Entwined by Destiny

Chapter Twenty-seven

Their utterly shocked eyes fell on an unconscious Fateema,lying as stark naked as she was the day she was born on the rug carpet which was stained with few drops of blood.

There was no sign of Mahbub anywhere except the lingering scent of his Arabian perfume but the other door,the one leading to the compound was wide open.

Everything happened in a flash,Mummy slumped down in a faint as Iman let out a scream while she,Mahmud and Mama ran to Fateema.Daddy hurried to his wife's aid as he grabbed a bottle of Eva water,pulled it open and poured the contents on her while Ummi was the only one left rooted to the spot,too shocked and too dazed to move or do anything.

Mahmud hurriedly pulled off Iman's large headtie and covered his twin sister's naked body while Iman grabbed a cup of unfinished juice and poured it on her.When she didn't respond, Mama,the old nurse bent down to revive her with mouth to mouth resuscitation. By that time,Mummy had recovered and so they all surrounded the unconscious lady,the women in tears while the men feeling all murderous but more concerned on Fateema's wellbeing at the moment.

When she failed to regain consciousness, Mummy and Iman had quickly dressed her up after which the men carried her to the car and they all drove off to the hospital, leaving Iya in charge of the little ones (Ihsan and lkram).

The doctors confirmed that she had been rendered unconscious by inhaling chloroform and raped.They stitched her up and did what they had to do to revive her.They explained to the Dikko's that Fateemaa was lucky cos chloroform could kill its victim and is also a suspected carcinogen,which could be very toxic if inhaled in large amount.

To say the Dikko's were thrown into despair is a great understatement. They were beyond themselves with immense grief and hurt.None of them was courageous enough to face Fateema and tell her what happened when she revived and saw herself on a hospital bed except her mother.

In calm,soothing tone,she had narrated the ordeal to her making sure she included sermons of accepting fate and consoling words in a loving,tender and motherly way.

Fateema couldn't believe her ears.She refused to believe a saintly,God-fearing person like Mahbub could do that to her.She kept crying inconsolably, telling everyone that cared to listen it wasn't Mahbub;it must have been a set-up.Someone must have set him up,did the evil deed and made it seem like it was Mahbub even though at the back of her mind she could still recall the pungent,acrid smell of the 'perfume' he sprayed on his handkerchief, asking her to sniff and tell him if she liked the smell.

The final blow had come when she received a message from Mahbub,which he had started with 'please forgive me'.In the message, he told her that he wished to seek her forgiveness for what he did;that it was entirely the handiwork of the shaytaan.He went further to explain that he really had the intention of marrying her in the future but then his dream came true when Sughra came to him,offering him the chance to go to Madinah for the studies he craved and at the same time, work with her father who has recently been appointed an ambassador to Saudi Arabia. But with the ultimatum that he'd dump Fateema and marry her instead.

Since that was what he always wanted,he readily agreed but on the other hand,he wanted Fateema so badly.She was too beautiful and attractive for him to resist and that was how shaytaan pushed him to do what he did but he hoped she would find it in her heart to forgive him.

Hmmm.....that was indeed the final straw. That sole message changed Fateema's entire life.Even the tears that were hitherto unending,stopped flowing as her face became bleak and emotionless, as if she had given up on everything.

She retreated into a shell,shutting everyone and everything out.She refused to talk to anyone,dropped out of school and confined herself to her room. All pleading,coaxing,coercing and scolding to make her resume her studies and move on with her life fell on deaf ears.