Twice His Age

10: Her Punishment

Waleed turned to her and smiled, getting out of the car. "Ammi, until I see you again. Please take your medications." She could only nod and smile at him, because she didn't know what else she'd do.

She was about to get out of the car, with her hand on the door handle, only a second away from pulling it open when he cleared his voice and called her name. "Sabeeha."

Sabeeha could swear that almost every nerve in her body pulsed at the way her name sounded on his lips. It was like she had never been called. She could say this wasn't the first time he had said her name, but this was the first time he had actually called her name. And it wasn't just about calling the letters that formed her name. No, he had called her very being and she found herself looking up at him.

She found him already staring at her and he lightly rubbed his eyebrow again. She noticed he was doing that whenever he was nervous or anxious about something. She didn't speak, because somehow, it was a bit fun seeing him lost for words as he thought of the right thing to begin with.

"I just...I wanted to have a few words with you. Yesterday, Anas and I..." Oh no, don't talk about that please, she softly mused to herself. As it was, she felt like killing herself whenever she remembered how he and Anas had seen her yesterday. But since it was something she had to live with forever, she decided to not let it bother her.

He cleared his throat and she saw when the calm, collected and certain Zaid took over this slightly immature and nervous one. And his now darkened gaze unnerved her a bit. "I just made a few promises to Anas, which I'm willing to keep at any cost. I don't even know why I'm telling you this, maybe it's because I'm trying to justify my actions. I haven't done anything yet, but I knew with the way things were going, I would. So, maybe..."

She sighed and palmed her face. Why did he even bother telling her that? Did he foolishly think that she'd allow him to destroy her life just like he did in Damaturu. "I appreciate your concern, but Zaid, right?" Calling his name out loud when she had this underlying hatred for him sounded so alien, but she had to do this. This was a boundary she knew would cost her life someday if she didn't set.

"I appreciate your will to help, and even what happened in Damaturu I realize that you did that with my best interest at heart, but I want you to know that I can take care of myself. Yes, I'm living in so much misery, but it's nothing new to me. You're just twenty three years old to be making rash decisions that you deem fit, which aren't even about your life, but someone else's. So, please, whatever you're thinking of doing, don't. Because I won't appreciate you destroying my life down to the worse version it could ever be."

He was just speechlessly staring at her without being able to conform a single word in his mouth. And Sabeeha had never been so proud of herself like she was now. This was someone she thought had the air of command surrounding him, but she had rendered him speechless and she knew this was her cue to leave, so long as she wanted to have the last word.

So, she pulled the door open and with one leg outside and the other one inside, she turned to give him the last look. "And you should have it in mind that whatever happens to me is because of you. If you had listened to my plea and didn't break my marriage like that, I wouldn't have been going through what I am now, and what I'm sure will certainly over last night's event. I won't be ever able to forgive you for that. So, please, I'd appreciate it if your rash and immature being would really consider getting out of my life, for good."

She had walked up the distance between the parking lot and the threshold and he was still seated in the car. She didn't know if her words sounded hurtful and didn't even care if they did, because that was her baring her soul out to him. She really would be doomed if he dared get himself involved in all this and she knew that deep down, she wasn't strong enough to put up with whatever it was that is to come.

She entered the house and immediately walked up to her room, she couldn't afford Hajia seeing her in this-obviously expensive-gown on top all that was awaiting her. And before she made it to her room, she heard his thunderous voice.

"And just where do you think you're going, Sabeeha?!" He thundered, and her entire body instantly break into a shiver.

Slightly, she began to turn until she was fully facing him and her knees instantly went south. She would never forget how his expensive leather belt had gotten shattered on her legs when she had stood while he spoke to her. She was only eleven years then. But she still had the scars from that beating on her legs. And getting another beating was the last thing her physical form could take.

"Meet me upstairs, right now!" And he was out of her sight in only a matter of minutes and she pulled herself up with so much aplomb. From the looks of things; if she was expecting fire before, it had probably turned into a volcano now and she would have no choice but to keep up with whatever it was they were going to dish out at her.

Taking one step at a time, Sabeeha kept reciting all the kinds of du'as she could think of and still, her body was a frenzy of nerves when she stood by his living room door. And before she turned the doorknob, she heard Idi driver's voice in there and knew it was over.

"Ya Allah, please don't let them hurt me too much. Ya Allah protect me from them." She whispered silently and waited until she wiped at her tears before she knocked and walked inside.

The moment her eyes fell into that of Idi, she took a step back. Because even though they were feet away from each other and she knew he certainly wouldn't dare to try to do anything to her in their presence, but her mind couldn't help but imagine the worse. And she didn't even realized she had stopped walking until Hajia hissed and threw an unbreakable cup at her, which landed on her forehead.

"Who do you think you're acting this way to? My friend, come inside!" From there, Sabeeha went on her knees and simply dragged her body to the closest she could get with them, her head hung low.

Alhaji cleared his voice and she shivered internally. "We've heard all that happened from Idi and if you think I'd be able to tolerate that sort of animalistic behavior in my house, you're wrong! If you know that, why did you break off your marriage then? Or must you always prove that you aren't worthy of any man in this world?!"

The echo of his voice wasn't just heard around the living room, she was certain the walls of her heart had taken more than a minute echoing the words in her hollow being until every vein in her shrunk with the agony the words brought to her. She quickly wiped at her tears and he hissed loudly.

"If that's the path you've taken, we both know I'd never tolerate it and you're at the age where nothing could even be tolerated from you."

Hajia hissed with so much venom laced on her tone as she threw her a glare filled with so much hatred. "She thinks she's still twenty three or something. I wonder if it's because of the way her body is and that makes her thinks she can go around seducing men as much as she likes."

"That would have to be over, Hajia..." Daddy said as he slightly looked between her and Idi that acted as though he were the most innocent man to ever grace the earth.

"We've decided to get you married to Idi on Friday. He'd go back home tomorrow and make all the necessary arrangements with his parents and they'd come back here for the Nikkah." Sabeeha didn't know she had gasped outwardly and bulged her eyes out at them until Mommy threw her the mug she was sipping her morning coffee from, having it spilled all over her, burning the places it had touched.

But that wasn't what she worried about. Gently, she placed the mug aside and tried all she could to see through her watering eyes. She didn't even know what to say to them. Was she going to beg them to spare her? Or what was she going to do?

When she opened her mouth, all she ended up uttering was a croaked and heartbreaking "Please..."

We have only 6 chapters left of the 16 promised preview chapters 😍❤️