IRREPLACEABLE BOND ?

CHAPTER 8

AFEENA'S P.O.V:

"Trrrrr" I heard the alarm ringing. I checked the time which says 5:00 I stretched for almost 3 minutes before I went into the bathroom and took my time bathing, I performed wudu'u before leaving the bathroom. I prayed and dressed up in a light blue high way skirt that has white lace at the end of it with a white kareena and a veil

I turned the door knob when I heard a muffling sound on my bed. I totally forgot that Maryam slept here yesterday.

"Wake up" I said as I sat down at the edge of the bed

"Maryam wake up!" I said a bit louder as I tapped her, she turned her face away and I knew that she was awake the whole time

"Wake up Maryam wake up!!!!" I started shouting and shaking her

"Ukhti!!!!" She whined

"What?" I asked and stopped shaking her

"There is no school today and there is absolutely nothing to do!" She wined more

"But its not good for you to sleep for more than eight hours" I replied trying to reason with her

"Its not up to 'eight' hours yet. Its 6 am" she said and I shrugged

I am not good at math but even after just waking up from a deep sleep this girl can still calculate fast. She still surprises me.

"OK suit yourself. But if u wake up later with a throbbing headache, don't blame me cause I tried to warn you" I said and went out of the room

I walked into Ameera's room and found her praying. How did she even wake up so early? I just stood there looking at her until she said the Salam.

"Good morning Ukhti" she greeted

"Morning baby" I said and kissed her cheek

I bathed her and looked for a cute clothe and dressed her up.

We both went into Sadiq's room and found him sleeping, and so was Bilkisu.

I checked up on Tariq and also found him sleeping. I didn't wake them up because they will whine my ears out. I didn't bother to check up on Ahmed because I know he is already awake.

We both walked down the stairs and went to the dining room. We found Ahmed sitting down and taking his breakfast. We sat down and had ours too,

"Morning Akhi" Ameera greeted him and he answered.

"Morning Ahmed" I greeted him and he answered

After we were done, we both sat down in the living room. Ameera turned on her favorite channel Nickelodeon Jnr. While I started designing her hair.

"Ukhti Afeena!!!!!" I heard Bilkisu's voice called as she ran downstairs.

"Be careful. Don't run and fall down" I said alarmed and she stopped the moment she was down the stairs. She walked and handed me my phone

"Here, Ukhti Maryam said I should give you. She said that Abba just called you" she said and I smiled after saying thank you

"By the way Good morning Ukhti" she greeted and hugged me

"Good morning dear" I replied and hugged her back

"Good morning Bilkisu" Ameera said and I hit her arm lightly

"Uhhh......I mean Good morning Ukhti Bilkisu" she greeted properly

"Its okay Ukhti. She can call me Bilkisu. I don't really like been called with Ukhti, it makes me feel old." She said and I laughed

"Okay" I replied and she went up to her room

Just as I was about to call Abba, he called again

"Assalamu Alaikum Abba how are you?"

"Wa'alaikumus Salam, Alhadulillah I am fine my dear" he replied

After exchanging pleasantries, he said "My dear, your Ummi and I cannot make it tomorrow. Some work came up and we have to wait till next week"

"Abbaaaa!!!!" I whined like a little girl

"I'm sorry dear" he said

"Okay okay, no problem. Where is Ummi?"

"She's freshing up"

"Alright. My regards to her"

"I will."

"By the way, your Jida called and she said that she misses all of you. So you kids should go and greet her and leave Sadiq, Bilkisu, Ameera and Maryam there. But if you want to stay too you can" he added

"OK Abba. We will don't worry. But we won't stay. We'll go back some other time insha Allah" I replied

"Alright my dear, I have to go now" he said

"Massalam Abba, my regards to Ummi again" I said and we disconnected.

"Ukhti!!!!! I have been telling you to give me the phone let me talk to Abba!" Ameera said almost crying. I can't see my baby girl crying so I dialed his number again and gave her while I went upstairs and told everyone what Abba just said. They all started to get ready

"Maryam pack your clothes and that of Sadiq and Bilkisu. I will help Ameera with hers" I said and she nodded

I went downstairs and found Ameera saying

"Alright Abba I promise!" She said squealing

"Bissalam" she said and ended the call

"Keep the phone on the table and let's go and pack your clothes" I said and she nodded

After we were all done, we drove to Granny's place, I really miss her so much. She lives alone and refused to stay with us,

"Assalamu Alaikum" we all said as we went in

"Wa'alaikumus salam" she replied

"Jida!!!!!" Ameera, Sadiq, Bilkisu screamed as they ran towards her sitting figure on her favorite rocking chair. This old lady sure loves that Rocking chair of hers,

"How are you? We missed you so much" they said

We went towards her and squatted "Sabahul khair Jida" I said

"Sabahul khair Afeena" she replied and touched my cheeks.

"Sabahul khairan Jida" Tariq and Ahmed said in unison. She replied.

We stayed and chatted with Jida while the three kids were playing with her hair in the name of giving her a 'hair over'. What does that even mean?

When it was getting late, Tariq, Ahmed and I decided to leave saying goodnight to Jida. She wouldn't let us go. We had to promise we would come back and stay the night next time

We drove home. Moments later, we were seated in the living room. Everyone is stuffed because of how much Jida fed us all saying we have all lost weight except for Ameera.

I then remembered that it was just one week left for us to resume school, all but Ahmed.

I am currently a graduate from highschool and going to my first year in college.

Maryam is in her last year of highschool.

Tariq is going to be in Grade 10 now.

Bilkisu and Sadiq are both going to be in Grade 1 while Ameera just started her kindergarten.

And Ahmed has graduated and is now going to start working in dad's company as his assistant CEO.

I called Maryam and told her to make a list of what they needed and Tariq also.

The guys changed the channel to a sports channel and I was getting very bored. I decided to go upstairs to my room. I wish Ameera was here, it could have been fun staying with her and chatting.

I decided to call Nour and not make things awkward between us after all what happened at Omaya's

I dialed her number like three times. She picked up the fourth one.

"Salam Nour" I said

"Wa'alaikumus salam" she replied dryly

"How are you?" I asked

"I'm fine" she answered

"How about you?" She asked after moment of silence

"Masha'allah. I'm fine too Alhamdulillah"

"You said that you would be coming today. What happened? I hope everything is alright?" I asked trying to be casual.

"Nothing serious. Its just that I'm not feeling too well, just a little bit of headache. Sorry but I can't make it" she said. I knew very well that she was making it up.

"Okay. No need for apologies, I totally understand. Wishing you quick shifa" I replied

"Ameen. Bye, Aaliyah is calling me" she said and ended the call even before I could reply

I wore my long abaya and niqab, i picked up my phone and bag and rushed downstairs.

"Ahmed, I have to go to Nour's. Can I?" I asked

"It's to 6 Afeena, can't it wait?" He said

"Yeah....Nope, it can't. It's a life and death situation" I replied

"What happened is Nour okay???" he asked panicking

"She's fine. I just need to resolve something" he glared at me and I laughed.

"OK drive safe" he said

"Okay, thank you"

"Don't stay long and if u will take long just stay there and come back tomorrow" he yelled. I've already packed my pyjamas but I'm not telling Ahmed that.

"Bye Ukhti" Tariq yelled too

"Okay" I said

"Bye" I added and shut the door

I quickly drove to their house and luckily for me they haven't moved out. And another luck for me is that I have a spare key.

"Assalamu Alaikum" I said as I went in

"Wa'alaikumus salam" I heard Ukthi Aaliyah replied as she came out from the kitchen wiping her hands off with a kitchen towel

"How may I help you? How did you get in?" She asked starting to panic

"Relax Ukhti it's me Afeena" I said removing my niqab and she heaved out a sigh of relief

"Alhamdulillah, Afeena how are you? It's been a long time since we saw each other" she said as I removed my abaya

"Yes Ukhti I missed you a lot. How was Dubai?"

"It was nice but boring without you" she said as I let out a chuckle

"Masha'allah!!! Afeena is all grown up and as beautiful as ever"she gasped and I smiled shyly

"Shukran. You are acting like my mother" I said and she laughed then hugged me

"So what brought you here at this hour?" She asked releasing me

"I came to see Nour" I replied

"She's upstairs in her room. She said she would come to your place today and she was super excited but when she came back from Omaya's with Zahradeen, she was upset. She has been locked up in her room quite a long time now" she replied worried

"Ok let me go up to her. I am sure everything is fine Insha'allah" I replied knowing fully what made Nour upset

"By the way, how is zahradeen?" I asked. Zahradeen is Nour's elder cousin. He is Ahmed's age mate. He is like a brother to me, well to us all since our families are very close

"He's fine, he just went out. Didn't you bump into him?" She asked and I shook my head. We kept on chatting. I really miss this sister of mine.

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I put back my niqab and abaya before going upstairs. I knocked on her door and I heard her unlocking it

"What is it Ukthi?" She asked as she opened the door

"Who are you?" She asked immediately

"I'm here to murder you!!!!" I said in a scary voice and she screamed trying to lock the door but I held it just in time as I laughed at her

"Relax it's me" I said but she still didn't release the door

"You who?" She asked

"Me Afeena" I said and she released the door.

"You're lying! You're not Afeena. One, Afeena doesn't wear niqab. Two, I met her at Omaya's today and it appears like she lost her memory" she said as she rolled her eyes

"Would you just please let me in and I'll explain. Besides how do you think I will get into the house if I am some intruder?"I asked and she kept silent for a while before she decided. She made way for me and I salamed into the room

I walked towards her bed and sat down. I removed my niqab and as she turned around she stopped mid track

"Afeena?" She asked surprised

"Yeah, hi Nour" I said

"But how?" She asked confused

"Well, you see. I don't know what you are thinking but I can assure you that I do not know that lady you saw at Omaya......" I told her everything that happened and how I didn't go and talked to her at that moment and she told me what transpired between her and my clone. Yeah, that's what I am calling her now. My 'clone'

Typical Nour, she still interrogated me to make sure that I am truly Afeena.

"So what you are trying to tell me now is that you don't know that girl at all? She asked

"Yup! Never seen her" I said eating the chips ukthi bought for us earlier while I was in the middle of explaining everything to Nour.

"Maybe she's your twin"

"If she was my twin, Abba and Ummi would have told me right? Or I would have been told that maybe I had a twin once or something" I replied

"Maybe she's that kind of twin that was separated from you since birth. You know, like The lying game" she said and I rolled my eyes at that

"Sometimes I start to wonder whether its your actual brain that is thinking. Or maybe there is a TV in there" I said tapping her head and we both bursted out laughing.

She slightly smacked my arm "stop it!" She said trying to keep a straight face but ended up smiling.

"But Afeena this is very serious. We have to find out the mystery behind this" she said

"Yeah you are right" I replied.

We both kept on talking, when I checked the time it was already 11:28 pm. And so I decided to stay for the night. I already decided that since before I left the house. I called Ahmed and told him I was staying and we kept on catching up till we fell asleep.