Everything unfolded right before her eyes as though it were a dream. She heard them utter things and made arrangements and how everything should be while all she did was cried without even having the strength to wipe at her tears. And what was that again? Yes. Since Idi was usually living in the mansion, she'd just have to move to his room and she would continue working for the mansion, just that she'd get paid now. And to them, their offer of payment was so generous that they expected huge gratitude from her.
Hajia had yelled at her to leave the living room when she had stayed there even after Idi had left and she staggered backwards before she tried as much as she could and got herself up before she trudged out. And as she stared at the stairs, she wondered where she'd go. She didn't know what to do and who to run to, but to Anas. She had to tell someone. She knew that he couldn't find a solution for her, but he'd at least console her.
She trudged to his chamber and knocked on the front door. This was the first time she had come here since when they came back from Damaturu. One, because she didn't even have time for herself and both Waleed and Anas came to her when need be. And two, she was afraid of what Hajia would say. Because already, she had been insinuating that she was trying to seduce Anas, which she wasn't.
It took her a minute knocking before someone opened the door and she had to clear her tears to see who it was; Zaid. "Is Anas inside, please?" Her aching voice slurred and he stared at her longer than a minute before he nodded his head and moved away for her to get in.
"Sit in the living room, I'd go and call him for you." He said and walked away. Sabeeha stared at the living room and wondered if it'd be safe for her to even get in or not. Because from the looks of things, she could be wrong and land herself in a huge trouble by simply breathing.
But at last, because her entire body demanded she sit down so she could cry at the way her heart was squeezing and aching, Sabeeha took dreading steps into the chamber and sat down on the first sofa. Anas walked out immediately and even though she had expected he came along with his friend, who knew so well how to deep his nose into other people's matters, he didn't. And she was glad that he came alone.
The moment he saw her face and the amount of tears that were rushing down her cheeks, he rushed to the sofa beside her and sat down. "Beeha? What's wrong? What happened? Did Mommy do something to you?"
Her heart broke into a thousand pieces at the name of Hajia. She shook her head and wiped at her tears, but more gushed down. Her eyes were now a shade of blood and when she opened her mouth to speak, her lips quivered and she found herself breaking into tears.
"They said they're going to get me married to him, Anas. By Friday, and today is Monday, right?" She asked, wiping her tears and taking a breather. She really thought that by the way she was feeling, her heart was going to explode, but it was beating fine. Just that there were invincible hands clutching painfully at it.
"What? Get you married to who?!" He thundered and she sent him a pathetic smile.
"Idi. That I'm going to move into his room here and would still work in the mansion, but I'd be getting paid now." She sobbed so hard when she told him this part. Because upon all the marriages they had forced down to her throat, Sabeeha had agreed to them because she was going to live states away from these horrible people. But if she married him and she still stayed and worked in the mansion, what would that be? Two hells for her single soul? She couldn't take it. She would surely die if she did.
"What? How could they! Didn't you tell them what happened?! Get up, let's go back to them and I'll explain everything that happened between you guys." She had never seen Anas clouded with so much rage but today. She looked up at him and shook her head.
"You can't intervene in this. And Idi had already told them that I was the one that called him to the garden asking him to help me unplug the hose from the tap and then I started seducing him. He said that I screamed for help for the fear of getting caught when I heard you guys. You know they'd believe him, don't you?"
"Sabeeha," Anas whimpered and slumped back on the sofa. She palmed her face and nodded her head in so much agony.
"I don't know what's going to happen to my life if I get married to him, Anas. My heart is paining me so much and I wish I could just stop breathing for a moment, take a break from this pain that's so excruciating for me to bear. It's so hard, Anas, so hard."
She watched as Anas's face recoiled with so much anger and wondered what he'd do next. She was afraid that he'd cause more problem for her. "But I only came to tell you this because I wanted to talk about it to someone. Please don't go and speak to them over this, you're only going to make things worse for me, Anas, you know it, right?" She stared at him and waited until he nodded his head before he palmed his face out of exasperation.
"But how could they think of this? They have known you since you were ten, how could they believe a mere employee over you? A rapist? How can you get married to him, Beeha? I'd never allow that, even if it's going to be the end of my life." He avowed and got to his feet, pacing to and fro in the living room before he turned to look at her.
"I don't know what to do and how to avoid you getting married to him, but just know that you'd have to do everything it is I have decided. I'd never allow you to live with someone as terrible as that. And your next marriage would be the most beautiful one you'd ever think of. It will be a life changer for you, bi'iznillah."
"That's not what I want, Anas. I don't want to ever be married in my life. Just to be out of this." She slurred painfully and managed to stop her tears for a moment. Because she thought that this may have to work. "How about I go back to Damaturu? I don't know any state in this country as much as I do there and I can assure you I'd be safe over there. I'd work tirelessly and make sure Waleed never lacks and go back to school as well. Please help me leave Adamawa, will you?"
That was the only thought that had crossed her mind and the only escape she thought she had. Because she was certain they were treating her this way because she lived with them and they hated that. So, if she could move away from them so they could forget her existence, it'd be much better, right?
"Where will you stay in Damaturu? How can you be so sure that you'd be safe when that bastard must probably be roaming around the town?" She opened her mouth to speak when he cut her off gently. "You aren't leaving Adamawa. And even if you're leaving, let's say it'd be because you've gotten married to a man that we both are certain you'd be safe and happy in his hands. That life you think will be easy for you, don't be surprised when you taste it and it turns out to be the most bitter amongst all the lives you've lived."
He might, or might not be right. But she wasn't in the right state of mind to look into her decisions now. "What should I do then? Suck it all up and get married to him?" She had always done that, after all. And even though it was going to hurt if she did that, she knew it was the only way she had left.
"First, you need to go and rest now. I'd go and have a talk with them and see if they'd agree to what I'd say. And if not, I'll let you know of my decision..." She wanted to beg him not to let her marry Idi, her tears were already back on her cheeks. "I won't make things harder on you, Beeha. And trust me, you aren't going to marry Idi even if it's going to cost my life."
∞
Anas waited until he had calmed down a bit before he walked up the stairs, reminding himself that he couldn't raise his voice at them no matter what and he couldn't say or do something that will add more pain to Sabeeha. He could remember the way she was crying, it was as though she had even lost the emotional strength to cry as much as the pain she was feeling in her heart.
He stayed in front of Daddy's living room and stared at it longer than a minute. He couldn't believe that these people whom he loved so much were capable of causing so much pain to others. And their own relative, for that matter. He thought they were harmless, that they were filled with so much love that none of them could intentionally hurt someone, but he was wrong.
They were the same set of people that caused Sabeeha's life to be upside down and were causing even greater damages to her with each passing minute. He knocked softly and waited until he heard Mommy's fainted 'come in' before he did. And there they were, eating fruits while they watched TV as though they hadn't destroyed someone else's life within a minute or two.
He returned the smiles they had flashed him, even though feigned, and found himself a seat. "Good evening, Mommy, Daddy," he greeted and they nodded their heads at that, turning their attentions back to the TV.
He cleared his throat for umpteenth time, not knowing how to venture the conversation to them when Daddy turned to him and stared at his face with all the softness a father could. Only that if his father could be as half to or even quarter to Sabeeha as he were to them.
"Malam Anas, you surely have something to talk about, right? Is it money? That business you ventured into isn't going well and you need more?" He asked with a playful tone and Anas softly shook his head at him.
"Daddy, none of that. That business is even going so well than we both expected. I'm here for something else." He said, fiddling with his fingers nervously. He wanted to get his anger at them, but he knew he had to act coy to get their pity, maybe they'd pity Sabeeha in the process.
"Then what is it? This isn't like you, son." This was Mommy, chuckling at how nervous he seemed as they both wondered what it was about.
"Sabeeha told me that you two are going to get her married to Idi in four days." He dropped the bombshell and watched the way the smiles left their eyes and they all hissed and turned back to the TV.
"If that's what brought you here, simply get out of my sight." That was Daddy, his authoritative voice back. "What did I tell you about talking to me about her, Anas?" Mommy asked, anger evident on her face and in her words.
"Mommy, it's not like that. Wallahi that man lied to y'all. He was the one that tried so hard to rape her, we both saw it with our eyes. He should be fired, not to be offered marriage to the one he tried to rape just yesterday at night. What kind of injustice is this? And I'm certain you both know that she didn't do what he said she did, you simply used that as an excuse to hurt someone so innocent and..."
Somehow, he messed up! Damn it! He didn't know where his self control went and he started venting out, and right now, the look on his parents faces said it all.
"How dare you say that to our faces, Anas?!" Daddy thundered, and Anas's eyes got clouded with rage.
"What's with you and Sabeeha, Daddy? Why is it that you've been treating her this way since the day she came to this house? If you have hated her this much then why did you bring her here? Why didn't you let her stay with one of our other relatives?!"
"Anas! Take a hold of yourself. Don't you know who you're speaking with?" Mommy yelled and he turned to look at her with so much anger and pain in his eyes.
"I know, it's the father that have loved and nurtured me all my life, with so much love and kindness that I often feel I have the best father in the world. If so, why can't he be kind of father to her, Mommy? Why do y'all have to make her life so hard for her and you call this justice?"
"Anas, before I get my anger raised on you, get out of my sight and I dare you to speak to me about that worthless woman ever again..."
"She's not worthless, Daddy. And even though Meeral is my sister, I'd love to see how you two will act the day someone raped her and even in that person's dream, thinks about being offered her to him for marriage." He watched as pain and anger struck their eyes before he got to his feet. "You see? You have only imagined it and look at your faces. Whatever we do comes back at us, Mommy, Daddy. I fear the day what y'all have been doing to Sabeeha will be done to either of us."
Mommy threw the bowl of fruits in front of her to him and he quickly dodged it, even though it had hit his left arm before it fell and shattered into shards. He smiled, wiped at his angry tears and looked into her eyes.
"How dare you talk to your parents this way? Have you gone crazy!" She thundered to the point that the whole living room echoed with her voice that was filled with so much venom.
He smiled and stared at the glasses. "You've always threw whatever you wanted at her, because to you, she's such a worthless human being that doesn't even deserved to be looked at. But Mommy, whatever it is you've done and is still doing to her, I know when not to intervene but for this? I'll make sure she doesn't get married to Idi even if it's going to cost my life."
Silently, without waiting to hear what they were going to say, he walked out of the living room and after he took the first five flight of stairs, Anas slumped there and broke into tears. He couldn't believe that those horrible people are his parents and he had no choice but to love them even if they were the villains in the story of the woman he loved with everything that's in him.
He cried so well until he felt that he had no more tears left in him. Something about him that he wasn't ashamed of, he always cried whenever he felt too much pain in his heart and he believed that that wasn't a sign of weakness to him, it only meant he was human and was meant to cry when he felt pain.
He decided to go back and apologize to them, he had committed a sin from the way he spoke to them and maybe after he apologized, he'd beg on behalf of Sabeeha. So, he walked up to the door and before he knocked or even made his presence known, he heard their voices speaking.
"Alhaji, I think Anas is in love with that worthless woman, I've been noticing him since when he brought her back from Damaturu. And you can see the way he had spoken to us today, all our children might be stubborn and hard to deal with, but never him. I'm afraid his love for her may change him."
Alhaji chuckled and Anas could imagine him shaking his head. "He's just a foolish boy that'd get back to his senses in no time. As for her, I'm tired of all these marriages that aren't going to be fruitful to us. All the husbands failed that simple task we've given them..."
"Then what do you suggest we do? This has been going on for thirteen years, Alhaji."
"I know, that's why I decided that after we get her married to Idi for half a year, we'd then arrange for a way to have her killed. And even if the case raises, we have the means to protect ourselves at all cost or even dump all the murder charges on Idi to be on the safer side. And then..."
He heard Mommy's excited chuckle before she clapped her hands. "In the hands of law, we're her guardians and her son's custody will fall back to us, naturally. Then through him, we'd get the papers and that'd be the end of the story!" They rejoiced at the end and laughed so happily that Anas felt how his vision had gotten blurred and he had to hold the wall for support, his heart beating wildly against his chest.
"And what about her son? I don't want a case where after ten or twenty years to have another case raised up, Alhaji. We have to make sure we clean all the imprints this way. We can't make the same mistake twice."
"Come on, Hajia, don't you trust me?"
She laughed before she spoke, "I do. That's why I feel so relieved now."
"The boy will be taken care of a year after all the paperworks are done. I think poisoning him slowly will be best, to make it seem all natural. So you need to start showing him love and care so he can trust you enough to make it easy for us. And for Anas, will he continue loving a dead woman? No. Just let him have his moment of foolishness for now, I don't even want you bothering yourself over this, okay?"
"Yes, my love." They both smiled and Anas didn't know when he broke into a run. Running over the stairs three at a time until he collapsed in front of his chamber and called out for Zaid, he was going crazy.