Bound ✅

The Citation

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"Good Morning Salim."

Jamal replied to his assistant's greeting without breaking his stride to his desk. When he reached, he took off his suit jacket, leaving his waistcoat on.

He hung his suit jacket on a wooden hanger and adjusted his necktie before sitting. When women looked at Jamal in his tailored suit, they saw those powerful thighs of his that preceded his tapered waist and then washboard belly and mouthwatering shoulders. Some swore they had never seen a type like him.

"Let us begin." Salim sat in a black leather chair opposite Jamal and began highlighting Jamal's week. "The Amranco representatives are going to be here on Thursday. Any more directives for reception?"

Jamal leaned back in his chair before shaking his head in the negative. "All planned as usual? Accommodation?" Salim nodded and continued listing.

"Your sister returns on Saturday. I've informed the CFO of her return and sent a mail to the finance department to that effect." Jamal nodded in deep thought. Now, he'd be able to see Halima anytime he wanted.

"That's all?" Salim nodded after reading out all of Jamal's planner.

"Send an email to HRM Ummi, CFO Jide. I'd love to talk about the increase in revenue and salary increments." Salim nodded and walked to his desk right outside Jamal's door.

Once Salim was outside, Jamal picked up his phone, tapped on it and put it to his ear.

"Summayah?" He face palmed when he remembered she couldn't pick calls at work.

"Summayah, when you get this, i want to know why Halima went to a fertility clinic. I thought you said she had begun liking me, why does she want to have a stranger's child." He clicked stop and sent the recording  to his sister's voicemail.

He leaned back in his chair a moment. It seemed like he needed to ride his proposal a notch. He also needed to gain her permission to do a few things, and she seemed more and more removed from him and never liking him. Instead of the back passing that he was doing, he would go straight up, and declare his intentions.

He shifted the file stack in front of him, yes, that was the plan. He was too old to keep allowing people state his intentions for him.

*****

"So, you're trying to say that it is Haram?" Halima nodded. She picked at the grains of sleep discharge im the corners of her eyes that had missed her Fajr ablution and bathing.

"Yes ma. I had been reading up on it and I thought I'd come tell you first." Salisu's mother leaned regally back into the sofa, it seemed different because she wasn't exactly capable of being regal.

"Where?" She asked contemptuously. Halima sighed as she replied. "The internet."

Salisu's mother hissed and her hand went to the scarf she had wound around her head.

"So, no Sheikh told you this, just your own imagination?" Halima nodded and replied eagerly.

"Well, not my own imagination. I read it up and I thought it would be Haram since he has been dead for so long. It's not very good."Halima replied meekly and Salisu's mother clapped her hands mockingly.

"I've always said that you're mad. You just haven't diagnosed it." Halima shifted uncomfortably. She'd gotten used to being insulted as part of being married to Salisu but to continually get insulted was drawing the noose on the camel.

"I'm not mad. I just read things that makes me feel like I'll be putting my Iman in danger by doing it." In reply Salisu's mother picked a heeled slipper from the rack behind her and threw it in Halima's direction. That seemed to spur Halima in action. She ducked.

"Since you're so angry about my refusal, why don't you tell me why you neglected to tell the clinic that Salisu had been dead for a while. And why you refuse to understand that I was not Salisu's only wife. What about Hauwa?" Salisu's mother sneered.

"You're the equivalent of a prostitute. You do not hold a candle to her pure self." She raised a hand and wagged it in a sneering manner at Halima.

"You allowed yourself to be raped. If there is anyone who is supposed to do it. It's you. Hauwa is a poor girl who has her life ahead of her. You on the other hand." Halima didn't know when tears dropped from her eyes until she noticed a drip on the hands she clasped around her chest.

"This is what you've thought of me all these while?" Salisu's mother scoffed in reply. Halima packed the small handbag she carried and let herself out of the tormenting house.

As she walked, she freely allowed tears to drop from her eyes. She did not care if she was far away from hee father's house, for a tormented soul like hers, she didn't even notice the distance.

When she reached the gate, flashes of her words can back to her and she cried harder, she wiped her tears with her hijab, completely forgetting she had an ironed handkerchief in her bag.

"Sadiya menene? Mesa kike kuka?"Sadiyya what is it? Why the tears?  Halima walked to her mother and cried hard. She knelt in front of her and placed her head on her mother's laps.

Her mother unwrapped her hijab and pulled the material off her head, and began to caress her rough twists.

"Sadiyya, Menene?" What is it?

"Was it ever my fault?" Her mother's eyes widened. She understood immediately without an explanation.

"Who said it was your fault? Did you meet them in Wuse?" Halima shook her head. She raised her head and sat at her mother's feet in one movement.

"Salisu's mother said I'm stained, she said so many things." She recalled Salisu's mother's attitude and burst into more tears.

Halima's mother sighed before replying. "Bayan wiya akan sha dadi. It's supposed to be enjoyment after all that suffering, why does she want to make life miserable for you. I wonder what she'll gain from doing this." Halima didn't reply. She just sighed into her hands.

*****

"Jamal."

Summayah yawned as she replied her elder brother. "I just heard your voicemail. Sorry for the so late response." Jamal wiped his head with the fluffy towel and stepped into his room.

He put the call on speaker and placed the phone on the vanity table. Only stopping to pick his cream.

"So, explain." Summayah told him all she knew about Salisu's mother's proposal.

"Be clear Summy, because she's not married she wants her to carry their child?" Summayah replied in affirmative making Jamal stop in the process of wearing his silk pyjama top.

"I thought she had a Kishiya?" Summayah replied in the affirmative again and yawned again.

"Summy. Go to bed. I'll talk to you when you return. The citation on Friday midnight right?" He said referring to their family jet.  Summayah squealed in excitement.

"Yes Ya Jamal. Love you." Jamal cut the call and shook his head, she only added a respect prefix when she wanted something or had gotten what she wanted.

********

Hi guys,

How are you doing today? 😅😅

I hope y'all are doing well?

Well, no too muvh talk this night. I just want to wish my fave Harunafaree a happy birthday. God bless your new age. Y'all please say a prayer for her.

See y'all soon.

TheOmoope