Chapter 36: Chapter 36

“Yes, I’m finishing all I came to do in Nigeria today, Ummu is on her way make sure Ryan picks her from the airport”, the young man said fixing his rokex watch as he ended the call.

He looked at himself in the mirror as he smirked. Here I come hermana. He entered his sleek black Mercedes c300. He revved it to life and followed the cars in front of him.

Once they stopped he stopped. He waited till they got out of the car and started walking before he tailed them.

Once they reached the resort, he waited for them to finish wishing his sister a happy birthday before he made his appearance.

Halima’s POV

Hermana?

So he was Hermano all along. No wonder his voice sounded so familiar.

Hermano is

Amir Aliyu.

Hermano is Amir Aliyu. I turned to look at Daddy and he was clenching his fists and gritting his teeth. Then something occurred to me, he called him dad.

I looked at Amir then daddy before Amir again. I was utterly shocked, confused. I watched as Amir made his way to daddy and say “hey dad. I told you that I’d make my appearance, and you thought I was bluffing. Now” he stopped to look at mummy before saying “oh sorry stepmother, my bad, sorry I didn’t see you there. I’m your long lost stepson, Amir Audu Kalshingi”.

I looked at him and before I could speak mummy said” what do you mean by Amir Audu Kalshingi? Sweetheart who’s he? And why is be using your name as his surname?”.

We all looked at daddy expecting an answer then suddenly Abba said “ wait, I’ve seen you somewhere. What’s the name of your mother?”. Amir smirked then said “ Uwani, Uwani Sulayman “.

Abba widened his eyes in surprise” that’s my sister’s name. She’s my sister, my stepsister. She left our home when her mother refused to allow her to get married to one man.. “and then he widened his eyes more as if he had discovered something dreadful.

He looked at daddy and said” care to explain, Muhammad Audu Kalshingi”. Mummy widened her eyes and started moving away from daddy, all the while I was still, I was confused and to make matters worse I was having a head splitting headache.

“habeebty, qalbee, hayatee…” daddy was cut off by mummy “don’t, don’t use those words on me. Just explain yourself”. Mummy was on the verge of tears.

Daddy tried to touch her but she said “don’t touch me stand where you are and talk”. Daddy sighed before taking one of the white plastic chairs. He sat down and everyone did the same.

Ammi didn’t sit, she stood beside mummy with her hands on her shoulders in a comforting manner. Ya Sa’eed and Teemah were sitting down, looking as confused as I was. Amal and Afnan were no where to be found. Then I heard there voices and splashes of water, they must be playing in the water, I thought.

I took the last plastic chair and sat. Daddy sighed and then he began talking “thirty years ago, I got married to Hajjo. She was the best wife I could ever ask for. But something was missing, our children. After five years, Maami, my mother, started asking for her grandkids. We went to the hospital and Hajjo was rendered infertile, barren.

“I told Maami I don’t trust doctors but Allah and she promised to disown me if I didn’t get married again. I finally got her to drop the issue but then two years later she came to our house in Abuja. She said that I had to get married whether I looked it or not.

“I told Hajjo and she started throwing tantrums. She refused to cook for a while saying that she wasn’t going to let me get married. She never talked to me or anything. We went like that for two weeks. I was getting disturbed. One day I was going to work when I almost ran over a lady in her late twenties.

“she was injured and bleeding. I took her to the hospital and she was treated. I apologized and after that we became acquainted. Every time I was feeling down I went to her and she took my head off things.

“ I didn’t know how but she managed to sneak her way into my heart. I started courting her and suddenly I felt like Hajjo was just an obstacle standing in my way of being a good son. I told Maami about my plan to get married to her without the knowledge of Hajjo.

“she gave her permission and we went ahead with the marriage. I got her a house in Abuja too which wasn’t too far away from my house. One day we came to Gombe so that we could greet her mother, but her mother refused to bless our marriage.

“ uwani decided that she wouldn’t give me up. After her mother threatened to disown her, she asked for an annulment and I divorced her. Two weeks after the divorce I found out that Hajjo was pregnant and I thought that maybe it was probably for the best.

“the day I found out Hajjo was pregnant was the day Maami died and the day Uwani told me she was also pregnant and that her marriage had been arranged to one of her mother’s friends son, Aliyu.

“ I was ecstatic and devastated. One month later Hajjo had a miscarriage. She fell from the stairs. I remember that day like it was yesterday. After the miscarriage Hadiza, my youngest sister started using every slight opportunity she got to insult Hajjo.

“I found Aliyu and befriended him. He knew about the pregnancy and I told him I was the father. At that time his business was doing very bad. So I gave him ten million Naira and he promised to take care of my son in exchange.

“ nine years later Hajjo got pregnant with Halima and she was kept in the hospital throughout till she finally gave birth to Sadiya. We rejoiced and rejoiced but something dampened my mood. The death of Aliyu and Uwani”.

Amir continued from there smirking “I was just ten then with a baby sister. When they told me about my dear daddy that abandoned me, I didn’t understand then. Until five years later when I was in university in London. I started tracking down dear father and I finally found him.

“ when I found him I vowed to show myself to his family because I  remembered how my other father used to maltreat my mother. He’d beat the hell out of her and she’d always blame me. She said that if only my father didn’t come into her life then I wouldn’t be there. I always went to bed with tears.

“when they died I didn’t mourn, I was ecstatic. The best part was that they left me and Ummu a lot of money to feast on. The fact that he was an only child and his parents were dead made things easier. Automatically, I had become the heir to all his properties.

“I made sure to make the business prosper. After some time I decided to come back to Nigeria. I gave dear dad here three years to tell his family about me but he didn’t. I decided to use Halima’s best friend, Fatima as a pawn.

“ all the while I never loved Fatima, I was only using her” I saw Teemah smile and stand up then went further into the forest and I stood up to follow her but Ya Sa’eed followed her instead.

“once I had gotten what I wanted, I decided to do something that would make Fatima break up with me on her own accord. All what I did in order to get my father back I don’t regret. The only thing I regret is the Jinn entering Teemah”.

I heard gasps and then Ammi fell limp to the ground. After a few minutes she was revived and Teemah was sitting with everyone’s eyes on her. She shrugged with teary eyes showing that she didn’t know anything.

Ya Sa’eed told them how everything happened. Once everything was cleared up. We ate the cake and everything with thick tension in the air.

Once we were back at Abuja our parents had a meeting and decided that Teemah would be taken to rehabilitation Madrasah in Dubai to take care of her Jinn issues. Teemah cried and cried begging them to let her stay in Nigeria. They said they’d take her to a boarding school in Abeokuta and she immediately agreed. I begged them and they agreed that we could go together.

After we had arrived at the Madrasah, me and Teemah sat down to reminisce everything that had happened from the beginning of second term. She said things I never thought she would, like telling me about her friendship with Bella and Hamza, her promise to herself that she’d never let herself fall in love with another man ever again.

“Teemah are you mad? How could you be friends with bella? How did it happen?”, I asked when she had said she was friends with Bella. “well, she approached me then said that I should leave Hamza, I told her that she could have him and she begged me to convince him to date her. I did just that and they started dating, we clicked since then.

“ but shaa, they’ve broken up and Hamza is just her friend now. She tokd me how she was once crushing on Ya Sa’eed and whatnot. She’s an amazing girl when she’s not being cocky”.

I gulped then warned her that she should know what she was doing and she said she wouldn’t be fooled, ever.

I also told her about crushing on Ya Sa’eed in my early years and I didn’t hear the end of it. Teemah fell asleep and I stayed awake to think.

Verily, our second term in ss1 was the most eventful. It might seem like the end for some people, but to us, it was the beginning of a new life.

We had seen troubles as best friends within a year.

The end