Afterglow.

chapter 12

He drove off and left .

Me: "So mama where's baba?" I asked .

mama: "He's in his room, let's go to him."

Me: "okay."

I'm so happy to be here, the love I don't get around my parents I find it here.

Reihana: "Good afternoon baba."

Baba: "is that baturiya?"(Irish girl)? He asked.

Me: "yes baba." I answered shyly, its not like I like the nickname or something, I just love them so much and can't ask them to stop calling me that.

Baba: "Ha!" He spat and hugged me .

Mama then brought the food she has already made for me.

Me and baba ate and talked about school, and of course islamiya , in fact he even asked me to recite some verses I've memorized from the glorious Qur'an.

I did, trust me.

Baba takes anything 'knowledge' really serious.

I think I'll stay with them , till the end of the holiday before I leave for Aunty's house , and head back to Kaduna.

Malika's POV

Ya Allah!

The moment I heard her voice, I froze .

I started feeling bad about everything.

I saw young reihana crying in her dad's office .

I saw me leaving the house without her .

Now everything is hunting me, I feel like I'm the worse mum on earth , this girls life will be better with me, she won't have to think too much , or cry too much.

She'll know what motherly love is ,and how to handle her children when she gets hers .

Ya Allah, I'm begging you, this girl is under your care , protect her with your might , ya Allah forgive me, for I know I've done wrong.

I could barely talk to her , the words in my head just disappeared, if only I knew I'd get to talk to her , I might practice some heart cooling words to tell her .

But I know I effed up, big time .

It feels like I should call her , and say I'm sorry ,I know sorry won't fix it ,I'm just clueless and its so frustrating.

Now I have to go to work tomorrow, we barely have breaks over here.

I would have just apply for a leave and go see her, but I'm new here and that wouldn't be granted.

No body will understand this , they might see it as if I really care I'd never leave .

but they have no idea, women like me don't even exist again.

Women cheats on their husband's the moment they find out they're cheating on them .

Life is so not straight forward . it's really not .

I miss reihana so much , I miss every bit of the old flawed life I had.

*****

"Good morning sir."

"Good morning Mrs Abdulhakim."

"You're almost late , why the sudden change?"

I've been thinking about my old flawed life.

even if I wasn't happy all the time I miss it, I even miss crying over Abdulhakim and there house wahala (problems),that's why I stayed up.