They arrived at The Mubaid's Residence as the chauffeur pulled over. Aliza, Sabrina and Farooq sauntered into the house each of them muttering du'as underneath their breath because they knew whatever was going to be said in this house will be heart piercing, intense, lugubrious and dismaying.
Farooq and Sabrina went in first because they had to be the ones to explain how Aliza is suddenly back from death. Abdallah would be the first to say she was reincarnated. Surprisingly, everyone was present. Every single person was in large living room. His friends, her friends, their parents, their siblings, and shockingly, Aunt Emigen.
No, shit was destined to go down today.
"Assalamu Alaikum." The couple said their taslim. The last time they were all present together was when Sabrina was admitted to the hospital but this time around, the number had increased.
Family Reunion Indeed.
"Wa'alaikum Salam." They responded to their taslim. Sabrina had thousands of questions on her mind but decided to keep quiet for once in her life and see what the outcome may be. She resisted the urge to give her old man a hug because she's waited months for the day he'd finally wake up. But things were already heated so she opted out of it.
"Come in, we waited for you for about an hour. Take a seat, today is the day of revelations." Baba Kaka spoke out loud, leaning back in his king sized seat. He was the only one sitting on a chair, everyone else were sprawled on the large soft Italian carpet.
"Before we come in.." Farooq turned to Sabrina then she nodded.
He wasn't the best person to break out news to people because he'd just let the words out without caring whether or not he sounded blunt. "We brought another family member along with us." Sabrina beamed, her gaze fixated on Mrs Mahir. She still hates the woman a lot but she can't wait for her to see her daughter.
"You're pregnant? I knew this Paris trip was a consummating one!" Tareeq blurted out then immediately shut his mouth with his palm after realizing he said it out loud.
"Tareeq!" Everyone shouted but some were already laughing. Sabrina and Farooq turned red but were quick to shake it off.
"I'm not pregnant,Tareeq." The thought of being pregnant scared the living day light out of her. She can't imagine being pregnant. She's not ready for that. Not now, not anytime soon.
"Who is it then?" Amma smiled as she rose up to her feet. Sabrina smiled back. Only the two knew why they were smiling at one another. It was Amma's way of apologizing to Sabrina for everything, and it was Sabrina's way of forgiving and forgetting everything.
"Before we open the door, please nobody should freak out, okay?" Farooq ordered more than he was requesting. That's just the way he is.
They all nodded. Slowly, Sabrina opened the door allowing a lady donned in a pink gypsy gown to amble into the living room.
Jaws were dropped. Inhalers were used. Eyes went wider than saucers. The shock they all had in them was indescribable. How is it possible?
"Mommy!" Baby Hiba squealed loudly as she ran towards her mother. Aliza picked her up in her arms, attacking her with endless kisses all around her body. "My Baby Hiba, I missed you so much!"
"Aliza, is that really you my daughter?" The three mother's asked in unison as they rushed over her giving her a tight hug. One after the other, they all attacked her with hugs, kisses, then it moved on to questions.
"How are you alive? We buried your body with our own hands? This can't be possible." Mufid shook his head unable to believe that his cousin was actually alive.
"She was reincarnated!" Abdallah blurted out carelessly.
"Shut it, Abdallah!" Betty facepalmed herself.
Aunt Emigen came forth, sharing a smile with Aliza before turning to the family. "The person you buried was her lookalike and not her." A shocking gasp escaped their lips. Most of them were at the brink of losing it.
"Please who are you? I've never seen you in any of the three families so where did you suddenly pop up from?" Came Mr Mubaid's question as he surveyed Aunt Emigen. She only smiled then looked away.
"You'll find out soon." Was all she uttered then returned back to her spot.
"Then you faked your death or what?" Aliya inquired squeezing her hands with her sister's.
"That's enough! Everyone take a seat. Grab a bottle of water, make sure your inhalers are in intact, oh and try not to faint mid way to my narrations." Baba Kaka spoke very sternly. He knew most of them will certainly lose their minds after he's through talking.
It's now or never.
They all sat down on the carpet. Sabrina's left leg began shaking uncontrollably, some noticed while some didn't. Her anxiety was starting to get the best of her.
"It's going to be okay." Aliza placed a hand on the leg which slowed the shivering. Sabrina smiled the nodded knowing it's not going to be okay.
They all know it.
Baba Kaka cleared his throat then fixed his spectacles. "Aisha, Ashraf, Laukha, Arif, Aliza and Captain Mansur—you all had your chance to speak but you refused, so I suggest that it would be best if you don't try to stop me today."
"But he'll—" Mrs Mahir tries protesting but the glare she received kept her meek.
"I fear nobody, Aisha. Right Sabrina?" Baba Kaka grinned sending her a smile. She only nodded slowly because at this moment, her heart was beating at an abnormal rate.
She was scared. She was afraid. But she's Sabrina after all, so she masked her fears with a fearless facade. "Yes, sir."
"Growing up as a young boy in secondary school here in Nigeria, my only friends were Mahir and Sayhaan. We did everything together, we would go to school together, come back together, our parents loved our bond so very much. We were the best of friends and everyone knew it. The time came for the three of us to get married to the girls our parents selected for us cause back then, that was the tradition. You get married to whomever your parent throws your way, whether or not you like the person. Mahir and Sayhaan got married before me. The girl my parents chose for me was not at all the type of person I'd like to have as a wife nor as the mother of my children. She was rude, spoilt, uncourteous and selfish.
So I protested against it because I was never one to do something against my wish. But my parents refused, saying I had no other option apart from that woman. That was when Khadijah came into the picture.
Khadijah was our friend. Mahir, Sayhaan and I. She was the kindest and most loving woman I had ever set eyes on. She was the type of woman any man would love to have as a wife. She was loving, caring, beautiful, kind and patient. I've never seen a woman that had so much patience like that of her. And I fell in love with Khadijah. I told my parents I had a girl I wanted to wed. When I introduced her to my parents, my mother refused her; saying she was fulani. My mother had beef with Fulani women. She didn't want me to marry one. After seeing how adamant I was on getting married to her, they allowed us to get married.
We got married two years after Mahir and Sayhaan did. But funny enough, we all gave birth at the same time. Mahir had two bouncing baby boys who were named Khaleed and Khalifa, Sayhaan had a boy, who was referred to as Khidr. While Khadijah and I named our son Khaleed too.
Not because of anything but it had been our dream to have our first child's name as Khaleed—Khadijah, Mahir and I.
When our child, Khaleed, clocked one years old, my mother forcefully asked me to divorce Khadijah else she would never forgive me and disown me. We pleaded with her that day like never before. Mahir and Sayhaan intervened but it was all in vain. I had no other option but to separate from the love of my life but what hurt the most was when my mother aggressively dragged our one year old child from Khadijah. I had no problem with her raising the child but my mother was problematic. I can never forget how Khadijah knelt down and kissed my mother's feet just so she could get her child back but it was effortless.
I got married to the woman my mother wanted me to marry in the first place and parted ways with Khadijah. My mother didn't even allow us to be in contact with one another. The woman took in Khaleed as her child but never for once treated him with love and care. I had two other girls with the woman and that was it. We stayed with each other for sixty long years but never for once were we happy with each other.
That woman passed away ten years ago."
At this point, Khaleed Mubaid was in tears. "What are you saying then, Daddy?" Uncontrollable tears rolled down his cheeks because that could only mean that he grew up without never knowing who his mother was.
"The woman you considered your mother for fifty years wasn't actually your mother, Khaleed." Baba Kaka said, swallowing thickly.
"Who's my mother then? Who is Khadijah?"
Baba Kaka tilted his head towards the woman that was crying in silence. Her Ankara was drenched with tears and he couldn't even wipe her tears for her. He's not leaving his seat till he finishes everything.
He pointed at her, "That woman there is Khadijah or as some may call her, Aunt Emigen. Emigen was the name we referred to her as back then in our secondary school years. Sabrina, Farooq, she's not a witch. She's your grandmother. Children, go pay your greetings to your mother and grandmother."
Farooq was rooted at his spot. The woman he felt a connection with for a long time but couldn't express and know what it was, was actually his grandmother? What is wrong with him? How couldn't he tell that she was his grandmother? Just how?
"Farooq, I assumed that you'd figure out sooner but you failed to. Come on, where do you think you and your father got your blue greyish eyes from?" Baba Kaka chuckled motioning his shoulders forward.
"Mother," Abi sobbed as he wrapped his hands around his long lost mother.
"When the four children—Khaleed, Khalifa, Khidr and Khaleed, clocked the age of fifteen, Mahir, Sayhaan and I decided to move to Maiduguri permanently. We all moved to the state and continued our work there while the children furthered their secondary school there. Sayhaan and Mahir, along with their wives were travelling back to Kaduna to get some things sorted out. But before they left, they made me promise to take good care of their children for them. They asked me to treat their children just how I would treat my own, scold them when necessary, advice them, fend for them, leaving them in my care. Little did I know that, that was the last time I'd see my two friends. They had encountered with a car accident on their way back from Kaduna and passed away.
That was the saddest day of my life. I lost the two noble men I loved with all my heart. They returned back to their lord. I was left with their children to take care of. The families of Sayhaan and Mahir didn't have a problem with me taking the three kids in as my own, everyone knew we were heart brothers.
I became a father of four males and two other females. Though, my selfish wife moved to Qatar to further her education and went along with my two daughters. I was left with four boys. I raised them with my all and nobody, I mean nobody can testify against me that I didn't raise them well. Allah knows I treated each and every single one them equally. Allah blessed me with so much wealth that I was the richest man in the whole of Maiduguri.
But treating them equally doesn't mean they would eventually grow up to have the same characteristics.
Khaleed, Khidr and Khaleed were best friends. They did everything together. Whenever I saw them together they would always remind me of my two late friends. They had the zeal to chase their dreams and further their education. All did except Khalifa.
Khalifa excluded himself from them because unlike them who were hardworking and intelligent, he never for once had the passion for school. Everyone knew it. He failed his SSCE examination twice while the rest were in level two at college. The three were studying at one of the best college in Dubai while Khalifa was still in my house.
He started gambling, partying, neglecting his duties, he became so truant. Times he'd return home drunk and would embarrass our family, the neighbours always pointed fingers. The time came for him to write his third SSCE examinations, his brothers were back for holiday.
Two days before the day of the examination, Khaleed, Khidr, Khaleed and Khalifa were out exploring Maiduguri. His brothers kept on advising him to study and try and make the exams this time around but he would just brush them off. At that time, all three of them had cars except Khalifa. That was when I began seeing signs of jealousy from Khalifa. It was way too obvious that he envied the rest.
After another attempt in the examination, he failed again. He got tired and vented his anger out on me. I, of course would never sit and tolerate such insolent act, so I lashed out on him. He withdrew himself from his brothers. He was always so rude to them and once tried to stab them all at his drunken state. He became a criminal that was always wanted. There was no week I wouldn't be called to the police station because of Khalifa. He made me go through a lot, that too as a single parent. After stealing fifty million naira from me, he ran away and never returned.
Two new families moved in from Turkey. The first family were pure white. The mother was Turkish and Shua Arab from maiduguri, and the father was purely from Turkey. They had the most beautiful girl as a daughter—Aisha—at that time she was the most beautiful girl in Maiduguri.
The second family too were all born in turkey but originally from Nigeria, Maiduguri. They also had a beautiful girl as their daughter—Laukha—whom was Aisha's best friend.
I guess it was love at first sight but eventually Khaleed Mahir and Aisha fell in love with one another. Simultaneously, Khidr fell in love with Laukha though theirs started off as a love hate relationship. They started courting one another, of course with we the elder's concern. Though Khidr and Khaleed found their matches first, Khaleed Mubaid, my own biological son, got married first. He married a Chadian lady, Zainab.
Eight years later, Khaleed, Khidr and Khaleed became one of the most successful men in Africa. I was the proudest father because I saw the results of my hard work. Khaleed Mahir had four children.
Sadiq Ashraf was eight years old at that time, Saifullah Arif was five years old, Eliza and Eliya were three years old. Khaleed Mubaid had four children too. Ibtihaj was also eight, Farooq was five, Arianna was two while Harisa was one years old. Khidr had two children despite the fact he wanted more but Allah blessed him with only two. Jawahir was seven years old while Khadijah Kubra was one years old.
That time we were all living in Los Angeles, California. Aisha was pregnant with Sabrina. Aisha was that loving bubbly woman with a cheerful personality. She was as calm and sweet as Aliza, maybe even more humble. People knew her to be a somewhat naive but sweet soul, she was everyone's favourite.
Khalifa then returned out of nowhere ready to wreck havoc and mayhem. He was back to take revenge on us all but especially on his biological brother, Khaleed Mahir. He was jealous that he was able to attain the most out of all of them. Khaleed, Khidr and Khaleed were among the top richest men in Africa. Khalifa the greediest of all wanted everything for himself and only him.
One fateful day, Khaleed Mahir acquired a land in Nigeria that was wanted by a lot of people. Why is that, you may question? Because that land had eight most expensive rarest precious gemstones—Tanzanite, Musgravite, Black Opal, Diamond, palladium, Taaffeite, Alexandrite and the best of all, Sapphire diamond. He worked so hard to acquire the land as I could remember. He did his very best and with two years long struggle, he got it. But he didn't get it for himself, he got the land for his unborn child.
When Khalifa found out, he kidnapped Khaleed Mahir, his heavily pregnant wife Aisha, Laukha and Neelam's mother, Sarah. I'm sure Aisha and Laukha aren't aware of the fact that Neelam is Sarah's daughter.
Moving on, he kidnapped them and took them to a warehouse near the Mexican-United States Border. He tied the women in a separate room from Khaleed. He threatened Khaleed that he'd destroy his whole family if he didn't sign the properties paper. He was compelled to sign everything because he valued the three families more than he valued his wealth. Little did he know, that wasn't all. Khalifa shot him dead with his gun. He killed his very own brother.
Witnessing this, Aisha broke down right then. She wanted to shout but Sarah and Laukha stopped her. Khalifa just murdered her husband and the love of her life in cold blood. But she had to get ahold of herself because of her baby. They escaped and started running into the bush so as not to be caught by the guards. Right there, Aisha hit labour. They had no other option but to stop and help her deliver the baby there.
"Push a little harder, Aisha." Laukha said as she widened her legs.
"Laukha, I can't!" Aisha whimpered with tears gushing down her cheeks.
"Do it for your princess, do it for Khaleed! Just one more push!" Sarah cried out.
Aisha pushed her head backwards and gave the hardest push when the baby came out. "My baby, let me see my beautiful princess." With a wide smile on Laukha's lips, she passed the baby to Aisha. Aisha held her in her arms and embraced her. She looked just like her but also had some traits of that of her father's.
When she started crying, Aisha used her middle finger and index finger to cover the baby's mouth. "What are you doing? It can affect her if you close her mouth, please remove your hands." Sarah pleaded with her but she refused.
"No, Sarah. We'll get caught! If Khalifa hears the baby crying he'll not spare us. He's going to take my baby away from me. No!" She broke into silent tears as she held her baby up her shoulders.
"Okay then but I hope you covering her mouth won't affect her in the future, let's get going. I know you don't have the strength to keep going but you have to Aisha. We can't afford getting caught." Laukha uttered helping her up as they ran their best to get away from the men that were following them.
"Stop right there!" Khalifa shouted pointing a gun at them.
"Aisha, keep going don't stop!" Sarah said as they ran faster but their race came to a halt when Khalifa shot Sarah dead. They all stopped. "You killed my friend, you killed my husband! Just let us be! Leave us! What do you want from us?" Aisha screamed clutching onto her baby like her life depended on her.
At the moment, it did.
"Stop being so dramatic or else I'll shoot you two dead too. The only reason I'm letting you be, is because I can blackmail you, unlike Sarah. Now, Aisha will get married to me!"
"No, I won't! You bastard! I won't get married to my husband's murderer!" She shouted back at him. She screamed her life out but all was in vain. His men dragged the two women along with the baby back to the warehouse where an Imam forcefully got the two of them married against their wish. He shot the imam dead as soon as he was through.
"Now listen carefully and well, our marriage is nothing but just a mere contract agreement. From this day forth, I'm not Khalifa but Khaleed Mahir. I'm his exact replica after all. I even got that stupid star sign tattooed at the back of my neck.
I own everything he once owned. You are to move with the flow and pretend as though I really am, Khaleed Mahir. You'll tell everyone that Khalifa died in a car accident. And this beautiful thing..." he snatched the baby aggressively from her arms.
"Give me back my child! Give her back to me!" She screamed her heart out but all he did was laugh devilishly tracing the baby's skin with his gun.
"From this day forth, she's my child and not yours. I want you to stay away from her immediately after you're done breastfeeding her. Make this princess hate you more than anything, make her despise you, neglect her, criticise her, become the worst of the worst to her. And if you, for even a moment show love or care to her after you're done breastfeeding her, I promise to kill everyone. Each and every single one of you will die in my hands." He cackled boisterously.
"How can you tell me to stay away from my own daughter? She's my everything! She's a symbol of my love for Khaleed."
"I've said what I have to say. It's up to you. This little girl is the only thing I cherish with my all. She's my princess and nobody else's. She's mine and only mine. The way her eyes are sparkling I could see the fire she's going to bring.
She's my gateway to being extremely rich! When she clocks twenty years old, she's going to sign that land's ownership papers and transfer it to my name. From this day on, she's not your daughter. She's Sabrina.
Sabrina Adila Khaleed."
"Ashraf and I were trailing behind them when everything happened. The poor boy witnessed his father being shot. He witnessed his mother giving birth while trying to run away. He saw her forcefully getting married to his uncle. That was the day his heart turned stone cold. He hated Sabrina for twenty long years because he blamed her for the death of his father.
Aisha never hated you Sabrina, she loves you much more than you can ever imagine.
The man we've all been living with isn't Khaleed Mahir but actually Khalifa Mahir. Your father died twenty years ago children. We've been living with an imposter!
This imposter murdered Saif because he found out the truth. The same imposter murdered Neelam's mother. He also gave Laukha pills so she'd never be able to conceive again. The imposter that made four men rape Saif's younger sister, Noor, just because he had a dispute with her father. They raped that poor girl to death—and crazy how everyone blamed Farooq for his friend's death.
You morphed him from that kind and jovial boy he was to a blunt, rude, emotionless and arrogant man. Yet you still had the courage to say that your son has changed.
Arif and Captain Mansur are FBI agents—of course due to carelessness and irresponsible parenthood, you guys never bothered to ask Arif where he worked. Well might I add, the two have been digging to find out about this case for four good years now.
Harith works for Khalifa and he's the one that pays him to go around assaulting women. Khalifa is also a drug trafficker. Has been one for ten years now.
He instructed Eliza to fake her death because he couldn't kill her. He adored her, so he wasn't able to kill her.
In short, we've been living with a murderer for twenty good years."
___________________________________
END OF CHAPTER
E SHOCK YOU ABI E NO SHOCK YOU?😭😭🤣🤣 not everyone blaming my dear Captain Baby.
What shocked y'all the most?
Please guys i need your comments 😭 i take God beg you 😭😭
I'll try and finish this book this month since I'm on break.
Love y'all
Zira💕