MAKESHIFT HUSBAND (COMPLETE)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

This is really unedited. I will come to editing them after I'm done with the last few chapters remaining. Please please please turn away from any error you see.
Thank you for your patience all these while I've been writing tests and exams. Now I'm back, thank you.

Husna had never seen her sister in such a pitiful state and so didn't know what to say. Despite being emotional and sensitive, Zainab was still an extrovert.

Seeing her sit so quietly and sad made husna's eyes itch with tears.

"It's fine. In sha Allah you'll be fine" She promised. "Once we're home, everything will be resolved"

"Home?" Zainab laughed. "What will be resolved?"

She closed her eyes with a tired sigh.  What home? What would be resolved? Whatever had happened had happened so what could they possibly resolve?

Would they, her parents tell kamal to divorce his wife? Then what would become of his child that she was carrying? As a mother herself, Zainab would never want a child to grow without its father.

She rubbed ameer's sleeping head fondly. Once upon a time, she'd never imagined she would end up in this state.

She opened her eyes with a determined look. "Sis please stop the car in any restaurant or eatery close by. I'm hungry"

Husna cast a glance and smiled lightly. "Okay. There's one up front"

They walked out of the car together, though zainab insisted on holding her son and her bag.

After making their orders, Zainab stood up suddenly. "Ameer has spoilt his pampers.  I'll wash it for him in the toilet."

Husna looked at her through squinted eyes as if trying to gaze her true intentions by a mere look.

Zainab put on a blank face.

"Toh keep your bag mana"

"I also need to change my pad and panties " she answered blandly.

"Toh shikenan" Husna relented even though she felt like following her to the toilet but not wanting to provoke her emotions further, she clenched her fist and watched her walk to the toilet.

10 minutes past, an unsettling feeling kept biting her insides. Something felt very wrong.

Unable to bear it, she followed zainab to the toilet. If worst came to worst, she would just apologise for being paranoid.

An eerie feeling tumbled at the bottom of her stomach as she opened the door.

The toilet was too quiet, none of the cubicles sounded like there was someone in them. She knocked on all and eventually, she pushed them open.

A wave of dizziness assaulted husna so quick that she had no time to catch herself and fell to the ground tumbling.

Zainab was gone.

Bracing her self, she stood up with shaky steps and walked back to their table to check zainab's bag. Her phone, wallet and atm were all gone.

Husna suspected her passport was gone too since she couldn't find it in the car.

With trembling fingers, she dialed Hajiya Bintu's number having informed her earlier that she was on her way with Zainab  even though she withheld the reason why.

At first ring, the call was answered.

"Husna kun iso ne?"Hajiya bintu had just been about to dial her line and seek their whereabouts. Hearing her daughter's shaky breath through the phone made her agitated.

"Husna yaya? Mi ya faru? Are you guys okay?"

"Mamma...hajiya...Zainab." Husna stammered.

"What happened to auta?" Hajiya Bintu's voice had risen to a shout. "Talk to me mana. Where are you?"

"Auta is gone mama. She's gone"

"What do you mean she's gone?" Hajiya Bintu feared to hear the answer. "Did you have an accident?"

"No. Zainab is gone. She's left and I don't know where to"

She told their mother everything that had happened and hajiya bintu went so silent that husna feared she'd fainted till she heard her scream.

"Wayyo Allah na shiga uku. Kamal has killed me and destroyed my daughter"

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Alhaji shook his leg slowly, his lower lip caught in a fierce entangle between his teeth.

Hajiya Bintu paced up and down, her heart beating faster than normal. "I said it!" She clapped her hands and turned to Alhaji.

"Dama I knew this was going to happen Alhaji.  I knew it from the start and opposed this marriage but what did you do? You refused to listen and painted me as the bad person. Toh yanzu ga shi nan"

She sat on the floor and started to sob lowly. "My auta o..auta"

Alhaji shook his head but remained quiet. As a business man of many years, he'd learnt to keep his calm in a situation where others failed to.

However, his clenched fists and trembling frame betrayed how angry he was feeling at the moment.

Anger at Zainab for running away from home, anger at Kamal for creating a reason, no matter how unreasonable, for her to leave.

He felt disappointed beneath the worry towards zainab. He never expected her to leave her home for another woman, especially if the woman was 'the other woman'.

He made up his mind to have a long talk with her and Kamal.  What had he been thinking getting into a marriage like that?
"Alhaji baka ce komai ba" Hajiya Bintu grabbed his leg, forcing him out of his reverie

"Call the police or do something mana. Will we remain like this?" She shook him when he remained mute. "Alhaji kayi magana mana..say something"

"Hajiya!" He called in a fierce tone that made her freeze. She'd never seen such anger in his eyes neither had he used such tone on her before.

Instantly, hajiya bintu forced herself to attain some level of calmness.

"Zainab is my daughter " Alhaji patted his chest. "And I trust the upbringing I have her. If zainab leaves her husband's house, the next place is to come here because if she spends one night outside this two places, then I have no daughter like her. Besides, if she left like this, she must have made her plans from the very beginning so i believe she will be fine."

Hajiya bintu muttered something about life not being about his beliefs and how things spiralled out of a person's plans unexpectedly.

She had barely closed her mouth when the door opened and Kamal walked in, his head low.