Bound ✅

Milo

"Finish your food Lubby. You still have to wear your shoes." Halima pursed her lips at Lubna who sank lower into her high chair. The little girl had her moments and breakfast wasn't one of them.

"Me, I've finish all my egg and drink my Milo." Halima nodded and wiped Jariyah's mouth, one of the perks of having children around was dealing with all types of conversation and lisps. The conversation had gone from where eggs came from to how to get the stars from the sky.

"You've finished. Since you've done the action, it's finished and drank or drunk my milo." Jariyah nodded thoughtfully and concentrated on getting her plastic cup to sit on her empty plate. Her tongue was out in complete concentration.

Halima didn't see Lubna who gently pushed her plate still full of fried eggs unto the floor. She made a mental note to talk Jariyah out of that habit of using her tongue for concentration.

"Lubna?" Lubna replied with a smile completely disarming Halima's defences. So, instead of forcing her to eat the eggs, she mixed some Milo, milk into a sippy cup and handed it to Lubna and concentrated on cleaning the oily floor.

"Good Morning everyone." Halima didn't look up but greeted Jamal from her place on the floor.

"My love." He ruffled Jariyah's honey colored hair and kissed her forehead, wrinkling his nose at the way her hair itched his forehead.

"When do they have school?" Halima shook her head, she was persuading Lubna to drink some more Milo.

"They don't have school today." She turned in time to see Jamal's face change. "But it's Monday?" She pulled her lips into her mouth and blew out air.

"Jary?" Jariyah turned to her and she said "Take your plate to Cook in the kitchen and say 'thank you for breakfast'." The little girl padded to the kitchen in her trousers and long tee, leaving Halima and her father in the dining room.

"I asked a question?" Halima looked to see Jariyah wasn't returning soon. So she got up and went to the drapes, pulled one part off and pointed him in the direction of the blanket of snow that had enveloped outside.

She pursed her lips and cocked her head at the outdoors.

"Sure. I'm sorry."

****

Halima's phone rang just as she stepped out of the shower. She toweled off her body while she rushed to the corner where the phone was charging. She'd turned on her connection to the house's wifi and she knew to expect calls.

"Ina Kwana Ya Jannah." Her sister answered lowly. Making Halima find the bed blindly in fear.

"Is everything okay with you? Why do you sound so low?" Jannah sighed softly.

"I don't remember apologising foe my comment the other day." Halima shook her head and narrowed her eyes trying to remember.

"The one where i said Salisu was sickly and i mentioned the incident." Halima exhaled in relief. She had even forgotten that statement.

"To be really honest with you. I had forgotten all about it. I'm too thick-skinned to be angry about it. It's fine okay?" Her sister thanked her and they began discussing.

"How's Khalifa?" Her sister hissed, Halima didn't bother replying. Jannah would tell her everything.

"This next year is for new things, it's for doing new things. I'm going to stop taking some things from him. He is going to have to start behaving properly. I'm fed up." Halima still didn't reply.

"Can you imagine, we both get thirty thousand and twelve thousand respectively, yet he expects me to cook all the time with chicken, what type of gluttony attitude is that? He's all about food, he wants good food yet he won't give me money." Halima leaned in her bed's headboard and pull her leg to herself.

"Ya Jannah. I think you should be patient with him." Halima knew she had to be sensible enough, one had to know when to talk between a husband and wife.

"Patience? If I'm supposed to get paid for every time I've held my breath, I'd be a millionaire now. I'm tired. I tell Amal in hopes that she'll help me feel better but all she sends me is money. One day you all will just hear I committed suicide. I'm tired Halima." Halima rewrapped the towel that had come undone and thought of what to do. She knew Jannah was just being dramatic, she liked life too much to loose it.

"I'm sorry this is happening. Now that you have tried patience, I know you've been patient because you haven't talked about this to me, ever." Jannah blew her nose in what sounded like a hankie and Halima waited for her words to sink in.

"Now go a step higher, talk. Talk gently, talk without criticism." She knew her sister, Jannah had a blade she called tongue.

"I've heard you. Ehen, Two ladies went to Baba's house to find you. They called themselves Asma and Zubaida." Halima opened her mouth in surprise.

"Please give them my phone number when next you see them. They're my friends." Jannah hummed and then they exchanged pleasantries again.

****

"Bye!"

She watched at the gate of the school as Jariyah and Lubna who held themselves walked to their classes.

Then she walked back to the car park and found the car Jamal had brought out front garage. She stepped in and pressed the button to close the door behind her.

"Did Lubna cry again?" She shook her head. She refused to say more. He'd made it his job to annoy her.

"I'd like to apologise. I'm sorry." Halima rolled her eyes at the window and didn't even make a sound.

She waited until he'd packed the luxury car under the awning before speaking.

"I think you should stop apologizing until you dare to stop misbehaving. You better gather whatever emotions you want to have towards me together and stop stressing my life out. I only accepted the job of a nanny, I didn't kill a human. Kaji?"

Jamal sat back in his Rolls Royce and watched Halima storm into the house from the kitchen door before he let a sardonic smile light his face up.

***

Hi guys,

How are you all? I'm fine, stressed out, but fine.

So, I wanted to know. Do you like the pace of the story? If not, please tell me.

And, I am not a rushy-rushy author, I will not rush things. I will not under any circumstances rush any relationship, from just being friends to best friends, you all have to watch the relationship grow.

I'll be here waiting for your comments. I love you all.

TheOmoope.

P.S this chapter is for Nabeela's Kishiya yorubahijabi. Love you Sissy 😘😘