Chapter 79 49: B

"I had to do that to save myself, my sister and my father, because then, they were the only ones left." She was about to speak when he placed his index finger on her lips and shook his head at her. "Just listen, will you? Please?" She nodded her head at him, wishing she had the ability to wipe the unshed tears of his heart. "You see, we might be a royal family, but in our hearts, we know we're just a normal family. Because most royal families don't have a time for each other, they don't share that bond and love normal families used to share. I think that's why Yumma made it a responsibility upon herself to make sure we lived a normal life, even though we can live like everyone else does, but still, as a royal family it's everything we could ever ask for. "Daada used to have our time, Fareeda , so much that there are people in the royal council that think he's emotionally weak for a man and also a king, but none of those talks concern him because to him, we're his life. Yumma was his childhood friend, they grew up together in this royal palace, she was the younger sister of Baffah, they were second cousins and they got married. I could say Daada loves so fiercely because even when he became the kind after their father had died, he made it upon himself to make sure everyone knows he loved his wife. The only Queen alive. Because at that time, every king was expected to have more than two wives, but he stood on his ground because he loved her alone. "Fast forward to when she gave birth to me, it was said that nothing had ever been celebrated in this palace like it was when on my naming ceremony day. It felt as though they got an angel as a child, which to me I was. Fareeda, I grew up as a prince loved by everyone. I could say to you that I've never known any hardship, I hardly cry unless for mischief or if I want Yumma to do something or give me something but she didn't. "I was four years old when Kulthum was born, that was a year of celebration. We had an addition and it happened to be a girl, a perfect happy family of four. Love lived through us, so as bliss, happiness and compassion. There were times we even forgot Daada was a king because he mostly did everything with us, he didn't care if he had palace matters to attend to, whenever it was us, he made sure he was present. When I was done with my secondary school, I went to Birmingham, UK, and did my first degree. Everyone disagreed because they wanted me to go to a French country to get my degree, but I wanted to be fluent in English like I was, in both French and Fulani. Daada and Yumma agreed, so no one's opinion's matter. "The only problem was, Daada used to have a brother, Fareeda, his brother's name is Sadam. No, he's still alive but I regard to him as dead. He's the second in command after Daada in this palace, that's what the Hausa kingdoms call waziri, right? He had always hated Yumma, Daada and all of us because of the throne Daada was on. He felt that he was the one that deserved the throne because he was the older brother but still, their father succeeded the throne to Daada. He has a wife, Yapendo Adama, well, for what she showed us all, that's before I know the kind of people they all are, she showed us love. We were all accepted in the palace, not just here, everywhere we go, so she thought it would be safe for her to show us acceptance and love. "She has a daughter two years younger than Kulthum, but they were the best of friends. I loved them all, I took care of them and whenever I come back from the UK, they were mostly together with me whenever I'm not together with my friends, which were a few. Her name is Mairamou, and unfortunately, she fell in love with me. I didn't know what that meant, because she had never told me outwardly, I mean, she was just 17 years old at the time, who would have thought she would fall in love with someone? "I think her mother knows, but that's left with them. The last eid we all celebrated with Yumma was the eid she died. It was on eid day, and like in Hausa culture back in Nigeria, royal families play with horses to add more light to the celebrations, that's what happened. Like Yumma used to, she made sure I ate during those celebrations because I was never serious about myself or my health, never. Like the servants told me, she went to my chamber looking for me and when she didn't see me there, she asked one of the servants to call me. Her maid of honor used to be Nafisa's mother, you've seen Nafisa, right?" He stopped. He had been wanting to stop because this was the part it got all messy and painful that he wished he would never remember anything that happened on that day. "Yes, I did." She managed to answer, because she could already feel the pounding of her chest, afraid of what he had to say. He huffed out some air, silently consoling himself not to cry, "Nafisa's mother was her maid of honor and most trusted to her. They stayed together in my room as Yumma pulled out my school graduation album, like Nafisa's mother said, she kept flipping through the picture's of the ladies there while smiling, saying that if I came back she'd have to ask me who amongst them was my girlfriend. Suddenly, a maid came with a try of food and she acted weirdly when she saw them in the room. Yumma asked her what was there and she told her that I was the one that sent someone to the palace kitchen and asked them to cook my favorite. She collected the tray and told her she can leave, she wanted us to eat together but I took so long to come back because I didn't want her to force me to eat something, knowing what the call was about. She became famished, Fareeda, and she ate that food, alone. And guess what? It was poisoned. Yumma died a few minutes after both me and Kulthum got to my room, her last words were to Daada for him to take care of us." He was crying, painfully crying that his whole shoulders shook with his tears and Fareeda brought him to her chest and he rested his head on her bosom as they both cried. All her life, she had had scenarios of what would've been Mujaheed's past life, but she had never imagined this would be his life. But love and pain at their highest intensity. She wouldn't imagine what he must've felt. She felt it was better for her because she had someone to hate for her Mama's death, but she doubted if he had any. "My Yumma died in my stead, Fareeda. If I had known that food was poisoned, which was specially made for me, I wouldn't have stayed longer without coming. I would've come so we eat together and we'd share our last moments together and die together. I feel like I was responsible for her death, Fareeda. Why didn't I come in time? Why didn't I come and eat that food instead of her to eat because I was the one that wanted to be killed." Fareeda fondled his hair, she knew how bad it was for someone to blame himself for something bad that had happened to his loved one. She was in this shoes, she knew how painful they felt and agonizing they were to the heart. "It isn't your fault, Mujaheed. And even though I've never seen Yumma, I know even if she would asked that one of you would die, she would choose you stay alive and she would die instead because a mother's love is always that strong Mujaheed. She wouldn't like it for you to live in such agony, blaming yourself for her death." She knew nothing she would say to him would make him feel better, at this moment all she could do to him was to let him cry to his heart's satisfaction. "I don't know, but somehow, that was the day I mentally died as well, Fareeda. Nothing pleased my eyes, I wanted nothing but to hold onto Kulthum and cry until my eyes ached. She was even stronger than I was, she was the one consoling me when it should've been me consoling her. We stayed in her chamber for fourteen days without moving, it's only Daada that could make us eat something despite him being in great despair, he consoled us, fed us and made us smile when we could. I day I caught him crying in her room was the day I knew I had to be strong for him, for Kulthum and also for myself. Loosing a mother is the hardest pain one has to overcome in life, that's why I don't know what you must've felt and are still feeling seeing your mother die in the hands of your father, it must've been a terrible experience." She wouldn't want to remember any of that pain or the memories, they were something that if she had the power to, she would erase completely from her memories but she knew she couldn't. And right now, seeing the way Mujaheed was painfully crying, she knew that somehow, she was lucky to have had her father to hate, to resent as much as she wanted, but what of him? Because even when she asked him about the maid that brought the food, it was reported that she was died as well. ... Yesterday was a bad experience for both of them, he kept dreaming about his mother and Fareeda knowing so well there was no way she could help him, she stayed by his side until dawn. He kept apologizing to her to the point that she had to show him how annoyed she was, knowing so well that if it was him, he would have to do more than what she did to him. He was the one that bathed Muhaseen because she told him that she didn't know what the royalties wanted them to look and smell like. They got ready together, and Fareeda was eager as well as nervous to meet his father today. The legendary king Muhammad Haladu. From what Mujaheed told her about his family, she knew that his father would accept her and her daughter, but she was still nervous. She wondered how they would communicate. If it was okay for her to speak French to him because she knew how traditional the royal palaces could be and this place the most acceptable and respect language among the elders is Fulani. "Mujaheed, will you teach me how to greet him in Fulani? I don't know if it's respectful for me to greet him in French, don't you think?" They were having breakfast and Muhaseen was cradled on his laps as they ate from the same plate. He chuckled at the nervous expression she had on her face and shook his head, "Daada might have been sick for so long, but he's my ever loving father, Fareeda. If he understands Hausa, you can speak it to him and I can assure you he wouldn't complain that you don't understand Fulani or French, he's very understanding." She still had that uneasy look on her face and Mujaheed chuckled, "Come on, Fareeda. I mean it, he'll love you. And I mean, look at this pretty baby you gave me, who wouldn't love her mother?" She chuckled but still, that restlessness hadn't left her a bit. "You know, it was said that Fulani's hardly ever accept a different tribe apart from theirs. If not for Daada, what about Kulthum? Will she accept me as well? And the other royal members?"