—————————Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.
—————————————Hospital Bersalin Kuala Lumpur. Three days later, 10:00am.
I was back on my feet again. I thought I was going to forever stay curled up in misery. But Alhamdulillah, my family was around to support me. I managed to convince Khalifa to go back to Dubai and he did yesterday. Alhamdulillah. I replied all the well wishers and I called up Khalifa's family in Nigeria.
Everyone was glad I was doing fine.
They were mostly impressed. I was impressed about myself as well. I mean it usually took months for mothers to get over the loss of their child.
But I was thankful to Allah. He helped me overcome the situation I was in.
I watched the CCTV footage we got from the police. There was a man, the night before the day of the explosion. His car was traced to the back of our building at 11:00pm that night. The police were trying their best to locate the car but then they found it thrown of a cliff and burnt.
I wasn't still going to lose hope. I sent the CCTV footage to Khalid, hoping he could use it there in LA to find something. I really hoped he found something. I was going to have to get used to dressing myself up alone again every morning. I was going to eventually adapt. Giving my injured workers a visit at the hospital was what I was doing now.
I had to check up on them and make sure they were all okay and they weren't badly injured. I was also going to visit the families of the deceased when I was done at the hospital In Sha'a Allah.
Most of my workers were already getting better Alhamdulillah. I went room to room and greeted them all. There was still one person that was still in the ICU. It was Najmah's nanny at the nursery. Aidah. The other workers said they heard she was attacked during the explosion.
Everyone was trying to escape, who in the world had time to attack someone.
I really didn't like where this was heading at all.
" Good morning ma'am" I greeted the nurse I found at the lobby of the ICU block. " Morning how may I help you?" She had a really thick Malaysian accent. She had brown hair and thick beautiful eyebrow. She was beautiful MashaAllah." I'll like to see a patient that's here, Mrs Aidah Yousouf"
" Oh Mrs Yousouf was taken to the recovery room not long ago" She answered as she looked at the desktop that was right in front of her. Alhamdulillah she was better now. " Oh that's great, can I get her room number please?"
" Are you a relative of hers?"
" I'm her boss at work, I came to check up on her"
" well okay, you should take the elevator to the fifth floor, that's block C. She's currently in room 54 C"
" Thank you very much ma'am" I thanked as she smiled at me. I left the ICU and got into the elevator to the fifth floor. I asked for directions when I got down and in no time I was in Aidah's room. " Assalamu Alaykum" I greeted as I opened the door and peeped inside. She was lying down on her hospital bed watching television. She was all alone in the comfortable room. " Wa'alaykumussalam, Miss Faryah come on in" She answered happily as she adjusted her position and I walked inside the room.
She looked so pale and skinny. There was a bandage wrapped round her forehead. But Alhamdulillah she was alive. She was in her early 30's. She was so pretty." Miss Faryah how are you?" She asked as I walked closer where she laid. " I should be asking you that, how are you doing?" I asked as I sat beside her on her bed. " I'm doing okay Alhamdulillah, my family made me feel better and their support is helping me recover faster"
" That's great Alhamdulillah, I'm so sorry for what happened to you, I heard you were attacked, Subhanallah, did you see the person who attacked you?" I asked and watched her adjust her position again. " I'm not sure I did, I can't really remember much after the explosion got me, is Najmah doing okay?, have you found her?" My heart cringed as I heard her name again. I wasn't going to blame her. She just got out of the ICU so she didn't hear the news.
I took a deep breath before answering her. I didn't really want to cry. " well Najmah was among the babies we lost in the explosion, I watched her get burnt in the nursery while she was holding the teddy bear her father got for her"
"What!" She exclaimed with widened eyes and I nodded as I stopped myself from crying.
" Miss Faryah you got it all wrong, Najmah wasn't in the nursery when the explosion happened" My eyes widened in surprise as those words escaped her lips. " what do you mean?"
" Well, you're actually the person I wanted to talk to instantly when I woke up, you see uhm, a few minutes after you left Najmah in the nursery after praying and checking up on her, I took her to the washroom cause I needed to change her diaper and she really pooped a lot" Najmah was alive. Oh My God.
" I took her to the washroom and that was where I was attacked by a man, he came in and used his gun to hit my head after taking Najmah from my hands. I woke up few minutes after with this huge headache and blood was gushing out of my head. I staggered to the nursery and she wasn't there, Najmah was kidnapped before the explosion I'm sure of that, when I went to the nursery and I saw she wasn't there, I had to leave the kids snappily and rush to you or to any security guard around and that was when the explosion happened" Oh my God.
I just knew it.
I could still feel that she was alive. My baby wasn't dead. She was alive, they kidnapped her. They kidnapped my daughter. " Oh my Allah, I cannot believe this" I gasped and closed my mouth as I paced around my room. My daughter was alive and she was away from me. Only God knows what they were doing to her. Subhanallah. I needed to find her.
I could feel my heart beat faster and faster.
I was going to go crazy.
My daughter was alive and in the hands of a woman who could do anything to hurt someone because of revenge." Are you sure you can't recognize the man that took her and attacked you?"
" I can describe some of his features I guess, but I'm not sure they'll be exact" There was still hope. " We need your help, I need your help Aidah, Najmah needs your help, please try and remember every detail you can" I begged as I held her hand in mine. " I'm willing to help in anyway I can Miss Faryah"
My baby girl was alive. I was happy and scared at the same time. Only Allah knew what that Korean witch was doing to my daughter. " We need you to talk to the police as soon as possible" I said as I took my phone from handbag. I needed to call Abbah. The police needed to come to the hospital ASAP.
For all I knew Miss Hae Soo had eyes and ears everywhere and it was possible she's now aware that I know my daughter was taken and she was going to do anything to make sure she got rid of any trace that could lead us to her. " I need you to do something for me Aidah, you're going to say all what you told me and I'll record it as concrete evidence, if anything is to happen"
" Why ma'am? is something going to happen to me?" She was panicking. I really didn't want to scare her and I also didn't want to lie to her.
" Aidah my family is in very great danger and we really really need your help" I said after a deep sigh and sat beside her again. " I'm willing help in any way I can ma'am" She answered with a lovely smile and I couldn't help but cry. I was sad, I didn't want to involve her in this, all she did was to help and Miss Hae Soo was probably going to kill her for that. I mean really, that was the same thing they did to me. They tried to kill me just because I identified who the person trying to kidnap Sophia was.
But Allah preserved my life and here I was. Still standing.
Alhamdulillah.
" I'm going to make sure you're well secured and I'll make sure no one can come close to hurt you" I assured her and she smiled a bit. " Miss Faryah, if helping you is going to cost me my life then I'm very fine with it" well that's something I've never thought of hearing. " you see Miss Faryah, dying with Allah pleased with me is my goal, my family and friends will mourn but it's not going to be for a very long while, and I need good deeds in my grave, I don't mind helping for the right cause even if it puts me at risk" Oh my Allah.
How pure could her soul be. The fear of death made her like this. Ya Allah please Grant her greatest desires. I hugged her tight as those words escaped her lips. It made me cry more honestly. " Thank you so much" I said and dabbed my eyes as I let go of her. " Anytime"
" I had to live miserably for the past week because I thought my daughter was dead, I'm so glad to hear that she isn't, you don't how happy I feel, I feel happy but I'm still scared. She's in the hands of a psychopath. The woman can do anything just to make sure her enemies suffer, she doesn't care about who she hurts on the line" I added again as I took a tissue from my bag to fix my Kajal. " She'll be found safe and sound In Sha'a Allah"
" Thank you so so much Aidah, let me call my father and the police up, give me a few minutes please"
" Take your time" she answered as I left the room and called up the detective that was in-charge of everything. Detective Omar.
They were all on their way to the hospital to question Aidah. I stood very close to her room so no stranger could enter. Her family members went to get something for her so she was all alone. Abbah wasn't picking up my calls. He was probably in the court.
Khalid was the next person to call.
" Khalid" I called into the phone immediately he answered. " Hey Faryah how're you?" He answered and I smiled as I heard his voice again. " I'm okay, Uhmm I'm going to go straight to the point, you see I called cause Najmah is actually still alive" the happiness in my voice and in my heart couldn't measured to any worldly thing. I was so happy but of course I was more than frightened. " what are you saying?" He was interested in what I had to say. Yayy!!
Well of course he was.
She was his daughter too.
I mean everyone will be interested in what I had to say.
" Don't think I'm going crazy or something"
" Sure, just tell me" He answered and I told him everything Aidah told me.
" Najmah was kidnapped" he snapped into the phone. " isn't that more scary?" He added and he made me cringe. " I am very much as scared as you are right now Khalid but at least hopefully with enough prayers and resilience, I'm going to see my daughters happy face again"
" I'm more than glad she's still alive but I'm frightened, that woman is a witch she can do anything to Najmah, she set a company where babies are to explode, will a normal human being do that?"
" no"
" of course not, send me the recording and I'm going to give it to Malcom, we're going to find Najmah okay?"
" In Sha'a Allah"
" I won't rest until she's back with us, I promise you that"
" Thank you soooo soooo much Khalid, I need to hang up now"
" okay, take care of yourself please"
"I will, you too"
" sure, bye"
" bye" I answered and ended the call. I really wanted to ask him what he was up to. He was jobless now, I really wanted to know if he had anything to do for himself now. I wanted to ask if I could help him out in any way. The only connection I had now with him was Najmah.
I needed to stop my heart from missing what wasn't even good for me in the first place.
Stupid heart.
————————Los Angeles, California.
—————————————Khalid's Condo, present day.
After days of sleepless nights and a soul in torment, hearing that there was a chance for me to see my daughter's smile and hear her laugh again made everything go away. I was relived but I was still in anguish. Najmah was in the hands of a psychopath.
The woman was crazy.
How could someone in their right senses plant bombs in a building just to kidnap a child. My daughter was almost 9 months old and she was experiencing all these.
She didn't deserve any of this. At least we knew she was alive and there was going to be a chance for her to come back to us again.
I lived all alone in my condo again. Mother had annulled her marriage with crazy Brandon and here I was, trying to think of what business to go into. Well luckily with the salary I was given back in Olyster textiles, I managed to invest in some small scale businesses, restaurants, cafe's and gaming centres. I could use some of the money I earned from them to set up a new business of my own. I thought spending some time with Zarah because she had a creative mind was going to help but unfortunately I still had zero ideas for a new business idea. Maybe it was because I felt I was losing everything.
I was losing everything.
I lost the love of my life. The only woman I feel immense love for. I lost her.
I lost my daughter, lost my job. I mean I honestly had nothing related to happiness in my life now. My mother was hurt and if I was to be very honest it was all my fault.
If I hadn't let jealousy consume me, if I hadn't let my anger get the best of me that very day, everything would have been good for all of us.
The fact that I had trust issues ruined my life for me in minutes. I really couldn't be blamed for having trust issues. Anyone who watched his mother get beat up each day by his own father wouldn't want to trust anyone.
Parents are the ones who shape up their children. My mother loved my father to the extent that she stayed and endured all the beatings hoping that one day he was going to change and stop beating her up. She trusted him but she all got in return was a weak heart and a whole lot of bruises. I didn't even trust Brandon all my life and he proved me right eventually.
My mother was just a piece of trash to all of them. The woman that brought me into this world, the woman that sacrificed a lot for my happiness in this world was considered scum severally. Anyone who grew up like that was definitely going to find it hard to trust people.
There were certain people that honestly deserved my trust and I let them down.
Faryah.
But there was nothing I could do now. She was never going to come back to me.
All I had to do now was to start afresh.
I was alive so I really couldn't waste my life swimming in regret.
I needed to change the person I was if I really wanted to live a good life. I wanted to be a better person for myself. I made a lot of mistakes I needed to let go of.
I needed to let go of all of them.
I picked up the pen on the kitchen table in front of me that sat nicely beside the divorce papers. I flipped the file open and put down my signature and watched a tear roll down my cheek.
I couldn't go back this time. She was happy with someone else.
This was all part of moving on and starting anew.
I needed peace in my life and like Faryah said, I could only depend on Allah for that. It was all making sense to me now. We were only passing through tests to know how strong our faith in him was.
I was honestly ashamed of myself for saying he wasn't there for us when we needed him the most.
If he wasn't, we wouldn't be where we were now. I probably won't have even found Faryah.
Everything in this life happens for a reason and we never know where we're going to be in the future. I never thought I was going to be kicked out of Olyster Textiles. Ever since Faryah's words hit me, I couldn't stop thinking about them alongside all the problems I had.
I guess this was going to be my second step in moving on.
Becoming a good Muslim.