Atonement

15.In shadows of chaos

Days passed and today is day Qalb-Saleem is getting married to his beloved. He woke up feeling all jovial. The wedding fatiha is scheduled to take place by 2:00pm at Abuja central mosque, him and his family's flight is all set to depart by 11:30am. He took his bath and headed to greet the countless number of people in their house, the aunties, uncles, cousins and family friends.
He sat together with a few of his cousins gisting about the good old days when Dada Boddo called him informing him that his parents want to meet him in their father's room. It's a family tradition, to them both the brides and grooms get the same amount of scolding.
He excused himself and walked to the room where he met with his mother, his father's elder sister, his father and three of his uncles, one from his mother's side.
"Ibrahim Qalb-Saleem." His mother called out.
It's the first time she did, and he doesn't like how serious she sounds. Slowly he walked to her and seat just near her on the floor.

"Yes Mama."

"Look at us all.."She pointed towards all the people in the room.

"You know we always choose what's best for you koh?" She said with a hint of tears in her eyes.

He nodded.

"Qalb, if you really do take me as your mother and you want our blessings to be with you always, Kafasa auren yarinyar nan."

He looked up making sure he heard her right, it's probably one of her jokes so he laughed but stopped when he saw the look on her face.

"Mama you are joking right?"

"Have she ever joked with you? kuma se ta tara mu don tamaka wasa?"

His senses for a moment went blank. His world dropping due to the weight of his mother's words.

"You knew all these while this girl's character yet you hid it from us....Qalb Drug Lord?" His Aunty chirped in shaking her head abruptly.

"Baba...i...i can explain." His words choked him, shocked as to how they found out and how they made this decision still not adding up.

"There is nothing left to explain Qalb, if you really take us as your parents you will adhere to what we said and what we will say now."

His dad said sternly, slightly raising his voice.

"We are not going to Abuja and as you can see, we have gathered people already, we have decided to get you married to your cousin, Maryam."

Qalb shakes his head abruptly crawling towards his father with tears in his eyes.

"Wallahi inason Sultana, She is the air i breathe, Kawu Dan Allah."

"Zancen banza!" His mother shouted as she stood up angrily.

He crawled to where she stood hugging her legs.

"Mama wallahi i will do anything you want me to do but please don't separate me from Sultana. Please..." He begged profusely.

"If you really want my blessings in your life, You will do as we said." With that she stomped out of the room.

Alhaji Mubarak Gamawa's mansion is filled with loud sounds, people trooping in and out of the house, some people eating while others are just moving around. There is one thing with wedding, it gets really exhausting especially for the bride.
Sultana sits on her bed, adorned in a purple lace sewn into the best straight gown. Her hands decorated with a combination of red and black henna and her hair stretched and combed into a perfect straight hair. Her unending smile lighting up the room filled with her cousins and some of her family friends. Its already 2pm, the male family members have already left to the mosque for her nikka with the love of her life.