•Bilal
"How are you my child?"
"I'm fine Mama."
"Wai Aaliyah has been missing for weeks now, almost a month. Do you have any idea about her whereabouts?"
"No ma. I haven't seen her since Nadiya's wedding. What is being done to find her?"
She nodded, still in thought.
"Raliya said she has gotten a private investigator to handle the case. His name is Detective Esse Martins. She introduced me to him some days ago when I went to her house."
"Mama are you sure he can do his work properly?"
"I trust that he won't disappoint us. He has been in the business for more than a decade. Surely he'll find her Insha Allah."
"I hope so."
A message notification siezes my attention and I open it to see what it is.
Daffy💯[23/03/20 12:30]: Let's meet at Foodhut tomorrow. I have something important to tell you.
Hamza can be funny sometimes. I won't be surprised if he just felt like going there to eat. One time he texted me saying he had a life threatning problem to discuss with me and you wouldn't believe it. It was all because he missed eating at Foodhut.
"Bilaaaaal!" My mum hit my shoulder.
"Na'am mama."
"I've been talking to you for the past ten minutes and you've refused to answer me."
"I'm listening now." I tuck the phone in my pocket and wrapped my hands together on my lap.
"How won't you listen when you're using your phone." She mutters underneath her breath, "I was telling you we'll have to go and see Ruqayyah's parents soon."
"Ok. We can visit them whenever you're ready."
"Alright. Two weeks from now is fine with me."
She dismisses me with a wave and Immediately, I rise up to go and pray so that I can dress up early for my date with Ruqayyah that was in an hour.
I knew I had to pick her up early so we could return early to avoid displeasing her parents.
After my twenty minutes bath, I knew I was clean and could finally put on my clothes. I don't know why girls take so long. For real, What are you washing? A boat?
I quickly put on my Kaftan knowing that Ruqayyah hated truancy. I'm actually proud to say she was the first to tame the beasty truant in me.
I find my favourite perfume inside my vanity mirror where I usually keep some of them to save because they're Ruqayyah's favourite fragrances of mine.
The keys were downstairs so I rush downstairs to get them and head out. Once on the road, I message Ruqayyah to let her know I was on the way.
She replies when I'm at the gate of her house.
If it was me...
The whole world will shake.
I call her and she comes out almost immediately looking as beautiful as ever with her billion dollar smile.
I drive out as fast as I can out of the house and now we're on the road. It'll take at least twenty minutes to get there so I put on the radio to serenade us with music as we both enjoy a comfortable silence.
Soon we're at the parking lot of chopstix.
"Stay there." I command and she smiles ever so brightly.
I walk around to the other side of the car and open the door for her.
"Announcing, queen Ruqayyah AKA Bilan Dalmar Guuleed , daughter of oil magnate, Alhaji Dalmar Guuleed, soon to be Mrs Babagana." I open it for her to step out and she's stuck, sitted on her sit, gushing, face palmed.
"Don't do this. How will you react when you're finally Mrs Babagana and I call you the love of my life or something?" I asked her, laughing at the colour influx on her cheeks.
"There's nothing I can do. I'll only blush." She shrugs.
She finally steps out and I shut the door, not forgetting to press the button for the locks on the remote control of the car.
We walk in like some power couple, looking as hot as ever in our BET award collecting outfits, simple yet eye catching.
I push the door before the security guard and she walks in with me following behind her.
I scan for an empty booth so that we'll enjoy the peace and privacy.
A waiter directs us to one at the right end of the restaurant and we make ourselves comfortable there.
"So what would you like to have?" The waiter, whose name I caught as Kaodili from the sign on the breast pocket of his shirt, asked.
"I'll have what she's having."
I take the time to take in her appearance as she intently reads through the menu. Her grip is firm on the A-4 sized menu with her face in a scrunch -- a hypnotising scrunch as she takes the decision.
I notice the way her long lashes rise a bit when she's reading the names above in a low tune. She puts a finger in between her maroon stained lips before dropping the menu back on the table.
"We'll have the pounded yam and banga soup. For drinks, we'll have chi exotic, the pineapple flavour and two bottled waters." I couldn't really understand what she said to him so I didn't ponder much because I knew she'd choose something nice.
The snap of a finger pulls me out of my riverie and the first thing I see is Ruqayyah smiling at me.
"What were you thinking of?"
"Nothing."
"You were thinking of me ko?" She wiggles her eyebrows as she points at me laughing.
And she has caught me, 1-0.
"What if I was?"
"You were! There's no what if." She smiles really wide and I wished for that moment that I could hug her. Sadly, that'd be after our wedding.
"I was. Is it a crime to think of my soon to be wife?"
"Stop saying that. It makes me blush and you know I hate blushing." She says, palming her face.
1-1, I beat her this time.
The waiter finally arrives with our food and we commence eating after his departure from our table.
Out of nowhere, a man approaches our table. The lights bulbs oozed neon lights so it took some time before I figured out who it was.
Alhaji Tukur Mamman.
What is he doing here?!
And behind him was none other than Aunty Raliya.
They both probably don't recognize me. All he does is kneel down beside Ruqayyah.
"Aaliyah please I've been restless for days. Please marry me. All these dinner dates are child's play. Come let me show you what love is. I promise you I'll be better than your boyfriend. I have money. You'll be happy with me. Just please agree to marry me."
Ruqayyah is speechless as she has her eyes fixed on this mad man before her.
I was about to speak for her but she beat me to it.
"I'm sorry but you have the wrong person. I'm sure you have a family. You should be ashamed of yourself. At your age, you're chasing girls old enough to be your daughter's age. May Allah have mercy on you!"
"I'll kill you today!" Another woman from behind emerged, landing a hot slap on Ruqayyah's face.
"So you're the useless girl who's trying to steal my husband?"
I noticed a frown set on Ruqayyah's face. Her lips part to reply Aunty Jamila but I silently pleaded with her to desist from doing so.
And who do we have here?
Hamza's mother.
This has to be the worst date in the history of dates.
"Bilal! Kai ne?" Hamza's father asked, fear lacing his words.
"Yes, I'm the one." I said softly, trying to further reduce the anger that was trying to surface. "With all due respect baba, you should go to her house if you're looking for her not to go to a restaurant and embarrass people."
"And you, I know you don't have shame that's why you're following your daughter's outside. You have a wife and children and you're here trying to decieve somebody's child." Hamza's mother spoke up while pointing a finger at her husband.
"Keep quiet woman! This is none of your business. If I want to marry again, nothing will stop me." He said firmly.
"Aunty Raliya what are you doing here?" I looked at her, confused.
"How is that your business?" She barked.
I was shocked to say the least. Today I finally met the monster Aaliyah has been living with.
"You, I'll deal with you! I followed you just to see where you were going." Hamza's mother screamed at Aunty Raliya, "I was so stupid to think you were a nice woman. You think I didn't know why you were in Niger? Mad woman! Instead of you to find a man and settle down again but you're chasing men to suffice your greed."
Aunty Raliya doesn't waste much time as she charges towards her, slapping her across her face. She touches the spot Aunty Raliya's hand just hit and rose a hand to reciprocate but is stopped by her husband who pulls her hand down and dismisses her.
She walks away with hate for her husband, rage at Ruqayyah whom she still thinks is Aaliyah and Pity for me, who she takes as a son.
"Baba this is Ruqayyah, I don't know where Aaliyah is. The least I can do is keep this episode a secret from Hamza because I still see you as my father too. Goodbye."
And with that, I signalled for the waiter to come and I paid for the unfinished dinner before me and Ruqayyah exited the restaurant.
I was seriously thinking of a way to approach Hamza's mother and explain that she has the wrong person. I knew explaining to her was going to cause more damage if I did it in the house.
Thankfully, she was seated in her car crying.
I gave Ruqayyah the car's remote control and diverted to where his mother's car was parked.
I knocked on the window, waiting for her to bring it down. She looked at me then ignored me as she wiped away her tears before opening the car door and getting out.
"What do you want? Now you've seen we're a dysfunctional family."
"I just came to apologise and explain."
She doesn't reply but I know she's waiting for an explanation so I proceed.
"You have it all wrong. This is the woman I want to marry, her name is Ruqayyah. I was going to come and seek your blessings as soon as we've discussed with her parents about setting the date and other things."
She looked a bit calm after hearing what I had to say.
"It's ok. Just go and apologise to her on my behalf. I owe her a huge apology for that slap. Better still, let's go back to your car together then I'll apologise to her by myself."
We walk up to the car and meet Ruqayyah sleeping noiselessly in the front seat.
I knock at the window and she brings it down immediately.
"Mama has something to tell you." I shifted aside so that she could speak to her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know who you were at the beginning that was why I reacted that way. I'm usually better than this. I apologise, please forgive me my daughter."
"It's ok. I understood everything from the beginning." She smiled.
"Bilal I'd like to see you and her after all this is over." She smiled a toothy grin as she sniffed and wiped away the remnants of her salty tears.
"Alright mama, we'll see you soon."
I got into the car, revved the engine and we zoomed off.
"Are you ok my love?" I glanced at her for a second before looking back at the road.
She looked passive, somewhat angry. I was unsure of how to speak to her and her sudden question bursted my bubble of uncertainty.
"Who is Aaliyah?"
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This chapter is dedicated to @mayro_
~Aisha Safiyanu🥀