Abuja, Nigeria.
"Make sure to bake the cake to perfection, please," Hajiya Khadijah said to the cook.
"In shaa Allah, Hajiya," the cook nodded.
The head Marshall, Alhaji Abdurrahman's mother, was visiting from Kano. Hajiya Khadijah had been on her feet to ensure everything went smoothly, knowing that her mother-in-law, Hajiya Zainab, was very strict and often difficult to please.
Hajiya Khadijah and her daughters prepared a variety of dishes, aware of Hajiya's pickiness with food. They made masa with miyan taushe, fried rice, chicken nuggets, chicken Alfredo pasta, mashed potatoes, pounded yam with egusi soup, and flossed meat.
Exhausted, they gathered in the parlor to rest before Hajiya's arrival. Jalilah and Banina, however, still felt tension between them—a detail that Hajiya Khadijah, busy with preparations, hadn't noticed.
"Who took my phone?" Jalilah asked upon entering the parlor.
"I didn't." Nabeel shrugged, raising his hands dramatically.
Jalilah turned to Banina, who was engrossed in her own phone, and repeated her question.
"Why would I take your phone?" Banina replied, annoyed.
"You could have just said no without being rude!" Jalilah shot back angrily.
Nabeel stood up and left, unwilling to listen to their argument.
"Watch how you speak to me, Jalilah! I'm warning you for the last time!" Banina said through gritted teeth.
"You should also mind your tone with me! You're only older by five months!" Jalilah retorted.
"At least I'm older. I breathed the air of this world before you! Don't talk back to me again!" Banina sneered, moving closer.
"And so what, Banina? That doesn't give you the right to speak to me however you want!" Jalilah yelled, just as Banina slapped her.
Jalilah froze, processing what had just happened. Then, she looked up, her eyes blazing.
"You didn't just slap me!" Jalilah said furiously.
"Oh, I did. What will you do about it?" Banina challenged, raising an eyebrow.
Jalilah slapped her back, making Banina wince, and soon, the two of them were entangled in a heated scuffle, with Jalilah gaining the upper hand. Jalal entered the room just as the rest of the family arrived.
"What is happening here?! What is the meaning of this?!" Alhaji Abdurrahman thundered, startling them. Jalilah got up, fuming, while Banina also rose, glaring like an angry tigress.
"Jalilah, Banina—what was that?" he demanded.
"Daddy, she slapped me first!" Jalilah said.
"Why did you slap her, Banina?"
"Daddy, she was yelling at me! And I'm older!" Banina replied.
"That's no excuse, Banina. You should've handled this maturely," Hajiya Khadijah cautioned.
"The next time you both fight like this, you'll regret it," Jalal stated calmly, his voice sending shivers through them before he exited the parlor.
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AFFAIRS OF THE HEART
RomansaCOMPLETED ~JALILAH~ Jalilah, a sweet, lively, and beautiful sixteen-year-old girl, knows no care in the world. An orphan since her parents passed away when she was just a year old, she has lived her enti...
