Afraid To Fall In Love

Broken

I went straight to my room took a quick shower and got dressed in a black Abaya with very little make up on my face and sprayed on my favorite oud. I walked down stairs to where he was waiting absent minded on the couch.

"Is everything okay" I asked sitting next to him as my heart skipped a few beats.

"I'm not sure" he answered reaching for my hands, "Abbah just didn't sound like himself on the phone...maybe I am worried over nothing " he added before fetching his keys from the table where he had kept them.

I kept trying to cheer him up with my silly jokes on our way because he looked quite nervous for no reason.i mean getting all worked up over possibly nothing to raise an eyebrow over.

We met a black Toyota in the premises so I began to think maybe they had relatives over that was why Abbah had summoned us.

When we got to the living room everyone was seated like someone had passed away, then I noticed a slim figure sitting next to a woman whom I presumed was her mother and if my memory served me right this was the girl we went out with on a picnic last year....yes Hannan.

My legs couldn't carry my weight but I still managed to find a spot next to Mamie with a salam almost audible to my ears alone.

The place was quite for a while as neither Mahmud or I had the courage to say our greetings talk more of asking what was going on but I could see him looking at Hannan from the corner of his eye from time to time.

I felt something curl up in my throat, it was bitter and cold but I had lost the courage to speak. I tried not to think negative but I couldn't stop myself seeing the wave about to drown me, it grew worse as I thought of the message I had once seen on his phone. It was like the what if's were waiting and I couldn't fight it.

"Repeat what you just said" Abbah's  authoritative voice stopped the negative thoughts that were about to crush me.

"Alhaji Bello, you son got my daughter pregnant, what part of it do you want to hear again" Hannan's mother spoke in a state of rage. " You should be asking your son how he ruined my daughter's life...Shameless boy" she added giving Mahmud a hateful look.

For a moment, everything felt numb, it was like no one was there just the words ringing loud in my ear. I was screaming in my head but not a single word in the open, I cried for it to be a dream but no tears came. I silently watched my life slipping into a  state of doom and confusion as the words said pierced deep into my skin.

"Stop it,just stop this nonsense" Mahmud shout moving forward from where he sat,

"Oh! Now you want to insult me as well... Aisha is this how you brought up your children?" Hajiya Maryam turned to question Mamie's upbringing. The poor woman sat quietly as insults were rained upon her, her lips trembled as tears filled her eyes.

"What do you want from us, why have you choosen to destroy the happiness in our home...what have we done wrong, how have we wronged you" Mahmud's questions kept coming,

There was a heated argument between the two before Abbah intervened " Hannan tell me the truth...between you and your Lord, is he the Father of the child you are carrying"  he asked calmly.

The whole place was quite again as she too about five minutes to answer...those were the longest five minutes of my life.

"He is the father" she broke the silence with another stab to the heart.

"Ke?" Mahmud shout " wallahi Abbah I didn't do anything, It's not mine...I swear" he kept trying to explain himself and for a moment there I almost believed him.