To everyone that read the last chapter, to all of you that shared, I'm super duper thankful. God bless.😇❤

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"You're mad."

Adeelah said to her friend, Fatimah.

"You're crazy." Fatimah smiled in agreement as she dusted off her seat while her best friend looked at her. She finished and threw the paper to the binway.

"Now that I am all seated, I am ready to face you." She said, stretching her hand. The class was scant, because she and her best friend came early. Their course mates were late comers even though some lecturers closed their doors, that didn't stop the late comers from being late.

"You mean it happened last night and you didn't have the thought to call me and tell me?" Adeelah asked impatiently.

"I wanted to see every of your expression that's why!" Fatimah defended.

"Now you have seen it. Fatimah Zarah Babangida you've seen it." When Adeelah called her with her full name, she knew Adeelah was angry with her. Truth was she wanted to surprise her best friend. But surprise went wrong.

"I am sorry Deel," she gave up.

Adeelah turned to her.

"You got engaged." She punched her.

"And," she punched her again as she laughed. Fatimah laughed with her but Adeelah's hands were painful. It was as if she rubbed some clay to them.

"You felt like not telling me..." She raised her hand in the air and smacked her again.

"Until today." It was after she had said that, she noticed that the lecturer had already came in due to the unusual silence that erupted the class. He was a very tall and lean Fulani man, Malam Hassan. His eyes were on the both of them as he folded his arms and rested them on his chest.

Adeelah and Fatimah turned around and noticed several pair of eyes on them. Fatimah looked down while Adeelah looked at every pair of eyes, one after the other. Some looked away whilst some kept shifting their balls from the lecturer to Adeelah.

"Are you animals?" He asked.

"No sir, we are humans as you can see." Adeelah answered him timidly. Fatimah pinched her in bid to stop her from talking further. She had heard from her brother's friend that the biochemistry lecturer was hot tempered and could fail a student over a small brawl.

The class was on uproar of laughter that triggered the lecturer's anger. There were even carryover and spill over students amidst the fresh level two hundred students. They felt so happy that finally, someone had grew the courage to talk back at him.

"No you're animals." He answered.

"No, we are not sir."

"Didn't you learn Biology in your secondary school? Even humans are animals." Adeelah shrugged.

"Okay AnimSir." She sat back. The lecturer didn't seem to understand what she did but the class did as they laughed for the second time. Some initiated a clap but no one clapped with them due to fear of the outcome.

"What is that?" Many thought that she won't answer him.

"Anim means animal. Sir is a sign of respect I attached to you because I respect you so much. You said you're an animal and you're proud of it... So I don't think..."

"Get out of my class!" She whipped her head up and looked at him.

"And never come back till the semester ends. And I assure you, you're going to fail." Fatimah gasped and held her chest. She tapped Adeelah's feet so that she would apologize but Adeelah refused to. She turned around, picked her bag and her book then exited the class.

Her colleagues felt sorry for her. She didn't care at all. Outside the class, she sat by the window and listened to the lecture for thirty minutes. She got bored and left for the school mosque.

"Aunty Adeelah!" The girl was there again. Adeelah increased her pace to avoid meeting her. She could look into someone's face and tell them she didn't like them but this girl, her brother warned her. Adeelah wondered how some people were able to pretend to like everyone around them.

Even in the class, she would often hear some group of girls that normally sat behind her desk, gossiping about their other friends.

She couldn't imagine how some people did that. In the face of someone, they acted all good whilst at their back, they could stab them, smash them underneath their feet.

It was all a burden, which she couldn't take. It was too heavy for her.

"Hi Deejah." She extended her hand for a shake. She couldn't even smile. Allah knows if she smiled, her cheeks will hurt and she didn't want to experience the feeling.

"Aunty Adeelah I called you yesterday."

"Oh well, you know I don't care much about my phone." She replied, trying to be very polite. That's the height of her politeness and she stretched so thin before she reached that point.

"Oh," she mouthed. Adeelah looked at her brother's girlfriend. She was wearing a pink patterned maxi dress paired with a pink veil. Adeelah wasn't the type to judge people by their dressing. She didn't care about whatever someone wore, it's their choice.

And if they wore the wrong outfit, they knew it. No one needed to tell them.

"I am heading to the mosque Deejah. My legs are hurting. See you around." She guffawed.

"Bye." Deejah replied with a different demeanor. Adeelah somehow felt bad. She knew she annoyed people but she didn't care. Once she noticed, it made her feel uneasy.

Thing was, there's no nothing she would do about it.

_________

He normally goes for two hours break and come back by four. He checked the time, for the ninth time that day. He was extremely hungry that's why.

Ameer's eyes were on his watch when two clocked. He managed his presentations and shut the system off. He wanted to go home so badly and his house wasn't far from the place of work. Ten minutes away.

On his way out, he sighted Muhibba sitting with Bashar, and Khalil as they praised her. They were telling her how beautiful she looked in the outfit she wore. It was an atampa but he didn't ogle enough to see whether it was a skirt or wrapper. It wasn't his space to invade.

Muhibba was married.

"Ameer, please come and settle this!" He wanted to leave but it wasn't on his style of life to reject people.

"I am in a haste," he complained though.

"Please tell Muhibba. Between her and Zaynab who can dress better? I mean who's more beautiful and se..." Ameer stopped him by yanking his arm. He pulled Bashar to the other side of the office.

"Are you mad, Bashar? She's married." Bashar shrugged.

"I don't care. If she respects her marriage, she won't do what she's doing. She wants to chill? I will help her freeze." Bashar replied, raising his shoulder in nonchalance. Muhibba would sometimes remove her veil and hang it around her chair. She complained of heat and how her veil restricted her from talking properly.

She had so many admirers because among the female staffs, she had the sweetest voice. Sometimes her colleagues wondered how her husband let her worked in the station.

"Fear Allah!" Ameer warned and scampered out of the office. His colleagues play too much.

Ten minutes later on cue, he parked at the entrance of his house. It was a medium house. Just three bedrooms and two parlours. It was enough of him at the stage of his life.

Ameer knocked and waited for his wife to open the gate. He pushed the gate and noticed that, it was open. So he trudged in without hesitance.

He started by picking up the leaves that had fallen from the branches of the trees in his compound. He saw that, the flowers had not been watered yet. He opened the tap around, and let the water drizzle on the lawns. He would come out and water the rest.

That was the first time he noticed something unusual. They had been married for just four months and it was all well with them except when he woke her up in the morning. She would nag for the whole day and pursed her lips continuously. He didn't like too much nag, that's why he dared not to wake her up again. To save himself.

He pushed the door to her parlour. He met it the way he left it. There was a pack of exhausted milk by the doormat. He shook his head and picked it up. He went inside with a salam.

She wasn't there. The parlour was large with a set of furniture including an ottoman and a classic round chair. His wife didn't come with it. He bought it himself because he loved them.

By an angle was different flower vases cantered on a red painted ply wood. The carpet was lush and soft. There was a centre table in the center and a drawer by the other side of the parlour.

The familiar scent of incense didn't welcome him. Although he didn't like incense, the absence of the scent made him worried.

What's wrong with her? Was she fine? Where's she? She was perhaps in her room. Ameer went directly to her room. She had taken her bath and had tied a very beautiful head gear. There, she sat on the middle of her bed in all her grandeur.

She was having a call with someone.

He didn't want to eavesdrop on her, so he quickly went out, straight to his own room. He saw his bedsheet, squeezed as he left it in the morning. He dusted it off and laid it to his ability. Ameer removed his Outwears and flashed into the bathroom. He needed a cold shower. It was a very hot day.

He came out and wore a lighter cloth. He went to the kitchen to check what she cooked for them that day. She was a good cook, luckily.

He served fruit rice to himself. Sniffing the ambrosial and fruity aroma of the rice made him feel hungry the more. He stirred through the sauce pot, to find meat but there wasn't any. He put the sauce to his desired portion and left for his parlour feeling vile. He loved meat and a food without meat would never taste the same with the one with meat.

He didn't know why she cooked without meat. He remembered dropping two thousand naira for her on the bedside. According to his calculation, two thousand was enough for the day. It was just the two of them.

He placed the food on his centre table and went out to turn his generator in order to enjoy the food better. Once back, he met her sitting as if waiting for him.

"Welcome back, sweetie." She smiled. The smile was threatening him. It wanted to make him forget that he was angry.

"Thanks." He glanced at her, once and turned to his food. Silence prevailed for some few seconds.

"No meat right? The boy I sent on errand lost the money. I am so sorry sweetie. I was even tempted to go and withdraw my dowry from the bank, in order to cook the food with meat for you." She slipped beside him. If not because he was eating she would've done things.

"It's okay," he replied feeling a part of his heart becoming light.

"I wanted to sweep too, but once I squat I feel like throwing up and my back cracks." She said bitterly.

"Oh subhanallah! What's wrong with you? Do you feel any pain? Should I call the doctor?" He asked all at once.

"No sweetie, you know I once broke my bone. So sometimes it just pains me." She told him. He didn't know.

"What do you think about hiring a maid for me? I will appreciate it if you do that. You see it will be even easier for the both of us. I will even be waking up in the morning to help you get ready." She added in ramble.

Ameer looked at the food and felt satisfied already. He didn't eat a lot however. She was talking about a lot that was straining his appetite and increasing his satiety.

"Bring me a glass of cold water, Hidaya." He ordered, pushing the plate away plus pushing her words to the back of his head. He didn't know why he felt deranged. She apologized and explained herself, right? Why did he felt like a giant thing was on his heart? Mayhap he's too tired.

"Here sweetie." She said, sitting down. She didn't allow him to collect it. She let him drank from her hand. She looked at him with her loving eyes but she didn't notice that, he was in an odd state.

"Should I begin the maid haunt?" She asked.

"Hidaya I am tired. I need some comfort before I go back to work. Come here." He just needed her close to him, to see her smile. Nothing else.

She did stayed with him. He began feeling better but her phone screeched, making her answer the call and leaving his sight.

Hidaya locked the door of her room. "Yes Mama, I have saved the first one thousand naira." She mouthed to her mother.

"Good girl, you need to become rich, okay? You will buy a plot of land for yourself. You will do a lot." Hidaya nodded as if her mother was seeing her.

Whatever her mother said, was right and she would do it without shilly-shallaying. It was right, after all.

"Let me tell you the biggest secret and the most fastest way to get the money." Her mother lowered her voice.

Ameer checked his time. It was time to go back. He headed to Hidaya's room to tell her he was going back and to give her a five hundred naira to buy meat for dinner.

She was on phone.

"What is it Mama?"

"Demand for money whence he calls you to his sheet." Mama whispered.

"But Mama..."

"Shuush, it's very easy..."

"Hidaya!" She heard him calling.

"I will be back Mama." She dropped the call and headed for the door. Hidaya opened to see Ameer by the door.

Did he hear her?

________

Heyyy! I know it's still boring... We're just starting and I won't disappoint y'all by God's grace.

We've taken a glance at Ameer's house.

Please be patient, we're taking gentle and small steps. No rushing. We will meet other people so soon.

So what do you think? I ask this question too much koh?😂😂🙈

Don't forget to vote, share and comment your views. I will only update when each chapter reaches a certain number of votes. (Left to me😈).  When I don't feel motivated at all, I will move the book to SofaNovel or dreame.😈😈😈🎉

Oh that emoji is my new way of smiling. Cute right?😈😈😈.

Indo❤.