Unknown Betrayal

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Aayan

“Do you want these here?“, Ayoub asks me while holding up a basket filled with bread rolls.

“No here”, Aamanee takes it off her then places it on the table along with the rest of the meals prepared.

There’s plenty of food prepared by the girls, they worked so hard for this so inshaAllah it turns out as planned. There are plain rice with stew, chicken, beef, turkey, jollof rice, fried rice, biryani, suya (grilled/barbecued spicy beef), bread rolls, white/brown slice bread, jam, butter, apple juice, orange juice, water etc

Malik and Aamanee even decorated the hallway to make it home friendly, it’s beautiful.

“People are outside guys”, Fawaz walks in holding a little girl in his arms. She only has on a plain dirty, muddy, yellow dress which is ripped at the ends. Her braids are loose and all over her face and she’s shivering in Fawaz’s arms.

“Oh you poor thing. Here bring her here”, Fatima takes the girl away from Fawaz and wraps her with a long shawl.

“What’s your name sweetie?“, she asks her as she takes a seat in front of the dinner table.

“S-S-S-Sal-maa”, she stutters.

“Are you cold?“.

Salma nods and lifts her head up slowly. Her face is all pale looking and she looks so exhausted and just sick in general.

“Where are you parents?“, Aamanee kneels down beside Fatima with a pink onsie in her hand.

“Will y’all take her into one of the rooms inside and get her changed out of that, bath for her and do all the necessary things. We need to open the doors for the rest. There’s a long line outside. Nur and Maryam are done taking down the names of the people outside. They all look very hungry, so move on”, Fawaz says.

“Sure. Come on”. Fatima stands up and walks inside with Salma and Aamanee.

Once they were out of sight Fawaz opens the door revealing the exhausted yet excited looking faces of all the people waiting in line.

“Thank you”, each person utters as they receive their plates of desired meal then are lead into the living room by Malik who’s escorting the males while Maryam is escorting the females. The living room is divided into two, there’s a side for males and another for females. The rooms are big enough for two families so people with kids, mothers and fathers or elderly’s that are sick or just to old to be sleeping on the floor beds are going to be situated there. Fawaz even went out of his way to get his dad to make the garden into a playground for the kids outside, a study room which is small but it’s there as a quiet place for anyone to just chill basically. The kitchen is small but it’s manageable for cooking. Using the money given by Zaynab’s husband, we hired security guards for when we’re not there, nurses and cooks because the ladies won’t always be here to prepare the meals and we can’t obviously expect them to wait for us to be available for them to put something in their stomachs.

“Guys”, Aamanee walks over to us and ushers us to form a mini circle.

“Everything okay?“, Khalid asks her.

“Salma is 6 years old and has no family. She’s apparently been wandering the streets for a few weeks now, she has nobody at all”, she explains with a sad tone.

“We’d need to call child protection services then”, Khalid replies.

“We can’t. She’ll just be switched from houses to houses IF she even gets adopted, she won’t get the education she deserves”, Aamanee whispers frowning.

“Well what do you want us to do? We can’t keep her here. The kids here have either their fathers or their mothers or both here. She has no one and we can’t keep her here knowing that. We’ll get into trouble”, Fawaz says.

“There has to be something else that we can do”, Aamanee whispers.

“Well unless you know of anyone that wants to adopt her...then we don’t really have a choice. We have to”, Khalid sighs.

“Adopt her?“, Aaleyah whispers.

“Aayan???“, Aamanee looks at me. Her eyes instantly lights up with eagerness mixed with anxiousness as she looks up at me.

“Why are you looking at me like that? You can’t po-”

Before I could finish speaking, she already started blurting out all the reasons why we should keep her.

“She’s adorable, you always wanted a daughter ANYWAYS, you love kids, she has nowhere to go, you love helping out and you’ll get out of the reward, she’s so cute Aayan. I want herrrrr”.

I don’t reply her at all, I just shake my head then walk away from her.

“Aayan. You owe me this”, she yells loud enough for me and just about EVERYONE in the room to hear. Well it certainly made me stop anyways.

“You can’t seriously use something as big as this to bribe me for getting you stuck with me”, I tell her not caring that the rest were listening. Chances are, they already know about it.

“YES I am. I want a daughter. I’ve always wanted to adopt, please. You’ll love her, just please”, she begs.

I stare at her for a second the glance at Khalid who shrugs. Looks like he wants the same too. ASSHOLE.

“I don’t know Aamanee, I just don’t think that we are ready for a child right now”, I sigh and sit down.

“I know. But we’re going to be soon enough. It’s not like Zaynab is coming back any sooner and it’s not like you can leave me for her and it’s not like it’s a child from us so you don’t have to feel that “guilt” you always feel when you get close to me”, Aamanee says in a whisper for only me to hear.

The sadness in her tone instantly made me feel ten times guilty. She’s right. It’s not even fair on her. Maybe this will bring us close together, I love kids and so does she. Maybe parenting is exactly what we really need to help build and strengthen our marriage.

I look at Salma who’s beside Fatima. Her once messed up braids is now in two ponytail and she’s all cleaned up and in a pink onsie. She has her hands in the pockets while rocking back and forth. She’s adorable though.

I look back at Aamanee then rub my face before pulling her down to the seat beside me.

“I want to work on us. There is no me and Zaynab, there was never me and her to begin with actually. Its all a fantasy....it didn’t work out, but you did and your my wife and my future and I really want us to work. I want our marriage to work so.. *sighs* if adopting Salma is really what you want then I support it”.

Her eyes stay fixated on me as she listened to me speak but as I finished she looks towards Salma then at me and a smile tugs at her lips before she finally throws her arms around my neck and presses herself against me with her face in my neck.

“That’s sweet, really sweet and I want the same too. Thank you for trying”, she replies then kisses my cheek briefly. I smile a little then chuckle as she literally jumps out of her seat and runs over to Salma.

“You don’t have to go away babes, your staying with us”, she lets out a loud squeal before hugging a shy looking Salma who tugs at her loose braids.

Salma glances at me so I smile at her which she returns shyly.

“Okay we should get going then, the helpers will do the rest. The guards are all in their positions”, Nur says as he yawns and stretches.

“So we’ll be here to make sure everything is okay tomorrow. If you have any enquiries or worries, you can talk to any helpers here and we’ll get back to y’all”, Maryam tells the people who are still eating.

“Okay. Thank you”.

I smile watching the smiles on each their faces. They all have a look of satisfaction and happiness which honestly gives me joy. Am happy that we didn’t just plan thus, we planned and took our plans into action to make all this happen, to make them happy.

“Okay let’s go home, we’ll go to the agency tomorrow to fill out all the necessary documents”, I tell Aamanee who nods with excitement then she walks out of the house holding Salma’s hand.

“That’s an unusual for an African girl”, Aaleyah chuckles.

“I know right. I wonder where she’s actually from exactly”, I hum.

“Well, she’s technically going to be your daughter. You have all the time in the world to get to know her”, Fawaz says as he helps Aaleyah into the passenger seat of his car.

“Yeah, I guess. Anyways, see y’all soon inshaAllah”, I nod then walk towards my own car. I get in, put on my seatbelt, check the mirrors then glance at Aamanee and Salma who’s sitting at the back before facing the front.

“Salma what is your surname? Or do you know?“, the lady involved in the adoption agency asks Salma who’s seated in front of her.

“Salma Adebisi”, she replies.

“Great, how old are you?“.

“5 years old”.

“Where are your parents?“.

Salma stays quiet and bites her lip before looking away.

“Hey sweetie, it’s okay. I just need to get your details, so that I have it in record before this lovely couple can adopt you, you want that don’t you?“, Linda asks Salma who then glances toward both Aamanee and I.

“Yeah”, she whispers.

“That’s good. I need you to tell me. Are your parents alive?“.

I don’t know where they are. I don’t know who they are”.

“What do you mean? Have you always been homeless?“.

“No....I don’t know”.

“Salma. Do you know anything about them?“.

Salma shakes her head slowly. Linda leans back into her seat then looks at me and Aamanee.

“Okay then. How did you end up wandering around with no money and no food?“.

“I got food sometimes from nice people and some people gave me money to buy food”.

“Okay....so I see no problem in handing you over to both Aayan and Aamanee. But you have different ethnic backgrounds so are you okay with that? And clarify for me where in Africa you are from”.

“Am not from Africa. I was born here but I think my dad was Nigerian and my mom was mixture of Arab and American”.

“Okay. That will be all. So for now she can live with you two. But as you know yourselves, for us to ensure the safety and protection of every child, we have to pop in out of nowhere. So be expecting us at any moment. Your background and history of any criminal acts has been checked and your clean so it’s safe to say, she is now Salma Ali and your responsibility, so don’t make me regret accepting your offer”, Linda speaks to Aamanee and I.

“Don’t worry. You won’t”, Aamanee smiles extra hard then she stands up so Linda, Salma and I follow after.

“Thank you again”, Aamanee smiles at Linda who smiles then watches as Salma and Aamanee both walk out of the room holding hands.

Walking into the living room, I suddenly sense the aroma of what seems to be...jollof rice? Did Aamanee cook jollof rice?

I enter the dining room to find her serving Salma a plate of jollof rice. She adds chicken onto it and pours some orange juice into a plastic cup for her.

“Am not really good with African food but I really hope you like it”, she nervously tells Salma who just smiles then holds her spoon.

“Aa-“.

Aamanee looks at me and smiles.

“Come on sit. I cooked jollof rice. Salma loves it and her mom used to make it for her so I decided to make it. I know you like it too. But don’t judge me too harshly, you know it’s not my thing”, she warns me as she sits me down.

“That’ll be hard mannn”.

“Aayan shush”, she playfully smacks my head making me let out a chuckle.

“Okay”.

I put a fork full of rice into my mouth and chew slowly letting the taste sink in slowly.

It’s good, it’s not as good as the one made by Zaynab or her mom but it’s actually not bad.

“It’s delicious. I love it”, Salma smiles.

“Aw thanks baby”, Aamanee squeals loudly and kisses her cheek.

“Yeah, it aight. I GUESS”.

“Your actually an ass like”, Aamanee chuckles then smacks my head before taking her own seat and starts eating.

“Okay, so Salma, we’re going to look through primary schools for you to get in tomorrow”, I tell her.

“Okay”, she whispers.

Wallahi her voice is so tiny and soft when she’s talking to me but she sounds comfortable when she’s talking to Aamanee.

“Why not let her start after the first semester of this year is done. There’s no point start-”

My phone starts ringing causing loud vibrations from the table.

I pick it up seeing as it is Fawaz. I wonder what the dude wants like.

Phone Conversation

Me: wassup?

F: Mannnnnnnnnnnnnnn nigga guess what

M: dude am eating, ain’t got time for your guessing games

F: Witcho fat ass *hisses* anyways come to the hospital when you can

M: am not on shift today

F: Nigga I know. Aaleyah just gave birth to MY son. Dude am officially a dad

M: man stop playing, she still got a f-

F: MY NIGGA. She gave birth like an hour ago like

M: are you actually serious like? Your officially a dad? Fawaz

F: *laughs excitedly* I know right. He’s so tiny too, but alhamdulilah he’s healthy. The boy can eat too, Aaleyah is now feeding him

M: oh wow. Congrats man. That’s like the second best thing I’ve heard today. That’s good news. We’ll come tomorrow morning inshaAllah

F: Aight man, imma see y’all then

M: yeah, sure.

END OF CONVERSATION

“She gave birth?“, Aamanee smiles while typing on her phone.

“Yup. Good news today huh”, I smile then look at Salma who smiles shyly.

I look at my phone and stare at Zaynab’s name. I click on her name and just scroll through all the messages I’ve sent her that she’s ignored. She hasn’t even read them though. Apparently she hasn’t been replying to anyone’s messages either, no calls, no nothing. I don’t know. Am kind of scared, she’s usually never like this. But then again marriage changes people. She’s in a new environment too, maybe she’s still trying to adjust to it. I pray everything works out for her though. I pray she’s happy anywhere that she is...but I do miss her though. We’ve never been this far apart. Her, Khalid and I have always been inseparable since birth like. We’ve done everything together, went to the same primary school but had to change in secondary school because she went to an all girls school and us, an all boys school but we always met each other after school, spent time at each others houses, went to the same college even. This is the first time we’ve ever been far apart which is what is scaring me because she always said she’d live wherever he family and us stayed, but now she’d not only not responding to our messages and calls but also her family. It’s scary and shady if you ask me. I just pray that Allah (SWT) keeps her safe wherever she may be.