————————Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.
————————————Three days later, Edwards Residence, 8:00am.
" Well Zainab told me she and her husband are getting their marriage annulled and that Khalid doesn't work at their family business any longer" Ummah said as I stuffed my mouth with sweet papaya. I was soon going to declare papayas as my favourite fruit after mangoes, pineapples and watermelon. They were all so delicious and refreshing especially when they were chilled.
Ummah had finally contacted Mama Zainab. They were cool now, I talked to Mother a bit after the incident at our place when Khalid and Mama Zainab were still in Malaysia. They came to be on good terms and their friendship was blossoming again.
Alhamdulillah.
I didn't need to check up on Khalid myself. Ummah was giving me all the information I needed to know. " Well at least they're all okay. Ummah, Farouk and Raihanna are coming to see us today right?"
"Yeah they're coming" the love birds arrived three days ago. After spending weeks away from us and enjoying themselves at their honeymoon. " Yayy, you hear that Naj Naj, Uncle Farouk is coming today" I squealed as I fed Najmah a mango. " when's that girl going to start walking, she's almost a year old" Abbah said as he gulped down his coffee. " she's still trying her best Abbah" I answered as he got up to tease Najmah and she hit him twice on his face. " She's messing with me" Abbah said and pulled Najmah's cheeks. I smiled at the beautiful sight as I cleaned my mouth with a napkin.
It was time to head to work.
" Abbah, we should get going now, you have work to do at the court you know, Judge Milton Edwards" I took off Najmah's bib, cleaned her cute lips and picked her up from her chair. " You too Ummah, patients won't heal themselves" I scolded as I watched her eat slowly. " I need to take my time to finish this chicken filled Sandwich you prepared, leave me alone" She replied and I rolled my eyes with a sigh. Arranging Najmah's dress today was no hassle. I decided to wear a pretty casual outfit today. A long sleeved baggy red shirt and white trousers that stopped just above my ankle. I was wearing black Adidas sneakers and a black scarf.
All set for work.
" well we're leaving" I called as I took my handbag from the table and quickly kissed Ummah and Abbah goodbye. I had a meeting by 9:00am and the drive to the office was about 20 minutes. " be safe okay?" Ummah said and I nodded as I walked out of the living room.
I quickly buckled Najmah up and drove out of the compound. Khalifa was leaving for Dubai tomorrow. We were all going to meet up later at my parents place for family time. Khalifa was excited when I told him Khalid had agreed to sign the divorce papers. Seeing his genuine smile that day made me realize that indeed, losing Khalid was definitely going to be worth it. I got to the office on time, 8:30am. I kept Najmah in the nursery with the adorable kids on the third floor and headed to my office. I had clients to attend to and I also needed to check the car parts we were manufacturing in the factory, plus the head of finance waned to show me a proposal for this month's salaries. Work work work.
" Miss Faryah, the clients are here" Ruqayyah said as she walked into my office. It was already 9:00am. " Okay Ruqayyah, Thank you" I answered as I got up from where I sat. " Everything is set and in place right?" I asked and she nodded. " Yes Miss Faryah, we've served them some snacks and coffee since the meeting is going to hold for a long while"
" Okay Ruqayyah, let's go" I replied as I took my phone and laptop from the desk and followed her out of the office.
Being the boss of an organization was honestly fun. I had the final say on all the decisions that were meant to be taken. It was like my kingdom and I was the queen.
" Assalamu Alaykum" I greeted cheerfully as I walked into the conference room. It was filled with men mostly and several ladies. This was what I had to deal with every single day but I enjoyed it. I made sure no one criticized my efforts and hard-work just because I was a young lady. There were some instances where some arrogant investors decided not to invest in my company just because I was a woman. I mean they were very okay with the fact that the organization was good but their only problem was that a female was the one behind its success. They couldn't take it and according to them, women could breakdown at any moment and the organization will lose balance. Their hearts weren't as tough as that of a man.
How stupid?.
Every single time I remember all those situations I went through, I laughed. Some men out there still believe that women are meant to be housewives only. They were created to just be housewives, they were only supposed to give birth to children, take care of them and their husbands and the end of the day, kick the bucket without seeking their own dreams. They believe if a wife gets a job to do, their family will start to fall apart.
Sometimes I don't blame them for thinking that way. It's hard to shuffle through housework and a tiring job. But the men won't cooperate and they make things worse for her. They begin to flaunt her flaws instead of helping her fix them.
Well luckily these days things have changed, women have finally made a statement in the world. But about 20% of the population of the world haven't yet understood that.
We all just had to pray for the best honestly. We were all going end up as dust and this life wouldn't mean anything. Only our deeds were going to help us.
The meeting begun after several greetings and a bit of chit chat. We were discussing a deal on the export of our products to their country. They were from Turkey and exporting our goods there wasn't going to be a hassle. We discussed on that till 12pm.
I left the conference room hurriedly when the meeting was over. I couldn't hold urine in me for a long while.
I used the rest room and went to the Najmah at the nursery. Their nanny was there, watching all the adorable little kids play. Najmah was holding the purple teddy bear Khalid got her tight to her chest when I walked in. She looked quiet for some reason. She wasn't playing with the other kids like she used to. Was she ill.
" She has been like this since when she woke up from a nap an hour ago" the nanny said as I picked Najmah and felt her body. She wasn't hot, she was fine. " Naj Naj" I called and tickled her lightly and watched as she opened her mouth and laughed. That was my baby. " I love you soooo soooo much" I said again as we laughed together.
I made my salat and found my way to the factory. I was supposed to check out the new car parts we were manufacturing. " Good afternoon ma'am" That was Mr Kareem Yasaran. He was on charge of the factory. " Afternoon Mr Yasaran" I greeted with a smile as he handed me a safety hat. " You look more and more beautiful as each day passes by miss Faryah" He complimented and I blushed a bit. He was a man in his early 30's. Married with a daughter and a wife that worked for me. Their daughter was always Najmah, her name was Salamah. " Thank you Kareem"
" Anytime Miss Faryah, come on let's go there's a lot for you to see, we've manufactured and they're all ready to be exported, plus miss Faryah, there's a little project I've been thinking about and I need your opinion on it" I listened as I greeted the workers in the factory. They were all working their hardest. The whole place smelled like sweat and new machineries. " Okay, let's hear it Kareem"
" We've been manufacturing car parts and we also sell cars you see, so I studied each and everyone of them, the ones Honda and Toyota produce most especially, so I was thinking it would be a very great idea for us to design and release our own, something from Georgia motors. I created a blue print for a car"
" You know, I have no experience with anything mechanical right?"
" sure, I was going to present it to you but I needed to know if you liked the idea first"
" Well us creating our own cars would not be a totally bad idea" He smiled widely as those words left my mouth. " Yes ma'am, and really the car has exquisite functions, you'll love it honestly"
" Present it to me tomorrow Kareem"
" Tomorrow?" He was over excited. " if it's too early we could postpone it till when you're ready"
" oh no, no ma'am tomorrow is fine. Thank you so much, I could hug you right now" He was trying so hard not to look extremely excited but his smile showed it. " I hope your presentation will be a success Kareem"
" it will be ma'am In Sha'a Allah, thank you soooo much"
" Stop thanking me Kareem, I haven't seen it.." I was cut off as I felt an extreme force push me to floor and heard a very loud sound come from far behind me.
An explosion?.
How was that happening.
I couldn't keep my eyes open. " Najmah" I whispered slowly. I was losing consciousness. I closed my eyes gently and the noise coming from the surrounding stopped just like that.
I winced in pain as I opened my eyes and felt my forehead, I got bruised.
Badly.
My whole body was hurting. It was very hard for me to move. " Kareem" I called and coughed due to the thick smoke that was swallowing me up. He wasn't answering me. " Kareem" I yelled again. I couldn't see anything anymore. The smoke kept on getting thicker and thicker. I coughed and tried to lift myself and crawl to where Kareem laid. It was very hard for me to see. I could hear screams and hurried movements all round the building. I felt Kareem's hand for his pulse. He was still breathing. He only lost consciousness like I did.
Alhamdulillah.
" Kareem" I called as I tried to lift both of us up. I heard footsteps coming my way and I squinted my eyes to look at the security guards that came to our rescue.
My Najmah was still in the building.
She was in danger.
They helped us up and we walked out of the factory. I could see well, everyone was been evacuated from the premises. " where's my daughter?" I asked the security guards in between coughs. " we need to get you to safety ma'am, she's probably being evacuated out as well"
" You're not sure she's out?" I couldn't help but worry. I needed to be sure Najmah was safe.
They helped me out of the building and placed me in an ambulance together with some of the employees. The paramedics cleaned and disinfected my bruises and gave me a pain killer for the body pains. The surrounding was crowded with workers.
The police were here as well and they had already used their yellow tape to close the building.
The fire fighters were trying their best to put out the fire. The ground floor was on fire but it wasn't much. Everything was ablaze from the fourth floor.
Everything was going fine. How could an explosion happen?.
There were no technical difficulties. Everything was going smoothly.
I staggered around the crowd in search for Najmah, but I couldn't find her. I could only see some of the babies from the nursery with their mothers and Najmah wasn't among them.
She was still inside. My daughter was still inside.
No.
The screams became louder as we heard another explosion from the building. Najmah was still in there. The firefighters were trying to put the fire out as they kept on bringing out people from the building. None of them carried Najmah. " Miss Faryah" I heard Noor call from inside the crowd. That was Kareem's wife. " Noor, are you all okay? where's Najmah?" I asked with worry as I saw her holding Salamah. " She's still inside ma'am"
No.
No. This couldn't be happening.
" Najmah" I called as I tried going back into the building but the fire fighters stopped me. " Ma'am you cannot go in there"
" My daughter is in there" I yelled at them as they held me back. I couldn't lose Najmah.
I couldn't lose my daughter.
I couldn't let that happen.
" Najmah" I screamed again as I felt warm substances fall down my cheeks. " let go of me, my daughter is in there, please let go" I screamed again as I struggled with the fire fighters. " Ma'am she's going to be fine" the whole building was on fire, how was she going to be fine. " Are you crazy, everything is on fire and you're telling me she's going to be fine" I snapped as I struggles with their hold.
" Faryah" I heard Khalifa worriedly call from beside me. " Najmah is still in there" I said to him as the firefighters let go of me and I hugged Khalifa tightly. " what!" He snapped and I nodded and he looked at the building. The firefighters weren't looking towards me anymore and I instantly took to my heels. I could hear them calling me but I didn't care. All I wanted to hear now was my baby's voice and see her smile. I found my way inside after pulling the entrance door open. I was going to save my daughter at all costs.
I wasn't going to forgive myself if anything happened to my daughter.
The entire building was filled with thick smoke and logs of wood on fire falling to the ground. " Najmah" I screamed again as I ran around the smoke trying to find my way to the stairs. She was on the fourth floor, I could find my way there In Sha'a Allah. The stairs weren't blocked and I ran up all of them to the fourth floor as fast as I could.
" Najmah" I screamed again as I got to the fourth floor. There was fire everywhere. If Najmah was here she was probably gone already.
But No In Sha'a Allah.
My daughter was alive. I could honestly still feel her presence. I pushed through logs of wood and coughed through thick smokes until I got to the door of the nursery. The whole place was on fire. Najmah was gone.
No.
Inalillahi wa ina ilaihi rajiun. " Najmah" I screamed loudly as I fell to the ground. " Najmah no" I screamed louder as I looked further into the room. I could see her teddy bear among some lifeless bodies of some babies. The teddy bear Khalid got for her was right there. There was a burnt, tiny baby hand holding the teddy bear, the rest of the baby's body was on fire. I could only see the burnt hand and the burnt teddy.
Najmah.
" Najmah" I really couldn't believe this. My daughter was gone. Najmah was gone. " why" I screamed again. I was going to go crazy. She was so small and she didn't deserve any of this. I'm sure this was the doing of the Korean lady.
The organization was doing fine, no technical or electrical difficulties.
Bombs were definitely planted in the building.
She probably wanted to kill us or make me suffer.
Najmah didn't deserve any of this.
She was innocent.
If she wanted to kill anyone, it was supposed to be and no one else. Not my daughter.
Not my Najmah.
She didn't deserve any of this.
She didn't deserve to die like this. My daughter didn't deserve this. I crawled into the fire slowly and held the teddy bear. I didn't care if I got burnt or anything. All I wanted right now was to see my daughter alive, all I wanted was to be with her and see her smile again. I grabbed hold of the bear and held my daughter's hand one last time. My heart broke into tiny pieces as I held her burnt hand with my shaky hands." Faryah" I heard Khalifa call from behind me. I could still her wide smile in front of me. Life wasn't going to last forever but she didn't deserve to die like this.
My daughter didn't deserve this at all.
Najmah didn't deserve this. I still felt her presence, I still felt her close to me.
I cried my eyes out as I was pulled away from my daughter. I didn't want to leave her. She needed me. She needed her Ummah. " Faryah are you okay?" Khalifa asked as he held me in his arms. " Najmah is dead Khalifa, she's gone" I cried out loud as he pulled me into a hug. " My daughter is dead, she didn't deserve this, I can still feel her, I can still feel her here Khalifa" I cried into his chest as he patted my head. " we need to get out of here Faryah, let's go"
" Najmah needs me to be with her" I cried as he lifted me up from the floor swiftly. I wasn't going to be able to move on from this. I held the burnt teddy bear tight to my chest as the tears gushed out from my eyes.
I closed my eyes tight and all I could see was Najmah.
My beautiful daughter.
I was willing to do anything for her.
I brought her into this world. I took care of her and she was taken away from me like trash. They killed my daughter.
It was her time to leave but I just couldn't take it. She was killed.
They killed the only thing that kept me strong when Khalid left us.
How could someone be so heartless but a lot of people's lives at risk just to get her revenge.
I could handle the death of GrandPa Musa but I didn't know if I was going to be able to move on from Najmah's departure. They killed her.
Ruthlessly.
We did nothing to earn this. They were all so heartless. They were going to pay dearly for this In Sha'a Allah.
Najmah's death wasn't going to be left unjustified.
In Sha'a Allah.