His Suitable Bride ✔

Chapter eleven

    Hajia Habibah Omotoni Davies.

  Toni stared at the holy book that sat in her hands as the Imam finished the last of his prayers, officially making her a legal Muslim. It left a weird feeling in her that she didn't know how to describe. Ummu, the emir and the Imam congratulated her both with smiles on their faces, welcoming her into the religion. But she didn't feel as happy as she felt when she got to the mosque this noon, some things felt totally out of place.

  One of those things was the fact that no one told her that Azeezat Bello was the daughter of the Imam, and that she would be at the mosque as one of the witnesses. That wasn't the issue, what pissed her off to no end was when she discovered that Yeni was even older than Azeezat with a year, like really! And she was still a student at the University. Another irking fact was that Nasir left her side immediately they got to the mosque, and he had ignored her since then. She at first thought it was some code he was trying to follow, but that thought vanished when she saw him talking to Azeezat. It made her immensely angry, and definitely not jealous.

  Toni watched them as Azeezat gave shy smiles whenever Nasir says something, they behaved like people who are still engaged, like seriously, she was supposed to be the fiancee here, not her. And who knew Nasir could smile that much? Gone was the stone cold expressionless face.

  "Don't tell me you were expecting me to marry you or something? What we had was what it was, a short affair. What do you think will happen to my reputation if I'm caught up in a relationship with a woman like you?"

  That particular statement rang through her brain again as she stared at the two of them chatting intimately from where she sat beside Ummu, that was when she realized that although she might be getting married to Nasir now, but his heart would always belong to Azeezat. He had to love her, she made him too happy to be anything else.

  She felt her heart break into more tiny pieces than it already was, she didn't know why it hurt though. She knew Nasir didn't love her, and she had told herself her love for him would sustain them both, and with time he would come to love her. But a man who already has a woman he loves definitely won't come to think of her as anything more than the child bearer role she was accepting.

   She clutched her Abaya tightly, urgently needing air. "Ummu, can we leave now?"

   "I think Nasir has some important stuff to discuss with the Imam, do you need to get air?" Ummu asked, holding her shaky hands.

   "Yes," she said.

   Ummu helped her up and they both made their way out of the mosque, she wore her heels and found a place to seat. Ummu sat beside her, giving her a concerned look. She got her phone out of bag and decided to book herself a ticket back to Lagos, she couldn't bear the idea of standing Nasir for one more day. And moreover she needed to have a talk with her mum. She booked the 7:15pm flight, let her mum know she would be coming home and what time to come pick her up at the airport, and returned her phone into her bag.

  Some minutes later, Toni heard the sound of footsteps coming towards her and Ummu, she looked up to see that it was Azeezat. She came towards them, and greeted them both with shy enthusiasm. Toni assessed the girl, trying to figure out why Nasir would want to marry her, and couldn't come up with anything but the fact that she was beautiful.

   "Alhaja Abubabkar, it's nice to see you again," Azeezat said in greeting. Toni wondered why she wasn't calling her Ummu since she has being betrothed to her son for long.

   "How have you being, Azeezat?" Ummu asked, spotting a smile of indifference.

  "I've been good," Azeezat said, then turned towards her with a shy smile and said quietly. "It's really nice to finally be able to see you, I've watched every of your movies. I follow everything you do, and I love you so much."