Thought it was Khayr✅

Chapter 54: Aisha's Truth

Aisha Hassan's POV

Time frame: 24th Ramadan.....

"I was six then, you were four. We had a small sister, Umm Rumman. She was two years old. Our parents were the best in the world. Our father was a merchant, travelling between the market in Sokoto and that in Tambuwal. We were okay financially. We had everything.

We were loved, Sulaiman.

Our mother was from Kebbi, Sanyinna.

One day, we were taken to Mama's place to stay for a week because our parents were going to Sanyinna briefly to pay a visit to our mothers relatives. And this, was where it all started.

Mama is our father's sister, same father, same mother. She's older than him with three years.

Unfortunately, both our parents, along with our baby sister died on thier way back from Sanyinna after that particular visit. If Umm Rumman was still alive, she'd be twenty five now. Me and her had thesame chocolate brown complexion as our mother while you had the fair complexion of our father."

"It still surprises me how you still don't remember anything, Sulaiman. Perhaps you were too traumatized, or it's due to the young age..I mean, you were just four then. Thier death marked the beginning of our permanent stay with Mama.

Mama was a divorced woman. She was kicked out of her husband's house for not bearing kids after being married for more than ten years. After her divorce, she refused to go back to the family house in Tambuwal. She rented a house and lived alone. She was independent, with her job at a top private primary school at that time. She was the aunty in our family which all of the kids loved and enjoyed visiting. We were no different. I remember how fond of you she was. You two have this striking resemblance after all, especially that she had the fair skin. It's probably one of the core elements which made you believe that she's truly your mother.

They said she loved kids so much because she couldn't bear them. Infact, i was personally overjoyed when she informed the family that she wanted to take our custody. So we were taken away from Tambuwal, where we lived with our parents, to Sokoto which apparently is where Mama resides. Not just us, our inheritance too. Everything was in her hands.

She wasn't too bad . She was moderately loving then. At least, she didn't loose her shit as often.

I think it's because of her unfortunate past at her husband's house? But i discovered that she had serious anger issues.

All hell broke loose one day in 2005 when her friend visited. That day was very memorable for me. I was twelve then. Her friend brought her terrible news, that her ex-husband was dead. That particular day was very striking for me because Mama even fainted. She was hospitalized for two solid weeks. After she returned home from that episode, her anger issues shot up higher. Her situation worsened. Turns out, she never got over her husband even after the divorce.

She was beating us like animals over the tiniest mistake, starving us, treating us worthlessly at home and pretending to love us when other family members were around..

I had to play along and endure everything because I pitied her so much. I mean, ita kanta tasha wuya(she's gone through enough herself). If torturing us like that would make her feel better, I was willing to endure everything.

Until the obsession began.

We were growing and hence consuming more money. Her salary was too little to accommodate us. That financial difficulty drove her more on to the edge. And no matter how much we were suffering due to it, she wouldn't ask the other family members for help, nor use our inheritance money which was in her hands.