Bound ✅

To decline or To accept

"You have gone mad. Without any doubt, you're mad."

The phone cackled due to bad connection but it didn't stop Summayah from screaming further at Halima.

"What were you thinking? So, after dealing with you all those years, you want to sell your future to her? If pikin dey hungry you go marry my brother. He'd give you Lubna in a heartbeat. I'm going to work. I'll deal with you when I return." The dial tone made Halima know Summayah had cut the call.

She knew exactly what she was doing calling her twenty minutes before she left for work. Summayah's company mandated that employees could not use their phones while on duty. So, tehir conversation would be cut till later.

But, just as Halima stepped into the taxi she ordered, her phone rang again. It was Summayah. Halima groaned and negotiated with the driver before picking.

"Asalam Alaykum." She began.

"Walaikum Salam Halima. Sorry I shouted earlier but, you need to get this straight. Are you doing it or not?" Halima sat quiet. She didn't even know exactly what she wanted.

"I don't know." She replied simply, she was being honest. Summayah expelled a harsh breath of air.

"Lee. You better tell her you can not do anything of that nature." Halima looked as the street she had lived during her married years slipped by.

"I can't. She covered my shame when the world would have stoned me. She could have declined me from marrying her son." Summayah hissed. Halima looked out the window again and pursed her lips, Summary did not understand.

"I understand. But she shouldn't use it as a noose around your neck to drag you around with. Her son, whom you were married to is dead. The transaction is over. You need to move on." Halima cleared her throat to speak.

"You need to understand. If it happened to you, Allah forbid it, your parents would have killed them. But they were more powerful than mine, they still are. If she tells the world now, no one would believe that I didn't do anything to encourage it. They'd say I was probably trying to make them marry me. That could not have happened to you." Summayah cut the call again.

Halima let tears run down hwr cheeks unchecked. But when she arrived in Wuse, near where her salon was located. She brought out wipes from her bag and wiped her face carefully, applied some powder and glossed her lips again.

Her armour was on. No one should know she had cried.

******

"I went to call you in the toilet. That's why I cut the call. I'm not mad at you." Halima hummed and watch the tiler fit tiles around the door. She watched him pour white cement over the tiles to make them stronger.

"I knew." Halima said simply.

"And I'm sorry I shouted. I can never understand your pain. I can only hold your hand through it, I can only imagine what could have happened and how you feel when you remember it. So, I'm sorry for being a bitch by reminding you." Halima nodded and when she remembered that Summayah could not see her, she said.

"It's fine. I'm happy I finally got it off my mind and told someone. I had been stewing for weeks." Summayah laughed at Halima's words.

"So, what will you do now?" Halima bit the inside of her cheek.

"I will go to her again. She has to give me the clinic's number. I need to speak to a professional." Summayah hummed and asked if she still had the letter.

"I still do. It's in my bag. Check the letter head for a number or an email or something. It should be there." Halima out her phone between her cheek and her shoulder and began rummaging her large shoulder bag for the letter. She found it after nearly pouring the contents out in frustrated anger.

"Found it. There's a phone number." She said to Summayah who was waiting on the phone.

"Call them. And then take the right decisions. In Sha Allah." Then she cut the call again.

****

"Good Morning Mrs Salisu Zamani. " Halima tilted her head and asked. "Salisu Zamani? I'm Miss Halima Aliyu. My husband Salisu Zamani has been dead for a while now."

The lady's mouth dropped open and she sat in her chair. "I was under the impression that your husband is indisposed." Halima stared at the dark skinned woman in shock.

"He is late. Has been for a while." The lady nodded and went through her desk, rifling through papers and whispering to herself.

"Here. He came here six years ago. He paid a sum of fifty thousand naira for the safe keeping. He said till at least five years. Last year, the time elapsed and we sent a letter to the address." She showed Halima another document, Halima saw that Salisu's mother had forged her son's signature.

"He died nearly three years ago." The lady nodded and clasped her hands.

"Why are you here then? Are you willing to pay another retention fee?" Halima shook her head.

"I want to know if knowing that he had a major heart disease is a factor to turn down his mother's request ?" The lady adjusted herself and asked.

"What request?" Halima's eyes flitted down to her clasped fingers.

"My mother in law wants me to get inseminated." The lady burst into laughter. Laughing so hard until Halima saw tears fall from her eyes.

"Can I be personal?" Halima nodded. "You'd be stupid if you tried it. You just said it, he had a major heart disease that is likely to be hereditary. In fact," She held herself while she looked through her documents again.

"It says here that he had familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and cognetial heart disease. That is a deadly combination and I have no idea how he lived so long without the required surgeries. And unless you want to go through your everyday worried if your child would die, I suggest you do not try it. You're too young to start your life in that manner.

And don't you have someone you love at all? Do yourself a favor and be with them, instead of doing this. The insemination would be weak anyways, there's only about twenty percent sure. So do not stress yourself."

Halima nodded and clasped her hands again in thought, would Salisu's mother never accept that theory until put in practice.

*****

Hi guys,

Helloo👋🏿👋🏿👋🏿

I know, I'm updating a day letter. Well, that how i saw it oo, I just couldn't stop writing.

So, y'all were so angry yesterday. 😂😜😜😜 I'm sorry. But we'll be fine soon.

See y'all soon.

TheOmoope.