Chapter 51

————————Kaduna, Nigeria.

———————————Marafa Estate, 11:30pm.

It started raining when we left Grandma Humairah's place by 11:00pm. The cool breeze the rain brought was so nice and refreshing. I prayed Salatul Maghrib and Isha in her place and she served I and Khalifa Pounded Yam and Egusi soup with different kinds of assorted meat.

It was more than delicious.

Their meals were probably going to make me gain more weight.

We talked about my situation with Khalid and she also advised me to talk to him as soon as possible and resolve all unsettled matters I had with him.

Deep down, honestly I was scared of meeting Khalid again. I didn't want my heart to ache again when I had found peace and moved on already. I was happy and satisfied with those I had in my life now, I didn't want any more drama or anything chaotic.

We headed back home when Miriam called to tell me that Raihanna was already at our place and her other cousins and friends had left. Thank Goodness. " So tomorrow's your last day before you leave" Khalifa said as I played with Najmah as she sat on my thighs. " it is, I would like to come back you know, I'll miss this place and the food" I said with a smile. " You'll come back eventually" he answered and smiled at me.

" Khalifa, I'm scared" I said as I sighed out loud. " what're you scared of?" He answered as I watched his smile turn to a frown.

" Khalid and everything that has to do with him, I'm scared of seeing him again and doubting all the decisions I've made so far, you know he gave me a really great scar in my heart and Alhamdulillah you're succeeding in mending it. I really don't want to see him and regret anything" I said and looked at him. He sighed as he suddenly parked his car at the edge of the road.

" Faryah I want you to be very honest with me, why did you agree to marry me?" He asked as he adjusted the way he sat and held my hand in his. " Cause I realised that no matter what was going to happen I was never going to go back to how I was with Khalid and.." he cut me off. He didn't look too happy. " a reason that doesn't involve Khalid in it" he said.

" Cause I've accepted that my heart wants you, I want you and I know that being with you is what's best for me and Najmah. I love you very much Khalifa" I answered. I wasn't lying to myself.

" then that's all that matters, you love me so much and you want me. That's what matters" He said to me and I nodded.

That was the only thing that mattered now. I loved him. " you don't need to be scared, I love you and you love me and we are going to live a very happy life, Insha’Allah" He said and I smiled genuinely. He was right. " yes, Insha’Allah" I answered and he smiled again, showing his fine white teeth. He kissed my forehead and started the car and continued driving.

He was right. The bottom line of everything was the love I had for him. He deserved to be happy and his happiness was with me. Alhamdulillah for that.

All I had to do now was to talk to Khalid and resolve everything.

I couldn't find it in my heart to trust Khalid and his family again so it was enough reason for me not to go back to their humble home.

I had good and bad memories there but Alhamdulillah. They made me who I was now. If they hadn't thrown me away from their house I wouldn't have found my real family. Allah had his ways.

He always did.

——————Los Angeles, California.

—————————Saturday morning, 9:00am Olyster residence.

" Goodness sir, it's been a long while since you've visited us here, I missed you so much sir" Anna said as soon as I walked into my family's living room. The room where GrandPa Musa died and the room where I maltreated Faryah.

My heart was broken enough. Thinking non stop about the past wasn't going to help. " Anna oh my I missed you so much too, Mother and Sir Brandon are home right?" I asked with a small smile and she nodded. " it's the weekend sir, they're always at home" She answered and I smiled at her. " How're you and the others doing?"

" We're all fine sir, the house has been so quiet since you and miss Sophia left, and you don't even visit sir"

" I was busy with work Anna" I answered. " You always have time for family even though you're busy sir" she said and smiled again. " Khalid, Son" I heard Mother call and I looked up the stairs.

She looked slimmer than she was. She hadn't been eating properly but she was still beautiful.

" Mother" I called and walked to her. " my son I missed you so much" she said as she got down the stairs and hugged me tight. " I missed you so much more" I missed her warm motherly embrace. " you look so skinny Khalid, you've definitely not been eating well, do you know how many times I drop by your place and you're always not around, I am so mad at you Khalid, even when I call, we don't even talk for long, you're always busy. That's not how things are supposed to be, you left me worried throughout these past months, you didn't even care to see you mother, look at me, I've lost weight just from worrying about you Khalid, do you know how I pray everyday not to hear about your death the next day, Khalid I was worried, you didn't even show up for Kimberly's shower, or when she was born, you weren't there, I am so mad at you son" She scolded and broke down in tears.

" Mother I am so sorry, please forgive me" I didn't want to ever see my mother cry talk less of being the one making her cry. " You say you love me and you made me suffer all these months, I get you were trying to get up on your feet and move on but you forgot about the person that brought you into this world"

" Mother no, I didn't forget about you, I've just not being myself for the past few months and.."

" of course, you're found in different bars now, you're a workaholic and you never have time for family, that's not the Khalid I raised" she said as she hissed and placed her hands on her waist and sighed.

" Anna please get us some coffee" Mother said as she walked to sit down on a couch. I followed behind her gently as I slowly looked at the pictures of Neill and Grandpa. I missed them a lot. " they wouldn't be happy with what you've become you know" Mother said as she looked at me looking at their photos. " They really won't" I replied and went to sit beside her.

" How're you?" She asked as she held my hand. " I'm fine, I'm okay"

" a lot has happened to you, are you sure you're fine?" She asked and I nodded. " I'm not mad at you anymore Khalid, I'm just worried about you and I haven't gotten the time to help you, you know move on from all what happened" she added and smiled at me.

" Khalid, I want you to tell me the truth, what really happened that caused Pamela to lose her babies?"

" it was a miscarriage"

" Khalid I studied all her tests and X rays, what really happened?, be honest with me now son" she said and I sighed in defeat. I just had to take her to where Mother worked.

" I accidentally pushed her down a few flight of stairs" I answered and she watched her reaction. She looked speechless. " Mother honestly it wasn't my fault but I know I played a major role, she was wearing heels, I mean why will she wear heels when she's almost due" I added as Mother shook her head.

" Well, it was for the best, it was an accident and hopefully It's in the past now" she said as she cupped my cheeks. " You've been through a lot my son, you have to move on you know, find someone else to love"

" I'm not searching mother, I'm married"

" You haven't divorced Faryah yet?" She was shocked. " Yes, but she has filed a divorce case but I don't want to sign it"

"Why?"

" cause I still love her"

" but she cheated on.."

" Mother you of all people know that, that is most definitely not true. You know that" I defended and looked at her face soften. " it's hard to accept it, if she didn't cheat on you then we definitely destroyed Faryah that's why I want to believe that she cheated" I understood where she was coming from. She didn't want to feel guilty.

" She didn't cheat mother, I've come to accept that, she has a daughter for me" I added. I could honestly feel her heart break. " but it's someone else's child"

" Mother she's not, the baby looks like me, look" I said as I took out my phone from my pocket and hastened to show her a picture of Najmah Sophia sent to me.

"She...shheee...looks just like you" she said in between tears as my phone fell from her hands to the couch seat. Her voice was breaking. " I threw my granddaughter away" Mother said as hot tears rolled down her cheeks. I had to control myself for her. She couldn't see my cry. I placed her head gently on my chest and patted her silky dark hair. " what did we do Khalid?" She said as she cried more.

" I feel so ashamed of myself" She added again as I felt the shirt I was wearing moisten. " Mother it's okay, we'll sort things out with her sooner or later" I said as I gently caressed her back.

" why's your mother crying?" That was Brandon's voice. He was right behind us. " why're you visiting us now?" He asked again as he came to sit by mother and he took her from my arms into his. " Faryah has our granddaughter honey, we judged her wrongly" Mother said again as she cried louder.

" What's your mother talking about?" He asked and I carefully narrated everything.

" All these months I forced myself to believe that she cheated so I won't feel guilty for losing my father" Brandon was breaking down. " It always haunted me" I saw a tear roll down his cheek. " he believed in her, Father believed in her but we didn't, we never trusted her enough in the first place" Brandon's pain was based on Grandpa Julius's loss.

I myself couldn't help but blame myself each and everyday.

" He couldn't stand that his family had no hearts so he killed himself, he killed himself because he was disappointed in us" He was finally crying. " he wasn't happy so he left us, I never thought he could do such a thing" He added.

I myself never thought that Grandpa Julius could kill himself.

I never honestly believed he could.

I missed him so so much.

" What's done is done, feeling guilty will just make you crumble" I said as I tried consoling all of them. " Shut up" Brandon shot as his eyes sent daggers to my chest. " This is all your fault you bastard" He snapped again, raising his voice and standing up. The last thing I needed was to be pissed off right now.

He was saying the truth and it was hurting me. I couldn't take it. " Brandon don't" Mother said as she stood on her feet, trying to block him from having any contact with me. " if your son had trusted the wife he claimed to love, I wouldn't have lost my father"

" Everyone makes mistakes Brandon don't talk to my son like that" Mother intervened. " Shut up Woman" he snapped as he pushed her back on the couch. How dare he.

I lost it.

" How dare you lay your dirty hands on my mother" I snapped and bore my fist into this eyeball making him fall the ground. " Nobody lays a finger to hurt my mother you ass hole" I raged as I followed him to the ground and made sure the pain he felt was more than molten magma being poured into his ears.

How dare he.

" Khalid please stop it, I'm begging you please, stop it" Mother cried and it weakened me. I let go of his bloody face and got up from him.

" Get out of my house, take your mother out of this house, both of you are horrible people, get out of my house" he managed to say as he spat out blood his mouth to the floor. " what're you saying?" Mother asked, her eyes watering up. " leave my house, I don't want anything to do with you and your bastard son" He was nuts.

" Are you crazy, I'm not going anywhere, you need me, you love me" Mother screamed at the top of her lungs. " Leave my house, I don't care, leave, get out of my life. Leave"

" Brandon!" Mother screamed again and I held her back. " Let's go Mother" I said as I held her arm.

" I'm not going anywhere" Mother said as she let go of my hold. " Are you possessed or something?, you change all of a sudden and you tell me to leave, I can't leave you, you idiot!" She snapped at him. " I should have never accepted you with this bastard son you had, leave my house this instant" Brandon snapped. After all the years they spent together, he had the damn audacity to treat her this way. " You have no right to talk to my mother like that, fine you want us to leave then we'll go, Mother let's go" I couldn't stand this anymore. I held her wrist tightly and pulled her away from him.

" Khalid I can't leave him here alone, I love him.."

" mother, I don't want to scream at you, stop Saying you love him and let's get out of here, he clearly doesn't acknowledge that anymore" I said to her. I really didn't want to see my mother hurt. I really didn't want that. I couldn't protect her back then but I could now.

I could kill for her.

I pulled her out of the house and made her sit in my car. This family was broken enough. I drove out of the mansion with Mother crying her heart out and headed to Santa Monica.

Luckily I had some businesses we could earn from in case Brandon decided to send me out of the company.

I couldn't believe this turn of event. I never thought me visiting my mother today could gravely harm their relationship.

" Mother please stop crying" I said as I led her into my condo. " I can't believe this happened Khalid, I really can't believe it. It felt like he was another person and not the Brandon I knew" She responded as I gently closed the door. " it's hard to believe" I answered. She needed rest. I walked her up the stairs and laid her on my bed and took off her shoes. It was just me and my mother again, like the old times.

I used my sheets to cover her and made sure she was comfortable. " Close your eyes Mother" I whispered gently as I used my fingers to comb her hair.

She looked so fragile.

I honestly didn't like seeing her this way. The last time she was like this was when we left my Father.

All this happened because of me. Everything that was happening was all my fault. My world was crumbling down because of the stupid mistakes I made. Everything.

I needed to call up Sophia and tell her to find a way to bring all of Mother's things to my place and to tell her all what happened.

Mother needed to eat also. I didn't have much groceries, I needed to cook for my mother. At least it was going to make her feel better.

There was a grocery store near my place and taking a walk was all what I needed. Making her favourite meatloaf with rice and sweet sauce wasn't going to be hard.

I got all what I needed from the grocery store after calling up Sophia. She was on her way to Brandon.

I could take my Mother with me to Malaysia. She needed a vacation or something. Away from all these Brandon problems and it would help her a lot if she talked to Faryah. It was going to do a lot of good to all of us if we talked to Faryah and apologized for everything we did to her.

We needed it so we could move on.

I was going to be in Malaysia by Monday and hopefully I was going to come back with my wife by my side as she's supposed to be.

———————Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

———————————Faryah's Apartment, Monday Morning . 8:00pm

" Home sweet home Najmah" I called as I carried my baby and our bags into our beautiful peaceful home. My apartment was in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, with a great view of the city and peaceful neighbours. I was on the third floor. It was a nice three bedroom apartment, three toilets and bathrooms en suite. My room had a large closet, it was the masters bedroom so yes it had to have a large closet.

The kitchen and living room were pretty nice too. I also had a storage room but not much was in there. Just few insecticide cans and some other house tools.

Najmah looked so happy to be back home, even though we were going to miss Nigeria and everyone back there. Khalifa was heading for Dubai tomorrow and my parents, Firdaus and her husband and Miriam were already home too. I needed rest.

Tomorrow was going to be a very busy day. I was going to head to work and I needed to find a way to get in touch with Khalid so I could proceed with my wedding plans.

I really didn't want him to stress me over anything.

I cleaned up a little before I showered Najmah and put her to bed in her comfy room. I wasn't so hungry. Raihannah’s mother packed us some Samosas, spring rolls and cake for our trip so it filled me and Najmah up.

I took a shower and threw myself on my bed after changing into my pyjamas, making my Salah and sending Khalifa a text message saying we were home safely.

I threw myself on my bed as I sighed out loud.

"Ya Allah please make everything easy for me and give me the strength to deal with Khalid again" I prayed and closed my eyes a bit as I said " Ameen" in my head.