if not that I'd be committing a huge crime. Now go and bath Najla before she starts fussing right now. Please help me feed her too, I need to finish this before afternoon. I have this tough exam coming up later." Afaf beseeched and went back to reading looking dishevelled in her old pajamas that has more holes than she will bother counting.

Amirah grunts but stood up from the mattress she lies on for the past two years. Life hasn't been good to her family, especially her. She's faced a lot of obstacles and is still trying to tackle some. She needs some rest to have a cool mind but that never happened, she's been working endless hours everyday making it hard for her to live life. If she's thought three years ago she was making a mistake of marrying, then she is not ready for the one she's faced after that.

After becoming a divorcee at a young age.

She made her way to the outside bathroom to take bath, the one that only has cement and nothing else then the white creamy toilet they squat on. She took that bath really quick then took her niece in her arms to give her a bath. That has been her routine even if her sister doesn't say it, she gives bath to her two and a half year old niece all the time. She hardly has time for herself if not for that cute baby, when she does, she works her sweat to pay off the bills lining up for them everyday which is why her sister is eager to finish schooling and hopefully, get real job.

Their mother died two years ago when she got diagnosed with breast cancer which spread rapidly before they could even blink. None of the therapies or medicines helped and not to forget about the massive amount of money they've spent for her medicines and hospital bills. They took her to a private one first which cause more complications to her. They didn't have enough money to send her to expensive private one so it was hectic for them then.

Everything was so crude and rowdy.

When they took her to the private one, she finally started recovering before everything went downhill for them again. It was as if life turned it's back on them and they couldn't keep up with the fact that their mother is going to die. The left side breast was removed but unknowingly, it has shoot to the right one so they had to remove both. Even after been breast less, she couldn't survive neither did she take any of the therapies. They were hopeless with no one to turn to except themselves.

Her family distanced themselves from them when they found out that she's left the one person that is rich in their family. They already are never by their side but after getting the fact that she is not with her husband anymore, they all yawed their backs at them which wasn't at all surprising to them. They had to tend to themselves all alone without money and none of them have real jobs, not even Arwa their eldest sister. She could do nothing about the tough situation.

Her husband is not at all too rich, just enough to feed his own family. He's helped them with some money but not enough to pay half the bills or even what they can eat at home. Arwa's husband also got diagnosed with leukemia cancer some months ago and they had to leave for India to spend the year which result to her keeping her daughter, Najla with them. His family helped arrange some money to take him out of the country and so far, Arwa said they are progressing.

Half their home is given to some people for rent so they can use the money to pay some of the bills. They settle on taking the one guest room outside the house that has a bathroom just beside it. Even though their house isn't the best one, some couple decided to stay with three of their grandchildren. They don't mind them being tenants as far as they don't cause any problem for them. She don't like her life though, not at all.

Life is too tough and cruel to her family that all she wants to do is leave reality for a moment and come back when she is ready to wake up from such nightmare. And she can't help thinking everything is her fault, if only she hasn't made the gravest mistake in her past, everything would've been okay for them.

"Amirah, you didn't pleat my hair yesterday and I was waiting for you for ages. My hair is out of place, I can't even comb it anymore. Please help this soul." The seventeen year old girl bounced to where she is in her halter top dora the explorer pajamas and black skintight, like always.

Husna, the seventeen year old grandchild of their tenant is a bundle of joy. She stays with her grandparents because her parents are dead, she has an older brother and younger sister. They have formed friendship since the day she stepped into the house. Though she is two years older than her, she doesn't feel like she is. The girl is sometimes more mature than her and sometimes more childish than Najla.

The girl has short hair that reaches her neck, dark skin that is a little darker than Amirah's but equally beautiful. Her thin nose that flays at the edge, her upper lip is bigger than her lower one which only makes her look more unique. She has the body of a twenty year old, she looks older than Amirah in so many ways. Her curves, mature face and all that makes her look like she is born to be matured all along. She still has some baby fats so hopefully when she is back to normal, she'd reduce those curves.

"I'm sorry, Husna. I was so tired when I came back yesterday. You know how tiring that work can be so yeah. We can do that later though, that is if I'm not tired." She wrap Najla is an old wrapper that is now soft due to being overused then started making her way to their room Husna towing along.

"Alright, all the best." Husna then sat down on one of the old mattresses they have on the floor. One is for her and the other is for Afaf, they share it with Najla which whomever she wants to spend the night with.

Amirah sighed and got dressed into her maid uniform which consist of a brown palazzo pants, cream shirt and cream veil. She put on an old kimono Afaf gave her on top before she goes to work in the Palace. Yes, she got to work in the Palace some years back after she came back from Chicago that same day Imad heard her. Not a story she wants to dive deep into so yeah, she is now a Royal Maid hiding in disguise all those years and even now.

She gets to sign a four year old contract with the royals to work as a maid. She would've done more than that but her sisters demand that she doesn't much to her mother's advice. Her mother was enraged hearing about her separation with the youngest Prince. She almost killed her with the cable she brought just to beat the hell out of her. She wasn't given the chance to explain, she also never did. She got fed up and ran away to her sister's home for a week.

Afaf got her an online course of business management that takes two years, she has graduated some months back and is still looking for more decent job to help pay the whole bill. All the money she gets from the Palace goes straight to the hospital without her having to smell it. She has a long way to go still which is tiring her all day at the mere thought of it. It was hard working as a maid while taking online classes. She gets to do that in the room given to them in the palace when she doesn't have work to do. It was still hard but she's bagged her masters in business management with a good result.

Now that she has only one year more to work in that palace, if only she added more like her mother advised her to. If she doesn't get work very soon, they will have to sell that house and pay all their bills then rent an apartment. It's a miracle she didn't die by then, she never have time for herself. All she does is work, babysit, work again then find money for them to eat. It is depressing how life yawed his back at her in less than minutes or even seconds. She knew she is the cause of a lot of things that happens in her life but is she willing to accept that? No!

Many might ask how on earth can she work in the palace without getting noticed? That is a long story which she is about to endure at that moment like every other day. She was supposed to be a sleep-in maid but she told them she has a husband so they let her do the coming and going back, she is very grateful about that or her secret would've been blown off in a matter of seconds.

Sitting down on the cold cemented floor, she brought out a broken mirror to start her everyday routine just so she wouldn't be noticed by the royals. She hardly bump into anyone of them to which she is very thankful to, she is grateful for that. Even though she wants nothing more than to feel like she is the one walking around with those guards, maids at her disposal and those embroidered alkyabbas that flew around behind them when they walk around. She can't be, her mistake.

She forced herself to learn how to do makeup from a neighbour. The woman is a makeup artist so Amirah begged her to help her learn. The woman instantly disagreed of course, normally when she teaches people, they pay eighty thousand upwards. So having her beg for free is not really going to work on her. She promised to babysit her three year old son for six months, which her sister Afaf and Husna did on her behalf.

The woman agreed and she learnt how to do makeup from her. She became a professional makeup artist though that is not what she is striving for. People despise her when they find out that she got divorced the next day after her marriage. Nobody tried listing to her excuse, not that she has anything to explain, she doesn't. If she is to become a makeup artist, she will be mocked by them and she is ninety nine percent sure that no one will even come to her so she never tried advertising her talent.

She learnt how to do it so she can disguise herself and work in the palace. It took her five weeks to finish learning everything and the woman had no choice but to compliment her talent. She called her once in a while to do makeup for some of her customers when they are too much for her to do. She jumps into any opportunity that comes to her for some little change to get food in their room. That happens on eids or special events when the maids are given some days off.

She also gets to do makeup for some of the Royal princesses when there is an event or if they just feel like. With those little makeup she does to them, they gave her extra and handsome amount of money which she use to buy Najla some things infants her age need. The princesses are very generous so she always gets hyper when there is an event coming up. The head of maids introduced her to the Princesses when she saw her talent on one of the maids who was getting married to a guard in the palace. She did the girl's makeup then.

All the makeup equipments were given to her reluctantly by the woman when they got too old for her. So right now, she brushed the brushes on her face quickly making her look fairer than she is and a bit more intimidating. She makes sure she changes everything that will align her to Amirah, she is now Ameena Aminu known to everyone in the palace. She doesn't want to risk anyone knowing her identity even with her new looks, so she sticks to Ameena and some of the maids call her Meena, the ones close to her.

"You look beautiful if not for those brows that looks like chicken wings." Husna commented giggling along with her sister, Afaf who rose her head to see what she was talking about.

She spoils the brow herself and add more than necessary lipstick to her lips just to close the sight of her lips. She also makes sure she contours her nose very well to avoid anyone having the slightest doubt about her appearance. Her nose is slightly longer, her face is more narrower which will be hard for anyone to guess who she is.

"Thank you for the compliment, dearest." She rolled her eyes and made her way to the broken wooden drawer to take her bag in case she needs to add more makeup. Sometimes it rains while she works which results to her makeup dripping with the water as her makeup products are not expensive.

"Do you have hundred naira to borrow me? I need to subscribe to check out some assignments of mine." Afaf asked when she was about to leave the room, not bothering to dress Najla who kept calling out for her Mami.

She calls her Mami while she calls Afaf, Afi then she she calls her mother Ummi. She felt honoured that the girl gave her a nice name instead of Ami like her elder sisters call her, she never actually liked the name. She just got used to it having grow up hearing them call the name up and down, side and side.

"Let me check but I don't think I do." She went back to the wardrobe to search through her old clothes for some notes to give her sister. She loves her sister and wants her to pass that exam no matter what so if she doesn't find money, she will look for it and help her. Maybe borrow from their tenant and give them back by the end of the month.

She found an old two hundred naira that is out of it's mind at the bottom of the wardrobe and gave her. Afaf beamed at the sight of the money, badly wanting to go and buy credit to subscribe with bonus since she use Airtel then face her system. It is given to her by a rich friend of hers when she said virus destroyed it. She manage to give Husna's older brother to help her repair it, he did so now here she is happily using it.

"I'll use hundred and keep the hundred for you." Afaf thanked, already slipping a hijab to go and buy credit.

"No, use the two hundred. I have another two hundred under the mattress. You can use it to eat breakfast, I might be able to bag some dinner for us from the palace." She walked out of the room with a small goodbye and a gentle kiss on Najla's forehead who is bubbling about not wanting her to leave like always.

She likes that kid, she makes life bearable and worth living.

.....
Sup?!
How are you and everyone around you? I hope you are not facing any trouble. Well, here we have some sort of curfew that I'm not liking at all but what can we do? We need to stay safe.

So what do you think about Amirah's new life of disguise in the palace. Can you smell the trouble coming from the palace too? I can't wait💃 don't forget to Vote Comment Share and Follow.❤️

Aishatu.
Xoxo.