It's been sixty eight days since the divorce. Halima has been counting and so far, she can't wait to finish the ninety days of torture.

She was very foolish to think they could work out again, to think she was thinking of going back to withdraw the divorce issue, what a whimsy thought!

One week after they got back, Halima had thought about it, this divorce shouldn't have happened. But it has happened and she is the only one that can change it. She went to Sa'eed - since they aren't living in the same rooms - only to hear the conversation that changed her mind.

Halima walks through the corridor, determined steps are what she takes. She just needs to talk to him and then they'll go to the judge and forget the divorce issue.

"Yes, have you seen those girls? They look even younger in person. Fahida and Kamila. Very pretty girls. Your wife, oops, ex-wife would look like an old woman, a used one at that compared to them." Sa'eed scrunches his face up at the phrase 'old woman, a used one'. What does Safwan mean? That his wife is old?

"Let the divorce be done with first, then we can talk about Fajjita and Cammelia or whatever their names are." Sa'eed rubs his forehead in frustration.

"But seriously though, you need to make a move before someone does. At least see them, even if you won't go and see them, let them come to you." Sa'eed sighs.

"Okay then, send them." Halima turns around, her heart shattering with each step she takes.

That isn't all that happened to make her go back on her decision though.

Halima hears a knock on the door, she drops Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook and goes to attend to whoever her guest is.

On opening the door, she sees two young girls in figure hugging embellished gowns wearing heavy makeup. She looks at them head to toe and back, as if asking who they are here to see.

"We're here to see Sa'eed. I'm Fahida and she's Kamila." A wave of awareness washes over her and she ushers them in. It's not her house anyways, it's his house.

"Can you get him for us?" The fair one who spoke earlier says removing her veil to showcase a cleavage exposing gown. She's slim with all the curves, beautiful caramel skinned with pearl white teeth. Her eyes are lined with black Kohl making them look large. She has a large black birth mark right on her cupid's bow. She's beautiful.

"Sure." Halima gets inside the house and calls Sa'eed.

"Who's looking for me?" Sa'eed asks and Halima smiles.

"Fahida and Kamila." Tears start to fall off her eyes. That's the pregnancy hormones speaking. She wipes her eyes and start to walk away. Sa'eed shakes his head, why is she acting like that? Aren't they divorced? Then why is she crying? First she asks that they get divorced and now that they are, she's acting up because he's looking for a replacement for her. Women. He shakes his head and walks into the parlor putting on a smile.

Halima feels tears rushing out of her eyes. Her freaking hormones again! She wipes her eyes. She stands up to pray her Asr prayer when she bumps into Sa'eed on her way out. He has been there watching her cry.

All what he did, he did it so she could realize she's still very much in love with him but now, he knows he acted on impulse and stupidity. He has always been a stupid husband. Despite taking the promise of making things right between them he did the direct opposite. He made things worse between them and now she loathes his mere presence.

He wasn't going to actually marry Fahida or Kamila, they are just friends of the President's children who wanted to catch cruise with him, nothing more. Then one of his friends at work, Abubakar suggested that he acted as if he was going to get married to them to make Halima jealous and maybe she'd probably withdraw the divorce issue. But instead of it to work, it backfired.

"Halima, when you're done, I want to talk to you." Sa'eed says. Halima made sure he stopped calling her Habeebtee because according to her, they're not married again so there's no need to add any endearment to her name.

"Is that what gives you the right to enter my room? Without permission? What if I was naked? You know we're not married anymore, you clarified that. So what's this ordering around and entering my room for? Huh?" Even Halima herself feels surprised at the way her mood changes like Abuja weather in rainy season. She was sad and heartbroken a second ago and now she's suddenly flaring like a bull ready to charge at its prey.

"Halima, I don't have strength for this. Just pray and come downstairs." Sa'eed goes out and Halima hisses long and hard. She's going nowhere. If he thinks he can order her around after all what he did just because she's staying in his house then he's highly mistaken.

She goes and performs ablution, prays and takes a bath. This pregnancy has changed her alot, she's fatter than before. Her cheeks look like they'll fall off anytime, her legs are always swolen, her hips and butt have enlarged themselves, her breasts fuller than they're supposed to be and her skin dirtier than ever. Rashes and pimples have made their house, her skin.

She feels disgusted by her own herself; no wonder Sa'eed saw those beautiful Hausa girls and fell in love with them. Now she sees what Sa'eed sees when he looks at her. A colossal mistake!

"Halima, I thought I said you should come down?" Sa'eed notices the tears gliding down Halima's face. Her eyes have this faraway look in them. He's sure that she doesn't even know she's crying.

"Halima!" Sa'eed shouts and Halima's eyes whip themselves to him.

"Sa'eed what's your problem, is it when I die that you'll be happy? You brought two young girls to this house and I didn't say a word to you. I knew what you were trying to imply, that because I'm pregnant for you, I'm ugly, I'm fat and don't deserve you right?" Halima wipes her tears.

"It's okay, I'll leave now so that you don't have to see me again. I promise to leave and only show myself to you when we're about to finalize this divorce. I, Halima Sadiya Audu Kalshingi promise to see to it that I leave and and make sure you don't see my ugly pregnant fat self again. And once we're divorced, i promise to leave your life so you can marry whoever you want to." Halima drags her suitcase and leaves the room. She didn't unload it since they came because she felt disgusted of the room since that's where Aleesha stayed.

She moves to the boys quarters and opens one of the rooms, it's dusty and empty because it hasn't been used. She drops her suitcase by the door and goes into the house. Just because she's leaving doesn't mean she'll leave all the things that were bought for her for him. God forbid!

She's going to take what she'll need for now and when she's leaving forever, she'll ask Amir to go and take everything for her. That reminds her, she hasn't talked to Amir since after her wedding. What a good half sister she is! But she can't blame herself alone, he also didn't attempt to look for her, he's also just as nice as she's, note the sarcasm.

She takes the broom and packer to go sweep before deciding against it, he can keep everything, she doesn't know if Aleesha has ever used them so instead, she calls for an Uber driver which arrives ten minutes later. She takes her ATM card and a big Khimaar and then takes her leave.

The driver takes her to the nearest mall as she requested and she paid him his fare. She enters and starts to shop for all the things she will need for the remaining twenty two days. She buys a packet of cornflakes, coco pops, rice crispies, frosties and other cereals.

A standing broom and long parker are what she buys next. She buys other convenience foods and some other needed items before deciding it's high time she queue up to pay then go to the food court so she can eat then leave.

As she stretches her hand to pass her card, a dark shiny hand beats her to eat. The lady behind the system looks confused between the two hands when the owner of the hand speaks.

"I'm paying for the both of us." Halima doesn't look at him. Instead she looks at the lady in such a way that would make anyone obey her. It's as if she's telling her to collect the card if she dares.

"Don't mind her, she's my wife. We just had a little argument and her pregnancy hormones got the better of her." The lady smiles and collects the man's card. Halima gapes, what sort of lie was that?!

She turns and looks at her 'husband' and a pair of jet black eyes look at her. The man is definitely Nigerian. He's handsome, with shiny chocolate skin and pearl white teeth. He's wearing a white getzner sewn into a kaftan.

She huffs already knowing what is going to come next. It's either he says he loves her or he loves her. She waits for the lady to package everything for her and she takes everything out. She stops in front of an empty ATM withdrawal stand then withdraws seventy thousand. She hands it to the man who has been following her all through then orders an Uber which unfortunately for her, would take twenty minutes to get to where she is.

Frustrated, she goes to the food court. She's hungry anyway. The man follows her and sits where she sits. She narrows her eyes at him and he grins revealing vampire teeth. Halima has to resist the urge to swoon.

"Hey, Halima right? I'm Safwan." He smiles and Halima widens her eyes.

"Excuse me! How do you know my name?" Halima narrows her eyes.

"I saw your name on your ATM card." He reveals his vampire teeth again and Halima narrows her eyes at him again. Are his eyes that keen? How could he have seen that?

"Okay then, what do you want? I allowed you pay for my shopping, what else do you want?"

"Your heart." he says almost immediately and Halima raises a brow at him.

"...To like me." He grins sheepishly looking apologetic.

"Elucidate please." Halima leans back on her chair as she doesn't feel hungry anymore so she brings out a bar chocolate from one of the polythene bags to take.

"Pardon?" Oh, good English unlike normal Nigerians that would've said ehn. Nice.

"Explain." Halima tears open the chocolate wrap and bites into it. She moans and the Safwan guy twitches in his seat.

"I mean I want to be your friend, if you don't mind." He says and Halima looks at him before biting into the chocolate again, making her moan again. Safwan twitches in his seat again and looks at Halima uncomfortably before gulping.

"Why do you want to be the friend of a pregnant woman?" Halima asks, biting into her chocolate again she moans. Safwan gulps and uses his hand to cover the chocolate when she attempts to go for another bite. She looks at him questionably.

"Please stop."

"Stop what?" Halima raises her brows at him.

"Making that noise." He says releasing the chocolate and realization hits her. She smirks.

"Do you mean this sound?" She moans again. He narrows his eyes at her and she'd be lying to herself if she says he doesn't look hot!

"Stop it." He sounds childish and so cute. Is this guy bipolar?

Halima mentally smacks herself, what does she think she's doing? In front of a guy that's not her Mahram. But then, Sa'eed probably did worse than this with those girls, the thought alone makes her heart constrict. But she's not Sa'eed.

"But seriously though. What do you want from me?"

"You look like a married woman to me so no, I don't love you, at least not like that. I want to be your friend." Halima tilts her head to the side as if trying to gage him. After some seconds, she nods and asks for his phone.

Giddily, he hands her his phone and she puts her in her contact information. She stands up to leave when she receives a call saying the Uber she ordered for has arrived. Taking her shopping bags, she leaves wishing Safwan goodbye.

Safwan looks to the man behind him, the man in turn, raises a Camera at him and he gives him a thumbs up.

Sa'eed paces outside the entrance to the parlor. What is Halima thinking? That her seeing a guy and even going on a date with such guy would have an effect? Well then damn it it does. It freaking has an effect on him and the said effect is making him go gaga with anger and jealousy.

The sound of the gate opening snaps him back to reality and he marches angrily to Halima. He takes her lips in for a surprise kiss and to his surprise, she pushes him away and slaps him right across the face.

Mouth agape, eyes wide as saucers and with a hand on the said slapped cheek, Sa'eed stands frigid looking at Halima.

"This should be the first and last time you'd ever try anything of this sort with me. Just because I've tolerated all the nonsense you've been dishing out for the past two months doesn't mean I can't stand up for myself. I'm not your hoe! Get that into your stupid excuse of a skull. Maybe Fahida and Kamila will give you the guts to try this with them but we're not all same. So respect yourself." Halima hisses and takes her shopping bags which she had dropped in the course of slapping Sa'eed and goes away. She possibly isn't expected to kill herself now is she?

"Halima, Halima." Sa'eed continuously calls Halima's name and once they reach the front of the boys quarters, he blocks her path.

"Who were you with today?" Sa'eed asks, his anger with a double dose of jealousy resurfacing.

"You have no right to ask me that. I'm not your wife or daughter and neither do I live under you." At the mention of the word daughter, Sa'eed's eyes dart to Halima's protruding belly making her to protectively place her hand on it.

"Look, I know you were with a man."

"And so what? Did I question you when you brought Fahida and Kamila into this house?" Halima raises her brows in question and Sa'eed remembers the way she was laughing so carefreely with the said man while his hand is over something she was eating.

"Halima, please, don't do this to us. I still love you and..." Halima cuts him off with a sharp hot glare.

"I've made a mistake once, but not again." Halima walks inside the room and locks it just the same time a notification enters her phone.

Hey, it's Safwan.

A message reads and she replies with an okay before saving his number. She can't resist it so she saves his number with a smiley emoji and a red heart too. Even she doesn't know why she did that but she did and she's not going to change it. Not now, not ever.

Are you busy now? I want to call.

Halima looks around the slightly dusty room, it's clean to an extent but it has to be more clean than this and there's nothing she hates more than a dirty environment.

I'm a little busy. I want to clean my room. Sorry, I'll call you when I'm done.

Halima drops the phone and removes her veil. She puts her shoe on the shoe rack by the side. She changes into one of her soft palazzos and tops it with a white singlet. A black plane cap follows and she gets to work.

After sweeping the whole room and cleaning up the drawers and walls, she sits to rest. She picks her phone to call Fatima when she sees a message from Safwan.

Clean a room?! In this condition?! Where's your husband? Don't you have maids? Do you know you're not supposed to stress yourself in this condition. I'd send a maid over instead if you don't mind, I don't want you to loose your child.

Halima smiles at his consideration. And there she was thinking he had ulterior motives for approaching her. Seems like her guardian angel has finally arrived.

There's nothing to worry about. Working while pregnant is good. It's a form of exercise. And no I don't have maids, I'm divorced too. Also, there's no need to send a maid over, thanks for the help though.

Halima sends the message and calls Fatima.

"Hey bestie that has abandoned me." Fatima says immediately she picks the call. Halima sighs.

"Fatima..." Halima doesn't know why but she suddenly starts crying. She hasn't communicated with anyone, not even her parents since she decided to make it work. But now, she has decided to bring her family close. She's also going to call that her friend from Paris who happens to be a Nigerian and live in Abuja.

She's going to explore the world of friendship. She's going to shop, go on outings, go on picnics, go to cinemas, and do alot of things. Sa'eed doesn't deserve her sadness. She's going to live her life to the fullest and no one is going to stop her.

"Halli? What happened? Why are you crying? What did that dumbell do again? Halima?" The call is suddenly ended and Halima remembers she hasn't recharged in days. Using her bank, she buys airtime and just as she's about to call Fatima, Fatima's call comes through.

"Halima tell me, why are you crying? Or do you know what, I'm coming over." Fatima ends the call and Halima sighs. She's rested enough. She needs to finish cleaning the room and setting everything up.

She removes her charger from her bag and plugs her phone to charge then mops the room. As she starts arranging the room, Fatima calls her asking where she is. She tells her she's in the boy's quarters and ends the call. Few minutes later, Fatima comes in all decked up in a blue with milk prints ankara a-lined gown with pockets on both sides and a crinkled milk cotton veil.

"Halli! What are you doing? You're pregnant for Allah's sake!" Fatima exclaims as she watches Halima bend with great difficulty to pick up clothes from the suitcase and arrange them in the wardrobe.

The BQ is not bad. It has two medium sized sitting rooms, each connected to two rooms with their various bathrooms and a corridor separating the two rooms. At the end of the corridor is a door that leads to a kitchen with a store in it.

The rooms are stocked with the necessary furnitures. Bed, wardrobe, a dressing mirror, two bedside drawers, a lamp, sufficient lighting and everything else a regular room would need. Nothing out of the ordinary though.

"Halima I'm talking to you! What happened?" Fatima yells and Halima goes to the parlor, silently urging the earlier to follow her.

They enter the parlor and Halima sits down, awaiting Fatima to sit. After Fatima does so too, but instead, beside Halima, the latter looks at her and smiles.

"Do you remember how I was groveling at Mummy and Ammi's feet not to bring me back to this house? Do you remember how much I cried?" Halima chuckles again. Fatima opens her mouth to ask Halima why she's acting like this but Halima continues to speak.

"And then they forced me. After all the shedding of tears I still followed him and then, he almost killed my baby." Fatima is utterly confused as to what Halima is pointing at. And Halima doesn't even want to look her in the eyes.

"And then I asked for a divorce. And I was asked to go meet some man to annul the marriage. What did the man do? He asked me to stay for three more months with my husband." The way the word husband came out of her mouth, can be associated with the spitting of venom.

"I agreed didn't I? And what did my husband do a week after we came back here, after I had started making efforts to make things right? He was making plans to marry again. And then he even had the effrontery and audacity to bring two girls into this house. To show me that because I'm pregnant with his child I'm old and useless right? But why am I complaining? I brought it upon myself." By now Halima is crying seriously. Tears are falling from her eyes like a waterfall. She's releasing all the pent up emotions. All of it. She can't kill herself. Especially not for someone like Sa'eed Abba Sulayman, he's not worth it. Not at all.

"Should I tell you what else he did? He ordered me! He tried to kiss me! He even wanted to show authority over me! He doesn't know that the Halima who'd follow his orders in the blink of an eye is gone. That Halima is foolish and stupid and I refuse to be her, not anymore." Fatima's eyes are glistening with tears. She doesn't know where her brother from years ago is. This one is a monster! He's not her brother. But she won't react, her parents must hear of this.

"To show him I'm not affected by him anymore I'm going to do alot of things. Don't worry I'm not going to hurt myself. He isn't worth that. I'll tell you my plans now. But for now, I need to get my home for the next three weeks cleaned up." Halima stands up and goes to the backyard. She switches on the water flow for the BQ and gets to work.

Silently, Fatima stands up and leaves. Her parents need to hear this. Halima shouldn't have to suffer.

"Safwan what do I do? She's fucking angry at me! And she doesn't even want to talk to me. Instead, she's attending to guys outside." Sa'eed hears the call end and when he tries to call Safwan back, his number is switched off.

Without thinking twice, Sa'eed takes his car keys and makes for the villa. Safwan should be there since he has work today while Sa'eed doesn't.

On arrival, Sa'eed sees Safwan backing the door to his office while he's on a phone call. Seeing the way Safwan is twisting Sa'eed already knows it's either his girlfriend or one of the numerous girls he flirts with. Not wanting to interrupt, Sa'eed waits by the door without making any noise.

"Yes, this husband of yours is really an arse." Sa'eed rolls his eyes. Now he's after married women. He doesn't even know how he's friends with this guy.

"I don't even have it in me to think about him anymore." Sa'eed could've sworn that was Halima's voice. But she doesn't know Safwan, he never introduced them. It can't be.

"Don't stress yourself Halima, he's not worth it. Moreover, stressing isn't good for a pregnant woman." Sa'eed scrunches his brows up in the middle of his forehead. The Halima he knows is pregnant, and she has an arse of a husband - which is him - and she has given up on that husband.

"I'm not stressing Safwan. Anyways, I have to go. My car just arrived. I'm off to my friend's house. She recently got married." Sa'eed hears shuffling and his sister's voice follows. Now he's sure it's the Halima he knows.

He watches, with shaky hands from rage and red eyes as Safwan says bye and ends the call, then turns his swivel chair only for his eyes to meet Sa'eed's. His eyes widen a fraction and he stands up.

"Sa'eed. Our oga at the top. When did you come in?" Safwan knows he's threading on thin ice.

"Earlier. And I was opportuned to hear you bad-mouth me to Halima." Sa'eed cracks his knuckles, smiling menacingly.

"Sa'eed. Let's talk this out like civilized adults." Sa'eed chuckles.

"Civilized you say? Is attempting to separate a husband from his wife Civilized?" Safwan smiles.

"Ex-husband Sa'eed. Don't forget, you're divorced, and you brought it upon yourself." Sa'eed throws a punch at Safwan and the latter being the weakling he is attempts to run.

"I regret ever telling my problems to you." Sa'eed gets a hold of Safwan's white Kaftan and starts punching him mercilessly. Soon enough, other workers start to gather around and with great difficulty, they peel Sa'eed off an almost unconscious Safwan.

"Next time, take care of your wife." Safwan says and Sa'eed kicks him where the sun doesn't shine before walking out. Stupid man.

Sa'eed decides it's high time he stops this nonsense and apologizes to Halima, he's already done enough damage to her.

"Oh my God, so you were actually serious about coming." Eesh - Halima's friend from Paris - says welcoming Halima into the house. Halima smiles and walks inside the house.

After they exchange pleasantries, Eesh's eyes flickers to Halima's huge bump and she raises her brows.

"That has been there since we met the first time." Eesh says an oh and they talk about everything and nothing.

After about two hours Halima stands up to leave and Eesh thanks her for coming and then invites her to come anytime she wants. She starts going home in an uber. It's already dark.

Sa'eed walks to and fro in front of the varendah. He can't wait for Halima to come back so he can apologize. He's willing to go on his knees.

The sound of the gate opening pulls him out of his train of thoughts.

"Halima I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all what I've been doing. I'm extremely sorry. Please forgive me." Sa'eed holds unto Halima's veil and she pushes him away.

"Your sorry won't change anything. You've lost me forever." Halima says and enters the BQ.

Three weeks later.

"Ahh!!!" Halima screams, sweat dropping from her forehead as she holds tightly unto the sofa.

She manages to walk to the room and unplug her phone which has been charging since yesterday night. She dials Innayo's number with great difficulty and calls her. In an attempt to stop herself from screaming, she's biting her lower lip which unknown to her has started bleeding profusely, she's still biting it.

"Ammi." Halima says immediately the call is picked before the contractions come back in full force. She screams in agony as she feels a liquid something rushing down her legs.

She doesn't have the strength to look down, she's slowly losing energy.

"Ammi my baby." Is the last thing she says before she falls to the ground with a large thud, hitting her head at the edge of the bedside drawer causing the wood to break into two and her head to start bleeding. She loses consciousness.

"Doctor you need to save her at all costs. She hasn't blinked at all. Her baby too." Fatima says as Halima gets wheeled into the OT.

Seventeen hours later, the doctor comes out, he has blood all over his hand gloves. He removes the gloves and throws them in the dustbin.

"Doctor, how is she, how is the baby?" Fatima asks the same time Sa'eed, Abba, Innayo, Hajjo, Audu, Amal, Afnan and Amir stand up to hear the news.

"Are you the patient's relatives?" The doctor asks.

"Would we be asking you that if we weren't?" Amir angrily replies and the doctor apologizes. He looks at them all.

"I'm sorry." he walks away.