WHATEVER, POLICE OFFICER

Sixty.

ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA.

Fatima is roaring and flaring with anger by the time Ahmad had closed his mouth. She couldn't do anything but lie there motionless on him, no words could express the anger and other emotions inside her. Myriad of emotions started raging within her the moment she heard about the divorce and then the betrayal. How could she do that to someone she claimed to love? Is that how love really is? Then what it is that she feels for Ahmad because she can't imagine ever hurting a hair on his head if not he's angered her to the limit. She's never thought about causing him pain ever since they started getting closer.

Then why did Eleanor do that to a young Ahmad who was hopelessly in love with her? Oh, God! If that is how love is, then love is scam. And what she feels for Ahmad should then not be defined as love, it's another emotion entirely different from what humans feel. It's so scared, close to her heart. The way she bleeds at the sight of him and the thoughts of how her heart flutter within the confines of her chest, that shouldn't be called love. Then what is it? It's something definitely mystical and way out of the world.

She stirred in his arms and he reluctantly let her go, his face not blank nor nonchalant but filled with emotions and grief. "Does it hurt thinking about the past?" She questioned in a quiet voice, her hand clasping into one of his, wringing her fingers into the loops of his.

Ahmad's eyes look down at their clasped hands and tightened his hold for a few seconds then release it. "It hurts a lot more than I thought it would. I never thought I would feel something relatively close to betrayal again after spending the past five years loathing her and my father. That is where I've made the mistake. I should've realized that my father had no fault in this sooner than later but that only dawned on me when he died. It was too late to ask for forgiveness and talk to him. He was miserable during his last days, not me nor my mom paid any heed to his apologies. We were selfies, into our own pain to think about his. I've regretted it so much and I still am."

His eyes shone underneath the sunlight, Fatima watched with compassion and sympathy which she hid behind her depleted eyes. He's gone through so much but what filled him is regret. She understands how he feels because once someone is dead, you cannot do anything to bring them back and those words that were left unsaid will keep on haunting you. Those actions you should've worked on, those confessions you should've talked about will forever be left in your mind because saying it will make no difference since they won't fall into the right ears. It's all for nothing because it is too late.

Fatima sighed before kneeling down beside him to give him a hug, one filled with support. She doesn't know what to say, all words abandoned her in certain situations. Leave her to reply sassy and sarcastic comments but stories this deep and hurtful, that's where she gets speechless and helpless. What do people say in certain situations? Everything will be alright or it's not your fault that things happened the way they did? She can't lie nor sugarcoat her words for the sake of him. That is what he wants to hear but that is not the truth and she won't say anything untrue for the sake of his feelings, that's not how it works.

He is at fault for what has happened and so is his mother. If she had coaxed him and acted like the adult she is, Ahmad would've followed her lead one way or the other but she didn't and he became more bitter seeing how broken her father had left them. Knowing that Ruwaidha woman, she must've contributed a lot in not permitting him to talk things out with his father. That woman is a bitter person and that has affected his life in a wrong way.

And the Ahmad now wouldn't have allowed that to happen, that's what she knows. He's grown into a more responsible man, thinking with the rational part of his head than emotions. He would've listened to his wife talk about the divorce with cool nonchalant facade and later go and ask his father if he is alright after all that's happened but sadly, Hakim Al-hafiz didn't live long to see this young fine man. Fatima could only hope he's forgiven him before he died. But that woman, Fatima would love to meet her and trample over her with her new Christian Dior heels.