He seriously set fireworks in a residential area just to apologise to me, I guess Saleem was right when he said he was nice. He did everything possible to set something this amazing up just to apologise to me, I mean seriously, who am I?.
Affluence good sha.
" so do you forgive me now?" I hear him ask on the phone and with a small smile, I give him my answer.
" Sure, you went out of your way to do this so I can't really let you do more than this. You're forgiven" I answer and watch his smile widen while staring up at me. " Why do you honestly want us to be friends?, I mean you were prepared to throw me in jail a few days back for assault"
" Well my bestfriend is head over heels in love with you, so I figured for peace to reign, and to also understand why he likes you so much, it'll be best to make peace with you and also get to know you better" He answers and my heart softens. He's not bad.
" Okay you've gotten that now, you can go home"
" Don't send me away already, let's talk a bit"
" About what?"
" About yourself"
" Man, go home" I answer and I get a clear view of him laughing from where I'm standing. He really has a nice smile. " Okay fine, I'll find a way to see you tomorrow"
" You know you don't have to"
" I do, but I want to make an effort y'know" It's actually nice that he wants get to know who his bestfriend is in love with. " Well I'll be busy tomorrow, so when I'm free" I still have to finish Khairiyah's present before we leave for Dubai on Wednesday. " okay then, I'll leave. We'll talk some other time, take care"
" Alright, bye" I reply and watch him get into his car to drive off after waving me bye like a toddler.
Today has been full of surprises, amazing surprises. It's already past 8 so I change into my sleeping dress and chat a bit on WhatsApp, making sure to update my friends about Haneef and also scroll through Instagram. Daddy's horn from downstairs calls my attention and after throwing a hijab over my body, I jump out of bed and hurry down the stairs to see Daddy and ask him how his day with Saleem went.
To my astonishment, I meet Saleem and Daddy walking into the living with big smiles plastered on their faces. They must've had a good time,
Without me. No wonder he hasn't called me to chat since. "You guys seem to have had a great day together" I say, announcing my presence between the two new buddies laughing at whatever while sitting on our navy blue three-seater couch in the living room.
" Yeah, your boyfriend is quite the entertainer. Have you eaten?" Daddy asks as they finally shift their attention to me. " no, I'm not so hungry"
" I told them to cook spaghetti on my way back, they should be done by now I guess, let me go and check up on them" Daddy says and vacates the room, leaving me and Saleem alone. " You missed me right?" Saleem asks as I take Daddy's former seat beside him and roll my eyes. The rate at which I'm rolling my eyes these days is getting alarming. " Guess what?" He asks again after not getting a response from me for his previous question. " What?, that you and my father are bestfriend's now?, it's pretty obvious"
" No, not that. Guess who's going to be flying you to Dubai on Wednesday" okay I honestly have no idea about what he's driving at. " A pilot?" I ask and he sighs heavily. " I'm the pilot flying you to Dubai on Wednesday"
" Really" I squeal. " Yeah, luckily I'm going to be flying to Dubai for a week and your Dad said you, your sister and your friends are going there also, for a birthday party you're throwing for your step sister"
" Yeah, I'm so happy that you're going to be able to join us"
" me too, your Dad likes me y'know" he says again, snappily changing the subject. " I'm glad he does, he likes anyone that likes his only daughter. When am I going to meet your family?"
" Soon, they already know about you. I told them and they'll be more than glad to finally see you in person" He answers and I feel my cheeks heat up. Honestly, the way I feel so comfortable and safe around Saleem makes me feel like I've known and trusted him all my life. " You know, there's one thing driving me to want to stay with you for the rest of my life" He says and takes my hand in his, intertwining them, making me feel a tingle of excitement erupt in my system. " What?" I ask shyly.
" The fact that I love you sooo soooooo much" he's so cheesy.
" Oya, let's have dinner" we hear Daddy call from the dining area and we join him.
Saleem and Daddy were thrilled to hear about my reconciliation with Haneef and he actually seems to be an interesting person, from all what Saleem said. Their mothers were best friends right from when they were born in Abuja, so they became friends as well and their relationship blossomed to this. The two families moved to Kaduna after some crisis in their workplace and due to the fact that they didn't have enough money to take their kids, ie, Haneef, Hafeez and Saleem as at that time to a good private school, they spent their nursery/primary school days in L.E.A.
But eventually, the two families got back on top and Saleem and Hafeez ended up in Meadows but Haneef studied at Danbo. Schools for rich kids. Their friendship continued in New Zealand where Saleem went to New Zealand Airline Academy Limited in Waitaki and Haneef, university of Massey, Wellington campus. Funny names, I know.
But their stories were nice to hear, they were 12 hours away from each other because Saleem's aviation college was in the southern Island part of New Zealand and Haneef was in the state capital, all the way close to the North island.
During holidays, they'd rent a cheap apartment anywhere around and go there to stay and explore the country. Pretty cool. He showed us lots of amazing pictures and fun stuff they did, I even got to see a picture of Saleem at a certain Mountain Victoria look out.
I felt jealous actually but my time will come In Sha Allah.
Saleem left our home around after 10 and I headed to bed minutes later, and here I am now, resting under my cozy blankets and enjoying the fresh air coming from the drizzle and cool weather outside. Today took a great turnaround from what I had imagined and expected, I mean I got my crush who's now best buds with my father and I made a new friend, that's the most surprising part. His efforts to get me to forgive him were just so, speechless rendering.
My mom would've been more than thrilled to see me experiencing a beautiful phase in my life with Saleem. I was always around her when I got back from school, my mother was a housewife and a very great caligrapher, plus she was a good cook.
She took the trait along with her, my cooking skills can never measure to hers.
I turn the lights off in my room and snuggle under the covers, slowly drifting to sleep so I can get things ready for our trip on Wednesday. I'm planning on rounding up Khairiyah's gift tomorrow so I need all the sleep I can get.
" I need water" I calmly say to myself after a brief session of yawning and stretching, I woke up with a dry mouth and throat. Getting out of bed and leaving my room to walk down the spiral stairs to the kitchen, my eye catches a figure of Habeebah walking up the stairs as well. Memories of my last encounter with her fills my head an a proud smirk fixes itself on my face, she honestly deserved those lashes.
I find my way down the stairs with the intention of completely ignoring her. We meet side by side at the middle off the stairs and I slowly feel her try to use her shoulder to hit me, make me trip and fall of the stairs, but...
God pass her.
I swiftly move away and the pressure she inserted on her shoulder to hit me ended up making her miss her step and I watch with shock filled eyes as she slowly loses her balance and rolls down the multiple steps to the ground while screaming in pain.
She wanted that to happen to me. " Mom!!" I hear Ameerah suddenly scream from behind her and the next thing I saw was her running down the stairs to meet her evil mother groaning in pain.
" What's going on?" I hear Daddy ask with a loud, annoyed voice as he appears from his room to meet the scene. " My mom tried to push Zakiyah down the stairs but she fell instead" Ameerah answers down the stairs in disappointment and my whole body relaxes, a minute there, I thought she was going to accuse me of trying to kill her mother.
But the Ameerah I know certainly isn't like that, she saw everything and told the truth.
To avoid stress, in Saleem's words.
Daddy approaches us and from his facial expression, he's doing his best to hold back his laughter. Oh my sweet daddy. " You wanted to kill my daughter, again?. Didn't you get what I told you last time?" Daddy says with a threatening voice to Habeebah as he reaches the end of stairs and kneels to meet Habeebah in the arms of a very angry Ameerah.
" Your daughter lashed me" She's lucky she didn't get any major injuries. " I'm certain she didn't do that just for fun, you certainly provoked her" Daddy answers and I suddenly lock eyes with Habeebah who's trying to kill me with her eyes.
I know her attempts to get back at me aren't going to end here. " You're bleeding" we hear Ameerah say while staring at the blood from Habeebah's bloody head. " I'll get Oga Jay to get her to the hospital now, she'll be fine" Daddy says, sweeping Habeebah off the ground and into his arms.
Minutes after they leave for the hospital, I find myself in the kitchen gulping down a glass of room-temperate water. " I'm sorry for what she did, who knows what would have happened if you fell instead" Ameerah says from beside and I flash a small smile at her. " Let's just hope that she's fine, Alhamdulillah nothing happened to me"
" Yeah, Alhamdulillah. I'm sure she has made many cruel attempts to torture you over the years that I was away, pretty much the devil" I'm beginning to wonder why she didn't run away or try to find her father to take her along with him. " Ameerah, didn't you try looking for your father?. Like I'm just wondering how you managed to stay with Habeebah" I ask and with a very deep, sad sigh , she parts her lips to answer me. " I hate him Zakiyah, he knew the kind of person she was and he still had the conscience to leave me alone with her. And of course, if she had killed me or done something extremely bad to me, he would still sleep with a clear conscience" the anger laced in her voice can undoubtedly be heard.
Who wouldn't be angry though?, I would really feel the same way if I was in her shoes but maybe her father had a reason, she did say he loved her very much and used to always play with her. He wouldn't just leave her like that.
" what's his name?"
" Abdul-Malik Chidibere" oh wow, fantabulous. That was really unexpected. " So you are an igbo girl" now that I see it, she actually looks like one. " Yeah"
" Cool, I really think you should try looking for your Dad. Why don't you hear why he left and stop hating him" I say but all she does is take a bottle of water from the fridge. " I have to finish the adjustments on our dresses today so I'm going to go the shop soon and Zakiyah honestly, no good reason would have resulted to him leaving me behind. We'll talk later okay?" She says and I gently nod at her as she walks out of the kitchen.
She's right though.
No good reason would have resulted to him leaving her behind.
After taking a hot bath, I get prepared to finish up Khairiyah's present in sweatpants and a long-sleeved top with my waist apron around me. I should be done by 8:00am, it's just 6:45am.
8:00am and yeah, I'm done. The ink has dried off and I've already wrapped it up, with my signature style. I take my phone on my bedside drawer in my room and send the videos and pictures of my work for Khairiyah's to them, hoping to hear amazing remarks.
There's a cute morning message waiting for me from Saleem, it's not a long message, it's just a three words sentence.
Saleem❤:
Good morning babe❤
That's it. I really don't know how to properly wrap my head around the fact that I have a boyfriend now, I don't how to act. I know the care and love is going to come naturally but I really don't the right loving words to try and call him, you know adjust to.
Zakiyah:
Morning love❤
Did you sleep well?
That wasn't bad right?.
Maybe it was.
I really don't know a cute name to call him, how about baby?, no no, it's overused.
Or honey?, no no I don't like honey. It's too sweet.
Or sweetheart?, no no, too lame.
Or Habibi?, noo, it's also overused. I can always ask him what he wants me to call him, it'll save me the stress of over thinking all this.
I'm contemplating on the idea of calling to ask how Habeebah is, but to be very honest that'll be me just pretending to be nice and thoughtful because like I said before, I really don't care if she dies.
My heart begins to slowly ache as my conversation with Ameerah replays in my mind. Ameerah was left all alone to become who she is today, I can already imagine the pain she left when her father left her. The loneliness, the boredom?. Now that I think about it, I haven't actually gotten a gift for her and finding her father is going to be a priceless and an extremely wonderful surprise. I know she really doesn't hate him, if he's alive and I find him and they get to talk again, I'm sure she's going to understand whatever made him leave her behind. Plus, I also need to know about the devil living in my house and why?. I know daddy said I should be patient but if I get a chance
Ameerah probably went through a tough phase of depression and she's just trying to act tough and trying to her best to be happy. I'm really glad she's doing that but the neglect from her parents is bound to leave a scar on her heart even if she has moved on.
Hurriedly getting off my bed, I rush to my desk and turn my MacBook on. I'm going to make sure I take my time to find her Dad, she deserves to know what really happened.
I type in the name she gave to me earlier on Google and seconds later, I meet a dead end.
It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search
Tip: Try using words that might appear on the page you’re looking for. For example, "cake recipes" instead of "how to make a cake."
Need help? Take a look at other tips for searching on Google.
Maybe Facebook?
No results as well.
Ameerah didn't even give me a title to his name, maybe he's a doctor or something. There's nothing else I can search for, I only have his name.
I slowly begin to scan through some of the pages that showed up with names of Abdulmalik and Chidibere in them but all are unrelated to what I'm looking for.
My eyes suddenly come across a picture, one of a very handsome young male model. I tap the link to see what he's about and the internet carries to a 9jablog.
This particular article is about the big launch of the model to a certain clothing line that I've never heard of, but is in South Africa. The model read a heart warming speech where he thanked his father Abdulmalik. C . Michael and mother for all their support during the ups and downs of his career.
Abdulmalik. C . Michael
Abdulmalik Chidibere Micheal.
I really hope he's the one.
" Yesss" I squeal to myself from the multiple results that flooded my screen after searching for this new name.
I give myself a well done pat on my shoulder as I scroll through multiple pictures of an old man that looks exactly like Ameerah.
If I may add, a legitimately handsome middle-aged man.
His son, the model, Bilal has an entirely different surname and is a living replica of his mother. So I'm guessing, Ameerah's father moved on with his life.
But Ameerah now??
He just abandoned her like that.
Abdulmalik Chidibere Micheal, the popular business tycoon and owner of ACM Mills, joined his famous step- son, the model, Bilal Aliyu Kaka to walk the red carpet along with his wife, Mrs Jamila Muhammad for the launch of the first Armario Clothing line here in South Africa.
This was posted months ago.
Owner of ACM mills. Today's Tuesday so of course, he should be at work.
The internet usually doesn't hold the real truth about things so right now, finding the person that can tell me everything I need to know about Habeebah and why he left Ameerah and moved on with a new family is the only option I have.
ACM Mills is based in Abuja.
I write down the address on my notepad and luckily, as if on cue, my phone begins to vibrate beside me and yes, it's Saleem.
" Saleem" I say into the phone immediately I answer and put it on speaker phone. " Hey babe, good morning"
" Morning, we need to go to Abuja asap"
" Why?"
" We need to find Ameerah's father"