Shadow of Doubt

Chapter 22

Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullah dearies. Hope it's well with you all? If you know me personally, then you'll know that the last two months were simply the hardest point of my life. But we survive as long as we're breathing. I've had this written for a while, I just couldn't even remember to post it. Have a great read! ❤️

Iram's POV

"Yes Mammy, I'm getting better." I said through the video call because she has been complaining that my face was still puffy. It's been over a month since that fateful day I left Abuja and I was still yet to regain normalcy. I didn't even want to think of going back home because literally everywhere in the premises of that house was filled with memories of Sa'ad and I, as if him occupying my thoughts wasn't enough torture.

I really wished out of sight was out of mind because it wasn't so with me.

"Yaushe za ki dawo ne?" She asked me once again because that was all she asked whenever we talked. I kept telling her that I wasn't ready to come back but she kept forgetting. Any little detail, she forgets and just latches onto what she wants. I guess that was one of the upsides of her condition, I don't know if she does it on purpose or if it comes with the condition but she usually lets go of what upsets her. That's why I never get tired of reanswering her questions because at least she was spared the pain of keeping unwanted memories. Unlike the rest of us.

"Mammy ki tambayi Daddy." I answered patiently. "He will decide that, yace I'm going to do my service here in Lagos."

"But that'll be too long for you to stay away."

"I want to be with you too, Mammy." I said, my eyes getting teary all over again. Mammy didn't know what happened with Sa'ad, I spared her the gory details and she still asks me about him occasionally.

"I'm sure Sa'ad would want you to come back too." She said and I closed my eyes, not wanting to go there. "He was here the other day when we went to Uncle Isah and Hajiya Binta, we went together with him. Allah dai Ya mishi albarka, he's really helpful."

So he didn't quit. I spoke with Amra a few days after I came and she told me that she heard Chef Abu and the others discussing that Sa'ad has tendered his resignation, not just to stop working with daddy but he wanted to resign from his job totally. She asked if it had something to do with me, I just told her that we'd broken up because we can't seem to find a common ground on a lot of things. She was also heartbroken but she told me that I'll find someone better than him, he was too tall anyway.

I almost laughed because I guessed that was her idea of being supportive and I was almost as tall as him. She just couldn't find anything to say against him.

"Yaushe ne service din?" Mammy asked when I kept quiet after she brought up Sa'ad. I told her the day before yesterday that I'll start serving with the next batch which is still two months away but it seems she'd forgotten.

"In two months."

"And your father wants you to stay in Lagos for two months and then get you posted to Lagos to serve for another year?" In my 20 years of life, I've never seen Mammy hold on to a topic the way she did this and that just rubbed me off in the wrong way. "Ko kin masa laifi ne?"

"Mammy, what could I possibly do?" I said. "Please talk to him about this, I have no idea why he's doing this."

But I knew fully why he did this. Daddy had come down to Lagos two days after I arrived, he wanted to come before then but all flights were put on hold because of the weather on the day he wanted to come. I was so heartbroken and down that he sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to comfort me as I lay there crying. After that, he revealed the whole story to me and I found out that Sa'ad was only acting based on the little he knew about his parents death.