Heir Apparent: A Nigerian Story.

XXXVII

"So? When are they arriving?" Amjad asks me.

So fortunately my brother decided to just stay at a hotel when they arrived late last night, he's coming by and bringing my sister along.
I feel like I'm in hell already.

Amjad is sitting on the bed leaning on the head board while I'm infront of my mirror applying my powder, I'm not a makeup person.

"You and your sister must really have a tight relationship"
I nod "It is, she has always felt left out. My brother was in the army and I was a vassal but she doesn't know how much I wished I was her sometimes"

He tilts his head "Then you and I wouldn't have met"
I smile "That's why it's in past tense"

He huffs getting out of bed and squatting infront of me, he looked so serious.
"What's wrong?"

"I know you want to keep your secrets but I think enough of time has gone by already. This thing with Masoud and Najib, you know something and you're keeping it from me but until we figure things out no one would be safe. Enough of this secrecy"

I huff.
I get his point.

"We'll be going to see Najib's right hand, he's ready to talk and we need information. But you need to speak as well"

He stands and walks out.

::

Amjad's POV.

Hafiz and I tap hands.
"Took you a while" he says.

I nod "Yeah, it did" I honestly have no excuse for my absence and I can't tell them the reason for it either so I guess I'll continue living in suspicion.

"Shall we?" I ask him.
"Alright"

We enter the shed, Lawal was still strapped to the chair, dehydrated, exhausted and hungry which means he's more liable to speak.

"I brought you some water" Hafiz says wriggling the cold bottle of water in his hands.

I nod pulling up a chair and sitting infront of him "Human beings can last up to two months without food but shockingly they can't survive to up four days without water, some people don't even get to four and you've been dehydrated for 3days, not to mention how sore your body is because you've been strapped to a chair for 18days and the fact that you're too hungry and thirsty to sleep" I huff "Surviving tonight is the real trial".

He slowly raises his head, looking exhausted.
He stared at the bottle in Hafiz's hand.
"Come on, you just need to tell us what happened and that's it"

He shakes his head "I'll die either way".
I shake my head "You're not stupid, you know who I am and you know what I can do. I can protect you"

He looks at me hesitantly "Swear on your life"
"As Allah is my witness, I'll do all I can to protect you, no matter the cost but that depends solely on you"

He takes a deep breath "Okay. All I know is we got hired by Alhaji Salis, to keep an eye on the vassals and report anything suspicious or important but I started receiving anonymous messages, someone wanted me to do the same thing and he paid for it so I did. At least everything was going well until the first vassal died, Najib became more cautious around me and barely carried me along but my so I barely got any intel but fortunately for me my benefactor still paid me my money, telling me that he has bigger plans for me. One night I received an urgent message telling me to do all I can to acquire his phone, that the fate of the kingdom depends on it. I hurried over and heard him speaking to someone on the phone, apparently that person knows the location of the phone. He caught me and sprints, before I could catch up he was already far and that was the last time I heard from my benefactor, when I heard he died I went into hiding until that day when my benefactor called again and asked me to get the flash drive, he paid triple the amount to assure success".

Huda.
He was talking to her, she's the one who knows where the phone is.

"You good?" Hafiz asks.
I smile "Never better"

"Before we let you go, we need to make sure everything you said is true"

Hafiz looks at me unsure, probably wondering why I said that but I can't tell him about Huda knowing everything yet, it's not that I don't trust him but like they say walls have ears.

::

"Huda?" I call out her name immediately I step inside the house.
"Hudayya?" I call out again as I make my way to the stairs.

"She's in her room"
I turn around and see a girl with a similar posture to her standing infront of the guest room.

When I mean similar posture I mean physically they're body is identical, the only difference is they're not identical but she could actually pull off pretending to be Huda to people who don't really know her.

"Iman, right?" I ask.
She nods smiling "Yeah, I can see my sister told you about me"

"Yes you've been mentioned, what is she doing in her room?" I ask because I know my wife isn't a fan of staying in her room.

She shrugs "She was being dramatic and locked herself up"

I nod "I have no idea what happened between you two but I don't want you terrorizing my wife in her home. Whatever happened in the past doesn't matter to concern me. But as long as I'm here, I don't want you two on each other's throats, got it?"

"Yes. My apologies"
"It's fine".

I hurry upstairs.
"Huda, open the door"
"It's not locked"

I open the door and see her lying down on her bed watching, I thought she'd look miserable after arguing with her sister for the umpteenth time.

I walk in and close the door behind me.
"I thought you'd be moping around"

She smiles "I pretended to get angry and lock myself up in my room so I'd have some peace, if I don't she'll keep pestering me".
"You don't have to do that in your own home".

She shrugs "I know"

I sit next to her "We need to talk".

::