When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action.
When you desire the consequence you had damned well.
Better take the action that would create it.
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Basheer's car was parked in the compound of Alhaji's house with ruquayya sitting beside him.
He has been consoling her ever since they start driving to the house because she's been sulking through out today as he's travelling.
He brought her to her house because in his words he can't let her stay alone in that mansion.
He went in and greet alhaji and haj hajara and said his goodbye to them.
(Basheer is traveling out of the country for something regarding the business they recently started with haj hajara and ruquayya as his partners. He'll be back in two weeks).
They came out with her following right behind him.
He drove his car out of the house after some minutes and started his journey.
***********
"Wayyo Allah na thank you dan gaye. I really appreciate it" khair said happily.
"Glad that you liked it dimples...."
"Piiipiii" came the sound of a car's horn behind the gate.
"As I was saying. I had a hard time choosing this bracelet because as you know I'm not good at choosing gifts for someone" he added.
The gate was opened and imran's car drove into the compound with khair and her cousin dan gaye as she calls him standing close to the gate.
The moment imran sighted khair standing with a guy his heart beat very loud inside his chest and as if seeing her with another guy wasn't enough she had to laugh out loud at what he said which infuriated imran.
"Umma..! Umma..!" He called entering into her parlor.
She wasn't there so he had to check her room and there he found her.
"Umma yanzu kin san wannan yarinyar tana waje a tsaye da namiji?" He asked.
"Wacce kuma?" She asked too clueless.
"Khair mana. Tana tsaye a waje da NAMIJI a waje" he replied emphasizing the namiji.
"Ooo. Meye na tada hankalin ka he is her brother ba wani ba."
"Brother as in blood brother or ......" He asked leaving the sentence incomplete.
"He's her cousin. He came here (kano) for some work so he decided to stop by and greet her because the last time they met was after her mother hamida's death" umma explained.
"But still umma. He isn't her Muharram fa."
"I know but he is her relative after all so how can I stop her from seeing him. Just let it be" she said dismissing the matter.
"Ya wurin firdausi kuwa?" She asked.
"Lafiya kalau." He shortly replied.
"Toh masha Allah." She said focusing back on the islamic book she was reading before he came in.
He left the room still not convinced because he feels that there is a possibility that there is love between them.
Out of nowhere he saw khair in front of him staring at him with her big brown eyes.
"Daga ina kike?" He asked his voice full of authority.
"Um... Um... I... Dan gaye... I mean yusuf came so I went to escort him" she answered terrified.
"Who is he?"
"He's my cousin ya imran"
"Then why are you standing outside not inside if he's your cousin? Didn't umma tell you that family members should be welcomed into the house? Are you lying to me?" He said because he wants the conversation to go on as he isn't tired of staring at her beautiful face, how her dimples go in and out as she's talking and ohh Lord her sweet voice did it all because he just feel that he will never in his life be able to get tired of listening to the same voice over and over again. All the anger and jealousy he feels before vanished into thin air with out him noticing.
"Ya rabb I love this creature of yours beyond imagination and words" he said in his mind and what she said brought him back from his dream land.
"No ya imran. How can I lie to you. I'm telling you the absolute truth. The reason why you saw me standing outside was because I went to escort him."
"Okay then go bring my lunch" he said sitting down on one of the sitting room's chairs.
"Ya imran the food is couscous" she said because she knows he hates couscous.
"Anything as long as you're the one who serve me" he said nonchalant.
"Hmmm?" She asked.
"I mean as long as it's edible" he corrected.
"Okay" she simply said turning on her heels to go to the kitchen.
"Are you also going with that to the kitchen?" He asked guesturing at the paper bag in her hands.
"No"
"Then drop it if not you'll stain it with something without knowing"
"Uhm" she nodded and drop it on the armchair and walked into the kitchen with his gaze following her, even after she went in he kept staring at the door and smiling.
She went into the kitchen internally saying "wai what's wrong with yaya these days? He's behaving weird lately. Before he bearly answers my greeting but now he even wants to start a conversation with me. That's confusing."
The same happened when she brought his food, she finished serving him and turn to sneak out of his sight when he said "I think you're in a hurry to go see what's in that bag huh? Well I also am curious, why don't you also show it to me?"
She turned and looked at him wide eyed "Is he for real" she said internally.
"Why are you starting at me that way? Come sit here and show it to me" he said pointing at the chair across him.
She walked slowly and sat down then brought out the bracelet from the paper bag.
She opened the box it was based in and the most beautiful bracelet I've ever seen was laid stylishly in the box.
"Wow" Imran said mentally but in reality he said "did you ask him to bring it?" He asked suddenly becoming the old cold imran she knows before because of jealousy.
"No, no ya imran. I didn't beg him. He brought it willingly and I didn't even want to collect it at first"
"I know. But I don't even know what's wrong with me. Ya rabb! This girl is driving me nuts" he said in his mind but he didn't answer what she said instead he asked "have you shown it to umma?"
"No but I will now" she answered and quickly ran out of the dining area because that's the only thing she's waiting for.
After showing it to umma she went and showed it to ummu and ummu being the overdramatic person she is almost broke khair's bones because of how she continuously hug her.
Khair promise to fill her in about what transpired between her and imran later.
***********
"Mom it's been two months now neither is basheer back nor does his number go through I don't know why and that's unlike him. I hope everything is fine. He said he'll be back last week because he couldn't finish the work he went to do in that two weeks he went there for" ruquayya said to her mom who was laying on the couch of their sitting room.
"Maybe something happened to his phone or some other thing came up." Haj hajara replied uninterested about the conversation.
"I hope so dai" she replied back.
Moments after this short conversation between haj hajara and ruquayya the sound of a message came from ruquayya's phone.
(They are still in the same position as they were moments back).
"Ahhhh!!!" Came ruquayya's voice shouting at the top of her lungs with her hands on her head and jumping up and down the tiled floor.
"Ke lafiya!? Why are you shouting?" Haj hajara asked.
"Noo!! This can't happen. No!! He can't do this to me..."
Haj hajara bend down and pick up the phone she dropped on the floor in order to see what ruquayya is shouting about.
"Kambu...! Saki...! Yata kuma!?" She said astonished.
Ruquayya burst into another set of new and fresh tears crying as if she's been informed about the date of her death.
Haj hajara didn't waste another second she start dialing basheer's number.
The call isn't even going through which means there's no hope in him answering the call.
"Ke dalla stop crying and tell me does he have another number apart from this one?"
Ruquayya shook her head as a form of no and said "mom he divorced me three times" with pure agony.
"Yes I saw it. I'm not even worried about that. What am worried about is our money. The investment we made in his business. Does this mean....? Ohh my God!" Haj hajara replied putting both her hands on her mouth as a form of shock.
"Seriously mom!? Is that what you're concerned about? Is that the only thing you're thinking about? You don't even care about my divorce you only care about money. Now how will I face our enemies? They'll jubilate and laugh at me that's for sure but I won't blame them because when my dear mother doesn't have sympathy for me who will?" Ruquayya said weeping hard.
"No it's not like that. I feel sorry for you and it's unfortunate but It's just that I put in all my wealth, my savings and also yours into that business. What will become of us if he really fled with our wealth? No I won't let him off so easily. He'll have to give us our property back and that's a promise." She said dialing a number in her phone.
*********
Firdausi was laying lifeless on the hospital stretcher with nurses rushing her to the emergency room and her half burnt body looking like a burnt material.
One of the neighbors that rushed her to the hospital dialed imran's number once again because he has tried before but he isn't getting through to him.
And on the third ring imran picked the call.
He told him everything he knew from them seeing and perceiving smoke to them rescuing her and her baby from the fire that started from the bathroom with the help of fire service.
In no time imran arrived with the family members and uptil that time the the doctors haven't said anything yet about her condition whether she's stable or whether her condition is critical.
Imran asked for his son and they said he wasn't affected by the fire not a single scratch nor burn on him.
After waiting for quite a long time they heard from the doctor that she's stable but as a result of too much of the smoke she inhaled she fainted and the burns from her neck to her thighs will heal with proper dressing and medication.
Family members came to check up on her cars after cars, bunch after bunch, group after group and she was healing with each passing day and the doctors are considering discharging her maybe after a week or so.
The house was burnt into ashes not a single thing was saved apart from them and now after much investigation they found out that the cause of the fire was as a result of leaving an empty heater on for so long without a single drop of water in it so it exploded.
Khair and ummu take turns in spending the night with firdausi and in the past few days the responsibility of her son is rested on both their shoulders.
Tomorrow is the day which firdausi will be discharged from the hospital and she was happy because she said she was sick and tired of being in the hospital for four long weeks.
Khair was with her that night and they chatted, laughed and talked about how she wants her life to be in a few years in short they had a soul to soul conversation and understand each other and that was after imran has left home and they have never had this kind of conversation before.
During fajr prayer khair woke her up several times but she didn't get up so she thought she was sleeping out of tiredness because ever since the incident she never sleep for more than 3-4 hours so she let her be.
She woke her up again at seven in the morning but she didn't get any response instead she felt her body cold as ice so she rushed to the nurses to come see what was happening.
At first glance, the nurses understood that firdausi is no more so they asked khair to wait outside.
She was waiting when imran came and he waited along with her.
After the nurse came out she broke the news to them that "I'm sorry, she's no more" and that sentence brought back fresh memories of unheled wounds to khair and that was the death of her mother HAMIDA.
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Where are my night readers?
Come shower me with alot of votes and comments because I know that I deserve some accolades #feelingmyself #bragging #patontheback #hypingmyself 😂
But on a serious note, this chapter deserves alot of votes because in the history of this book this is the longest chapter I've ever written with 2000+ words so that means I've made up for the last days that I haven't update because I know that I took forever to update😔. Really really sowieee.
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