"I don't understand this. Explain to me, who did
this to you?" Nooria asked with broken voice and led her to a couch.
"Muslim of course." Sa'eeda rolled her eyes.
"How comes?" Aisha asked.
"Where's daddy? I want this to end mummy." She shuddered on her mother's lap.
"Mummy let me tell you something. The other day at her house, I saw with my own eyes when he slapped her and she fell with a thud, it was so wicked and cruel. He drove out without a single care in this world." Sa'eeda explained and Aisha went dumbstruck.
"Why didn't you tell me this?" Nooria asked Sa'eeda.
"She stopped me."
"I'm going to summon for a family meeting."
"Aisha, call your uncle, your elder brother and your mom." Nooria ordered and Aisha did just that.
That morning, all of them were present in Nooria's living room. Usman sat on the two seater couch alone while Fatima and Nooria sat on the longest sofa and the couple on the carpeted floor, Muslim beside his mom and Jasmine opposite him. Sa'eeda, Aisha and Abdulqaadir were sent upstairs.
"What's happening?" Fatima spoke first. She was the only one oblivious to the situation.
"Speak up!" Nooria yelled at Jasmine after a while of silence.
"It's him." Jasmine pointed at Muslim. "He--he.." she hiccuped. "He beats me anyhow and I'm tired of tolerating it." She finally broke down. Certified actress. "He's the reason we lost our child. That evening when we were at Hajiya's and I had serious spasms I wasn't the one that said we should go home, he insisted on that and when we went back home from he beat me up and left me in a pool of blood which was our baby." She shamelessly acted in between sobs. Muslim, who didn't raise his head until then to be sure it was really his Jasmine talking, felt a pang in his chest and it was clutching really bad. What just happened?
Usman being the head there didn't even budge, but he felt the pain he just had to pretend.
"Hasbuna-llahu wa ni'mal wakeel Muslim do you want to kill me? When did the devil win entrance to your heart, when did you change to this monster Muslim?" Fatima said as her eyes became glassy.
"Hajiya by Allah..." Muslim started.
"Shut up!" Fatima exclaimed and a slap landed on Muslim's face. "Look at her face, did she do this to herself?" She asked him, disappointment evident in her tone.
"No." He answered softly and bowed his head down.
"Then who did this?" Fatima was already crying.
"I did." Her son said, much to her chagrin. Aisha who was eavesdropping gasped and said, "I'll have to do things fast then" and ran to the balcony where Sa'eeda and Abdulqaadir were.
"I'm disappointed Muslim." The woman said in a soft, yet, grating voice.
"Calm down Fati." Nooria held Fatima by the arm. "Take things easy, everything will be okay."
"Nooria how do you expect me to? This boy wants to be the end of me, I didn't raise him to ill-treat a woman. No I didn't." Fatima cried as she pointed at Muslim while Nooria kept patting her back gently. Jasmine was enjoying the show and she smiled surreptitiously.
Muslim was already in tears and was slowly shaking his head in disbelief.
"Talk to Allah." Nooria advised.
"Enough." The head finally commented but Fatima's tears didn't subside. "Let's settle this and let him take his wife with him." Hearing that made Jasmine burst into newly formed cries.
Chapter 17
Start from the beginning
