But she did look at him, even though terrified, but she did. And he got to the point without waiting for her to adjust, "This is the place you're going to live now, okay? The government provided these camps for your likes, those that had lost everything and their villages raided by the insurgents. You can't be taken anywhere." He took a breath, because it seemed to him that she was too slow in understanding things as fast as he would have appreciated her to. But nevertheless, he had to make things clear to her so she wouldn't think that that so called marriage was something to him.

"You'll stay here. Do whatever they ask you to do, be obedient and you'll be fine. You're absolutely safe here as well." She nodded her head, but tears pooled the brink of her eyes and before she stopped them, they rolled down to her cheeks. He wanted to snap at her for crying too much, but then it occurred to him that she was just a little girl, and it was only natural to act this way in the situation she was.

He didn't want to, but he had to say the words, "It depends on how obedient you are to them and if you haven't cried too much, I'll come and take you to an orphanage, you'll live more comfortable there than here." She only nodded her head, and the pace at which she nodded was enough to show him that she didn't understand what he had said, she just did that to get away from his wrath.

"It's getting late, you have to go inside and get a bed to sleep on." He turned to leave when he heard her trembling voice asking him.

"Will you really come?" So, she really listened. Or maybe, when she listened, she didn't understand the words until now. He turned, and her innocence filled eyes stared at him with tears rolling down on her cheeks. He only nodded, wanting to get away from this girl before he felt himself swarmed with sympathy for her and have a change of mind. "What's your name, so I can ask them about you?" She spoke between breaths, as though speaking these longer words was a punishment to her system and she wasn't used to it.

"My name is Na'im Abubakar Bolori." He was out of her sight in a flash that she wondered if he was the one that had just answered her questioned. With a weak heart and knees that wanted nothing but to collapse on the floor and cried until she passed out from how much her lungs would be out of air, Maryam watched his men got into the car and they drove fast out of the camp.

She turned to the matron that walked towards her with a hardened expression. It seemed that she was only being nice in his presence and Maryam felt her heart shook with fear. "Look here young girl, you're not the only one that has suffered this destiny. Get yourself straight and follow me right away to your hostel." The look on her face told Maryam that even though she didn't have enough time to understand what the woman had said, she had to just follow her and she did, her tears silently rolling down her cheeks.

•

Na'im didn't give them the impression that they could talk to him about what had just happened. He knew they didn't want him to let her stay there but that was the only choice he had. And it wasn't as if this marriage was going to last, he was going to divorce her when things became clear and she got accustomed to the new life she was going to start living. He made all his reports before he took off his clothes in his office and changed into his kaftan, and that was the only time he remembered that it was supposed to be Eid today.

He would've been thankful if he had the excuse to spend the stressful day of Eid at the palace, if it were a different circumstance. But Na'im knew he would choose the stress and tiring day he would have spent in the palace than got himself meddled into the mess of getting himself married to that weird girl. He locked his office before he walked out, walking towards the parking space.

"Captain Bolori!" Someone called out his name and he turned, please, let it not be any of his subordinates, he really was in no mood of answering to any of their questions nor did he also want to fight. Because if it was Hafiz, they might fight if he tried to challenge him over what he had done.

The person that had just called his name ran towards him with a smile and when he came to light, Na'im saw that it was his brother; Abubakar Sadeeq, but they all referred to him as Sadeeq or Babagana, but Na'im found it hard to call him the latter, so he always sticked with the former.

"Sadeeq," he casually mentioned as he walked towards his car, unlocking it from there. He was just so tired that the only thing he needed was a very good night's sleep to relieve himself from the stress he had went through and the emotional trauma he had embroiled himself into.

Sadeeq walked beside him, "I heard that the wedding has been called off, yet again." He said in a normal tone but Na'im knew him better than anyone to know that he meant to mock him. He turned to look at him with a hard expression on his face before he got into his car wordlessly, and to his dismay, his step brother entered the car as well. "A friend dropped me off after we were called for the operation, I don't have a ride back to the palace." He mentioned as he buckled his seatbelt and Na'im wanted to smack his head.

"I almost thought you weren't among the ones that had gone to the operation. You seem too energetic for someone that has gone through something like that. Unless like every other time, you slackened behind and had your subordinates did all the work." Instead of his words to anger him like Na'im wanted, a smile appeared on Sadeeq' s face. He had always known that his brother was an expert at hiding his emotions, but it always irked him whenever something like this happened.

He drove out of the barracks. "It's Eid after all, no matter how tired I am, I still have to be happy, don't you think?" He ignored him, and Sadeeq pulled out his phone that rang from his breast pocket.

"Hello, Ya Gumsu." He called out to his mother as everyone called her, and from his peripheral view, Na'im stared at how he was smiling widely. This time he didn't hide any of his emotions, it was real and pure joy that Na'im wondered what it felt like to have a mother.

"No, we're fine. I'm even together with him too, we're driving back to the palace, safe, Ya Gumsu." He added with a gentle tone and waited to hear what she had to say before he smiled widely, "Okay, I'll let him know. Bye, I'll take care." He ended the call before he turned to look at him and Na'im hardened his expression.

"She's glad that we're both fine." He said, but Na'im knew better than to believe this lie. She was glad that her son was, but never him. She would throw a party, if she could, if he died at the war field.

"That was nice of her." He muttered through gritted teeth and he drove in silence, as Sadeeq checked his phone for whatever messages he had and then he heard him speaking lovingly, he knew it was definitely one of his series of girlfriends that seemed to have no end. That was why he said that he wasn't ready to get married now whenever Abba said that they had to look for a wife, sometimes he lied that the one he loved was abroad studying medicine and he had to wait until she was done-the lies continued until Abba got tired and kept him aside whenever he spoke about marriage.

They had entered the palace and when the royal guards had seen them, they kept on hailing them that Na'im had to bring out a bundle of cash from his pocket and he handed it to them. Sadeeq burst out laughing when they drove past them. That was when he realized he was done with the phone call.

"What's so funny? Are you sure we won't have you taken to a psychiatric, Sadeeq?" He knew his brother acted sometimes that he was stupid but it was only so he could hide the grievous sins he was committing inside and outside of the palace. So that even if things were out in the light, no one would suspect he were the culprit and even if it was confirmed he was, many people would doubt if it was him.

"No, it has just occurred to me that you seem to be the tough one between us but yet, you're the one with the softest heart. Why give them money when it's Eid today and you know that all those aristocratic visitors Abba got today have surely given some huge amount of money to be distributed to every worker in the palace? You're just too nice and it's actually not good for a soldier to have a heart like yours, Captain Bolori."

Na'im tightened his jaw before he parked in front of Sadeeq's chamber. If not that he wanted so bad to get away from this bumptious guy he had as a brother, he would've drove ahead to his own chamber and had him trek back to his. But he wanted some time to think and Sadeeq would never let it happen. "Get out," he said and unlocked the door for him.

Sadeeq chuckled as he lifted his hands, palms out before he spoke, "Woah, what's with the anger, Captain? I only said what was right but I didn't expect you to blast this way." When he saw that Na'im wasn't interested in what he was saying, he spoke again, "How about I ask my maids to make dinner for us and we'll eat? Since we've missed the royal dinner today?"

"Captain Bolori, I asked you to get out of my car, now. And that's an order." He knew that they held the same position in the army with his brother, both being referred to as Captain Bolori, but Na'im was still superior to him. As for Sadeeq, if not for Ya Gumsu that had bought the position for him because she couldn't handle the fact that Na'im was superior to her son in the army, he wouldn't have been a Captain today.

Mockingly, Sadeeq hopped out of the car and before he closed the door, he leaned inside and whispered, "I heard that you got attached to a girl and her dying father at the field today. Again, a Captain should have an even stronger heart than you, Na'im. Goodnight, Sir!" He saluted him and closed the door while Na'im drove off as fast as he could.

He angrily parked his car in his chamber and came out fuming in rage he didn't like how all that Sadeeq had said today was right, a soldier shouldn't have a heart like his. Each time he had said it, Na'im had never agreed with him until today, because he felt that having a sympathetic heart only made him human and nothing more. But today, that heart had gotten him into the trouble he had never imagined he would fall into. And getting himself out seemed to be the hardest thing he would ever have to do.

The royal guards in his chamber greeted him but he only managed to nod his head at them before he turned to one of them, "Call the royal kitchen and ask them to prepare dinner for me. It should be done in thirty minutes." He had to eat something before he slept, even though his eyes were even closing by the time he walked out of the bathroom as he took a long and comforting shower.

He allowed no maids into his chamber if he was around, and they only cleaned the chamber whenever he went to the barrack. He had the voice of the royal guard as he said, "The meal has arrived, Your Highness!" And for a moment, Na'im wondered how his brain was able to shift between his two roles in life.

In a moment, he was the Captain of a team in the army, being saluted to and referred to at Sir, but the next time he would breath, he was the Prince of the Kingdom of Maiduguri and everyone here bowed and referred to him as Your Highness. He often wondered how he was able not to mix up the two, or to expect something he couldn't get in either of the two roles he lead.

He got ready briskly and walked out of the room, he found the meal he had asked for, set for him in his dining table and he sighed before he brought out his phone and sat down. It was such a lonely night that required too much of his attention that he wished he could just sleep because of how tired his body was, but he knew his mind would never be able to rest tonight. He would just have to pretend like he would.

He ate the dinner as he went through his phone, the messages he had gotten and wondered what all these girls meant when they had sent him Eid messages. He didn't even know their names, but he had saved their numbers as the dates that he would have gotten married to them. He stared at '25th April' and saw that hers had even an image attached, he grunted in annoyance before he tapped into it and behold! It was an image of her in a garden that looked so beautiful and Na'im could remember clearly going to the garden but not with her. Yet, her caption was 'I remembered how happy we were when we visited this garden, Your Highness. Here's a picture to remind you of our happy days.' They all believed he only claimed not to remember anything about him, none of them had actually believed that he had truly forgotten even the tiniest bit of information pertaining them.

Abba had said that he should at least be replying their messages when they sent, and he simply thanked her for the Eid wishes and made no comment about the picture. '16th September' had asked if he was free and she would fly from Abuja to Maiduguri to see him this Eid, he nearly laughed. Nearly. He only sent her an Eid message and acted blind to her request. Yet it was '28th December' that had made him chuckle a bit, she sent an old picture him and her with the caption; 'Eid Mubarak to you, my prince. We would've been long married to each other now, but you choose to break everything we've built. I still love and cherish you, and I'll keep on waiting for you.'  What the hell was wrong with these women? He wondered and placed his phone down. He nibbled on the meal and when he realized he had lost the appetite to eat something, he turned off the lights and walked to his room.

•

For the next two weeks, his life had been filled with paperworks and more rescuing than he began to wonder if these insurgents weren't playing with them. They would turn their attention to a certain village, yet when they arrived and start to rescue people, news would reach them at how they had fully destroyed a certain area and it was just too hard for them to handle. Peace had reigned for the past two days, yet, he had more reports to write than he would ever get done in the few days he had left.

But he was thankful for the distraction. Thankful that for those two weeks, he didn't even have the time to think of the secret change his life had taken. If he was going to be truthful, he had forgotten about everything that had happened. Well, until Hafiz decided that he had been enjoying his not so peaceful life and threw the question at him.

They were in his office arranging their reports when he looked at him, "Have you went to see her?" He asked, fumbling between papers.

"Seen who?" He asked cluelessly, his eyes fixed on the laptop that was in front of him as he thought of the right word he would write.

The gasp that had escaped Hafiz's lips was what forced him to look up at him. "What is it?"

"Don't tell me that you didn't visit that innocent girl, Na'im." From the moment he called his name, Na'im knew he meant business and he didn't care that they were in the office and in their khaki, but he was going to speak to him as a friend.

"Innocent girl?" He repeated and then it occurred to him. He palmed his mouth and stood up, "Subhanallah, wallah I've totally forgotten about her, Hafiz. But I'm certain she's fine..." He let his words trailed off before he sat back, shrugging his shoulders because he didn't care.

"She's your wife, Na'im, for god's sake! You can't have her live there forever, can you?"

Na'im looked askance at him, "What do you mean, that I should bring her to the palace and live with her as a wife or what? And you of all people should know the reason why I got married to her."

"That still wouldn't change the fact that she's your wife." Hafiz argued and Na'im realized he was getting angry the more Hafiz called her his wife.

"I'm certain she won't be my wife anymore the moment I divorce her, would she?" He bumptiously asked, and instead of his words to touch Hafiz the way he imagined they would, he chuckled and walked to the door.

"I doubt if you're willing to divorce her. I've known you for some years now, and this isn't how you're going to act if you're really going to divorce her." He emphasized on the 'really' and before Na'im thought of a perfect reply for him, he was out of the office and he hissed loudly.

Now, he just had to go and visit her like he had promised. Damn you, Lieutenant Hafiz!

Hey guys...Are you so curious for the complete book and you can't wait for the 15 preview chapters? Head to OkadaBooks or Selar and purchase it at the rate of 1000! I broke it into two books for convenient reading!

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