A Latte of Love

【☕】9

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I stop mid-bite on one of my mother's chicken kebabs to stare at my phone. I refresh the page in case it was my imagination. Unfortunately, the email popped up again. It was from 15 hours ago.

"What the Jahannam?"

How is this possible? I never took out any money from Ahmed's savings account.

I gulp down the chewed up chicken and quickly dial my bank to request a freeze on the account. I was too exhausted to run to the bank right at that moment and demand what happened to my account.

I hang up and furrow my eyebrows in deep thought. How was the account hacked into? I had put all the money Hamza ever gave me into Ahmed's account, to save every penny for his future. I had refused to even touch the account until he was grown up. And now this thief had taken a couple thousand which left a huge dent on the progress I made.

I feel an onslaught of tears about to cause a rainstorm down my cheeks.

I'm sucked out of my thoughts when the front door opens and my mother walks in, holding grocery bags in each hand. "Assalamu Alaikum, mama," I greet her as I take some of the bags from her.

"Walaikum salam. Have you eaten yet?" She asks while sorting the oranges in the fruit basket.

I nod and fake a smile, but the tears were threatening to spill anyway. When my mother turns her back to reach for potatoes, I quickly wipe my eyes with the sleeve of my hoodie. God, why am I crying?

I hide my face behind the curtain of my hair as I grab a milk carton from one of the bags and open the fridge. Sure enough, our fridge was full with content. There was hardly any space for me to place the carton anywhere. I manage to shift around a couple items for it to fit.

"I thought we had enough groceries for the week." Or a year, now that I had a better look.

My mother lets out a chuckle when she sees me standing in front of the fridge. "I thought we could stock up while I was at the store. After all, we have the money," she says excitedly.

I furrowed my eyebrows for the second time today. "What do you mean?"

She stops rummaging through the cabinets, but doesn't turn to look at me. I raise an eyebrow at her odd behavior and call out, "Mama?"

"I gave the savings to your father," she suddenly says. With a gulp, she continues, "He told me he found a good business to invest in!"

"You did what?"

I stumble backward in shock, holding tightly onto the fridge handle.

When she turns fully towards me, my eyes manically switch to hers. I was sure my face was now as white as a sheet.

"Salwa, I have a good feeling about this. We might become rich!" She sounded enthusiastic and nervous at the same time.

Breathing through my nose, I slam the fridge closed. I was now seething with anger. "Rich? Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to save that money? You're wasting it on a business that always fails? We're in debt because you guys keep making reckless decisions!"

It seemed working my butt off for my family wasn't enough for them. They always wanted more. How could she do this? How could my own mother steal from me? From Ahmed? That wasn't even my money... It was Ahmed's.

Hot tears were forming in the corners of my eyes as I watched my mother purse her lips, as if she had the right to be angry.

"Then you should have stayed with Hamza! Money wouldn't have been an issue," she accuses.