ALERT:EDITED.
Song: Breathing.
Artist(s): Ariana Grande.
___________
______________________________________
___________
(Author's POV)
"Hello, Umar" he said
"What do you want?" Umar asked
"Why haven't you been coming to my house to check up on my wife, is it preharps because you have something to do with her disappearance?" Arman asked raising a brow getting ready to find a mistake in Umar's response and blame him for Assar's disappearance
"Is this why you called me?" Umar asked
"Where you expecting a call to check up on you?" Arman responded rudely
"What can I even expect for a loser like you, after all, all the calls normally come from that your errand boy, uh, what's that his name again, uhuh, Aliyu, have you finally dismissed him that you had to call yourself?" Umar said contemplating a joke as he laughed sarcastically to himself
"I didn't call to listen to jokes from you, I'm just going to ask you where's Assar?" He said with all seriousness
"Why are you asking me?, Did you finally loose her?" Umar responded sarcastically laughing after it
"I'm guessing it must sound like a joke to you since you keep on laughing but if I find out you have anything to do with my wife's disappearance then trust me when I say I won't spare you" Arman said and was about to end the call before Umar spoke up
"Drop the threats, if you're looking for your wife and you keep speaking in that tone then trust me when I say you'll never find her" Umar said letting a small laugh after that
"We'll see about that" Arman said and was about to end the call again when Umar's voice spoke up
"Cut that scrap, where have you been for the past 3 months, that silence from you was definitely unusual" he said as Arman remained quiet
"That's none of your business" he responded and ended the call immediately.
He was definitely suspecting Umar had a hand in Assar's disappearance, he didn't even try to deny not knowing where she was which made Arman believe more that Umar must know where she is.
Looking at the unconscious woman before him one more time Arman gets up and storm out of the house driving to Aliyu's house. This was something he clearly needed Aliyu's help for now he just have to figure how to apologize without really apologizing.
🦋
Umar stood there as he watched how Assar admired the dolphins she was watching swimming with their smiley face. After the call he just got from Arman which made him thinking, that means Arman can not remember seeing him walk out of the house with Assar in his Arms that day.
What happened to him then, if he can't remember seeing them what happened to him this last 3 months, did he intentionally not try to contact Assar during that period or it was all part of Halima's doing.
What the hell was going on, seeing how happy Assar and her mums are right now he cannot tell them that Arman just called to ask about Assar that would definitely make them worry again, this past 3 months had been really difficult for them and just when everything started to get better Arman suddenly shows up.
Thinking of what to do right now, he decided to do the one thing he has been restraining himself from doing this past few months, confronting Halima.
"She must have an answer to all this" Umar said to himself as he tried dialing her number. After calling her several times he's still left with no response so he just gives up and decides to go see her personally another day, if he leaves now Assar's mums will surely question him and he can't tell them at least not today.
"Umar come over here and take a picture of me and the dolphin" Assar said getting the man's attention as he nodded at her before going to do as she requested.
One picture turned into 5 and then ended up being 60 pictures all together, some taken with her and the dolphin as the background and some with both her mums. After that they all went to get some food and ate before heading off home.
"Ahhh, finally" Assar said as she slumped lazily on the couch while Umar chuckled at the sight
"I guess you had fun" he said sitting on the opposite couch smiling at her
"Yes I did, did you see the fishes they looked so happy to see me" she said flattering herself making Umar laugh
"And how are you sure you were the one they were happy to see, I was also there my face might have been the reason for their happiness" he said teasingly
"Absolutely not, there's just absolutely no way for that" she said with her arms spread shaking her head in disagreement childishly while her mums looked at her smiling to see a smile on their daughter's face finally
"What do you mean by that, in case you didn't notice, I'm sure the female dolphin especially was blushing extra harder after she saw my lips" Umar said making Assar lean closer to him
"This lips" she said stretching her hand forward pointing at it as the smile on his face slowly faded, noticing his smile had disappeared she traced her eyes to meet his staring deeply into hers.
Their eyes locked as they just stared at each other in quietness, Hajiya Aminah and Maimuna seeing what was happening then whispered something into each other ears before laughing silently and excusing themselves going to the second living room to have a chat.
Assar and Umar on the other hand were still lost in each other eyes, deep within him, his heart racing, why was he feeling intense right now, why couldn't he look away from her eyes and why can't he stop staring at her.
She kept looking at him, something in his eyes reminded her of peace, something in his eyes made her want to keep staring into it, she looked between both of his eyes, he had brown eyes, they looked so beautiful and peaceful to look at. She was amazed and impressed never thought she'll have a moment like this with this man especially how they encountered.
"Erm" Umar said cracking his throat as they broke the eye contact behaving embarrassed.
"Well, that was urm, nice you have black eyes and your eyelashes are pretty long" Umar said complimenting on Assar awkwardly
"And you have brown eyes, that's amazing" she said as she let an awkward laugh
"Well if my eyes are amazing I guess that's what made the dolphin happy" he said jokingly
"That's not true" Assar said getting back into her argument mode
"Well even you couldn't stop staring at it when you saw it" Umar said teasingly
"That's because you were also staring at me" Assar said in defense
"Ooouu are trying to pin it on me" Umar said pretending to give a look of disbelief which ended up being a funny face making Assar burst out laughing.
She kept laughing uncontrollably as Umar just sat there staring at the small figure with a wide smile on his face that didn't seem to want to stop.
"You're beautiful" he said unknowningly as Assar stopped laughing to look at him
"Thank you, and you're very good looking as well" she responded remembering how amazed she was by his looks when she first set her eyes on him at that airport.
"Tell me, when do you want to go to the art gallery so I'll make time" he said.
"Well I'm always free and you're the one who works, whenever you have a day off we should go" Assar said instead
"Okay then, it'll be a date then" Umar said smiling
"A date?" She asked letting a small laugh
"Why put it that way I'm a married..." She said as she paused, now she remembered Arman which took the smile off her face, Umar noticing her expressions had changed quickly spoke up so her mood won't be ruined
"It doesn't matter, we would go as best friends" he said teasingly wringing his brows making her laugh
"What is that you're doing with your brows?" She asked laughing
"What's what?" He asked doing it repeatedly leaning closer to her teasingly as her laughter increased, stopping after noticing how much she was laughing Umar kept on smiling at her.
He always wondered how she'll look like when she smiled and now that his seeing that happiness on her face she looked like the moon with stars racing around it. A very beautiful rare sight that no one could compete with. If she was an art then she would be the most expensive that was unaffordable and so would be preserved as a precious treasure.
"Beautiful" he said to himself as he watched her laugh, was he so funny that she couldn't stop laughing, his just glad that he brought a smile to her face and wants her to never stop smiling.
After a moment Assar finally stops laughing and the two continued teasing each other, time passed and today Umar stayed longer.
He and Assar was arguing about who was a better cook at some point and ended up competing in the kitchen on who would make a better dinner.
The mums watched and embraced the sight of Umar as he kept making thier daughter happy, they felt so happy, they also was not expecting to see any smile on Assar's face but Umar was able to put a smile on her face and that too much earlier than expected.
It's 9pm and Umar is playing a video game with Assar in the living room still competing on whose better after which Umar let Assar win and she teases him and him pretending to be upset while she laughed at him before she finally falls asleep on the couch as the man sat there staring at her.
It was late and he wanted to leave but just staring at the beautiful face of the woman sleeping he just felt like staying or rather let this moment never end.
Umar was lost admiring the sleeping structure of the woman when a voice interrupted him
"Umar, don't you want to go home?" A woman asked gaining his attention as he looked over to see Hajiya Aminah
"Oh, aunt it's you" he said scratching his head awkwardly definitely not expecting to see her
"It's 10:30pm now fah" she said as he looked over at the huge clock
"How did time pass so soon?" He asked surprised getting up to prepare to leave, when he last checked the time it was 9pm and just staring at Assar for a moment time flew
"Or you were distracted dai" Hajiya Aminah said and chuckled.
"Aunt, I have to go now, I'll be here to check on you all tomorrow" Umar said as the woman nodded at him
"You're always welcomed ko, greet your mum for me when you're home" she said as the man nodded before bidding goodbye to him as he left.
Hajiya Aminah looks at her daughter and released a tired smile, she has noticed Umar was surely developing feelings for her daughter and her daughter is already feeling comfortable with the man. However Arman's presence as her husband is surely not going to let this building relationship survive.
If only Arman would just divorce her daughter that would make their lives more easier.
After a few minutes she wakes Assar up to go to the room telling her not to sleep in presence of men again, she wasn't angry cause it was Umar and she trusted Umar wouldn't do anything to Assar but if it was another man then he'll surely have taken advantage of the situation and would have done something explicit.
The drive to Umar's house felt like a short one as all he kept thinking about was Assar all the way and whenever he thought of her time seems to fly so quickly, he halts in front of the building as Kabir walks up to meet him.
"Where you waiting for me?" Umar asked wondering why Kabir was standing outside by this time
"Yes actually I have something I need to say to you" Kabir said with an uneven expression on his face making Umar take a deep breath, whenever Kabir was like this then it's surely is serious.
"What is it?" Umar asked
"Well Arman came to our head quarters today and filed a missing person report, it's Assar his wife and the case are being handle by private investigators, it's the highest rank trained personnels that have been assigned to find Assar and to detain her immediately she's found" he explained as Umar let out a sigh
"You have to be very careful now on where you take Assar cause the investigators would be moving around in disguise and if you're seen I might be taken into custody" Kabir added
"Why would they take you into custody?" Umar asked
"Cause well you're my brother and they'll think I knew about her whereabouts and refused to speak up so I'll be considered a traitor" Kabir said
"All of this sounds like new trouble, just give me the faces and names of all the people on this case I'll make sure to avoid them" Umar said
"I don't know all the people they're sending and even if I do it's difficult to avoid them all, I think you should get Assar to speak to Arman so this case can be closed" Kabir suggested
"What are you kidding me, after all he has done to her I'm not going to let him take her back to that prison of a house and keep on abusing her, never" Umar said quite upset
"You need to understand.... " Kabir said as Umar cuts him off
"There's nothing to listen to, I've never seen her smile before and today I finally did..." He said as he paused
"It was the most beautiful sight I've ever set my eyes on and it was precious, I'm never going to let anyone compromise with that smile" he said as he let out a sigh
"Arman is going to have me to deal with, but I'm never going to let him have Assar" Umar said and walked into the house
Kabir let out a sigh as he recalled what his brother just said before letting a smile, saying
"Finally, he saw a smile his was wants to protect"