Whimsical beauty ✔️

Chapter 1

The story has not been edited. You might find typing errors and it will probably develop slowly. Please bear with me. Thanks.

The past

In the northern part of Nigeria, people who like to rear chickens and have no means to develop the business, put up a cage somewhere inside their homes. Such small businesses can be seen in very poor individuals whose home is not necessarily enough to live comfortably. But man has to eat and the money needs to come from somewhere. So these cages are located in their cramped homes.

Such a place is a perfect description of the Alhaji Nasir Dankano's house. Only the cages don't keep chickens. Rather, a small girl of ten was left in there, shivering from the cold. It's bigger than the average cage and it is located in a room that everyone thought was a store.

Sometimes, she is left loose around the ridiculously small room. Like a dog, her life was that of an animal. She had never seen anything out side the little room. She had never tasted anything other than salt. She had never worn any garment higher than rags. She knew nothing of the outside world, she doesn't know what she needs, what she should hope for. How to dream.

This girl has no idea if this treatment was justified. Yet she is certain that it is not the right thing. She had to take it all because she is always locked in with very efficient locks. Even the door is not so so.

Marka is the wife of Nasir Dankano. She has four kids with him. All of them were girls, like Amal whose mother had left shortly after her birth.

Amal is the girl in the cage.

Marka doesn't beleive that she is evil. She has made a few choices that weren't good. Who doesn't? It's just that her mistake is rebounding every second of the day, mocking her.

At first, Nasir was married to Amal's mother. He loved her like there was no tomorrow. It was true love, even Marka can see it through the haze of jealousy. To make matters worse, it's a teenage love. Amal's mother, was eighteen when she married Nasir who was just a year older. Apparently, Suheera, Amal's mother, was giving her parents too much trouble. Since Nasir used to be a black sheep too, the parents decided it was a match made in heaven. Surprisingly, Suheera graduated a year later and she even convinced Nasir to graduate as well. They were a perfect match.

Marka became the third wheel, if she was that in the first place. Thing is, Marka also had parents who are tired of waiting for her to bring home a suitor. Marka was twenty eight at the time. They threatened to marry her off to the next suitor who comes to ask for her hand. Marka made the mistake of following her friend to a perverted malam who said the only way for her to marry Nasir was to kill Suheera and then she must do a little something by allowing this malam some liberties. Marka refused to do it. Now this evil malam decreed that Marka will never know peace and that she will never have Nasir's love.

It was her first mistake, going to a malam. The second was giving him the opportunity to claim he wanted something from her. If she hadn't visited him in the first place, she would've been fine.

Then Marka made the third mistake by starting out to prove him wrong. She kidnapped Nasir's first daughter, making them believe that the child had died. Then she went ahead to kidnap Suheera, two days later and then abandon her in the middle of no where after writing a letter to make them beleive she left on her own.

Marka tried to console Nasir, but he didn't agree. He didn't see anything then. He only felt the pain of losing his wife and child. Marka had to do something else to marry Nasir. So she laid low and took things easy. She would do anything to make him realize what he was missing. Finally, she proved how much of a Saint she was when she went ahead and helped Nasir look for Suheera. She made him beleive she would help him find her and that was the beginning of their friendship.