Shadow of Doubt

Chapter 2

Chapter 2
Sa'ad's POV

The next day as I stepped out of my bedroom in the morning, the first person I saw is Hauwa'u in the kitchen. My heart skipped a beat because I remembered Baba's words yesterday night, I didn't know how to look at Hauwa the same way now.

She was bending in front of the stove and when she heard the creak of my door, she looked up with a big smile on her face and stood up while making her way towards me. I could bet that she was making me breakfast. Too bad I couldn't stay because this girl's schedule showed that her day will start from 9am and it's already past 8 and I hadn't left Kubwa yet while Baffah Sadiq's house is in Maitama.

"Yaya, Ina kwana." Hauwa said. "Yanzu zan juye maka abincin, stove din was misbehaving this morning."

"Hauwa, please ki ci ki tafi school kema," I told her as I bent to put on my shoes and I mistakenly clicked on Iram's WhatsApp status update. "I'm already late and-" my breath got caught in my throat because if the picture I just saw was Iram, then I was in a huge trouble.

One word. Beautiful.

I couldn't help but put my finger on the picture to stop it from going to the next update as I stared at it carefully, the caption read: "not a morning person but damn!". She definitely was talking about how beautiful she looked in the picture because what else? Something I can't quite put a finger on made me sigh and this caught Hauwa's attention and being the nosy person she was, she looked into my phone and when I looked up, her nose was already scrunched up. Thank God I've turned off my read receipts on WhatsApp so Iram will never know that I've viewed her status.

"Who is that?" She asked as I got up and pocketed my phone.

I straighten up as I try to recover the breath Iram has stolen from me. "Nobody." I told her. "I'm sorry, zan kawo miki tsaraba In Shaa Allah. Pay attention in school."

"Toh Yaya, Allah Ya baka Sa'a."

"Aamiin, Jidda." She laughed wholeheartedly when I referred to her as Jidda.

"Yaya sunan yan gaye ko." She trailed off after me and I only flashed her another smile in return before I stepped out of the house.

I took a cab and made the driver drove past the speed limit to Maitama and stopped at Baffah Sadiq's house. I stepped out of the car and exchanged greetings with the other people that worked in the house and all of them looked friendly. But I knew my mission and I wasn't here to make friends.

I dialled Iram's number and she picked up at the first ring. "My God, I'm so sorry I didn't call." She said into the phone. "My friend picked me up early in the morning and we left because we only found out about an assignment late yesterday night."

"Does that mean I won't work today?" I wasn't interested in being walked over by some little girl over something that was not even my job.

She chuckled "Don't be silly, Hidayah is going to a party after our lectures, I'll still need you to pick me up."

"Okay ma'am."

"The name is Iram." She said. "Good morning, where are my manners?"

"Good morning, I'll see you at 4pm." I told her as I hung up my phone, not interested in any of the charades she had going on. She sounded like a real brat and those types cause nothing but trouble.

My phone pinged with a text and I looked down to see Iram's message "btw, my lectures would end by 5:30pm. you're welcome." The whole message was dripping with sarcasm but that only made me more upset because I didn't know what to do with all the time I had on my hands.