****
THIRD PERSON
Yasmeen looked like a goddess.
She was wearing a white. White lace of Sani's choosing. Over the lace was a black and gold 'alkyabba'. The hands were adorned with henna and gold.
The palace was packed to the brim and people were still arriving. The kakaki was playing in preparation for the royal nikkah. Everyone was excited except the bride. She knows if this marriage happens, the only thing that will separate her from Sani is death.
Everyone was gathered in the courtroom where the fatiha was taking place. Sani mounted his throne, fully turbaned. Hecwas shaking hands and smiling with everyone.
He had locked Yasmeen in the room. Knowing her, she'll try to do something stupid and he couldn't afford to lose his temper in front of all these people.
"Dangin Amarya (bride's family)" the imam called. Two men moved and sat by his right. They were men Sani paid to be Yasmeen's uncles because the only relatives of hers he knew will rather die than give her to him in marriage. So he got rid of them and forcefully took her. He smiled at himself.
Ruckus and greeting of coming from outside caught the attention of the people in the room. Mubasshir feared he was late. All it took was less than ten minutes and Yasmeen will be lost for good.
He entered the court room and everywhere went pin drop silent.
"Greeting your royal highnesses. You cannot proceed with this wedding for so many reasons "
Mubasshir yelled although the room was silent. He wanted his voice to ring in their bloody skulls.
"Who is this man?" A turbanned old man asks. Mubasshir recognized him. The emir of zazzau. A friend of his father's.
Sani was stunned to the point that Mubasshir was worried he got a stoke. He wasn't worried because he cared about his uncle, he was worried because he couldn't beat a man with a stroke.
"Mubasshir Mustapha, son of the late emir of Rimi"
After a murmur in the crowd, another old man spoke.
"We were told you died!" The crowd nodded and murmured in agreement.
"I did not" he simply stated, leaving them to wonder what had happened to him.
"You have no right to stop this wedding, We know you are not married to her. You have failed to bring tangible evidence of your union!"
An old man on Sani's right says. No doubt his adviser.
"It is true. I am not married to her. But there is a reason" Mubasshir produced an iPhone from his pocket and Sani quicky recognized it as the one he have Yasmeen some days back. Although still stunned by the state of life of his nephew, he wondered what he was up to.
"He raped her " Mubasshir said.
He walked further into to the crowded courtroom and played the recording.
"I have had my way with atleast twenty girls like you. You should be fucking ecstatic I am willing to marry a nobody like you"
Sani's voice rang through the quiet room. Everyone fell silent again.
"He is a rapist" Mubasshir spat again.
"How dare you!!" Sani yelled, finally able to break the trance that the sight of his nephew had put him in.
"That could be the voice of anyone!" The adviser said again.
"This is the phone of the girl he is about to marry. He has her locked in a room. I'm sure the keys are in his pocket. Why don't we get her in here?"
"Surely we can't let him come in here making demands! He was exiled!" Sani said again. His voice was beginning to shake. He has never been more afraid.
"If you have nothing to hide surely we can bring the girl to testify" the emir of Zazzau says calmly. The other emirs nodded in agreement. Sani shifted uneasily in his throne. You could see sweat forming on his brow.
He hesistantly produced the keys from his pocket and Mubasshir smirked at his little victory. He knew his uncle too well.
A bunch of men and guards escorted Mubasshir to the room where Yasmeen was and they unlocked the door. The breath was knocked out of Mubasshir all over again.
When he arrived the palace earlier, he had gone straight to the room window and he saw her crying. His plan was to steal her and leave Rimi but since the key to the room was with Sani, she suggested a better idea. She had recorded his uncle boasting about his rapist ways. At that point, Mubasshir wanted to kiss her.
Now seeing her in person, without burglary rails between them, he found himself stuttering.
"Bloody hell" he muttered to himself. She was stunning. He wanted to go all cave man, fling her over his shoulder and run off. Its been so bloody long since he saw her and he's only now realising how long, seeing as she was now completely grown.He snapped out of his trance when she called his name.
"Mubasshir?!" She stuttered. Like him, she was awestruck.
"Is this her?" One of the men asked Mubasshir. No genius. she just feels like wearing a bridal cloak on someone else's wedding day. He wanted to say but he didn't.
"Yes"
"What is going on?" She asks
"We need you to testify against Sani, in the courtroom " Mubasshir explained to her.
"No" she said simply, leaving Mubasshir to wonder if he suddenly got a hearing impairment.
"Pardon?"
"No. I won't go in front of hundreds of people and announce to them that I have been tainted. No!"
One part of him wanted to yell at her. Wanted to hammer it into her head that if she didn't do this then its all over. But another part, the part that surprisingly cares how she feels started thinking of another way around the ordeal.
"Okay. Stay here. I'llbe back"
"What do you mean stay-" Mubasshir glared at the man that was about to protest, daring him to speak further. He didn't.
So he led the small crowd away from Yasmeen, back towards the courtroom. An old man suddenly stopped him.
"I can help you"
"What can you possibly help me with do i look like I'm asking for help?" He fired, unnerved by Yasmeen's refusal to testify.
The man just smiled and walked into the courtroom. Mubasshir quietly followed him. Sani instantly paled. Okay what is up with that?
"Where is the girl?" Another emir asked.
"Demoralised your eminence. She refused to come here. He has her brothers and has threatened to cut their throats if she utters a word" Another wave of silence washed over the room.
"Or she is lying and can't come out to say it!" The adviser says again.
"But i have someone else who is willing to-"
"This is not a court session! To bring forth these types of allegations, you mush have proof or you face dire consequences" Emir of zazzau said, evidently getting irritated by the shenanigans.
"I apologise your eminence. I do have proof " Mubasshir was afraid. If this man that offered to help wastes anymore of their time, it'll be all over.
"Who are you?" The emir asked the man. All the while, Sani looked like he was about to shit himself.
"I'm a doctor you highness"
"And you know the emir how?"
"I worked for him till he ordered for me to be killed because I wouldn't work for him anymore"
"What kind of work"
The man hesitated.
"What kind of the work?!"
"I am the one who takes out the girls' unwanted pregnancies " A blanket of silence fell on the room.
"How many girls to be exact?"
"Ten" he says. Mubasshir looked from the man to his uncle bewildered. Sani raped ten girls?!! At this point, his nonexistent breakfast was threatening to come back up.
"That is a lie! They are all lairs!!" Sani shouts looking like he was about to burst into flames.
After sometime and exchange of glances and murmurs, the elders spoke.
"This wedding has been put on hold. Investigations will start immediately and only after will the wedding be continued or called off" a large murmur rose amongst the crowd. Mubasshir smiled at himself. He knew this wedding was off.
****
"YASMEEN!!!" Sani thundered thrashing the palace as he made his way to her room. He'd been with th elders for hours trying to debunk all Mubasshir had said.
The other emirs had left, saying they will be back when the wedding commences again. Even if he manages to get out of this one, which is very unlikely, he has been humiliated and called a rapist in front of half the emirs of the north.
He burst into the room to find her gone. Her luggage wasn't there. The little cosmetics she had on the dressing table were also gone. On the bed, was the wedding dress, the cloak and all the gold she'd been wearing. He felt his blood instantly come to a boil.
He set out. He first went to their house, the one she was living in with her brothers. There was no one there.
"Burn it to the ground " he says to his goons. Soon, thick dark clouds of smoke was rising into the bright sky.
He went to Mubasshir's house next. He saw movement at the window and knew that they were definitely in there.
"Yasmeen! I am going to kill you with my bare hands!" He yelled.
"I think the fuck not" Mubasshir said coming out of the house and standing at the door.
If it was five yeard ago, Sani would have ran into him and strangled him. But now with the added weight and lack of exercise, all he could do was stare at him menacingly.
"I will burn down this house with the two of you in it." He threatened. To which Mubasshir laughed.
"Please, go right ahead"
They both knew if anything should happen to them, all fingers will point to Sani and it will be perceived as guilt. It means he has something to hide. So he smiled and left the house. He'll wait for when the investigations were over and he was found not guilty.
A/N
DOUBLE UPDATE!
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