Labiba

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Nine days without seeing Salim. Nine days! I wouldn't have thought I'd be this devastated because I haven't set my eyes on Salim. Absence does make the heart grow fonder and I feel like I cannot exist without him anymore.

I'm still nursing the heartbreak as I pack the little I have in Humaira's house because her husband is coming back. Abba has travelled for more than a week and he's coming back today too, he definitely doesn't know what's going on but seeing as my stay in Humaira's has come to an end, I really need to face the music now.

"Labiba, unblock him and talk to him." Humaira pleads. "Kinga yadda kika dawo kuwa?"

"There's nothing to talk about, Humaira." I tell her as I fold the last dress I'm holding. "Salim has clearly moved on with her, I was stupid to think that he could really love me for myself and not as a replacement. When you look at it, he couldn't even stand me as a replacement."

"Enough with the pity party." Humaira scoffs. "I'm pretty sure there's an explanation to all this and I'm advising you to give more thought into it. Because your whole stay here has been wrong. Don't get me wrong, you're always welcome here, I don't know why you're leaving ma right now tunda Baban Fadeel ba bakon ki bane, but please ki sake tunani."

"Naji." I answer dejectedly. She's starting to annoy me with her optimism so I say my goodbyes to her and leave the house.

I enter my car and my phone starts ringing with a call from Salma so I answer through Bluetooth. "Aunty Salma." I answer.

"Kina ina?" She asks immediately. "I need you to come over now."

"Is Salim there?" I ask, because she wouldn't be sounding this desperate over nothing. Her silence answers my question and I hang up the phone and put it in DND.

Safiyya's text message flashes in my eyes and my heart clenches with jealousy and my eyes fill with tears. Under any different circumstances, if anyone is making me feel this unstable I'd be able to control my feelings and put them somewhere I can't reach them again.

But this is Salim. The first person to have stolen my breath. The first person to have stolen too many pecks from me. The first person to have stolen my whole heart. The first person to have held me in his arms and whispered sweet nothings as I laughed at his cheesiness. The first person to have my feet on his laps and massage them through our movie sessions. The first person to make my heart race in ecstasy and pure love.

And the first person to have taken my heart and squashed it as if it meant nothing.

Just like that, another set of tears start dropping from my face as I drive the short distance home and enter the house through the backdoor.

Abba is already back because his car is at home but I can't let him see me like this. I need courage to look at him and explain to him that my marriage with Salim is a sham and that Salim doesn't want me. He would be devastated but it's what it is. I avoided telling anyone about the deal because I've moved past it and right now, my problem with Salim isn't lack of love. It's too much of it that I can't stand the thought of him with another girl, most especially Safiyya.

I take a shower in my bedroom which looks empty and smells different now seeing as I haven't been here in months. I walk out of my bedroom and straight to Hajiya's room to greet her, she looks happy to see me but it's nothing out of the ordinary.

"You can't meet him now." Hajiya tells me when I tell her I need to go and talk with Abba. "Your in law just came in and he looks serious, Abba said no one should disturb them." She explains to me and my heart skips a beat. My reaction must have reached my face because she asks. "Are you okay? Did something happen between you and Salim?"