NOW YOU CAN STOP GUESSING AND READ WHAT HAPPENED, HIS PAST😌 I know I'm the nicest person out there but you should comment ooooo

ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA.

"His condition is stable, the bullet didn't touch any vital organ but he's lost so much blood. Is there O negative here? We need blood as soon as possible." The doctor explained to them and saw how their postures relaxed after he's said the patient's condition is stable. One look at them and he knew they are from affluent family and wouldn't have taken bad news lightly.

Adda mama cleared her throat before her eyes settled on Raheeb who nodded his eyes in silent agreement. He is O negative too and that's the safest blood to give anyone. He went with the doctor after reassuring them that they can sit and wait for his return. He felt less pressurized when he saw the composed expressions on both their faces, he thought he'd have to handle them differently but they've surprised him. He smile, he is surrounded by strong women and headstrong half brother that's fight his way through bullet.

They sat down quietly and waited for Raheeb to come back. Fatima is in the middle, her hands bunched underneath her bosom as she stared at the white tiled floor with a frown. The doctor didn't let out much information and that is better because she is not sure whether she could handle any bad news. Ahmad won't die and that is all that matters for now, everything can come later. She is not yet done with him, there are a lot he needs to endure before he gets the right to leave her alone in the world.

Betsy closed her eyes tightly to wake up from this nightmare. How could her crush be Fatima's cousin? And why does he look more than fucking handsome in reality than those awful pictures he tend to snap with his nose and mouth taking the whole camera? Why does he have to be so tall with luscious hair and fine ass brown eyes that shone like diamonds placed in brown velvet? Betsy tightened her lips and pressed her fingers on her forehead to stop the growing migraine from taking over. Too much has already happened and the day is not about to end until several more hours.

So much has been revealed today that one more shocking news she will collapse at it's heaviness. She leaned her head on the frost wall behind the waiting chair they are sitting, she is done for. There is no impressing anymore because she cannot push herself into these affluent family, she cannot deal with their snottiness. She's dealt with Fatima but anymore than that will make her brain boil and his mother, god! That woman will rot both Raheeb and her if she found out something is happening between them so Betsy is not going to try anything now. She will search for her next prey.

A soft murmur from the end of their table shut down her own thoughts as she listened to Adda mama asking Fatima whether she wants to know what's happened in her past and how Ahmad is her oldest son. Fatima's face was stout and for a second there Betsy thought the betrayal will take over Fatima's curiosity when she didn't react but then a nod came from her which didn't escape Adda mama's sharp eyes. A long sigh is what she took before her hoarse voice enlarged a little to start her story thirty years ago.

"I went to Georgia to study years ago. I was just seventeen when Musa decided that I shouldn't study in Nigeria and go abroad to chase my dream of becoming a jewelry designer. Everything as going great until the night we went to celebrate my birthday with my two friends there, Jane and Iman. I met Hakim Al-hafiz at the same restaurant eating out with his few friends. Both my friends are the wild and daring type just like me so we approached them and sat on their table. Such a bold move from three small girls that are not half their sizes but we were not intimidated at all, more excited actually." She paused to smile as she reminisced the memory, something she's cherished years ago before it yawed to a disaster.

She continued after swallowing, her throat is dry and parched. "Naturally, they didn't go for the only Muslim guy there and left him to me. It was awkward starting a conversation with someone so arrogant as Hakim but when he started talking, it started flowing. We exchanged phone numbers and after that, we were almost inseparable. I found out he goes to my school too but in his last year, studying business management. He was so clever and intelligent helping me with assignments, getting me lunch and taking me out to dinners when my pocket money is about to end which is every end of the month before Musa gets money and send it to me.

"He was not always rich you know. He's tried his best to help me get the perfect education even then. Hakim understood my situation and offered all sorts of help even though I always stop him when it comes to aiding me financially like any Hausa lady. You know how arrogant we can be when it comes to getting help from someone we don't know, some of us anyway. Well, we started spending too much time that everyone in our college started suspecting that something is going on between us, we didn't answer that rumor but when Hakim decided to acknowledge it, he asked me out in public. I was so shy but excited and accepted.

"I mean common, what could go wrong from dating the most sought out bachelor in my college? Things started happening. You know it's so natural for people abroad to hug, kiss and hold hands in public if they are dating, we do all those sort of things. One day one thing lead to another and we almost..." She trailed off with furrowed brows, she doesn't know how to word it out to her niece. Should she be blunt and just continue like nothing happened?

"Got intimate. You can say it out, it's just a word that have meaning." Fatima grumbled, her voice husky and detached. Adda mama blushed, wow, she hasn't done that in so many years but this brown Fatima is trying to make her nervous with her bluntness.

She swallowed and coughed a bit then moved on. "Yeah, almost got intimate. That happened three times with me stopping him, I won't do that except with my husband and he proposed that we get married. I was reckless and young, I wanted all the joy that comes with marriage so I agreed and we got married without our family's knowledge. We were so excited, staying in his house and touring America during our holiday. Musa called to ask why I didn't come back that holiday, I told him I had so many projects to do and I might not come back, I didn't go back. I was so happy with Hakim and he with me, it's palpable.

"When I fell pregnant, his excitement and joy knew no bound. He is always fussing over me, hovering above me in school like a protective donkey. It was fun having him all around me that I wanted to drop out from school, he stopped me. I am grateful for that because had he not stopped me, I would've ruined my life completely. I gave birth to a bouncing baby boy few months later. But things had started going wrong right before I gave birth. His family became a burden on him, asking him to come back home since he's finished studying and all that. He kept dodging them but it came a time where he couldn't, his father came.

"Hakim hid the truth from him, he didn't tell him I was his wife and we have a baby. He was afraid of his father cutting him off and worse making his life miserable. He's always complained about how his father hates when things don't go his way even though he loves them a lot. I felt betrayed that he couldn't stand up for us and our baby, allowed his father to dictate his life like a spineless man. I told him I could go and meet his father if he wants but he wasn't having it, he wants to handle everything his way like most men thinking they are more powerful and have greater plans." Her eyes are now filled with unshed tears, the anger of the past coming back with full vengeance.

That was the time she toughened herself against anything bad that could come to her. She never let anyone inside and safe enough to hurt her, she could not afford to do so.

She sniffed, licked her lower lips in gentle nibble. "He couldn't do anything! His father told him to take the baby and he's gotten him married to someone of his mother's choice who happens to be her favorite student in the hospital. The woman is also a Nigerian named Ruwaidha, the woman that is now in your home with your stepmother. She took him in and agreed to raise him, I still don't know what the bargain was. I was left childless and broken, dark thoughts and nightmares.

"Musa called me and told me he's heard about my marriage and I should come back home with my husband before he takes the next flight to Georgia. I panicked because if I don't go back home with a husband, my parents will skin me alive. I prayed so hard for a solution and it came because one of my professors was smitten by me and proposed to me when I told him I won't agree to any courting. I told him I've been hurt and broken by the man I was in love with and more courting will only waste my time. At one point I went ahead and told him my whole truth, the story of my life.

"He couldn't help me get my baby even after we took the matter to court. Hakim got the custody of Ahmad and warned me to never come close to his son again, I was shattered but I had to pay heed to his warning to avoid trouble. He is prosperous along with his family and Musa isn't, we couldn't fight tooth and nail for my son." She gulped down more anger and hurt, her head starting to hurt terribly. It always does when she thinks about the past.

Fatima couldn't stop herself from wrapping her arms around the woman, she knows what she is going through since they've gone through something similar except that Fatima's trauma is caused by her own parents at tender age of four. Adda mama had grown older before she knew what betrayal and nightmares are but Fatima was so young, not in her right mind. She's lost her childhood and most of her adult life. She's just living to survive, grow up and find out why her parents are never there and when they are, she is accused of murder. And she did find out after she's grown but continue to live with it.

She's grown with it, she cannot just forget about it because she's consoled herself that she didn't do it. She needs someone's strong presence and persistence that she didn't do anything, she didn't kill anyone. That she is innocent in all that sham.

Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt when Raheeb came back with a huge duvet and wrap it around the two of them then gave Betsy the end of it to close herself. They all let out a sigh at the same time, the warmth providing protection against the chilled hospital corridors that smells of death. He went ahead to the coffeemaker at the end of the corridor and make a cup for each of them but stopped to ask Betsy how she wants her own.

"Lots of cream and sugar please." She whispered, suddenly shy and nervous at the way his eyes are penetrating through her. For a minute there his eyes flashed with familiarity and she panicked, he shouldn't recognize her please.

She is a slayer on Instagram, that is what they call those with lots of followers that kill each picture they post huh? All her pictures are to die for and she knows it.

After they all received their coffee cups with grateful murmurs of thank you, Adda mama asked him to sit on her right side because this is the part she couldn't bring herself to tell him. She's tried talking to him about everything but she couldn't, she only told him that Ahmad is his half brother and then went ahead to tell him what's happened with Hakim Al-hafiz and his father.

She sipped her coffee leisurely then went on. "Yunus Dhul-kifl, Raheeb's father was a gentle man. I was smitten by him in the first few months of our marriage. He is not rich as Hakim but he is far more a gentleman than Hakim, he took care of me. When Musa proposed that he will pay for our ticket to Nigeria, he refused and said he will take care of his wife. My parents approved of him and so does Musa, we went back to Georgia and he took transfer that he cannot stay there that we should change scene and go to Minnesota, I agreed because I don't want Hakim's memories anywhere around me.

"I gave birth to Raheeb few months later, they share the same birthday with Ahmad actually." All the listeners let their mouths hang open because even Raheeb doesn't know about that piece of news. She'd forgotten the day she gave birth to Ahmad because of the trouble that's followed her before she gave birth to him but browsing though her old stuff, she found his birth certificate and merged it with Raheeb's.

"That's cute." Raheeb made sure his voice is dripping with sarcasm.

Adda mama glared at him then cleared her throat. "Well, years later, I couldn't stop the yearn to see my older child. I tried forgetting him but the nightmares are always about him. How could I forget such pretty blue eyes of his like his grandfather's? His father had normal brown eyes like everybody but Ahmad's eyes were Aegean and extremely mystical." All the listeners gasped at the new piece of information. Which Ahmad is she now talking about? Maybe Adda mama is not even Ahmad's mother, she is talking about another.

"You mean, ACP's eyes are blue?" Betsy questioned when she saw that Fatima and Raheeb can't, they sat there motionless. Adda mama nodded in confirmation. "But why are we seeing black or is it brown? Are they the same person?"

Ah, Betsy the interrogator.

Adda mama smiled at that, most people don't know about his blue eyes because he's changed them long time ago. "He changed them for reasons I don't know and I'll like it if none of you bring up the topic for him, he's quiet sensitive about it. As I was saying, those Aegean eyes, they haunted my sleep, I get terrified to lie my head on bed because of them. I told Yunus that I need to see my son and he gave me the permission to search for him. Oh, it was hard. We weren't rich even then and I couldn't get a very good private investigator. Even with their extremely rich background -them being popular and all- it was hard to find a wealthy family if they don't want to be found in America then.

"They were no technologies and electronics like the ones we have now so it made things more hard. After stressful searching, I found out they live in Texas. I packed my clothes and went there to find my son. I stalk their home for a whole week watching Ahmad go to and fro from school and back home in a giant car. He is a quiet boy, never interfering in things that don't matter to him but he was so nice and polite. I almost fell one day while following him in his school, he stopped eating food and came to help me. I couldn't look away from him. He looked exactly like his father, so handsome and cute." Her eyes filled with tears at the memory, when she first saw her son after many years.

Ahmad had stared at her with curious eyes as if he'd felt the connection too, his eyes so kind but not filled with life like every other sixteen or seventeen year old's. She started wondering whether the Ruwaidha woman is taking care of her son or not. She approached Ahmad one day in his school and asked him whether anything was wrong with him but he frowned and shook his head. She knew instantly that he was lying and she got angry with herself for been helpless and not able to help him.

"Few days later, I stopped seeing his car leaving their mansion nor do I see him in school, he disappeared. One of his classmates told me he went to join the police force. I cried so hard that day in my hotel room because I was afraid something would kill him and he doesn't know his real mother yet. I was so frightened but went back home to Minnesota to be with my other son. I spent three days sleeping with Raheeb, cuddling him to my chest each night. Yunus understood what I was going through and offered his support.

"Then few years later, there was a bank robbery around our area and the armed robbers were furious that they started beating and shooting people when police arrived and ambushed them. It was announced that no one should leave their home to help them catch the robbers without trouble.

"When it was all over, our neighbors went out to help. Some were taken to the hospital while the others that were not shoot were taken into our homes to help them with first aid as the hospitals were filled. I was drawn to a lone figure by the sidewalk on the curb and when I reached there, I found someone that looks ridiculously like Ahmad in police uniform. I opened his eyes and confirmed it.

"I called Raheeb to take him into our home and we treated his wounds and waited for six hours before he awoke. The family doctor we called told us about the little trauma he's faced because it looks like his first time in the operation. Yunus was away for a college trip with some students and I was home alone with Raheeb. When Ahmad awoke the next morning, I was sitting beside him on the bed while Raheeb is asleep as it was still early hours of morning. Ahmad groggily sat up and examined his surrounding, his whole body tensed and in defense mode.

"After he's found out that there is no danger around, he settled his eyes on her and I will forever remember how his eyes widened before hatred took over his features. I knew instantly that he knew who I was and he hates me for whatever story he's heard. I don't know what Hakim or his wife Ruwaidha told him, but Ahmad wouldn't talk to me. He stood up and left, wouldn't listen to anything I say. He didn't pay heed to my pleas, he just didn't care. He left. I was distraught, everything became black and white.

"And then I met him few days ago in your home, we were both surprised but he hauled more hurtful words to me before he left for his room. I know you've noticed how tensed we were that first evening during dinner. He is not willing to forgive me but I don't care, I'm going to influx myself in his life till he surrender. Whatever that devil has fed him about me will be vomited, I won't take no rejection from him now."

Just then Aalia, Adeelah and Ruwaidha walked hurriedly to where they are sitting.