A Promise to Aabidah (#1 Natives series) #ProjectNigeria

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

          I HEARD FROM MOMMY THAT we won't be hearing from Uncle Dawud.

Aabidah sighed as she read her sister's message. She dropped the pen she was holding in her right hand, then placed her elbows on her desk before using her fingers to massage the bridge of her nose. She was glad she had no customer at the moment, it made replying to her sister's message an easy feat even though the particular topic of discussion wasn't something she wanted to talk about.

Yes. Aabidah texted back, placing aside her phone as a customer approached her.

Days had gone by and turned into weeks, and during these weeks that rounded up into months, Aabidah had occupied her mind with extra work so she wouldn't have to think about what had happened between her and AbdulAzeez. As much as she had ended the relationship herself, she couldn't magically forget him or the things they had shared in a snap. So, she busied herself to keep her mind preoccupied.

She worked tirelessly at work, took great care in preparing Bilal for school, enrolled him in an islamiya, and dealt with her brother, Sulaiman –who was still with her– at night when she got back home from work. Aminullah had gone back to Lagos to be with their parents since Rufaidah who always checked in on them had gone on vacation with her husband.

During the first few weeks after her break up, Aabidah had gone to AbdulAzeez's parents house a few times to visit his sister. It was during these visits that she found out what had really happened.

Aisha albeit still weak and somewhat mentally jumbled had confided in Aabidah all that had happened to her. On her way to Kwara state to visit a friend her bus had been attacked by bandits and as one of the passengers who had survived the ambush, she had been taken hostage.

On the days Aabidah visited, Aisha made sure to recount how merciful her Creator had been to her and how grateful she was. Aisha had concluded that it was Allah who had answered her constant and fervent prayers because she had no idea how her brother had found out about her situation.

The other thing she had been most especially thankful for was that the stray bullet that had hit AbdulAzeez when he had come to get her had not been his undoing.

It was on that day, when they had seated themselves outside on the front porch with the cool evening breeze tickling their skin and ruffling their head wraps that Aabidah had finally realized what the money AbdulAzeez had withdrew had been for.

The sound of her phone pinging with a new message on her desk drew her out of her reverie.

Sulaiman must be very happy. Her sister's message read and Aabidah could almost hear her voice singing through the text.

Funny enough he didn't seem all that thrilled. She typed back with one hand as she folded and unfolded the end of a sheet of paper on her desk with the other, her lips pursed as she waited for her sister's reply.

It took quite some time before Rufaidah's reply came in. He's confused. He doesn't even know what he wants. When is he going back? Farida must be dying of loneliness since she messages me every day.

Aabidah bit her lips together to keep from laughing. She really did feel sorry for her sister-in-law, her husband had been gone for months now and he didn't even seem the least bit bothered that he had left his family at home. Her brother was a poor and sorry excuse of a husband. Because of his behavior, Aabidah's new hobby every morning after prayers was to ask him when he was going back home; he never responded.