The intensity of Hauwa's questions grew and so did Yaseer's will to avoid them.
At some point, she had thought about getting a divorce.
This was too hard for her to handle.
Oh, you want to run away from your problem you weakling.
Her inner self would tell her.
It was actually more like a motivation for her not to quit or give up.
She really needed a timeout.
A space to herself.
Somewhere to clear her head.
Somewhere to be away from Yaseer for the time being till she had things figured out.
"At least a little cleaning would get my mind off this."she put the key into the basement door keyhole.
"A place to reflect and rethink my life."she sighed.
She had never been in that part of the house except during the attack on their house incident which they passed through the attic and not the main basement door.
It was mostly locked because it wasn't in use.
It mostly contained old stuffs.
As she pulled the giant door open, a fist of dust attacked her face immediately making her cough and sneeze.
She held her arm under her nose and walked into the thick dark room.
Have you gone crazy?! Are you really going to stay here rather than settle things with him?
She came to a halt once she was half way inside.
The only light that illuminated the room was the reflection of the lights in the hallway.
"I have tried settling things with him, but he's not willing to do so on his end! I can't even stand his face anymore!" She replied to her inner mind.
The hallway light wasn't enough for her to see the room, so she ran her hands through the dusty wall to find a light switch or something.
Her hand finally got to something that felt like a switch.
She pressed it and the lights came on giving Hauwa a clearer view of the dusty basement.
She was just going to clean a small part where she would be reflecting in.
After lot of contemplations on where to clean, she finally came to the conclusion of the small little corner by the entrance of the basement.
She went back into the main house to grab a few cleaning materials.
She also put on a face mask to reduce the amount of dust she breathed in.
She pulled out a few things like a couple of nightstands and old lamp from the corner.
She then proceeded to clean the cobwebs above her head.
She had started sweeping the floor when the brush she was using came in contact with something.
She tried sweeping again, but something was most definitely obstructing her.
She squatted and lifted up the piece of curtain material that was shielding the object.
It was a black box.
She made herself grab the dusty gift box.
The box still looked intact.
It just needed a little dusting and could be gifted to someone on their birthday.
She ran her fingers through the dusty black lid before slowly taking the lid off the box.
Her eyes immediately caught the large font on a paper inside the box.
'MEMORIES' the paper read.
"Memories? Of what?" Her eagerness made her pull out the paper.
Her jaws immediately dropped.
Her eyes enlarged.
Her breathing seized.
Words that wanted to come out her mouth were stuck in her throat.
Pieces of the puzzle started to fit in a little bit.
She wish see could unsee what she had just saw.
There was her husband in the picture with his lips pressed against another lady's lips.
Hauwa had never seen the lady in the picture in her entire life.
She put the first picture gently on the floor and reached for the next picture.
The lady was indeed beautiful.
Her dark melanin skin shone so bright that it was the first thing you noticed when you look at the picture.
Comfortably sitted on Yaseer's legs as he ogled at her.
Her smile was so bright that it broke Hauwa's heart into million of pieces.
Hauwa's vision became blurry as a result of the tears that had clouded her eyes.
He lied to me.
The next picture was nothing close to appropriate.
It was a picture Hauwa never imagined would contain her own husband.
Who was this lady?
Why was Yaseer lieing to her?
Her hands begin to tremble as she dropped the picture with the others on the floor.
She was now on her knees.
Tears trickling down her face.
Mucor slowly sipping down from her nose.
She felt the pieces of her broken heart stab her chest from the inside.
Her stomach felt really uncomfortable.
Anger slowly filled her.
This anger was a different one.
It was mixed with a bit of overthinking, sadness, anxiety, heartbreak and hatred.
She clung her hands into a tight fist.
It was as if she was storing her energy to blast at Yaseer in them.
She began ripping the pictures on the floor into pieces.
She released all the emotions she had been feeling by screaming loudly.
She released all the emotions she buried down for so long.
She got up on her feet.
"Noooo!"Hauwa turned the box upside down making all the pictures drop all over the floor.
She then proceeded to shredding them into pieces.
The material the pictures were made of were a bit tough, but she tore them anyways while still yelling.
She was having a huge meltdown.
Tears gushing from her eyes non-stop.
She fell back on her knees probably leaving a bad bruise on them, but she didn't care.
As a result of Hauwa's shouting, Yaseer approached the basement door.
He had just returned from work.
With his briefcase in one of his hand, he walked to Hauwa.
He was about asking why she was yelling until his eyes fell on the pictures on the floor around Hauwa.
Her back faced him.
Yaseer's throat instantly turned dry.
"Why Yaseer? Why did you do this to me?!"she roared.
Yaseer was silent as usual.
"Did I wrong you in some way?" Her voice began softening.
Yaseer squatted to his wife's level and was about to put his hand on his wife's shoulder.
"Don't touch me!"the pitch of her voice deepened again.
Yaseer immediately withdrew his hand to himself before standing up straight again.
She didn't want to glance at his face.
She felt so much anger that just a sight of Yaseer could make her punch him so hard.
"I knew something wasn't right,"more tears streamed down her cheeks. "Your silence is making me believe my eyes."she adjusted herself on the floor by bringing her knees to get chest. "I never got into this marriage to be fooled, but I was fooled. Who is she? Why her? What did I do? Why did you do this?" Hauwa poured out her heart.
"We have kids Yaseer, why did you still cheat on me knowing well that we have kids together? That's why you've been ignoring my questions. You must have an explanation." She spoke.
"No, Hauwa you're getting it all wron-" Hauwa cut him off.
"You don't love me Yaseer. You didn't love me so why did you let me stay in this one sided relationship? The pain would have been less painful if you had confronted me and told me you didn't love me,"she began rocking herself. "It would have been much better to break my heart earlier when I was the strong Hauwa not now that I have been going through a lot and become weak!"
A feeling travelled down Yaseer's stomach and dropped right at the bottom making guilt engulf him slowly.
"Your close ones could actually be your real enemies."Hauwa kept on rocking herself.
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