ORNAMENTS✅

Chapter Twenty One

Dasuki State
2022.

Alhaji Yabo glanced at Asad, then shifted his gaze to his wife, daughter, and the two maids, A'i and Naja. He still couldn't comprehend how Umaimah had been stolen from his home without anyone witnessing it.

“Maybe it was kidnappers,” Hajiya suggested, unable to think of any other explanation for the disappearance of Umaimah and her newborn baby.

“It wasn’t kidnappers, I’m sure of it,” Alhaji Yabo replied firmly. “Asad, I need to travel for a week. You must find your wife within that time, and make sure no word of this gets to the media, understood?”

Asad nodded. He had no choice but to find her. He couldn't fathom that he was now a father to a child he didn't even know the gender of, all thanks to a baby Umaimah was determined to give birth to.

Alhaji Yabo stood, with Hajiya following closely behind. They walked out, likely headed for the airport.

Asad also left, needing to go somewhere. He drove to Magnificente Restaurant, where he met Zizi. She had called earlier, claiming she knew something about his wife’s disappearance.

He walked in, spotting her immediately. She looked as glamorous as ever. He sat next to her, still anxious.

“Hey, Asad. How have you been?” Zizi greeted with a smile.

Zizi’s question felt misplaced. “Zizi, I don’t think that’s the right question to ask me right now. I’ve been a mess. It’s been a day already, and I don’t know where she is. All I hope is that the media doesn’t catch wind of this,” he said, worry etched on his face.

He cursed the alcohol he had consumed that day. Why had he drunken so much?

“You said you were there. But how is it that no one else saw anything?” Asad pressed.

Zizi smiled—a dangerous smile, if he was honest.

“Asad, I was there. One man came, picked her up with the baby, and left. But I didn’t see his face. As for everyone else, I think he drugged them.”

“A guy?” Asad asked. Who was this man, and why Umaimah? So many questions, and if Zizi was telling the truth, why hadn’t she told him sooner? He couldn't trust her completely; he sensed there was more to the story than she's letting out.

He thanked her and stood up, determined. If Umaimah was still in Dasuki, he would find her in the next week—no matter the cost.

Umaimah looked up at Nabeel for what seemed like the hundredth time since he had entered that morning. Since the previous night, her mind had been a whirlwind, struggling to process everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. She had lost her baby and, just recently, discovered the truth about her biological family.

They were the reason she had come to the city, but now that she knew them, she couldn't bring herself to feel any joy about it.

“Enough playing the victim. It’s time to give them a taste of their own medicine,” Nabeel’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

“The victim?” Umaimah asked, incredulous. She was far from being just a victim—her situation was far worse than that.

Nabeel sat on the bed where her baby had once laid. He knew this was her vulnerable moment, the time when she needed comfort. But he couldn’t afford to waste time comforting her; he had a goal, and he wasn’t going to stop until he achieved it.

“Listen, Umaimah, right now, we need to get Asad Yabo to divorce you—that’s the first step.”

Umaimah shot him a questioning look, her brow raised in disbelief. “Are you out of your mind?” she snapped. “You stole me from my husband’s house, took my baby away, and now you want me to get divorced?”