Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
Hey guys. This book is going to be filled with happy, comical but mostly sad and heartbreaking moments. It's a matured story. Please, don't carry your wahala and come and dismember it here. It's a matured story, and rightly so. This is my first overly emotional book and I might not get the portraying of the emotions well but I'll try. Even though most of the happenings of the book are based on reality, I've never experienced them so don't expect the emotions to be relayed perfectly. But I'll try as much as possible to perfect it with time In Shaa Allah.

The goal is for it to not exceed thirty chapters. Let's hope I'm able to stick with it.

Copyright
Copyright 2023 Amina Alkali Kwairanga. All Rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. No part of it may be reproduced electronically, physically or in any other way of any sorts. In short, no sort of plagiarism will be condoned.

Dedication
To any girl out there who is or was a victim of rape, physical, emotional or intellectual abuse. Don't let one or two low blows take you down completely. Fall but rise better than you were before. Remember, Allah has promised us ease not once but twice in a particular Surah; Inna ma'al usri yusra. Wa inna ma'al usri yusra. So don't be discouraged, hold unto this Ayaahs and let Allah show you the way.

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
Allahumma innaa nas'aluka khairaha wa khaira ma feeha, wa na'udhubika sharraha wa sharra ma feeha.

Prologue.
Sometimes, there are things that happen in front of little kids that they will forever remember. It maybe something colossal, something life changing. And it could also be something as irrelevant as a water bottle falling from their hands and not breaking.

And sometimes, the events that seem to be the most irrelevant, are the most life changing. One may not realize it is actually life changing, not in the next few hours, not in the next few days, but in years to come.

—

Amina is in her playroom, the one her dad, Major Muhammad Baba had made for her just because he saw how reluctant she was about leaving the one in one of his friends house in Europe. He had it built for her before they even got back from Europe.

It wasn't built actually, he asked for one of the rooms in his humongous house to be converted to a playroom for her. Of course, his wife, Rn Hassana Kangiwa flipped out when she entered the room she had reserved for unwanted guests and found it in pastels and filled with toys.

"You can't keep doing this, Baban Amina. I am as much a human, as those people you keep running to." That's Rn. Hassana speaking in Hausa, chasing after her husband.

Amina turns and watches as her mother rushes behind her dad. She drops the Lego block in her hand and stand up. She makes sure to pull the door of her playroom close, as her mother has said it is wrong to leave a room open for any reason whatsoever.

"Baban Amina, listen to me. You can't leave." Amina peeps through the railings of the staircase just in time to see her mother holding her father's suitcase and blocking his path.

Her little hands clutch the iron railings and she tries to force her hand through the space between two bars but it doesn't fit. So, she just settles for peeping.

"I don't like this thing you're doing. You keep acting like a child. This is my job, you knew this before you married me. We talked about it. Why are you making a fuss of nothing now?" Rn. Hassan breathes loudly, the house is quiet but Amina doesn't hear it. She sees her mother's chest rises and falls slowly though.

"That time, I didn't know I would be having these feelings. I didn't know I'd lack control like this. And you know more than anyone on this earth that you only can help me." Major Muhammad sighs.

"The escorts are waiting for me, Hassana. Get out of my way." Major Muhammad makes a move to leave but she blocks his path again.

"You can't marry me and dump me in this house all alone. I am a woman with urges, you can't do this to me. How do you expect me to be faithful in this marriage?" Rn. Hassana looks like she might cry now.

"Mina ta, come down. Come and tell your Dada goodbye." Amina rushes down the stairs giggling, almost tripping on her own feet.

Major Muhammad lifts her off the ground and twirls her. He hugs her and kisses her cheeks on both sides then her forehead.

"Take care of yourself, and your Mama too, okay?" Amina nods.

Major Muhammad kisses his wife's forehead and she bursts into tears.

"Wallahil azeem I won't be responsible for whatever I do in your absence. Just know it's all your fault." Rn. Hassana watches through blurry vision as her husband shouts at his brother for being drunk and unable to stand on his feet again, before handing him some cash.

He then enters the car and the fleet of black cars exit the compound. And then she falls to the ground and bursts into sobs.

"Don't cry, mama. Please. I'll cry too." Amina wipes at her mother's incessant tears.

Rn. Hassana pulls her daughter to her chest and hugs her.