"You don't have to leave now" Khadijah whined holding zainab tightly in her arm,

"I'm sorry, I wish I could stay here longer" Nadia said fixing the pin that just fell off her blue crinkled veil, "I'm going to miss you guys so much",

"I'll miss you more" Khadijah said cleaning the imaginary tears falling from her eyes, "come here" she pulled Nadia by her arm before embracing her tightly,

"zee zee zainab" Nadia pinched zainab's cheek playfully, "I'll miss you" she said rubbing her nose with zainab's.

"Let's go, we are getting late" Abdallah said behind them causing Nadia to turn towards him, she didn't know why he has been acting bitterly towards her since yesterday at the ice cream stall, he told her they were going to spend a week more in Turkey, but all of a sudden, he called it off saying they were leaving today. All the efforts she made to talk to him had proven futile.

"OK" she answered lowly, they bade Khadija and zainab goodbyes before they entered into the car that was going to convey them to the airport.

****

"Abdallah" Nadia called out when they got into the compound of their house, but he walked off pretending like he didn't hear her, "Abdallah" she called again quickening her steps, so she could catch up with him, "Abdallah are you okay?" she said when she succeeded in making him stop, but he was still backing her. She used her hand to hold his arm, so he could face her, but he jerked it off aggressively,

"get your filthy hands off me" he bellowed, causing Nadia to quickly leave his arm in fear, "don't ever touch me with those hands" he said in a low irate tone, "get that into your head" he boomed making Nadia shudder in fear, he scowled at her one more time before banging the door loudly.

Nadia stood rooted in her position with a bewildered expression. She was confused as to why he acted like that when she was only trying to check up on him after the long flight. She swallowed the pool of tears that were threatening to fall off her eyes. No! She won't shed any tears for him, not again.

****

In an elegantly designed living room, a man sat on the comfy couch with his leg crossed scrolling through his news feed when an email entered, causing his phone to ding loudly. He tapped on the mail to reveal its content. It turned out to be a blurred picture of a lady and a man trying to enter into a car. He tried to zoom the picture maybe it'll become clear, but it didn't.

"Who dare to send me something like this?" he questioned angrily, throwing his phone aggressively on the floor, causing it to make a creaking sound as the screen cracked. He gritted his teeth loudly, he hated it when people played pranks on him. He stood up to leave when he heard the phone vibrating, he hissed as he ambulated towards its direction under the centre table where it was lying with its screen facing the white shining tiled floor.

"What does he want again" he hissed seeing the name that showed on his broken screen, he rolled his eyes before tapping the green button,

"good day old-time friend" the person laughed loudly at the other side of the phone,

"what do you want again lukman?, what?" the man roared angrily,

"ahn ahn, calm down old friend" lukman said lowly, "have you not received my package for you?" he asked in a mocking tone,

"what package?" the man creased his forehead, "stop playing pranks on me lukman!",

"wait, wait now" lukman said calmly, "have you checked the picture?",

"so you are the one who sent that meaningless picture" the man snapped, "I'm hanging this call up now",

"before hanging up" lukman clicked his tongue loudly, "how happy will you be to find out that one of Suleiman's children is still alive" lukman laughed loudly when he got the reaction he expected 'silence',

"luk-luk-man" the man stammered cleaning the bead of sweat suddenly forming on his forehead, "how-w iss t-hat poss-sible"

"it it is is" lukman imitated him giggling loudly, "you know what will happen if I leak the clear version of that picture topped with a catchy story to the media right?",

"no, no, no, please don't do that" he begged getting on his knees like lukman was standing in front of him,

"don't use words, you know what I want" lukman exclaimed,

"don't worry, please please I'll give you any amount you want, any, just name it" the man pleaded over the phone,

"100 million naira" lukman replied, The man gulped when he heard the price lukman called, but he knew he had to pay him, or else that will be the end of him, "ohh you can't pay, okay let me take it to the med-"

"no, no I'll pay, I'll pay send me your account details and the clear picture" the man abruptly cut him off,

"you're now talking, I'll send it, thanks old friend" lukman said releasing his signature evil laughter before ending the call.

The man paced round his living room throwing and breaking any object that came his way, how is it possible?, he personally supervised the plan 8 years ago, and it was very clean, so how can any of them still be alive, he screamed holding his head, this is making him lose his sanity, he needed to do something really fast.

****

Nadia ate her food silently as she sat facing Abdallah. She thought everything would be better when they returned from their trip, but it was worst now.

"Is he bipolar or something?" she mentally asked herself because she can't understand why he helped her when she was down, and now he was acting like this. Only Allah can give her the strength and power to bear with him because she was starting to get tired of his attitude.

Abdallah pushed the yam and egg sauce into his throat with his tongue because he didn't have an appetite. He only agreed to eat the dinner she prepared because he wanted to see her. He wanted to look at her.

He thought getting angry with her will enable him to get her out of his system, but no! He was wrong, she is slowly making him lose his mind. Even though she hurts his feeling badly, he still wants her to erase it, he wants her to hug him tightly and never let go.

Abdallah was brought out of his reverie when a loud thud sounded, he jerked his head to find Nadia sprawled on the floor beside the chair she was seating on, "Nadia!" he shouted scampering to her position, "Nadia" he called out squatting in front of her, she shut her eyes tightly because of the painful sensation she was feeling in her ankle, he patted her cheeks softly, so she would look at him "Nadia are you OK",

"I'm fine, I just fell mistakenly" she said standing from the position she was, but she fell back down. She closed her eyes tightly, expecting to land on the cold hard floor, but instead she fell into Abdallah's hard chest. He used his strong arms to secure her tightly before he balanced her position, "you're definitely not fine" he said carrying her in bridal style, "I'm taking you to the hospital now" he warned with his hot breath fanning her face,

"please I don't want to go to the hospital" she managed to say even though she was lost because of how close they were, "it's late already" she added to convince him because she really didn't want to go to the hospital late at night,

"okay, first thing tomorrow morning I'm bringing the doctor in" he stated authoritatively, he ambled towards the stairs with Nadia in his arms. He gently laid her on her neatly laid bed when he entered in to her room.

Nadia suddenly felt cold when Abdallah's body left hers. She pleaded for him to stay with her eyes, but he glanced at her briefly before walking out of the room.

Nadia turned her gaze towards the door when she heard it clicked open, she saw Abdullah with something like an ointment in hands, he sauntered towards her direction drawing one of her bedside stool for him to seat on.

He slowly raised her long gown up a little to reveal her dislocated ankle, "it's going to hurt a little" he muttered calmly, Abdallah smeared a little portion of the ointment on his palm rubbing them together before massaging Nadia's leg. She grunted in pain when he started, but she felt more relaxed when he continued.

Nadia watched as Abdallah concentrated on massaging her legs like he was doing a job he'll get paid for. She felt herself slowly dozing off, she tried to fight it, but she gave in to the sleep when she couldn't fight any more.

"Do you feel better now?" Abdallah asked, but he got no reply. He glanced towards her direction and saw that she was fast asleep. He smiled as he gently tugged her hair that was almost entering her mouth backwards. She looked very peaceful, unlike how she looked when he shouted at her earlier.

He couldn't deny the fact that he felt better spending just this little moment with her, maybe it's time for him to let go and pretend like he didn't witness anything, so he could live a happy life with his wife.

Abdallah tucked Nadia properly in the bed, covering her with the fluffy duvet before ambling out of her room.

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@zinat Abdulkadir ✍️