Tay Tay's POV
" You bastards" I scream banging hard on the stall's door. I don't mind committing murder with this rage building up inside of me. " Tay Tay no" I hear Zakiyah say behind me before falling to the ground. " Zakiyah" with tears in my eyes, I scream again as I rush to wake her up. I can't imagine the pain she's going through right now.
" Let's take her to the hospital" Haneef says and I immediately send him and his concubine a death glare. " Don't you even think of coming any closer" I snap. " you can't leave her there like that" he says, coming closer and my hand gets extremely charged, slapping him hard on the cheek to ease it. " How dare you?" Ameerah snaps, charging towards me. They don't know me.
The instant Ameerah gets close to me, I slap her hard on the cheek, making her stagger back. As she's staggering, I clench my fist and support the slap with a hard punch to her eye and she falls to the ground, screaming in pain. No one messes with my bestfriends and goes scot-free. I jump on her as she lays, crying and screaming on the ground and punch and slap her as hard and fast as I can. " Tayibah stop" Haneef yells, trying to get me off of her, but I push him away instead. This is the sole reason why I try to tame my anger, when I do, I develop great strength to beat up anyone that crosses the line.
They've crossed the line, and gone too far. " How can you be so heartless?" I scream, my hands moving to strangle her. " What did she ever do to you?" I scream again, tightening my hold around her neck. " Tayibah stop" I hear Zakiyah's daddy scream from behind and pull me away from her.
" She loved you and this was your plan all along?, Billahil Azeem believe me when I say you're going to pay for this" There's a reason why I'm happy my father's rank in the Nigerian Military is high.
Tears roll down my cheeks as I watch Zakiyah's father try to carry her lifeless body outside the now crowded restroom. " You've messed with the wrong person Haneef" He threatens before hurrying out of the restroom with Zakiyah in his arms. Without giving the audience a second look, I rush out behind her father, not forgetting to get all of Zakiyah's things from the table she sat.
" What did Haneef do?" Zakiyah's father asks as we drive to the hospital. She's not waking up. " He's been using Zakiyah all this while to get Ameerah back" it didn't happen to me, but It's as if a dagger was aimed right at the centre of my heart. What if she had a stroke and collapsed for Allah's sake?.
And she wasn't feeling strong enough to push through with this dinner but she still did, because she loves him and wants to make him happy meanwhile the bastard had other cunning intentions. Those two are certainly made for each other. " So my daughter was used as bait" anyone can hear the anger in his voice.
His way of thinking is even stupid, very stupid.
How can you go that far just to make someone jealous?. What kind of a new extreme is this?
" She's going to be fine In Sha Allah" I say, staring at my beautiful bestfriend. She's already sick and now this shock, I can't imagine the damage it's going to cause her.
This is why I haven't been in a relationship before, this is the sole reason why I'm scared to give my heart to someone. People these days don't value love like I do, love is sacred to me. If I love you genuinely, you won't dare love another because of how affectionate and true I am, I value commitments like sacred promises. But these days, people feel that since there are alot of fishes in the sea, they can go in and out of any relationship as they please. They don't value the emotions, feelings, thoughts and ideas of people, all they want is to please themselves. We live in a reign of selfish people. You never know who to trust.
As we reach the hospital, Doctor Isah Baba attends to Zakiyah and I and her father are left to wait in the waiting area. " She doesn't deserve all this" He starts, tears rolling down his cheek. " All she does it to spread love everywhere she goes, all she does love with all her heart but It's true that no one really cares until it's to their advantage. I should have protected her more" He says, cleaning his eyes and I find myself gently stroking his back.
There's a fondness growing between I and Zakiyah's father that I can't seem to entirely comprehend. I'm supposed to have this extreme level of respect for him since he's my bestfriend's father but it's not there. Of course I respect him, but I respect him as another man in my life. He deserves all the respect in this world and as we kept talking throughout the day, I realised he's someone who's in dire need of sincere affection. It's not as if Zakiyah's love for him isn't enough, it is. It's just he is lonely not having someone to call his own, who's always going to stick to his side, a ride or die, a lover.
" All this is going to make her stronger, she's going to be fine" I manage to say. " We should have known something was fishy with Haneef. I mean after the sudden death of Saleem, he rushed for Zakiyah, as if he planned it all" He says and I begin to ponder on his words. " No one would have expected this honestly, he tricked us all" As if he planned it all. But what if he did?.
He said he was willing to go through extreme lengths in order to have Ameerah back, what if he planned all this?, including his own bestfriends death.
No that can't be, that would be on an entire different level of insanity. " Saleem's body wasn't found"
" Yeap, it's probably at the deep bottom of the sea"
" May Allah forgive all his shortcomings"
" Ameen" He responds and takes in a deep breath. " We still need to teach him a lesson though, I'm saying Yes to violence"
" and I won't support that. You don't pay evil with evil" He really is a father, but I'm still going to do what's on my mind. " And how're the evil ones going to get punished?" I ask. " That's going to be left for Allah to decide, believe me when I say there's no greater punishment than that of Allah's" he says and I let it sink in. Maybe Allah wants me to be the medium that's going to punish that asshole.
Doctor Isah Baba finally walks out of the ER in his scrub and both I and Zakiyah's father get on our feet to hear what he has to say. " She had a stroke" Inalillahi wa ina ilaihi rajiun. " a blood clot formed in her brain which was triggered by her leukemia" oh my Allah. " She received bad news.." I start and he cuts me off. " Aha, no wonder the clotting worsened. I suggest we transfer her this instant because she's in critical condition, I'm going to contact the hospital in New York to prepare. Please you should prepare as well, I'm also going to call the doctor I left to take charge of Juwairiyah to get her ready for the transfer" Oh no. " Do everything you can to save my daughter Isah, please"
" Definitely, please go and pack up all your things. I would make sure we leave before midnight" he says and hurries away from us. " let me quickly call up my mom to pack my stuff and bring them to your place" taking my phone out from my bag, I say. " Alright let's go and get her stuff ready. Call Juwairiyah's mother too quickly"
" Alright"
I packed everything she would need, clothes, shoes, underwear, bathing materials, toothbrush, everything and by 1am we were already on her father's private plane to New York, Reedo and Juwairiyah's mother joined us as well. Zakiyah's treatment is going to start immediately she arrives New York and Juwairiyah's going to be under better observation.
" I reserved hotel rooms for us over there, you should get some sleep, you must be tired" Zakiyah's father says as he takes a seat beside me. " I'm not sure I can fall asleep, I can't stop thinking about everything" everyone else is already asleep, I'd like to be calm as they are but I can't bring myself to pretend that everything's okay.
At least I didn't forget to tell my mother to help me with some of my father's goons to beat up Haneef. I should get good news once we arrive New York. That atleast is giving me peace of mind, the fact that he's going to experience severe pain, even though it's not going to be equivalent to what Zakiyah's going through.
" So how do we get to fall into a slumber?" He asks and I sigh heavily. " I have no idea honestly"
" Well let's talk then, talking can get us tired enough to fall asleep"
" okay. There's a question I've been wanting to ask but I didn't know if it would be appropriate" I've always wondered about it honestly. " Go on, I'm sure you're not going to ask an appropriate question" true though.
" Can you tell me how and why you fell in love with Zakiyah's mother?" I have always wondered. Back when we were still kids, I would always admire Zakiyah's parents. They were always playful and loving to each other, my parents weren't like that. I've witnessed them argue a number of times but it wasn't toxic. I always admired Zakiyah's parents because I and Juwee actually spent most of our youth in their home and throughout the time her mother was alive, I never witnessed them fighting. Maybe they fought, but I believed their love was strong enough to avoid arguments. They were literally a power couple. " Why do you want to know about that?"
" I'm so sorry"
" No it's not inappropriate, I just want to know why you've always wanted to ask me this question"
" Well I just admired you guys and low key wished to have what you guys had when I grew up"
" That's adorable. Well our love story wasn't entirely special, we were just made for each other. Funny thing though is that we all had our separate share of heartbreak before we found each other. Before i found Zakiyah's mother in Uni, I was in a relationship for two years with this girl. Believe me I thought she was the one for me, we were an ideal couple you know but then I lost her, she was kidnapped and killed" oh my goodness. " Wow"
" I thought that would be end of me honestly, I met Zakiyah's mother a year later when I was by a river on campus. I was crying and she thought I was going to drown myself, so she did everything she could to turn me away from that river" He says with a big smile on his face. " she escorted me to my hostel that day and collected my phone number, she would call to check up on me every single day, we grew close because of that. I can remember she herself was going through heart ache then. She had broken up with her boyfriend of a year plus, he loved her but it was a toxic relationship, so she had to leave. So yeah, that's how we met and how we continued to grow was because of our understanding of each other and different situations life had thrown our way" he says. " Why I fell in love with Zakiyah's mother was that she was the most considerate human being I'd met in my entire life. She was considerate, very understanding, extremely nice and I loved how hard she tried to be a better Muslim. She was a strong woman and she was very beautiful, everyone loved her. I loved how she would always put people first before herself and she was so talented, we had a lot in common so that was how we spent wonderful years together"
" She was your backbone"
" She actually still is and will always be" he says and my heart softens from his response. This is true love. " You can never find someone like her"
" Most certainly, but if Allah gives me someone better, who am I to decline?"
" You want to still be with someone?"
" I don't mind it honestly. I need to be loved" just like I said earlier. " And Zakiyah?"
" You should understand" he says and I laugh a bit. " I understand"
Saleem's POV
*Flashback*
" I'm not done with my appointment here in Dubai" I said to my Co-pilot on the phone. He was insisting that I flew back to Lagos that day because the pilot on duty caught a diarrhoea infection. I was meant to fly back with my girlfriend the day after the next day, but apparently, fate didn't want that.
Little did I know that the diarrhoea infection was a sharade to try to lead me to my grave. I didn't have a good feeling about travelling back to Lagos on waking up that day, I'd made my adhkar before leaving the hotel to the airport that day so at least I felt protected.
I noticed the plane's mechanic, Andrew hurriedly leaving the flight deck as I arrived to take my place, he avoided my gaze and hurriedly left. " I wonder what's up with him" I asked my co-pilot while taking my seat, as I got ready for take off. " Maybe he needs to use the toilet" he answered.
Mid-air, unexpectedly, Andrew that'd left sneakily earlier, came back to the deck, panicking. " I did something very bad" He began and both I and my co-pilot gave him all of our attention. " I was supposed to have left the plane but I couldn't get out on time" he was talking very fast. " What did you do?"
" I was paid by your friend to sabotage the airplane" he said, looking at me. " I'm not supposed to be here" he said again about to burst into tears. " My friend?" I asked, not able to understand what exactly he was saying. " Yes, the newly appointed C.E.O"
" Haneef?" That definitely can not be.
" Yes, he paid me and the pilot meant to be on duty today to sabotage the plane so you would crash and I didn't get to leave the plane" No that can't be, why would Haneef possibly want me to die in a plane crash?
" What did you do?" My co-pilot snapped as he got up on his feet to face Andrew. " I tampered with the fuel tank" Oh no. It was very bad. " Do you know the number of people you've put in danger?, why did he ask you to do such a thing?" I snapped and grabbed him by the neck of his shirt. " I don't know, I'm so sorry" he said, in tears. Why in the world would Haneef give him such an order?. Guilty conscience brought him to confess.
It was very bad. " There's nothing we can do right now, we're all doomed" My Co-pilot snapped. " How much did he pay you to do this for goodness sake, don't you have a conscience?. You're about to kill hundreds of people, it's all going to be on you, how can you live with that?" I snapped, punching him hard.
We were about to leave Sudan when the hostesses came rushing into our deck. " We have a problem, the turbine engines are ablaze and everyone's panicking already" One of them, Bernedicta said with fear. " It's going to blow" Andrew said amidst tears. I couldn't think of anything to do that instant, I was about to die because of Haneef's order. " Tell everyone to pray, we legit can't lie to them that everything's going to be okay" I ordered. " Oh my God, no" one of the hostesses, Alliyah, screamed, bursting into a puddle of tears. I instantly reported a fuel leakage to the central airport terminal and tried to look for a way out but there was nothing we could. I looked outside the plane and found us right above a sea, we could jump down there. " Can we get everyone to jump out of the plane?, supply them parachutes as fast as you can" I ordered. Why didn't that come to my mind sooner?, I was trained for this.
" Lower the plane" I ordered my co-pilot as I tried to find parachutes around the deck. " I'm not sure I can do that"
" Just try" I said again and suddenly, we heard a loud explosion from the back of the plane. There was no hope again, we couldn't get anyone out. As loud screams and louder explosions were being heard, I found myself opening the door on my side and jumping out as fast as I could into the sea.
Even though there were hardly any survivors, at least I made it out to get to the bottom of why all that happened.