Neither revised nor edited.

Nawwar didn't want to marry El-Mustapha. He was once her crush and his attention was something she once craved for. Now she didn't want anything that had to do with him. He didn't see her with any worth. Why would she stick to him? She had moved on with Farouk and now Baffa told her the wedding would hold in two weeks.

She had smiled bitterly at her father and left his sight. How could she say no to him? He would be shattered.

"Ya Nawwarah, he's at the gazebo." Her sister told her. She quickly cleaned the tear that cascaded on her cheek. She had to act like she was happy. After all she was going to be Mrs El-mustapha.

"Linah, ask Beatrice to serve him coffee. I will be with him in a few." Nawwar finished and dashed into her bathroom. She looked at herself at the mirror and wondered why El-Mustapha didn't find her attractive. She washed her face and rubbed a cleanser cream. She wiped it off and threw a veil across her shoulder.

When she sighed him, his face straight, she felt better. She took her time before she sat before him.

"Salam alaikum." She greeted. El-mustapha answered immediately. Did she know that? He thought she would greet him with a hi or hello just like her best friend and his sister, Maya.

Nawwar moved uncomfortably, her eyes on the artificial waterfall that adorned their compound.

"Baffa told me." She swallowed something.

"Baba asked me to come. You have something to say, he said."

Nawwar smiled when she saw his eyes on her. "Yeah I don't know either. I don't know why he sent you." But the truth was she knew. Baffa told her to start arranging the wedding that's why they're in their Kaduna residence. And she should make a list to El-mustapha once he ask. For now, he didn't and she wouldn't dare say it.

El-mustapha held his chin with his hand. "I guess I should leave but before that I heard you need some money."

Nawwar smiled again. He wanted her to sound miserable and in need. She won't. They were not poor too.

"No, Amma has ordered my furniture from Turkey already. My kitchen utensils too arrived yesterday from India." She smirked under her smile.

El-mustapha chuckled. "As if I didn't hear from Mahmoud that Baffa sold his plaza that's in Abuja to do that. If you want money, open your mouth and talk. Nothing is impossible from me. You know?"

Nawwar grimaced. What's wrong with El-mustapha? Why did he want to downgrade her. Was he like that all along? Well, he's at the wrong place.

"I think I will get back." She rose to her feet. She would rather sell her golden necklaces and bangles and act like its from El-Mustapha.

He rose to his feet too and dipped his hand in his pocket.

He removed some cash in dollars.

"That's five thousand dollars for your bridal gift. They call it lefe or whatever."

"Maya should be your aid. I won't mind having my wardrobe filled with MayApparels cloth." With that, she left the place. The money untouched by her. El-mustapha swallowed. He turned to leave but something bug him. He couldn't leave the money behind. He shouldn't.

Show her five thousand dollars is nothing to you. A voice in his head whispered. He took two steps away and stopped.

You can't waste that amount. Pick it. She knows you're capable of more than that.

El-mustapha slapped his face. At the end, he picked his money and exited the house.

Nawwar could see everything from where she stood. She laughed out loud. She never knew he loved money this way even though he had them plenty. Now she's knowing who he really was. Under that calm and dashing smile was the other side of him. One could never tell from a far.

When the image of how he slapped his face, eying the money, as if he was expecting them to fly back to his pocket, she laughed out again.

"What's so interesting Nawwar?" She heard her mother's voice behind her.

"Amma, I'm in a good mood." She shyly whisked away from her mother's sight. Her mother only smiled. She hoped the Kabo blood in El-Mustapha would differ. They're good people to mingle with, good parents. But to their wives, she better stay mute. She just wanted a good and sweet life for Nawwar. She didn't want Nawwar to be scarred in anyway.

May El-Mustapha be different. May his smile and calmness be engraved in his actions. May his behaiviour towards her daughter be sleek as his gentleness and handsome face.

She flipped the page of the book in her hand trying to escape some memories that rushed to her brain.

*****

Adeelah stirred her tea for a minute straight. Her eyes completely on Salisu who's behaving as if nothing between them happened.

"What do you think about the company? The workers are trying from what I observed." She initiated a talk. After she met Ameer and came back, Salisu only gave her a creepy smile. It made her stomach twist but she returned a sweet and childish smile at him. She watched his face stay stoic, as if he swallowed a mountain. Her heart palpitated then, Salisu left her. When they closed from work, he waited for her and they drove home in silence.

Now that she's at home, she didn't feel alright. Salisu had to be him. The one she knew.

"Yeah they're really trying." He shortly replied her. Adeelah looked at him again. This time, their eyes met and she could swear that she felt something in her heart melting. She didn't know how to describe what she felt but damn, Salisu had a very huge effect on her since the last few days.

She sighed and looked at her tea.

"You may need some tea." She offered. Salisu smiled.

"Coffee." The way he said it made her swiped her head up. Was that his voice? It sounded incredibly familiar. She would like to remember who had similar voice like his. She couldn't fathom it, she couldn't understand anything but she feels like there's something mysterious about her life.

And Salisu. She felt like she's known him before. She might have hated him at first but now by Allah she like his company. She just couldn't interpret things.

"Hello Miss." He waved at her. Then she realised she had been staring at him whilst immersed in her thought.

She ducked her head down. "We don't have coffee bean." She said, drawing down her hijab to cover her pyjama. Salisu had never seen beyond that despite her being his wife.

He always giggle at the thought. He didn't care for now. He's not in a haste. He had taken things in slower pace before and he's still taking them. Adeelah didn't know.

They shared different rooms and never bump into each other. He mostly wake up earlier than her and boil water on the cooker. The heater in the bathroom was faulty.

"I think I will have to go out. It's too hot today and I guess you must feel uncomfortable with this hijab." He spurred his thought. Adeelah smiled.

"I can manage."

"Sure?"

"It's none of your business." She put on her mean expression.

Salisu raised his hands in defense. "Agreed. None of them."

He was wearing a short sleeve shirt and thus Adeelah saw another scar on his arm. It was so wide that it made her cringe.

"What's this? Salisu?" Her eyes were almost popping when she dropped the cup on the centre table and rushed to him.

"Hey calm down. This," he touched the place.

"It's been here since I can remember. At least for more than twenty years. Funny enough, I couldn't remember much. But I thought I was dying."

"Can I touch it?" She asked out of the blue. She was so curious about it. How could one sustain such a huge wound.

"Just like my face and bald head, it's a scald. I actually had a fire accident. Our house caught fire when I was five." Adeelah couldn't believe it. Unconsciously, she dragged his hand and took him to the nearest chair she could sight. Then she took his hand a began to caress the scar. It was still thick. She couldn't believe it. Her eyes started to water.

"I actually was announced dead."

Salisu didn't know what happened. He was there spilling dangerous information about his life to Adeelah. Well to him it's not dangerous, but his mother warned him. She had repeated it like mantra. 'Don't ever tell anyone' And he never did till this day. He felt he had to tell Adeelah.

If she would ask further, he won't even know what to say because that's all he could remember. He was too young to decipher what was actually going on.

His father, he couldn't remember his face. He's seen him for a number of times in his life before he stopped seeing him. Goggo stopped talking about him. And he never asked.

"The last thing I can remember is, my elder brother wasn't with us when we had the accident. And we never saw him thereafter."

Salisu sighed and turned to look at teary Adeelah. He gently brushed his thumb over the crease of her eyes. He didn't know she's such a cry baby. Why would she cry? Did she care about him?

"Stop this tears," he continued moving his thumb about her face and she never stopped him.

"You went through so much. Fire is something huge Salisu! It's what? Huge!" She repeated.

Salisu laughed. "I said you should never mind. You should never what?" He mimicked her raising his brow.

Adeelah looked at him and their eyes met. He smiled broadly at her.

"You should never what?"

"Mind." She answered and busted. They laughed together, the next minute, they were cocoon in each other's arm. Hearts beating simultaneously.

When their laughter died down for a minute, they pulled away.

"Adeelah." She looked up, Salisu shook his head and winked at her.

"Time for Isha prayer." And he left her sitting there like a goner. It's there first time together. And she couldn't stop smiling sheepishly!

****

Salam alaikum. I know! It's been soooooooo long. I actually had to delete my drafts😑.

Let me give you the gist. I was jejely scrolling through my library when I came across a book and started reading. God! It has the exact plot of this book and so I decided to just stop writing this book.

But then what's the use of being a writer if I can't create plot twists? I finally made up my mind to polish the plot and twist it in a way it can never seem the same with the other book. And yeah, this is it. I didn't change the plot, it's still there but it has a different face now.

I hope you understand. I wrote this chapter in fifteen minutes and I hope you liked it. Please leave a vote or comment or help me share the book. Thank you.