BFFs: Married To My Sister's Best friend

51. The Mother Inlaw

"Sorry, Aunty Habiba."

"Who is your aunt? I'm not your aunt so please, don't call me that. What's your name?"

"Aisha Humaira."

"Don't you have a father or did you birth yourself? I can't hear a man's name in your name." Tears start to accumulate in Lash's eyes. This was a mistake. She shouldn't have come.

"I don't know my father." Lash says and from her tone, one would figure out that she's about to cry.

"Or you were given birth to out of wedlock huh? That doesn't matter as at now, that's probably not your fault." Lash heaves a sigh of relief even though Umma's words hurt her.

"Who's your mother?"

"My mother is late." Lash's voice sounds a little firmer than it was when she spoke the previous time.

"Oh. So you're hear to play the lonely orphan in my house right?" Lash closes her eyes saying the only Dua she knows - Hasbunallahu wa ni'imal wakeel.

"Why are you quiet? Speak."

"It seems you got me a deaf girl as a daughter in law." Umma turns to Zulqa who's trying so hard to keep his cool.

"So I heard you were a sorceress. What's your take on that? How sure am I that my grandchildren will not inherit your stupidity? And I heard it was your mother that..." The tears start to fall and Zulqa loses his cool.

"Umma! I and your so called husband were once in her shoes but you never treated us like this. So why are you making her feel bad for some thing her own mother forced ber into?" Zulqa asks and Umma ignores him.

"It seems you've charmed my son huh? Nice work. I've always known that all these internet girls are shameless and stupid hoes. Only Allah knows the number of people you've had sex with. How many marriages have you ruined?" Lash is full on crying mode now. What did she do to deserve this?

Swiftly, she picks up her bag and adjusts her veil. Out of respect, she wipes her tears. Even if the woman doesn't like her, she's still the mother of the one she loves and she needs to get in he good books.

"Good bye Umma. I brought this." She drops a bundle of thousands of Nairas and stands up to leave. She wears her shoes and start to walk away from the parlor. As her hands make contact with the door knob which is cold due to the air conditioning in the room, she hears Umma.

"Zulqa is this what you want to marry? Someone that takes your family to be beggars?" Umma scoffs.

"Umma. She's just trying to be nice. She wanted us to stop and buy fruits but I refused. She asked me the type of jewelry you and my female siblings would like but i refused to tell." Zulqa says.

Lash shakes her head and opens the door. With a heavy heart, she walks outside the house. After walking for almost ten minutes, she stops to order an Uber. Luckily for her, the Uber was close so within the span of two minutes, it arrives.

She tells him his destination and once they reach the house, she sights Zulqa's car. Sighing, she pays the Uber driver and walks towards her gate.

"Aisha, Aisha wait and listen to me. My mum isn't normally like that. I don't know what suddenly happened today but she's not like this at all. I..." Lash cuts him off.

"Zulqanayn, it's okay. For real. Go back home to your mum. It's okay, I'm okay." Lash wipes the tears that can't seem to stop spilling.

"It's not okay. Even if you don't want to listen, please do. I was once in your shoes. I once participated in tsubbu." Lash halts in her tracks. Zulqa? Tsubbu? In the same sentence? That can't be true.

Zulqa runs up to her.

"Let's go inside so I can tell you everything." Without thinking twice, Lash ushers him inside. Since she moved, Zulqa hasn't been into her house till today. His reason being that when a man and a woman are alone in a closed space, the third being there is Shaydan.

Zulqa sits in the gazebo and Lash gets him water and a bottle of soft drink. She sits down and he starts to speak.

"Two years ago, my dad made a new friend at one wedding we attended. The man was extremely weird and creepy. We didn't know why but we all perceived bad vibes from him, even though my dad didn't. With time, the man started coming to our house almost every day, it became a routine that he eats dinner at our house. He wasn't married.

"Until today i don't know how but he introduced my dad to 'the best way to get money' -" he Air quotes "-That best way was sorcery. They'd slaughter a chicken every Friday and eat just the head on Saturday nights. Umma found it weird but didn't say anything. As at then i was obsessed with Instagram and Twitter life. I just wanted money and fame. I asked my dad for three hundred thousand for clothes that I would wear to attend a friend's birthday and he insulted me in front of that friend of his. The friend later called me and he was the one that introduced me to the way.

"Long story short Umma found out last year and that was the reason for her divorce with him. Now he wants to force me to marry his niece." Lash sits there astonished. Surely he didn't give her details like she did but she's shocked. Shocked that someone who looks as religious as him could actually be into sorcery. Verily, no man is above the whispers of Shaydan.

Innayo twitches her fingers. They feel weak and extremely heavy to her. Her nose and mouth are covered with what feels like a cup. She attempts to raise her hand and remove the cup like thingy, but she can't. She doesn't know why but she just can't.

Finally gathering enough energy, she raises her hand as high as she can, only for it to go limp and fall on the bedside cabinet, slapping a cup down and waking up the other occupants of the room.

Amal who's the swiftest of them all rushes to Innayo's side and holds the hand she's still attempting to raise. Afnan quickly presses the red button by the bed and within seconds, the nurse on night duty comes rushing with drowsy eyes.

"What's the problem?" She says annoyed. No one would blame her though. She was woken up from her beauty sleep in the dead of the night by the worst thing possible, a loud blare.

"She's moving. Get the doctor!" Amal who's holding-hands with Innayo says.

Innayo who's not even listening to the commotion in the room is trying so hard to open her mouth, eyes or both. Her whole body just feels heavy and she doesn't know why.

The doctor in charge - Doctor Kwami - comes in and asks them - Afnan in particular - to dim the light in the room. He injects Innayo with a pale yellow liquid and her body goes limp for a few seconds, before she slowly opens her eyes. She's even developed small wrinkles by the side of her eyes, Amal muses.