47: Unveiled Identity

“Where are you going?” She immediately asked before he left the chamber and he turned with a serious look on his face. He looked dreadful and afraid and hurt altogether, she could give him that. “Where are you going without eating something, Mujaheed?” She added because she didn’t want him to think that she didn’t believe in him. That would make him furious.

He shook his head at her, but she was aware of the fist he had curled, anxiously. “I need to be somewhere at the moment I’ll eat when I'm back.” He said briskly and in the blink of an eye, he was out of the house. Fareeda wondered what this meant. But she knew no matter what would happen, she would have to see what Mujaheed was up to herself.

She looked at Muhaseen that was staring at her with innocent and pure eyes before she smiled, but deep down she was afraid, her heart shook and she didn’t even know what she would think of him. Whatever he was doing was illegal, and he might have been caught today. Or rather, his subordinates might have been caught. She immediately went back to her room and put on her hijab before she went to the parking lot. She made sure Muhaseen was secured in the baby seat before she drove out of the house, meticulously following the car she knew he was inside.

Her heart thumped when she kept following him but instead of the town, he kept driving to the outskirts of Taraba and Fareeda knew this didn't look promising. Should she call the police already and request for some help? Because she felt this place was dangerous, but then if they didn't nab them already, she might be the cause of her downfall herself, she immediately discarded the idea as fast as it came.

She stopped her far a few miles away from his, from the angel which she knew would give her the perfect view of everything that was happening around the house she spotted his car stopped by. She hated this to be true, but the moment he came out of the car and stood by the car while making a phone call, a man in an all-black attire came and immediately bowed at him. Some few men came as well and showed him the same respect before they walked together into the house, Fareeda knew it was the end for her. Whoever this man was, he was even the boss of whatever business they did, which looked illegal from the sight of their faces.

She drove back home with her whole body shaking because she knew she didn’t have the energy to get into the house. She might even be killed before he heard about a woman that was inside the house as an intruder and decided to check. She was crying when she drove back home and immediately when she saw Nana, she gave her Muhaseen and asked her not to bring her back until she called herself, no matter how much she would cry. Because Fareeda knew today was the day, she would have to bring an end to everything, and she wouldn’t like them shouting at each other in the presence of their daughter even though she couldn't comprehend anything. But a child’s brain wasn’t as dumb as people think, she was a living proof of that.

She kept racing in the living room not being able to think of anything. Her mind went black because she couldn't believe what she had seen with her eyes today. Silently praying for her thoughts and imaginations to be wrong, Fareeda patiently waited for him until she heard the doorknob turned and he walked into the living room looking distressed. He slumped on the sofa and palmed his face. Maybe they were caught, or probably the plan they had executed didn’t work out, right?

First, she wanted to know what brought him to her father’s house as a gateman when he was a boss somewhere. She wanted to know everything he was hiding because she might hate Alhaji, but he was still the only parent she had left. He looked up at her and tried to smile but the expression she had on her face told him not to. “What’s wrong, Fareeda?” He inquired with a tired voice and she shook her head, trying to calm herself down. She didn’t want to make any mistake today, she wanted it to be as subtle as she could and also as understanding as they could all be with each other.

“I'll bring you something cold to drink, you look tired.” She managed to say and walked into the kitchen immediately. ‘Act accordingly, Fareeda. Don’t overreact and don’t let him make a fool out of you.’ She kept repeating this to herself as she walked out with a drink and a cup. She poured it for him, and he gulped more than half of it in a single gulp.

She went and sat beside him on the sofa and Mujaheed knew she had something to talk to him about. He turned to face her with a smile, “What is it? I have something to talk to you as well.”

He knew her so well, that was what she had noticed. She knew he might’ve noticed how nervous and restless she had been for a long time and chose to ignore it because he knew there would be a point where she would tell him everything herself without him probing her. She shook her head, entwining her hands to calm herself down because all she wanted to do now was yell at him. “You go first, mine isn’t even that important.”

He wanted to argue with her but at some point he knew she might only be this nervous over what Kamila had said and she wanted him to allow her to go into the mansion and maybe insult the living daylights out of Ummah. He took her two hands in his and smiled soothingly. “What you have to say is always important, Fareeda. Your thoughts, your dreams, your fears, everything. So, you say it out first, I'll listen.”

She shook her head with a pout taking over her lips. “I want to hear you first today, please? I don’t think I'm ready to voice it now, hearing you speak might give me the will.” She managed to tell him while trying to fake a smile, but she knew better than anyone that Mujaheed knew how it looked like when she genuinely smiled.

He sighed and stared into her eyes, probably contemplating whether to tell her this or not. “Okay, here it is. We’re leaving here, Taraba, your home, tomorrow Insha Allah.” She didn’t know when her pulse stopped her heart stopped moving for a moment. She knew if she had an ECG attached with her body this was the point that that straight line will form on the screen and the doctors will turn to her family with a sad look to tell them she was gone forever. But it was a different case today. She was alive, she could feel it, but nothing acted like she was in her body, because all she did was stared at him without even breathing.

He slightly shook her hands, “Fareeda! Breathe!” He called out, and that was when she knew what she was supposed to do and before anything, she slipped her hands away from him while she shook her head. Here, what she had been dreading to be true had been confirmed by him. If not he was into something deeply bad and illegal, why would he have to leave Taraba? If he had said that they would only leave her father’s mansion, she would understand. Because he might want to live on his own, she would support him set up a business and everything, but living the whole of Taraba after what she had found out didn’t look promising, she knew that.

“What do you mean, Mujaheed? I'm not going anywhere.” She declared, because she knew for her to leave here would only be if she got her answers. While shaking her head, she added. “At least until I get my answers, Mujaheed.”

He was staring at her with his lips slightly agape. Why was she acting this way? He thought the first thing she would ask him after he had said they were leaving will be where they were going and what he was going to do there, but from the look on her face he knew what was going into her heart was rather something huge. “What do you mean, Fareeda? Which questions do you have?”

She took in a deep breath, closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she began to talk. “Who are you? What’s your full or should I say real name? What are you doing in my father’s house disguising yourself as a gateman when you know you aren’t? Or should I say, there’s something hidden in your identity?” She held a stoic expression as she looked harder into his eyes because she already had in mind that Mujaheed wouldn’t just fool her today. He wouldn’t curve her questions like he always did. “Don’t even try to outsmart me today, Mujaheed. I'm not a fool...”

He tried to cut her off, but she ignored him and kept talking, her anger slowly rising but she knew how to keep it in place. “I've seen the gold card you mistakenly left in my drawer. It didn’t even have initials on it for me to say it’s legal. The way you spend money, I know you do it to make us feel happy, to make me feel loved, but that’s not something a man of your level could do. Because who would buy a whole carton of diapers for his child that’s just three months old? I don’t have to be mentioning all the extravagant things you did, because you know them yourself or you might’ve not noticed they were all extravagant because this wasn’t your real identity.” Tears pooled her eyes and wanted to spring into her cheeks and no matter how she tried to stop them, she couldn’t.

“I've seen the gold necklace, Mujaheed. How could you buy such a thing with your financial status? I'm not looking down on you, but we both know that’s not something someone in your financial status could buy. The anklet, that was commissioned for only me because I've seen the inscription, let your soul grow. I need answers, Mujaheed. Who are you and what type of an illegal business are you in? I've followed you today, I saw the house, the men that bowed at you as though you’re their lord and also them not daring to step ahead of you. And let’s not forget your suspicious actions lately, the unknown business you have to be taking care of, everything, I've seen everything. What’s only left now is for you to give me the answers that I deserve to know, unless I get those answers, I'm not leaving this house.”

Mujaheed didn’t know when he gasped softly and palmed his face. He had never realized that she was noticing all this while. He knew she would love answers to everything she had asked him about, but he couldn’t give her an answer to anything. He sighed and looked at the way she was painfully looking at him with tears rolling down her face unchecked. “Fareeda, I'll answer your questions but not today, okay? I'll answer everything when we’ve left tomorrow and if you don’t like the answers, I'd understand everything if you want to leave me because I haven’t told you anything from the beginning. But one thing is certain, I'm not here to hurt either you or your father. And my name is real, but for you to believe me, I'd have to tell you my complete name even though I’d want to wait until tomorrow to tell you everything. My name is Mujaheed Muhammad Haladu.”

She looked at him with uncertainty in her eyes, she wanted to believe her, but a part of her heart kept reminding her of what she had seen today and had been seeing for a very long time now. She slightly shook her head, “What...what do you mean until tomorrow? Why can’t you tell me everything now?” She stammered and Mujaheed held her hands again.

“I’m sorry but I have to disguise my identity as though saving my own life. I have to tell you my name today because I want you to believe me, because I love you, Fareeda. But doing just that is dangerous to me, please understand me.” His voice broke, with the despair already on his shoulder and now a new one trying to climb up there. “I promise to tell you everything tomorrow, not omitting a single thing. You can choose to stay with me or leave afterward, but one thing is certain, I'll make sure to protect both you and Muhaseen, I promise.”

Her tears intensified; she didn’t like where this was going at all. “Are you in some sort of danger? Mujaheed at you safe?” She asked with her trembling lips and he smiled at her before he pulled her to his body and hugged her.

“I won’t say I'm safe, my life might be in danger because of what I'm about to do but that’s the right thing for me to do. But I promise, I'll protect you and Muhaseen with my life. Will you leave with me, Fareeda?” She lifted her face from his chest and even though she was afraid of who this mysterious Mujaheed Muhammad Haladu could be, he was still the only man she felt safe being with.

“What are we going to say to Alhaji before we leave?” She asked weakly and he smiled, kissed her forehead before he spoke.

“Before I started working for him I told him I'd leave when the time comes, so I'll leave him I'm leaving...”

“With his daughter and granddaughter?” She asked with a soft smile on her lips.

“You’re my wife and she’s my daughter, I'm sure he’d understand. And it’s not like you aren’t going to see them again, we’d come to visit them someday.” Deep down, she knew this was wrong, hell it screamed of danger and ‘run for your life’, but Fareeda didn’t want to do as her heart was telling her. She wanted to embrace this danger and explore more of it. She wanted to be selfless for once and understand the person that had always understood and forgave her. She felt at least she owed him this chance for all she did to him, and he acted as though it was nothing.

✥

Jibril took them to the airport with Nana crying so hard as though her eyeballs will come out. Fareeda soothed her but nothing, she clung onto Muhaseen not wanting to let her go. Mujaheed had to promise Nana that he will arrange for her to visit them as soon as she was done with her exams and also they will always be on phone with her before they left.

They were waiting for their plane when Fareeda turned to look at him, “Mujaheed, this isn’t a domestic flight, we’re taking an international flight?” She asked, raking her brain to make sure where they were.

“You promise not to ask me any questions, Fareeda. Trust me at least for once, please?” He said softly and took Muhaseen from her hands. She nodded her head, aware of his men around the waiting area that disguised themselves as passengers, or maybe they were going together with them, she thought. This was supposed to make her fear for her life and her little baby as well, but she felt safe because she was together with him Their flight was a hushed one as both of them had something to think about. He held Muhaseen and even when she asked him to give her to her, she told her she should just relax. Fareeda didn’t become so anxious and nervous until they arrived, and she noticed there was only one of his men together with them now, but from the cars that stood in front of them and the ambience of the environment, she felt as her knees went weak. Who was this man and where on earth was she?

She turned to look at him, he had Muhaseen sleeping on his shoulders and for the first time, Fareeda noticed she didn't know this man that had been her husband for over two years now. Something about him defied all orders as though he was the power and authority himself. “Where are we, Mujaheed?” She couldn’t help but ask, because all this was making her head swirl.

“We’re in Yaounde, federal republic of Cameroon.” Republic of what?! Her eyes bulged out and she didn’t lose all hope until she saw the men that rustled out of the cars and came toward them, they all went on their knees at the sight of Mujaheed.

“Welcome back, your highness!!!” They chorused at the same time and that was when Fareeda noticed the attire on them was uniformed. She looked at Mujaheed, but he wasn’t looking at her as he held her hand and they got into the car.

She immediately turned to look at him after it was just the two of them left in the back of the limo. “Mujaheed, my head is spinning, will you just tell me everything now?” Muhaseen that has already woken up began to cry and he softly handed her to her.

“I'm sure she’s hungry, she has been patient for a long time.” Fareeda began to feed her but her eyes were fixed on him. He took her hand and squeezed them lightly, she noticed he was anxious about something. “You’ve trusted me all this long, why don’t you wait until we’re safe and secured? I promise I'll tell you everything, Fareeda.”

Curiosity gnawed at her on their way to their destination that was still unknown to her. And when the cars ahead of them came to a stop together with theirs as well, she knew they had arrived. He took Muhaseen from her hands and with their hands entwined, they walked out of the limo and stood in front of the entrance.

He turned to look at her with a soft smile, “Welcome to the royal palace of Yaounde, Fareeda Kamal Sardauna.” She didn’t notice what was in front of them until she heard the echoing voices of male and female servants in the same tailored uniforms. Fareeda felt dizzy, she had never imagined this would be his identity, what he had been hiding.