Chapter 40: An Old Decision

They had chatted away on the phone in a way that was enough to show him he had forgotten about the fact that Hafiz was still there waiting for his phone. It had been so long since when he had been as happy as he was now and when Maryam reminded him of that, he gasped and they burst out laughing together. He bade her goodbye and she was reluctant before she heard him ended the call and took the phone outside to Hafiz.
He wasn't sulking like she imagined he would, rather, he was watching the tv and it seemed like Bilkisu had entertained him as a guest, which was a good thing. He turned to her the moment she walked into the room and when he saw the wide smile on her lips, Hafiz couldn't be more truer with his speculations. She had went into the room crying as though that was the time her father had lost his life, and she was back now with the widest grin? That s a good start.
"Are you done?" He asked and she innocently nodded her he'd while she handed him the phone.
"Yes," she had said. "He said I can t go there, I'll have to wait until he s released from the hospital to do that. Will you please be bringing the phone everyday to me so I can speak to him?" Hafiz had only nodded his head at her before he stood to his feet. Because he had figured that saying no to her would mean having to see her cry and if Captain Bolori heard that he had made his dear wife cry? At this rate they were moving, he knew it would certainly take him to the punishment cell.
He bade her goodbye after she had made him promise, just that Hafiz knew he wasn t going to fulfill that promise in any way. He was going to give them some time to miss each other and for Na im to make his final decision. Because, he was a man. He would certainly pick himself up when things went wrong, but Maryam seemed so fragile to know what to make of herself when she s heartbroken.
On his way back to the hospital, Hafiz received a call from Future Prowess Islamic Foundation s director and his heart lost a beat before he picked the call and since then, he hadn't been in the mood to say all that he had wanted to, to Na im. He just wanted to see if they could speak things out, even though he was certain that Captain Bolori would never take any rough decisions until he was sure of it, Hafiz knew they had to be extra careful.
?
Na im stared at the faces of the four wives of Alan Gubro as he analyzed them in his heart. Even though he knew that the last two had nothing bad to bear in mind for him, but he thought of them from time to time and wonder if their feelings for him had changed, but it seemed it hadn t. These last two were the mothers of the royal triplets; Amjad and Adil been twins and Areef being the son of the last one. Just like the sons, their mothers were filled with love and innocence and Na im thought that maybe, he would find someone to lean onto in Shehuri. That s if he considered them someday.
He stared at Ya Girema, who was the second wife of the king and the one Na im believed had wanted him so bad as a mother but he didn t know what had pulled him away from her. He just didn t like the idea of having a mother by his side. He didn t know whether it was because if he loved her enough like a son loved his mother, Na im was certain he would forget about her too. Just like they said he had forgotten about his mother. But he had no memories of her, if they would believe him. But they said he had lived with her for ten years before he lost her, they had been the best of friends, but Na im couldn t conjure a single image of his mother in his mind. And that was the saddest thing about this all.
It was one thing to forget about his series of fiancées, and another to forget about the woman that gave birth to him. The last thing he could do to her was keep her memories with him. Whenever Na im thought of the mother he had zero memories of, he felt his chest tightening with an unimaginable kind of pain and wondered what would be of his life if all this while he had been remembering her and if this pain was what he would have to constantly feel? Even though she wasn t there in his mind, Na im had had a knot in his chest, hovering and tightening around his heart for all the years he could remember of his mother.
He could remember this pain being there for over a decade and half on his chest and it had been notable by him with even a passing second, and he had only gotten to forget about the pain for sometime whenever he was together with Maryam. Whenever she spoke to him or laughed along with him. Or just being there for him to look at her and different thoughts run through his mind.
It wasn t healthy, he knew. Because if he was going to really divorce her then being this way with her was the last thing that should happen between them. But then he couldn t help himself, it felt as though there was a rope that was pulling them both to each other and Na im would be damned if he had to cut that rope. For it wasn t just taking him to Maryam, it was taking him to peace, sanity and there; he felt the fragrance of healing. Which he loved, entirely.
"Yarima!" Someone shouted his name and he flinched as he was brought out of his reverie. When he saw their curious faces staring at him, and then he looked up and saw the triplets along with Alan Gubro himself and from the way he was dressed, Na im knew this was a secret visit and one of the boys might even be the one that drove them there, he smiled.
It would ve been nice to be in the midst of his family, just that he would ve loved it more if Ya Gumsu was taken out of the room. But well, that wasn t possible to think out loud as he tried to sit up and Amjad quickly helped him. "Easy there, Yarima Na im. You don t even have to sit upright, I guess you didn t hear Alan Gubro when he said that." Na im wondered for how long they had been there when he earnestly thought before his name brought him out of his reverie.
Alan Gubro sat down and Na im smiled at him in a cajoling way. He knew he was so worried to the point that he might not have had enough sleep and he was so sorry. Yes, he had promised him that he would take care of himself and even the brother he not so loved, but sometimes he failed. And when he did, Alan Gubro felt like killing himself as well and today was one of those times.
"Good afternoon, Abba," he greeted, because he was in no way ready for the royal scolding. But if it was his father that did that, referring to him as Abba only proved to everyone that Na im wasn t ready to meet the king, but he was ready to meet his father and that seemed to have relieved Alan Gubro of the tight hold that encased his heart.
"Na im, you've made me so worried. How are you feeling now?" He asked but from his eyes, Na im knew there were other things he wanted to ask of him but their presence in the room made it nearly impossible.
He answered him and his family members took turns in asking how he was feeling that he began to tire of it. The women stood to leave, which was the happiest Na im had been since the walked into the room. He had seen when Hafiz peeked into the room and when he saw them, he backed away. But his expression didn t go unnoticed to him and he was dying to know what had gone wrong. Just that, he wondered if it was about Maryam or not.
Alan Gubro raised to leave as well and after the boys had shook hands with him and told him they would be back on their own to keep him company, they left with Na im sighing in relief and panic. Hafiz almost immediately walked into the room after he had escorted his father to the car and he locked the door before he walked to his bed.
"What s wrong, you seem troubled, Hafiz." He pointed out, eager to know what had gone wrong for him to look that way in such a beautiful morning.
"Like we all predicted, Captain Bolori had asked the director of Future prowess islamic foundation about Maryam and he confirmed to her that he was going there to visit her someday. So, she called to ask me if it was okay to just show him some other girl that he knew she would do the right job if he told her how to act, I ve already told him he should go on with that just that they should do all they could to avoid any mistakes and please report to me if something went wrong."
Na im was shaking his head all this while as anger seethed in him. He didn t know why it was his brother that would be trying this hard to bring him to his downfall, for what? He had never done something wrong to Sadeeq which was so bad to have him vowed his life in taking revenge on him. He had been the best brother he could be to him, he had loved him as sincerely as he had never loved and it turned out he was digging his own grave since from the start.
"Her eyes," he abruptly remembered. "I'm sure that woman must ve described Maryam the best way she could. They might find a girl her age who could do everything right but what about the eyes? Which I'm sure wouldn t have gotten off her list of description."
Hafiz sighed and shook his head, "I ll tell her that they should find a way to make sure she didn t let him see her face in general and if it was possible, the girl shouldn t be left alone with him, what do you think?"
Na im nodded and slid back on the bed, his heart boiling with so much anger he had never felt before. He wished he could just go to Sadeeq and ask him what he meant by everything he had been doing to him so far, but doing that would only prove to him that he indeed was hiding something. So, he would just have to wait for the perfect time to avenge.