Two weeks after Nazneen and Abdullah spoke. He never seemed to come around anymore. In her mind, she'd do the same if she was seeing someone and her parents were still forcing her to marry someone else, not that they would even do that.
As promised, he made the arrangements for a simple wedding and the invitations were already sent out by Kaka and Hajiya Larai. Those that were attending, she didn't know though, her dearest grandmother made it very clear that it was none of her business.
A week and three days were left to the nikkah and Nazneen could feel her intestines churning at every thought of the date drawing closer.
————
♦♦♦♦♦♦
————
Khalil and Aaman were in Mas'ud's room while they waited for him to get ready. They had a meeting to attend to as one of the major shareholders of the Al-farsi enterprises and Mas'ud just returned back from Zaria. As they patiently waited, Khalil kept himself busy by scrolling through Instagram while Aaman fiddled with the paperwork and mails on Mas'ud's reading table.
A silver invitation card with a red ribbon caught his eye. He checked to see if the owner of the room was coming before finally flipping open the card.
"Dude!" Khalil called out in a rebuking tone "Mas'ud said not to touch anything"
Aaman shrugged "He's not even here" he said ignoring Khalil and went ahead and read it.
"Who would have thought the ice queen would be getting married next week" Aaman remarked as he tossed the card and picked the golden fountain pen.
"What do you mean?"
"I heard the daughter of Bahzad was unapproachable,yet she's getting married" he said in a low voice as he continued ruining the once neatly arranged stack of papers. "What a sham"
Nazneen? Wowww! That went faster than he expected.
"What part of don't touch anything don't you guys understand?!" Mas'ud rebuked once he stepped out of the the closet already ready.
"So you were invited to the wedding of the Bahzad heiress" Aaman said displaying the invitation card "You are one lucky dude"
"Her grandmother is a very prominent woman there that's why she invited my father and I'm going on his behalf"
"That means Mammiey would have already gotten hers" Khalil said pocketing his phone.
"You seem happy" Mas'ud pointed out "and that's creepy"
"I've met Nazneen before, twice actually"
"And yet she didn't freeze you with her iciness" Mas'ud joked.
"She's not cold or arrogant as people say, she's just shy"
"Yeah and goats have wings and horns" Aaman chided in sarcastically.
"You guys should meet her sometime, she's actually kinda nice"
Mas'ud's eyes lit up as he wrapped his hand around my shoulders "If not that you were already in love with Fauziya right now,I would have concluded that you have a massive crush on Nazneen Bahzad"
Aaman shrugged "Actually,I would actually prefer it if she was the one, ice queen or not!"
"That girl you're talking so casually about is already getting married to someone"
"Who cares" Aaman threw his hands up "All we can do is to wish..." He picked up the card to read out their names "Nazneen Bahzad and Abdullah Isa Shehu"
What the fuck!!
————
♦♦♦♦♦
————
Yusrah was confused when she read through the invitation card again and again. She had gotten the card from her mother who just left her room to book their flights online.
No wonder she had been bouncing my calls since.
Yusrah thought to herself as she pulled the suitcases from one of the shelves in her closet. At that moment,a lot of things ran in her head and the what topped the list was who Abdullah Isa Shehu.
Whoever he was,she going to found soon enough. There was no way Nazneen was going to go through this alone.
She zipped up the suitcase then took the top handle bag that she used the day before for an outing and basically threw everything inside including her charger, Galaxy tab and buds. She didn't bother to change as she just shrugged in a brown overcoat that reached her knees over the skinny black denims.
She gave herself a once over out of habit not that she actually cared whether she looked good or not,she wasn't going to change anyway. After doing just that,she left her room shutting her door and dragging her suitcase behind her.
Her mother was already standing at the front door with an apprehensive look on her face.
"Let's go,the next plane to Damaturu is in an hour"
————
♦♦♦♦♦
————
"Yunno, you could have just told me that you were getting married,I wouldn't have wasted my time in trying to be play Cupid for you and Farhad"
Yusrah said once she stepped into Nazneen's room and threw her bag on the bed leaving her suitcase by the door. Nazneen who was almost done with having her hair plaited by someone her grandmother invited over was startled by the sudden barge in. Once she recovered from the shock, she was nothing but glad that her one support apart from her parents had shown up ahead of time.
"Wa alaikum salaam Yusrah" she said slowly ignoring the lady who tried to keep her head in place,she gave up anyway "it's nice to see that you arrived early but it would have been nicer if you had knocked first"
"I'm still angry with you,why didn't you call since,you know that that's what's phones are used for, right?" Yusrah said speaking like someone that was educating a preschooler.
The lady whose name Nazneen didn't bother to keep in her head managed to finish up the last braid of Nazneen hair took a peek at Yusrah. The girl had been in the room for not more than five minutes and she had already made Nazneen talk more than the way she talked for the past hour and a half that she spent making her hair.
"And tell you what exactly?, that my grandmother made me come here just to get married" Nazneen managed to chuckle "You'd think I hit my head with a dumbbell" then turned her neck to the lady who had just finished applying oil in-between the braids as the finishing touch "Thank you very much,I appreciate"
"You welcome, Allah ya baku zaman Lafiya" she said and left. That's what all people had been saying that it no longer caused any reaction from her. The lady nodded at Yusrah in a acknowledge before she bade them farewell and left the room.
After the lady left, Yusrah lowered herself to the carpeted floor beside Nazneen "But you never told me that you move on quickly after disappointments"
Nazneen gave her a pointed look.
"One week you were stood up by Farhad,whom I'm still gonna kill by the way" she laughed "And then the other,I get an invitation that you're getting married, who's Abdullah by the way? I want to meet him to see if he's good enough" she rasped almost speaking too fast. When Nazneen shrugged and flipped open the book that she was reading,she gave her the 'you know what I mean' look.
"Don't look at me like that,I never wanted any of the these"
"And you're still here, happily reading a book" she snatched the book from her cousin hands and screened the cover "Mhmmm, and perfect assassin would help you out"
"Give me back my book, I'm not in the mood for any of your lectures, Kaka is already doing well in that department"
She sent her a glare before thrusting the book back in her hands. "Where is your grandmother anyway,I didn't see her on my way here"
"She's out" Nazneen said contemplating whether to add with her future mother inlaw but decided against it. She was mentally stressed and the pills weren't helping, not that she even depended on that anyway.
"So who's the guy?" She asked again ignoring the fact that Nazneen refused to answer the first one "Your not so loving grandmother would at least enlighten you about him, right?"
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes "Kaka doesn't tell me much about him, she's very conservative when it comes to him" not lifting her eyes from the book she was reading to hint her that the girl wasn't in the mood to answer any of her questions.
Being the girl with super fast reflex, Yusrah reached forward and forcefully took the book from Nazneen's hands before lunging it across the room. She dusted her hands dramatically then asked the same question again.
This time Nazneen had no choice than to look up at her annoying cousin. "I've only met him once, two weeks ago"
Yusrah shrugged "At least he had the decency to see you"
"He's kinda nice" the girl added. "And a bit cocky"
"Is he handsome"
Nazneen shrugged "He's visually appealing,I didn't allow myself to look more than that"
Yusrah puffed out a huff of air mimicking in Nazneen's voice in childish tone "And why wouldn't you look more than that. If he's supposed to be your husband,at least you should know what he looks like"
"Staring once is a crime but the second is a sin"
The other girl let out a short laughter in a mocking tone "Says the person that always ogles at Farhad when she gets the chance"
"His case is different" that was the only that Nazneen could come up with "It's a one sided love kind of thing"
"You should listen to yourself speak, you sound so crazy at the moment"
"Not every body would have a happy ending, you are with the one you love and very soon,you both would get married" she was already on the verge of crying but didn't let the tears fall "I'm being literally pushed to a marriage where my partner is also forced"
"Wait, what? How'd you know that?"
"Because he didn't keep it as much of a secret"
Yusrah smiled in satisfaction which confused the hell out of Nazneen. "He seems like a smart guy"
"Nope" Nazneen interjected forcefully "he's just someone that can't keep shut up"
"So he's already in love with someone,yes?"
"I guess so"
A smile tugged on Yusrah's lips once again "He's really a smart guy"
She gave her cousin a pointed look.
"He wouldn't have been dumb enough to tell you that he's already seeing someone if he wasn't already having something in mind"
Nazneen leaned in closer staring straight into Yusrah's eyes "Tell me the truth Yusrah" she said with all seriousness.
"What is it?"
"Are you still watching those stupid chickflick dramas"
"That has nothing to do with this so don't even bring it up"
Nazneen laughed taking another book from the table flipping it open again ignoring the first one.
"Answer the last question and I'll leave you be" Yusrah said and Nazneen only spared her a glance. "Are you really ready to be someone's wife?"
"What do you think?"
"That you'd make a very terrible and boring housewife"
Nazneen shot her an angry look " Geez Yusrah, thank you for your words of encouragement, it's really helpful"
The smile was all it took for Yusrah before she sauntered out of the room upon hearing kaka's voice.
A day to the wedding and the house was already packed. Nazneen, Yusrah and two other of their very close cousin had to move to the empty boy's quarters to make space for them. The guys on the other hand lodged in a nearby hotel.
Abdullah hadn't shown up, not even once and Yusrah blamed him for being a coward. He actually showed up once but the both of them couldn't get to see him since he didn't come for them but for Kaka herself making the thought of ripping him apart sound very appealing to her.
From the beginning of the henna drawing till the end, Nazneen had tears flowing down her cheeks. It was only the artist that noticed,the rest were too caught up in doing there own stuff to even notice her. It is was for the best though, Nazneen didn't have the strength to deal with their questions anyway.
Once the henna dried off and was washed,the woman rubbed some almond oil on Nazneen's hands and feet so that it would glisten,and that was it,her bridal henna was done. She quickly wiped her tears with the back of her hands before turning to her cousins listening to them praising the henna.
"Masha Allah Naz, your henna is so beautiful" a cousin of Nazneen and Yusrah's,Amina said gushing over her hands.
Nazneen couldn't say anything, what do they want her to say? Thank you? For what exactly?
"Take pictures so you could send it to him" Rahma interjected " I'm sure his heart would explode if he sees her like this"
Nazneen managed to smile. Nobody told the guests that it was an arranged marriage but instead Kaka told everyone that they were in love and couldn't just wait to get married hence the rush.
Yusrah who had been fuming inside because of her own personal reasons watched as Rahma took pictures of Nazneen's hands. Ridwan hadn't called since that morning and being the jealous freak that she is, was already angry with him.
"Give me his number" Rahma said looking at Nazneen " I'll send it through WhatsApp"
Nazneen couldn't tell them that she didn't have his number.
"You can't send them to him" Yusrah muttered under her breath but they all heard her.
Nazneen raised her head up meeting Yusrah's piercing gaze on Rahma.
"Why not?" Amina asked but looking at Nazneen.
"She just can't,deal with it" she snarled angrily pretending as if she didn't hear the muffled gasp from Rahma.
Amina opened her mouth to say something else but decided against it and to say that Nazneen was relieved would be an understatement.
That night, Nazneen wasn't able to sleep a wink but not because she had insomnia. She took her pills before going to bed so that wasn't the case. Her thought was centered on the day after the next day.
She remembered reading a book a few years ago and at the end of the book,she had herself wishing that her happily ever after would like that.
And then we continued bissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever.
The one time that she was really angry with Yusrah was when she mistakenly threw the book in the kitchen sink filled with hot water. In easy words, Yusrah got a new one for her even with the author's signature.
And Ummi was actually happy that day. It was the first time her daughter had shown any other emotion apart from her usual cold aura. If she was happy,she alone smiled for a brief moment,if she was sad,she kept to herself and if she was angry, she ignored everybody. But that day,she didn't ignore Yusrah,she lashed out on her
Nazneen might have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth but flashy things never got to her eyes. Instead she picked interest in simpler things that always made her happy.
Getting married to someone she knew nothing about wasn't one of the things that might make her happy,after all she was only human with a heart. A heart that wishes to love one day and be loved.
She didn't love Abdullah– like wasn't a even an appropriate word to use and she was sure he felt he same way too. He already has someone in his heart and so does she... partially.
And that was what her thoughts centered on that night until the adhan for fajr prayer was called. She prayed hers with the rest but didn't leave the prayer mat like she was supposed to,she just sat there pouring out her heart to her lord whilst weeping.
Amina and Rahma only teased her because they thought that she was having wedding jitters which couldn't even hold a candle to what she was feeling. Yusrah understood and gave her space.
Yusrah knew that she needed to get it all out before the arrival of the the guests and the make up artist.
Her phone vibrated in her hands and she swiped the screen to read the message that just entered.
I want to see her, please tell her to meet me under the neem tree.
–F
She rolled her eyes as she sent her reply. Of course he didn't deserve to see her,he failed the first time. His reply came almost immediately.
Please,I really want to set things right before it's too late
–F
Yusrah turned to Nazneen who was still cleaning her tears with the napkin as she watched the morning birds go about their business that morning. She gently tapped her shoulder prompting her to look up.
"Farhad wants to see you"
Nazneen turned away "Tell him I'm busy"
Yusrah sighed "If it was up to me, I would have already told him to leave but you really need to hear him out. Whatever his excuse may be,you should listen first in case you regret it later"
Nazneen nodded letting her cousin's words sink in. She was right,at least. Since her grandmother was pushing her to a new life,she better settle with the old one first.
She only threw on a hijab before casually walking out of the room. She greeted her aunts and other elderlies on the way before finally walking out of the house.
Once she got to the tree,she saw him leaning against it with his back against it. She didn't know what he was looking at but was sure he was looking at something.
She let out the breath she didn't know she was holding before clearing her throat to get his attention.
He turned swiftly meeting her cold gaze.
"Hey" he smiled but she didn't.
"Hi Farhad,why did you ask to see me"
He shrugged crossing his hands behind his back with a rueful smile "To see how you're holding up and just to be clear,you look terrible for someone who's knot is about to be tied in a few hours" then he laughed.
She laughed sarcastically "Harhar, thanks for noticing"
"That's not why I called you anyway"
Nazneen scoffed as she rolled her eyes "Then please, get on with it so I could get back. The bride can't be spotted outside like this"
Farhad sighed and stared into her soft dark orbs. What he saw was pain, hidden anger and something he just couldn't pinpoint what it was.
"I'm sorry for that day, I didn't mean to bail out on you"
A muffled scoff escaped Nazneen's lips "Don't you think it's too late to say sorry?"
"I know I messed up but I promise,if you give me a chance I promise, I'll do better"
It was her turn to stare at him but it was in disbelief but he looked at her as if he had just spurted out something meaningful from his mouth.
"You can't be serious right now"
"And what if I am, would you agree to ditch this wedding and go out with me?"
Nazneen blinked then blinked again. This is what she wanted right, then why is she hesitant. Well it was simple, she had the feeling of responsibility in her.
"No"
"No?" He repeated after her in form of a question.
"No offense, but unlike you I think about others before I do things" she said and what she said hit his sour spot.
"Na..."
She cut him off before he could even pronounce her name "It's better I head back inside" then she turned to leave but his words stopped her.
"You're being selfless but are you going to be happy"
She sucked in a huge breath as she closed her eyes shut and bit her lip to hold back the tears. "That's not for you to decide, goodbye Farhad" she finally said after she was sure her voice wouldn't give her away. With that she all but ran inside the house ignoring those on the way.
As she placed her hand on the door knob of her room, she wiped her tears and any other streak on her cheeks before twisting it and pushing herself inside.
Her dress was already laid out on the bed and Rahma came and engulfed her in a hug. She didn't know why Rahma even hugged her but that was what she needed at the moment but that what she needed at the moment so she hugged her back, tightly.
"I can't believe you'll soon be someone's wifey"
Nazneen laughed. If only they knew.
"Kaka sent the dress just now, she didn't ask where you went to though" Yusrah informed "She didn't seem too be in a good mood"
"I don't know much about your grandmother but I'm not sure I've ever seen her in a good mood" Amina said from the other side of the bed scrolling through her phone "I'm not sure I've even seen her smiling before"
All of them laughed except for Nazneen who just smiled before entering the bathroom to have her bath. It was already few minutes past six and the nikkah was at nine.
—♦♦♦—
Meanwhile, in Kaka's room,she stood regally in front of the full length mirror adjusting the ruffled edges of her lafaya. Apart from Nazneen's mother, who stood behind her watching her every movement while waiting for the next thing she would say, nobody else knew that she was in a turmoil.
She slipped on some gold bangles and then clasped the chain after rounding it around her wrist whilst staring at her reflection intently as if she would find answers from it.
"Did you scare him off?" Hajiya Sadiya asked her daughter.
"I didn't"
"Then what did you do to him?"
"Nothing since you disregarded my right as mother to know my son in-law before forcing my own daughter to get married"
Hajiya Sadiya laughed wicked "Now is not the time to judge Maymunah, but instead we should focus on how to find your son in-law and bring him back"
Ummi scoffed "Don't you get it Mama, he's gone and I don't think he's coming back anytime soon, maybe never"
Kaka glared at her from the mirror.
"Please don't look at me like that" Ummi spoke softly "I only speak the truth"
"The truth isn't needed at the moment, what we need is a husband"
"And Hajiya Larai?"
Kaka shrugged as she as she put on her earrings "It's her loss,she just lost a great daughter in-law, but for now we can't disappoint the guests,they came for a wedding and a wedding we shall give them"
"And how do you find a man that would agree to marry Nazneen on such a short notice"
Hajiya Sadiya smiled at her reflection both in satisfaction and in triumph which was very rare. Ummi was one of the few people that saw the woman smile.
"It depends child,on how fate decides to play it's card"
————
♦♦♦♦♦
————
Mas'ud killed the engine of the Jaguar that he rented from the airport as they arrived at the parking area of the of the Damaturu Central mosque. All three of them sat in silence.
"Thanks a lot Aaman for making us late for the nikkah" Khalil said breaking the awkward silence.
"What do you guys want me to do, I've apologized like a thousand time on hour way here already"
"Because of you,do you know how many times Mammiey had phoned me" Khalil ranted.
"Guy, how did your mother know that you were absent?" Mas'ud asked.
"I'm sure Abbiey must have told her already" Khalil replied and then another silence followed.
"What time is it by the way?" Aaman asked taking his phone out "seven minutes to ten"
They all sighed. "They might have finished by now" Mas'ud said.
"What are we going to do now?"
"We go in and complete it, after all the Zazzau won't be happy if he finds that you didn't attend" Khalil reasoned and Mas'ud nodded.
"You have a point there Khal" Aaman said. He was the first to get out of the car and the rest followed. They adjusted their caps before making their inside.
There was a hush silence as they entered the mosque as all eyes turned to them. Khalil and Mas'ud's eyebrows knitted in confusion but Aaman had a smug satisfaction written on his face. He enjoyed being the center of attention.
Khalil's phone pinged indicating message and he brought out to see who it was.
Surprise!,
You're the groom so act like one and go to the front.
—unknown
Khalil looked around but he found nothing unsuspecting except that his father was was already making his way to the front.
"Dude,why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Aaman asked and Mas'ud snatched his phone.
"Because he just got the biggest surprise of a lifetime" Mas'ud said.
It's a double update darlings 💃💃💃💃👏👏👏
So what do y'all think?
I really feel for my girl Nazneen like, I'm hurt.
And FYI,this is the beginning of their alternation,yayyy I'm very excited…
And please don't forget to vote, comment, follow and share because like they say, sharing is caring.
Stay happy
Stay blessed
Stay safe
Stay cute awesome
And don't forget to be nice to each
Au revoir mes amis❤️❤️
Xoxoxo 💋, Phaereedarh