Shadow of Doubt

Chapter 3

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Iram's POV

I walked into Mammy's bedroom and saw her sitting in her wheelchair with her back to me. "Mammy." I called out and she turned around and smiled at the sight of me.

"Iram." She whispered. She was getting weaker as the day went by and I hated seeing her like that. "Kin dawo kenan, how is your leg? Hope it's better."

I rolled my eyes. Daddy had exaggerated the little accident I had by telling everyone that I was in pain and I wouldn't be able to do anything for myself for the next coming weeks. I was barely in pain, it was a little sprain in the ankle and it was already getting better than before.

"Mammy, you are who I'm worried about." I said as I pushed her chair back near the couch I was going to lie on. I brought water from the cupboard in her parlour and poured it for her, so that she'll get her prescriptions on time. "I wasn't in any pain." She smiled. Her smile was forced and filled with pain and my heart broke at the mere sight of her. "Gashi Mammy." I gave her the meds and the water as she swallowed them in my presence. She was starting to hate her drugs and that wasn't a good sign.

I was basically the reason why my mother had been suffering ever since I opened my eyes in this world. She suffered with preeclampsia during my birth which I still didn't know the full story to, she has an impaired memory and the fall she had affected her spinal cord and she hadn't been able to walk ever again. I grew up seeing her in a wheelchair but she always carried it around so gracefully despite her impaired memory.

"Baban ki ya kira ai, yace yana hanya kuma he'll find you a driver till you're okay." This was a conversation they had a few days ago but her whole memory was jumbled up. She was always mixing different scenarios and thinking something that happened a long time ago happened recently. I was always patient with her when she was like that, I explained to her and filled the blank spaces for her and she'd always look grateful.

"Ai har yazo ma, Mammy." I said, referring to Sa'ad. "Sunan shi Sa'ad, yana da kirki." I didn't bother explaining to her that it was a few days ago that she talked with Daddy because I didn't want to stress her. "Sai dai I don't think he's a driver, he's Daddy's assigned detail and he's only helping kafin daddy ya dawo."

"Toh Allah Ya taimaka, Hafsat." Mammy said. She sometimes called me Iram, Mama na or Hafsat. Whichever came to her at the time. Today, as she called me Hafsat, my heart recalled clearly how Sa'ad pronounced the name like he was the one that gave me the name. He called it as if it was the only name he knew.

I remembered his looks and sighed. His dashing good looks could put any guy that will stand close to him into shame because he wasn't just good looking, his charisma and presence was overwhelming. Even though I was tall, taller than average girls and the same height with a lot of guys, Sa'ad still stood a head taller than me. The perfect height.

Faisal must have believed everything I've told him and Sa'ad must have really intimidated him for him to be dropping different messages apologising. That was the thing about Faisal, his apologies were filled with fake promises. I still didn't understand how I managed to date him right from level 100 up till now that I'm in my final year. We had broken up a few days ago and I was even thinking of giving him another chance just a few hours ago but it ended when I witnessed everything with my own eyes, he was telling his cronies that he was only with me because he pities me because of my mother's condition and that he wasn't even interested anymore.

"Hafsat?" Mammy called out my name again. "Yaushe kika shigo?" She asked and my heart broke for her condition. She was having another episode again and I felt my eyes starting to fill with tears. On days like this, she'd get so bad that she'd start hallucinating and having mini seizures.