Barakah

- Bitter Blood

    27/12/2022

You guys are in for a plot twist with this one.

Also, this is the last chapter for this year and this book will probably be completed in 2023. I conceptualized it in 2019 and began drafting it that same year too.

Barakah

Golden girl is the first sign of what pandora would unravel from her box after lunch that day. She had a face that was disturbed with worry and a carried away mind.

"Amnah, what's wrong?" Barakah rubs her shoulder from across the table.

The girl is innocent, gullible even. Sometimes, Barakah wanted to laugh at her. Other times, she felt a duty to protect her.

"Why would you think anything is wrong?" Her smile is slight and it quickly disappears too. She's not a liar. She's a sweet girl.

"Why wouldn't I? Tell me." Barakah squeezes her arm. The gesture is all it took for the girl to undo. A sheen gathering in her eyes.

Barakah took an inquisitive look around the restaurant. Barely occupied, her focus returns to Amnah. The girl had offered to go school hunting with her. The girl had a good heart and she was thoughtful too. So Barakah was honestly concerned.

She held her breath for the girl.

"Adda Asma'u is getting married." The girl deliberately shuts her mouth after that and that reason didn't measure up to the tears in her eyes so Barakah urged her again.

"So?"

"Her father doesn't want to be involved. He says he will cover everything financially and that is all. He wants my father to do everything on his behalf. He's planning to embarrass my mother and siblings by being like that."

She had only met Jalal's father once. At their wedding. And then, she wasn't who she was now. If he was bought up somewhere, all she knew was that he had four children and all his kids had taken after him.

Barakah did not know exactly what to say and the girl was beginning to recluse. To regret opening up.

"This is really sensitive," This didn't involve her and worst, she wasn't pulled into the loop. So the thread was thin enough to snap, "I'm sure Jalal will sort it all out. He's their father after all. He loves them." If Bara'a and Ameenah were there, they would've snorted at her attempt of in-law politics.

" I doubt it." She sounded upset. The bitterness did not blend well with her image, "Jalal has spoken with him. Many times. He's refused. The last time we all spent time with Hamma Jalal, it was all he spoke about with Maama. If you see Asma'u, you see a worried person. She has lost weight. Everyone is. . . . . Agitated. Jalal worst of all."

The last time they spent time together? How could she forget. That day had led up to a perfect storm between Barakah and Jalal. She hasn't slept in his room since. Only he joins her in her room.

He had told her he had driven around her hours after dropping them off. An image proposed in her head and she doubted, it was anything far from the truth. Jalal was dealing with issues he kept away from her. Those same issues consumed him day by day. He was sick dealing with Ameenah's attitude at home while having his hands occupied being a son and a brother.

After dropping his mother and sisters' home, he had decided to cool off on a drive. When he finally did return home to her, his upset had already driven him to a cliff until Barakah looked like she was going to be the day's relief. Things looked up for him in that one moment. And it all went down just as soon too.