Hello my loves, pretending it's still Friday.

Happy reading.

••••••••

Fahad started at the box by the side of the door inside his home office.

He told Khadijah it was just work probably and said he'll check it after lunch, she nodded but he could see the uncertainty in her eyes. He didn't want her bothered with the baggage that came with him, it was his to bear alone.

Maybe Shaheed was right after all, it was wrong of him to bring her into his mess.

He'd tried to ignore it but seeing as he couldn't focus on work, he would say he was doing a pretty unsuccessful job so he stood up and picked it up, his heart racing.

Everything had gone quiet after the wedding, he'd been on edge—paranoid even, the first month after the wedding. There was no news on his cousin and HSM had also gone MIA which meant it was the calm before the storm, he'd waited for the storm, he'd been ready but it was all good and now, when they were finally finding balance, he started receiving special packages, note the sarcasm.

He opened the box and looked inside, only an envelope was inside, he huffed out a breath through his mouth and pulled it out. He looked over it but there was no initials or anything.

'FIB' it didn't take a rocket science to find out it was his cousin. Fahad Ibrahim Barkindo, for whatever reason his uncle named the psychopath after him, yeah, just to rile his father up. That side of thier family were toxic.

He poured the contents on the table he had emptied. Photos? But photos of who? He asked himself.

A folded paper fell at last and he picked it up. He unfolded it and was met with perfect cursive handwriting, whoever had written it had the time to sit and do that.

His eyes moved over the words, just two lines that made his blood boil. When he got his hands on that bloody fool he shared a family name with, he was going to regret not thinking before choosing who to mess with.

I believe cousin's should stay in touch, so with that in mind, here's a late wedding gift from me, to know you're in my thoughts, always.

Love
FIB X HSM

A feeling he wouldn't say he has felt in a long time was crawling up his throat. He couldn't remember when last he'd felt like that, he didn't like fear, the fear of things spiraling our of his control, or the fear of his family being hurt.

It was the latter that made his blood run cold, as for the former, things have never really been in his control and looking back at his history, he'd gotten used to that. Allah azza wa jalla control's everything so he let Him, besides what could his mortal self do except pray.

He did that, he prayed a lot to the all hearing and all seeing.

Now, the fear of his family being hurt, that he couldn't stop and even when he prayed, he only calmed for a bit. His cousin had been the instigator of that paranoia.

Huda had gone missing when she was seven, he guess he shouldn't call it 'gone missing' since his psychotic cousin had kidnapped her from school under the guise of picking her up.

Searching for her had been a dead end because they said he had picked her up, he had been at work since morning. The security footage showed that he had indeed picked her up but he couldn't remember.

He'd thought he was going crazy, maybe there had been a lapse in his memory or he was schizophrenic like they'd thought and had an episode, every possible thought had crossed his mind but none added up.

He was sure he hadn't blanked out like he originally thought, he called Zayn who he was much closer with then he'd studied criminology and was training for defence.

Zayn told him there were only two possible outcomes since she was most definitely not taken as hostage for money, they would've called because it's been more than twenty four hours, either she was dead which was most unlikely or someone had impersonated him, the reason for that was they couldn't tell.

He favoured the latter bringing up when something similar had happened when they were in school, the case with Nai'a, he didn't want to recall but he was right.

He'd been tested for schizophrenia then because it was the only explanation for him not knowing what happened, he was the one everyone saw. Forensics had saved him because it wasn't his DNA that was on the murder weapon.

With Zayn and a PI's help, they'd tracked the man to Adamawa, he was surprised when he saw that, sure he knew both his parents were from there but he has never been there. Against his mother's wishes, he'd volunteered to go and see what was happening.

Barr. Salima had been hysterical, she was already missing one child she couldn't handle another one, but he'd assured her he wasn't going to do anything to compromise his safety, she agreed only because he'd been adamant and everyone knew how close he was to Huda. Abubakar Barkindo didn't agree with that but Fahad told him he had to be there for his wife who was almost losing it.

He had to go for himself because he didn't want her to end up like Nai'a.

What had happened was still fresh on his mind, it had only been two years, hell he wasn't even done recovering from what had happened to her.

The moment he'd landed in Adamawa, he received a call from an unknown number and they welcomed him in fulde, it was a good thing his mother was big on tradition so she'd thought all of them how to speak it, they'd given him an address.

He could remember how anxious he'd been at first but he'd been given the address of a governmental lodge. He didn't see Huda at first of course but he saw a mirror image of himself.

He closed his eyes recalling how the conversation had gone.

"Just like looking in the mirror right?" The psychopath had laughed, then sat on the couch like it was a casual meet up between cousins.

"Oh please take a seat, I don't bite" he glared at him.

"You killed her?" It wasn't a question and they both knew. Fahad had lunged for him but he was restrained, only then noticing they weren't the ones in the room.

"I was told you kind of had a bad temper but damn man, get a grip."

"Where is Huda?"

"Oh, her? Sweet girl she is. She's at the family house getting to know her other family, the actual family."

"I know you're wired and until you tell whoever is listening in on this to back the hell off, we'll be staying here for a very long while." That had been when he'd first seen the signs of psychosis.

He pulled himself out of those thoughts and he reached for the stack of photos, his heart beating erratically.

He sucked in a breath, feeling like someone pulled out his chair from under him.

There, different shots of Khadijah lay before him, at her shop, in the car, on her way home, the one that had him reeling was the one right there in the house, she was in the kitchen, the picture had been taken from outside, but it was up close, which meant the person was really close to the house, close enough to hurt her.

"This cannot be happening." He pulled out his phone and dialed Zayn, he cut the call before it started ringing and opened one of the drawers attached to the desk.

He picked the box that was there and pulled out it's contents, a small phone that was untraceable and a sim card he'd kept there, for emergency reasons like that.

He hesitated before switching it on and when it finished loading, he dialed the only number on the device.

"This urgent?" The person on the other line asked.

"My house is being watched."

"Well, fuck. I'll send you an address, meet me there by eight." The line went dead after that. He went through the trouble of dislodging the device again, he kept it back and locked the drawer for safety. He didn't feel safe anymore.

His next call was to Xavier and he gave him some instructions before hanging up, he stood up and headed out, his mind on only thing, how to keep Khadijah safe.

People look from the outside in and think he has the most perfect life and no reason to complain, they don't know the thoughts that haunt him at night, they don't know how hard it is to get a peaceful sleep.

He wouldn't wish for even his enemy to be saddled with the responsibility of being him because he had it all on the outside but his inside was a dark abyss of mistakes he hadn't noticed he'd made until it was too late too back out, and now he had to pay the price for those mistakes.

••••••••

The dim lit room was clouded with smoke and the two men that were seated there didn't seem suffocated by the lack or air because there was no windows in the room and the door was locked.

A sliver of light peeked through the door that was opened but it closed soon enough and the were bathed in darkness again.

"It is done sir,"

"Good," HSM spoke. "Tell then to leave the house now, no loose ends."

"Yes sir," With that he left, leaving both of them in silence.

"Why did you send the photos, he is definitely going to figure out who the person is." Fahad Ibrahim spoke, his voice had a deep baritone, the difference between his and Fahad's.

"He needs to be on guard." He smiled in the dark. "He has something of mine with him, and it has high value."

"What?" The man sucked in a breath.

"Something, now stop asking me questions." Fahad shrugged not liking to be told what to do.

"After one more question," The man grumbled in reply but he ignored him.

"Why do you always hide in the dark?" It took him a few seconds to reply and even then he sucked in a breath.

"Like you, I am saddled with the responsibility of having a face exactly like someone's."

"You'll hate me but who and why haven't you just offed him? You know, the winner stays, can't have a clone you know, it's kind of bad for business." He laughed at that, and for a minute Fahad almost got lost in the sound. It sounded innocent and pure, a total contrast to the man.

"I can't kill my own brother you see, trust me it's not because I don't want to." They both sat in silence after that.

HSM thinking of his brother while Fahad gave himself an assignment, who was the brother and what did he she of value with his cousin?

He almost laughed because he was going to find out, Very soon.

•••••••

Khadijah picked her phone that was ringing with a smile on her face.

"Ya Sadiya I was convinced you dumped me since you met your new sisters." She joked once she picked.

"How can I Dije na, my one and only, sweet baby sister." Khadijah scoffed as a reply.

"Not going to work, I don't even want to talk to you, where are my babies?" She asked.

"Somewhere with their cousins, at least I get free time a lot now." Khadijah only chuckled at that.

The whole family have gone to Bauchi state where Abdulrahman's family reside. He'd gotten a promotion at the firm he worked and he bought shares in it which meant he needed to be more in Abuja than Kaduna.

They are thinking of relocating which pleased Khadijah, at least she'll have someone she knows close by. They only had to settle with Abdulrahman's mother who wanted them to move to Bauchi so she'll be closer to her other grandkids, that he could be coming monthly or on weekends.

It wasn't going to be possible of course because what's the whole point of leaving Kaduna, the couple didn't want to be separated from each other.

"Have you decided what to do yet?" Sadiya sighed tiredly.

"I'm not changing my mind and neither is Abdul, now mama is a different case but I hope she'll come around so I can come visit you, I'm leaning more towards Abuja because you're there." Khadijah felt warm at that, it meant a lot to her.

"His dad had a house in wuse which he got and he said we could renovate it, it's a duplex and it's okay but she's saying it's just waste of money, that he already has a house in Kaduna, why does he need to renovate that one." She could hear the frustration in her sister's voice and she guessed she understood.

She knew first hand what it was like to have a dictatorial mother in law, though Abdulrahman's mother wasn't like that, she didn't even know why the woman is stressing all of a sudden.

"As if he isn't going to have to renovate the one in Bauchi, you know the worst part is, the extended family here is trying to guilt trip him. I'm so tired and I can't wait for all these to be over."

"Insha Allah Khair ya Sadiya, everything will be fine. Just pray and talk to ya Abdul, I know he listens to you."

"Ameen, I just hope he will because his family is nice and all but I like how things have always been, no need to change it." Khadijah nodded.

She asked after the kids and everything and Sadiya replied with they were fine, they might stay a week longer since they're on break.

"How are you? I've bombarded you with my problems I forgot to ask." Khadijah smiled and told her she was fine.

"Are you sure? You're not having panic attacks anymore right?"

"Yes, since that last one."

"Masha Allah, that's great. May Allah make it easy for us." Khadijah replied lowly with ameen.

"And you've spoken to Layla, how is she?"

That uplifted her mood, the idea of speaking about her panic attacks was not something she would like to indulge in.

Early days into the wedding she couldn't sleep and had panic attacks when Fahad was close to her, not close close, he could literally be walking up close and she'll freak out.

He didn't say anything but she noticed he tried to keep his distance and he never entered the kitchen if she was there. Huda being in the house for a week before they left had broken the ice, she had felt safe in both their presence and even after she left, she kept that in mind.

"She is fine, she sounds so happy whenever I speak to her, I'm glad she is okay now."

"That is great news, I'm so proud of my girls." Khadijah chuckled at that.

They spoke for a long time about literally any topic that came to thier minds. Fahad knocked on her door for a bit and told her he was stepping out, she nodded with an okay then he left and she got back to her call.

"How is he?" Sadiya asked, when she heard Fahad's voice.

"He is fine," Khadijah muttered lowly.

"How fine? Physically or all."

"Ya Sadiya...." She drawled with laughter in her voice.

"What, we both have to agree he is a fine specimen, masha Allah, so what's the harm in saying it." She heard Abdulrahman clearing his throat in the background and that made her laugh harder.

He must've entered the room when they were talking because she knew he wasn't in the room when they started the call.

Sadiya must've rolled her eyes and said something because he told her he was going out, that he couldn't hear her saying that about another man in his presence.

"But hey baby, I can't tell you that, you know I don't lie."

"Stop talking to me." The sound of a door closing reached Khadijah's ears and she laughed wholeheartedly.

"You know, if it was another person, you'll not touch phone again."

Sadiya scoffed, "All his jealousy na for mouth, small talk, he don dey the palm of my hand again." Khadijah could hear the smirk in her sister's voice.

"Very confident, aren't you?"

"Well yes my love, I know who I married."

"Good one, I'll give you that." This time, it was Sadiya that laughed.

"Oh yeah I wanted to ask, how's his mother?"

"Oh, she is fine," She replied checking her nails that the henna was fading, she would do another one soon, she thought.

"Tell me more, you know I like her." Khadijah rolled her eyes with a smile on her face.

Sadiya adored the woman since her sister told her what she'd said to her when they were living. She always made it a point to think back to those words from the woman's mouth.

*****

It was a week after the wedding and they were supposed to move to Abuja while the rest of the family stayed back, her father in law and mother in law wanted to advice them like every other parent does.

Fahad knocked on her door that day and smiled, she was dressed in a lace, a simple gown with no make up on her face as usual, he told her to come with him and they went to his parents side of the house.

They told them about marriage and many things, she knew Abubakar Barkindo was knowledgeable when he quoted the Qur'an and hadiths in his explanations, he blessed them and the union before his wife had taken reign.

"One thing no one told me when I was getting married was, how much you loved each other before marriage is not how you'll love each other in marriage." She smiled, her eyes shining with joy.

"I'm glad no one told me that, it is true though when you think about it. How can you love each other the same way, he wasn't your mahram then and neither were you his, so of course it won't be the same. Now though, he is all yours and you're all his and whatever joy you bring into each others lives will be a blessing for you in the eyes of Allah.

"No one tells us this, when you get married, you have the right to do as you please, to love each other in every possible way because at the end of the day, you only have each other.

"You have the right to do anything now. So yes, the love before and after marriage isn't the same, after marriage it's more, you learn to grow to love each others flaws and be there for each other always. It depends on only you to build your home to be loving, patience is the most important thing in marriage but what I've learned is, love is too.

"Be patient always but let it not be the ruling emotion in your marriage, let love guide you. Happiness would be your aim in a marriage not patience, a happy home is what will keep you together forever, not patience. Most marriages based on patience end in divorce, I'm a lawyer and I've seen multiple cases, people who got married for love but built thier relationship based on patience crumble."

Khadijah's body went lag when the woman took a moment to breathe.

"Marriage is like a bed of roses, it's beautiful, but remember that even roses have thorns. It is left to you and your partner to pluck out those thorns so the bed will be comfortable. It requires team work, and you can't be focused when there's no peace of mind. You find balance in a marriage and happiness brings that calm."

She took Khadijah's hands in hers with a smile, her caramel hands and Khadijah's dark ones were a total contrast to each other but somehow, they complimented each other.

"You are the leader of the house Amna, you rule it the best way you find fit, but know this and know peace. A home without love and happiness is a house full of pain. Make happiness your first priority and you'll see what it does." She pecked her forehead and pulled her into a hug.

Khadijah felt warm because even her mother had not held her like that when she was leaving.

"And if he does anything to disrupt that peace and happiness, give him ten fold and also if he helps in creating it, give him peace ten fold. Just because he is my son doesn't mean I'll not be your divorce lawyer. We'll ask for half his property for damages." She whispered so only she would hear.

Khadijah couldn't help the small giggle.

"Ammie please don't turn my wife against me." Fahad joked in a pleading voice. His mother glared at him which he ignored and turned to his