FINDING HAFSA CHAPTER 4

FINDING HAFSA CHAPTER 4

OCTOBER 15^TH

 Read Previous Episodes HERE

  ***

 We had left his office after I told him about being pregnant for him. He had denied receiving such a letter from me and when the argument was getting too heated, he had insisted we go somewhere quiet where we could talk.

 "Hafsa, are you sure about this?" he said, an incredulous look on his face. "You were pregnant with my baby and my mother was aware and nobody told me? My God! How could this have happened?" he said in an anguished voice after I narrated everything including my visit with my aunt to his house.

 Initially, I thought he was simply pretending to cover up his dastardly act of abandoning me when I needed him most. But his distress looked real, not faked.

 "You mean you had a baby for me? All these years and I didn't know? Oh God!" he stated, his hands gripping his head.

 If he did not know I was pregnant as he claimed, what happened to the letter I wrote him then? And the one he said he received from me ending our relationship? Plus all the others he said he wrote which I did not receive...

 What really happened all those years ago? There was so much mystery, so many unexplained occurrences...

 The mystery was revealed some days later...

 Before we parted that day, Muktar had stated:

 "I want to see my son. But before then, there's something I need to sort out. I want you to be there, Hafsa."

 That day, a Saturday, he came to pick me at home and we went to his mother's house.

 I had not seen her for years, in fact since the day I got the letter from Muktar. Even when I had 

my baby, she never came to visit and has never shown interest in my son, her first grandchild.

 The woman was shocked to see Muktar and me together and could not hide it.

 "What's going on here? Muktar, what're you doing with her?" were her first words to us.

 "Mum, I believe I should be the one asking the questions here! First of all, what happened to the letter Hafsa wrote to me telling me she was pregnant over ten years ago? And I want the whole TRUTH!" he thundered at her, obviously furious.

 She looked a bit disconcerted at the fury on his face. Then she began to speak, and the things she said took time to sink in because it was just unbelievable, like something in a nightmare...

  ***

 "To think all these years, you went through all these, so much pain and suffering because of my mother and her evil schemes! What gave her the right to toy with our lives that way?" he asked rhetorically. 

 We had arrived at my little apartment a short while earlier.

 I had no answers to give him. For I was still dazed myself at his mother's confessions...

 "It was all for your sake, Muktar!" she rationalized. "I did it so you could focus on your education and make something of your life. I didn't want anything, particularly a young girl like her to distract you. I saw how attached you were becoming to Hafsa and I had to do something to break you up.

 So, I destroyed the letter she wrote to you announcing her pregnancy. I also got someone to forge the letter she received from you, dumping her, calling her a holiday fling. Likewise the one you got from her stating she didn't love you anymore and wanted to end things with you. All the other letters you wrote to her through me, I also destroyed. I know what I did was wrong but it was the only way I could protect you..."

As she spoke, Muktar's head was buried in his hands and I could hear him groaning softly as if in great pain: "Oh God! What did Hafsa and I ever do to deserve this?"

 And when the woman finished speaking and fell silent, he raised his head up and I could see tears in them.

 Then he said in a pitiable voice: "Mum, do you understand the magnitude of what you did? The mess and havoc you've caused in our lives? Do you? What did a young girl like her ever do to you to cause her so much suffering? To me and our child as well!

 As for me, I simply sat, dazed, confused, and too stunned to speak at the turn of events.

 Here was I all these years blaming and hating Muktar for causing me so much pain, for breaking my heart and almost ruining my life.

 Only to find out it was all his mother's doing...

 Later, when he had calmed down a bit, we marched out of the house ignoring his mother's calls to him to come back...

  

 ***

"My mother tried to change the course of fate by separating us. But we found each other again," Muktar said.Then he rose and coming to where I sat, knelt down by me and took my hands in his.He gazed sadly into my eyes and said:

 "Hafsa, I know nothing I'll say or do will ever make up for all that you went through because of my mother. Please, baby, I'm so sorry! I had no idea about any of this! I was even angry with you and upset as well when you supposedly wrote saying you no longer loved me. I found it difficult to believe because I knew that the Hafsa I left behind in Nigeria loved me very much. 

 "I returned to Nigeria two years after I left for a visit and went to your house because I wanted you to tell me to my face that you no loved me. Only to be told by the neighbors that your family had moved out. Nobody seemed to know where you had relocated to. I even told my mother to get someone to search around for you. Little did I know she was the one behind our separation?"

 "I'm so sorry!" he pleaded over and over and then broke down and began to cry. I was so overcome with all that happened and with emotions too, that I started crying as well and we both wept in each other’s arms...

 Then he began to kiss the tears from my eyes, my cheeks and then my mouth. My lips opened on their own to welcome his kiss. It was light, tentative at first then it deepened into longing and desire for each other.

 Being held in his arms again after all the years of separation was bliss. Like all the old feelings buried deep somewhere in my heart resurfaced, pushing away all the anger, resentment and hatred I had harbored over the years.

 We were lying on the rug on the floor and he lifted his head briefly, his mouth curving in a little smile.

 "Hafsa, it's been so long! Life has not been the same without you!" he said.

"Same here, Muktar. I've been through so much," I said softly. With a sigh, I drew him tightly to me, luxuriating in the feel of his body on mine...

 Will they rekindle their old relationship or remain apart? Please log in on Saturday to find out!

To Be Continued 19^th Oct Insha Allah...

            

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