She was sitting down reading the Holy Qur'an when he pushed the door open. She raised her head slowly and fixed a steady, observant look upon him, though she did it discreetly. It was only now that she began to notice certain things about him. Wanting to display a pretense of deep care, he approached, set down the shopping bag he was holding, and then moved to the edge of the bed. He felt the neck of Sa'ahar, who was currently fast asleep in a death-like slumber. Seeing that she did not stir, he felt assured that it would be quite some time before the effects of the injection wore off. "Alhamdulillah, may Allah grant her complete recovery," he uttered in a tone dripping with feigned worry and affection. Turning around, he looked at Afifa. "I think you should go and eat something, then open up the other room and lie down to rest, don't you think?" She flashed a small, knowing smile. "Don't be silly, Mr. Adam. I didn't come here to relax; I came to nurse a patient. Today, it is your turn to handle this sleeping shift, so don't worry." He sucked his teeth silently in his mind, thoroughly cursing Afifa. He knew perfectly well that since she had returned, his operations would inevitably face numerous hurdles. But if she thinks she is clever, she has met her match; I will deal with her. "Alright, that's fine. Now, here are her injections. They need to be administered to her before she wakes up. This helps ensure that when she does wake up, she won't experience any violent fits or incoherent mumbling." "Okay," she uttered, setting the Qur'an aside. She opened the bag and pulled out the liquid medication along with the syringe. At her very first glance at the medication, she recognized that the liquids were not in their original, authentic vials. This was the second anomaly that powerfully solidified her dark suspicions. She withdrew all the contents into the syringe, stepped closer, and positioned the needle tip over the arm of Sa'ahar, who remained completely oblivious to her surroundings.
(Novel Details: KANKANA BY OUM APHNAN
She then raised her head and looked directly at Adam, who was standing completely still over them, watching the syringe closely. "Hand me a tissue, please." He quickly replied with a compliant "Alright," eager for her to proceed without making any technical errors during the injection. He pulled out a tissue and handed it to her. She took it, placed it directly over the needle tip, and began to slowly discharge the fluid into the folded tissue. She didn't stop until every single drop was completely drained into the cloth, after which she withdrew the needle. She swiftly pressed the damp tissue beneath her thigh, terrified that he might notice the wetness. When he saw that she had finished, a wave of profound satisfaction washed over him. Finally, his mind was completely at ease. Tonight, he would sleep like a king. He knew that from now until around noon tomorrow, she would remain trapped in a deep, dizzying slumber, even if she managed to open her eyes before then. In fact, he might even invite one of his mistresses over once everyone else was asleep to keep him company and pass the time. With this absolute, misguided certainty regarding his hidden schemes, he walked out of the room completely unbothered. The profound relief that Afifa witnessed on his face as he exited only planted an unbreakable suspicion in her soul. She calmly reopened the Holy Qur'an and began to recite the verses in a moderate, beautifully tranquil voice. She spent nearly a full hour in that state. Gradually, she felt a soft, gentle hand rest upon hers atop the Qur'an. Before she could even lift her head, she heard her name called in an incredibly thin, fragile, and exhausted voice: "Bestie... do you also believe that I am crazy? Have I truly lost my mind?" A flood of bitter, agonizing tears instantly filled Afifa’s eyes. Had she not quickly clamped her hand over her mouth, she would have burst into a loud, unbridled sob. Keeping her hand firmly over her mouth, she shook her head sideways. She simply wrapped her arms around Sa'ahar, pulling her tightly against her body while weeping silently to suppress the sound. "I will never believe that, bestie. Even if it were true, I love you just the way you are." Both of them burst into a heavy, unrestrained fit of crying. They wept bitterly together, neither capable of comforting the other, for a long while until Afifa, her eyes completely bloodshot, finally spoke: "Bestie, what kind of horrific thing did you ever do to Adam to make him decide to reduce you to this state?" Sa'ahar closed her eyes, letting the remaining hot tears trapped behind her eyelids stream down her face. Truly, if human tears were a limited resource that could run dry, hers would have dried up long ago. "The immense burden that you left me carrying—the secret I promised to share with you—turned out to be the very weapon unleashed upon my head. It was engineered to send me to my grave long before my time." Calmly and meticulously, she chronicled every single detail of the betrayal to Afifa. Hearing this, Afifa became violently enraged. She stood up instantly, preparing to climb down from the bed in a blind fury, her facial expression altering completely. Sa'ahar swiftly grabbed her hand, knowing her sister's volatile temperament and that she was capable of doing something reckless in the heat of the moment. "Where do you think you're going?" "I am going straight to Adam to confront him and finish this once and for all! That wretched, miserable child of hellfire!" Sa'ahar shook her head frantically. "Confronting Adam in this current state is an incredibly dangerous move. If you don't know how to catch a thief properly, the thief will turn around and frame you. You must proceed with absolute caution and immense strategy until he is caught completely red-handed. Aren't you afraid that he will simply claim that your stay here has caused you to be possessed by my demons or infected by my madness?" Hearing this took the wind out of Afifa's sails. Truly, given how thoroughly blinded Adam’s eyes were by greed, there was absolutely no boundary he wouldn't cross. Since he was so desperately hunting for that briefcase, he would do whatever it took. She slid back down and sat on the bed, continuing to weep bitterly while her mind dove deep into plotting absolute vengeance. With immense effort, they managed to comfort one another. She assisted Sa'ahar, whose body completely lacked physical strength, and escorted her to the bathroom. Sa'ahar performed ablution and returned to make up the mandatory prayers she had missed. Afifa sat nearby, watching her and weeping. This was Sa'ahar, a woman who never trifled with her prayers! No matter how severe the hardship or desperate the situation, she had never allowed a prayer window to pass without observing it strictly on time. Afifa then opened the food that Raihanatu had prepared and brought in through Adam earlier. She sat squarely in front of Sa'ahar, fiercely insisting that she must eat. With great difficulty, Sa'ahar managed only five spoonfuls because her stomach had violently constricted from stress; it could not tolerate any substantial amount of food, and besides, she had never been a heavy eater. Neither Sa'ahar nor Afifa slept a single wink that night. Sa'ahar spent the hours recounting the horrific torments and abuse Adam had subjected her to. She wept and wept until her tears ran dry. By the end of the night, they had completely finalized a meticulous counter-strategy, and the blueprint sat perfectly with Sa'ahar. The next morning, Adam—who had spent the entire night indulging and enjoying himself with another woman on his matrimonial bed—walked into the room. Afifa did not betray a single emotion on her face. Instead, she put on a calculated performance, expressing an intense fear of spending another night with the "unstable" Sa'ahar. A smug smile of absolute triumph and satisfaction spread across Adam's face as he looked down at Sa'ahar, who lay completely motionless and limp, looking exactly as she had the day before. Now, the last vestige of fear vanished from his mind. The only task remaining was to escalate the pressure to force her to hand over his briefcase before her brothers arrived to drag her off to some cheap psychiatric hospital. Afifa had been his main source of anxiety because he knew her fierce personality inside out, and he had anticipated a major confrontation through her. But seeing how thoroughly terrified and exhausted she appeared, claiming she hadn't slept a wink the previous night, it was obvious she wouldn't dare stay another night. (He completely underestimated the profound bond of loyalty and love between them, failing to realize it was built on a divine foundation, unlike the superficial, lip-service friendships of the modern era). True to his assumptions, everything played out exactly as he hoped. Afifa packed her bags, said her goodbyes after finalizing the hidden arrangements, and drove out of the compound. She did not head home. Instead, she drove straight into the heart of the Kofar Ruwa market, going directly to the most skilled locksmith capable of replicating a key for any lock. Within a remarkably short time, a custom key was cut for her due to the heavy premium she paid. Retrieving the key, she returned to her family home. She packed a small bundle of clothes and handed them to Maama, who was currently preparing to visit Sa'ahar's house. She instructed her mother to leave the bundle inside Sa'ahar’s room, stating that she intended to return tomorrow to spend another night nursing her. "I hope she doesn't ruin your clothes," Maama said, her eyes welling with tears. It broke her heart that a perfectly sane, brilliant woman was now being viewed by everyone as a mental patient. "She will never do that, by Allah's grace," Afifa replied. Maama fell silent, turning the clothes over in her hands. "I don't know why, but deep in my soul, I still cannot accept that Sa'ahar has lost her mind. Yesterday, while on the road with your father, I said the same thing, but he told me that Satan is trying to toy with my faith and that I must accept destiny, whether pleasant or bitter." "By Allah's grace, bestie will return to us very soon, and we will continue our lives just like everyone else," was all Afifa said as she wiped the tears from her face. Maama’s departure from the house provided Afifa with the perfect opportunity to slip into her mother's room, retrieve the briefcase, and move it to a completely new hiding spot. She did this to preempt any dangerous security breach, having fully calculated the sheer depth of Adam’s malice. She knew he would eventually deduce that the briefcase was hidden within the family house, and he would orchestrate a clever scheme to win their trust just to have it handed over to him. She sat down and wept bitterly after completing a thorough inspection of the materials inside the briefcase. Her raw instinct was to set the passports and the fraudulent documents on fire, but they desperately needed them as legal evidence. Therefore, she exercised restraint, gathered the materials, and secured them safely inside her car. As was his usual routine after everyone left, Adam pulled the heavy door shut and locked it, as he never slept in her room unless he had a specific physical need. Moving like a ghost, Sa'ahar opened the drawer containing the clothes Maama had left earlier—items she had been watching intently since they were brought in, praying that Adam's attention wouldn't be drawn to them. She calmly unwrapped the clothes, extracted the replicated key, and returned the garments to their place. Checking the other side of her wardrobe, she pulled out a hijab and threw it over her body. She then began to tiptoe forward with absolute caution, her heart hammering violently against her ribs. Her lips moved continuously with a torrent of silent prayers, begging for a successful escape from the house without detection. As she walked, the air itself seemed to sway her frail frame; it had been an incredibly long time since she had walked any significant distance. Combined with her pregnancy, the brutal physical toll of the forced injections, starvation, and overwhelming trauma, she had become severely emaciated and weak.
(Novel Details: H U G U M A - TABARMAR ƘASHI - 54)
Against the odds, she successfully unlocked the bedroom door with the replicated key. Pushing it open silently, she began to creep through the living room. Suddenly, a loud, sharp movement echoed from directly behind her. The sound struck terror into the very depths of her soul. She spun around frantically, nearly collapsing to the floor from sheer panic. It was Raihanatu standing there. Her body was shaking violently as well, and the plates she was holding were on the verge of slipping and shattering from her hands. Sa'ahar opened her mouth to speak, but Raihanatu swiftly pressed a finger against her own lips, signaling her to remain absolutely silent. She quickly set the plates down on the dining table, hurried over with an incredibly swift, stealthy stride, and grabbed Sa'ahar’s hand tightly. Without wasting a single second, she pulled her toward the parlor door, opened it, and they slipped outside. Stopping dead in their tracks between the veranda and the open courtyard, both women stood panting heavily, their chests heaving violently from adrenaline. "The security guard... he is at his post, Anty. Let me go and... distract him." Without waiting for Sa'ahar's response, she slunk through the garden bushes, maneuvering behind the security guard’s outpost. Finding a sizable stone, she hurled it onto the zinc roofing, creating a loud Qwuualll! The sharp noise instantly caught the guard's attention. He muttered an annoyed curse but continued with his business. She picked up two more stones and threw them simultaneously. They landed with a heavy thud. Enraged, the guard stood up to circle the building and investigate the source of the stones. Before he could round the corner, Raihanatu had already darted back to Sa'ahar. Grabbing her hand once more, she pulled her into a frantic, hurried run, unlocked the pedestrian gate, and spoke through a rush of hot tears: "Go, Anty! Allah will guide your steps, and the Almighty will avenge you. Even though I don't know the full details of what is happening, my heart and my entire soul know the truth of the evil transpiring here. Even as we speak, he is in your room with another woman. May Allah execute His absolute justice upon him for this cruelty!" The moment she finished speaking, she carefully pulled the gate shut, locked it, and hurried back inside before the security guard could spot her. Sa'ahar’s vision began to blur, everything appearing doubled before her eyes as a severe wave of dizziness threatened to take her down. She began to stagger blindly along the road. Instantly, Afifa—who had been parked nearby waiting anxiously for over an hour—threw open her car door and rushed out at breakneck speed. She intercepted her on the pavement, grabbed her securely, and bundled her into the vehicle. Right at that moment, Sa'ahar’s breathing shifted drastically, signaling that she was on the verge of losing consciousness. Terrified, Afifa started the engine and sped out of the neighborhood at a frantic pace. At that point, Afifa had deliberately kept the unfolding nightmare a secret from the rest of the family because she wanted no interference; she had sworn an oath to completely dismantle Adam's life. However, seeing that Sa'ahar had now fully fainted, she had no choice but to seek external help. She called Anty Farheen directly, stating the specific hospital she was driving to and begging her to meet them there immediately. "Why on earth did you take her to a hospital that far away? There are plenty of closer hospitals we usually frequent!" "There's no time to explain, Anty, please just get here right now! It's an emergency!" "Alright, I'm on my way," Farheen replied, hanging up the phone. Since her husband, Muhyiddeen, was already out of town, she left all the children in the care of her domestic staff, summoned her driver, and sped out of the compound in her car. Anty Farheen was thoroughly horrified when Afifa finished chronicling the entire conspiracy. She burst into a violent fit of crying, bitterly cursing Adam. "We must launch an aggressive legal war against him! He absolutely cannot get away with this atrocity!" Afifa shook her head firmly. "No, Anty. We must proceed slowly and methodically, exactly as Sa'ahar advised. To be honest, I am terrified of him now. His capacity for malice and cunning far exceeds anything we could have ever imagined. As much as I have always despised him and loathed his very existence... I never imagined he could perpetrate something this demonic. Therefore, we must calculate our every move perfectly. If we rush, he is slick enough to completely wash his hands of guilt and manipulate our fathers and brothers into believing him. Listen to my plan." She calmly laid out her strategy to Farheen. The plan resonated deeply with Farheen; it was the definitive trap that would force Adam to expose his own criminal actions by his own hand. Anty Farheen didn't leave the hospital until nearly one in the morning. She promised to return secretly the following day to bring them breakfast, adding that she hoped to covertly transfer Sa'ahar to her private residence tomorrow so her treatment could continue in absolute secrecy. They desperately wanted to ensure that Afifa's absence wouldn't trigger any suspicion from Adam or the rest of the family, wanting to maintain the status quo until their trap was fully set. Meanwhile, Adam hadn't given Sa'ahar’s quarters a single thought since Afifa’s departure. Knowing that Afifa had returned to her own home, he and his mistress locked themselves inside his bedroom, indulging in absolute debauchery without a care in the world. He didn't even bother to check her room until well after the dawn (Asuba) prayer. He stood up, staggering slightly from the heavy intoxication of the previous night's partying and wild indulgence. He sat on the edge of her bed, expecting her to emerge from the bathroom, but was met with absolute silence. Growing impatient, he marched toward the bathroom, shouting curses: "I am right on the verge of permanently ending my problems! I will gladly end your life if you dare continue hiding my briefcase from me! You can lose your life, but I will never lose my fortune!" He froze in absolute, paralyzing horror the moment he saw the bathroom was completely empty. His eyes widened so violently they looked as though they would pop out of their sockets. He spun around frantically, suddenly recalling that when he walked into the room, the door hadn't actually been locked; it had swung open the moment he pushed it. Jolting backward, he began to scream in a manic, unhinged frenzy like a madman who had just lost his mind. He ran out into the living room, screaming Raihanatu’s name at the top of his lungs. Having finished her dawn prayer, Raihanatu had been sitting quietly in her room, fully expecting this exact explosion. She performed a silent prayer begging the Almighty for calm and composure, wiped her face, and stepped out. By then, unable to wait a second longer, he violently kicked her bedroom door open, nearly striking her in the face. "Where is Sa'ahar?!" he demanded, his voice a roaring thunder. "She is in her room, Yaya," she answered calmly, putting on a flawless performance of absolute ignorance. His eyes bulged. "If she were in her room, would I be standing here asking your worthless self where she is?!" Putting on an expression of pure, shocked confusion, she gasped: "She's not in her room, Yaya?! Then where could she have gone? Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un!" She acted thoroughly panicked. "The moment you came home, you ordered me to go straight to my room and warned me never to let you see my face again! I haven't stepped a single foot out of my room until right now when you screamed for me, Yaya!" Seeing her apparent panic only amplified his own terror and confusion. He let go of the door frame instantly, running his hands frantically through his hair like a cocaine addict experiencing a violent trip. He paced back and forth maniacally before charging back into his own bedroom. Standing there, she could hear a violent altercation break out between him and his mistress. Within moments, he began to brutally beat the woman. Shortly after, he dragged her forcefully into the living room by her hair, the woman clad in provocative, skimpy sleepwear that left her practically naked. "You wretched, miserable whore! You caused this! I explicitly told you not to give me those drugs! Given the high-stakes situation I am facing, I didn't need to be intoxicated, but you forced them on me anyway! Now you are about to bring down a catastrophic disaster upon my head! Get the hell out of my house!" He threw her out into the street, refusing to even let her change out of her nightwear. Returning inside, he resumed his frantic pacing, trapped in a cage of sheer panic. "How on earth did she escape from a room I personally locked? Where could she have gone?" These questions looped endlessly in his breaking mind. Turning on his heel, he rushed outside to confront the security guard, interrogating him aggressively. However, the guard swore under oath that aside from Afifa, who had driven out right in front of both of them, absolutely no one else had exited the compound. He descended into a state of sheer, unadulterated madness. Raihanatu stood in a corner weeping silently, bitterly lamenting the cruel hand that fate had dealt her by placing her in the midst of such a toxic, unhinged maternal family—a lineage devoid of moral alignment, completely empty of empathy, ignorant, and consumed by relentless greed and a desperate hunger for worldly wealth above all else. When he finally turned on her, screaming a barrage of vile insults and ordering her to pack her things and clear out of the house as well, she felt a wave of profound relief. Pure terror had gripped her being from being left entirely alone in the house with a man who was clearly losing his sanity. Therefore, she swiftly slipped into her sandals, leaving all her personal belongings behind, and fled the house without looking back.
THREE HOURS LATER
Eight people were now gathered in the living room, including Afifa, Maama, Dr. Mamman, Ya' Muhyi, and Ya' Saifullahi. No one had anticipated the brothers' arrival today, but they had arrived only to be met with the catastrophic news of Sa'ahar's disappearance. Looking around the room, it was impossible to discern who was in greater agony. Maama was weeping uncontrollably, a sight that tore at Afifa’s heart and threatened to shatter her resolve. Every few minutes, Afifa would steal a glance at Adam, who looked to be on the absolute precipice of a psychiatric break. He could neither sit nor stand, pacing frantically back and forth while loudly invoking the name of Allah. Afifa felt a deep chill run down her spine, horrified by the sheer, terrifying depth of human deception. Truly, mankind carries a bottomless sack of evil. There wasn't a soul in that living room who didn't feel a profound wave of pity for Adam given the utter devastation he was displaying, completely blind to the fact that this very man was the architect and root cause of the entire tragedy. They sat there trapped in a agonizing state of limbo, having already filed missing person reports across various media platforms and local police stations. "Have patience, Adam. By Allah's grace, she will be found safe and sound," Abba said, attempting to inject some strength into Adam's broken frame, though he himself completely lacked any real confidence. "Abba, I swear I don't know how she got out! Where could she have gone? Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un!" he cried out in a booming, dramatic voice. Afifa turned her head away, curling her lips in deep disgust. She knew with absolute certainty that he wasn't panicking over the loss of Sa'ahar; he was panicking solely because his briefcase had vanished. They spent the entire day trapped in that agonizing state, stretching into the dead of night, without a single lead or sign of Sa'ahar. On Afifa’s part, although she desperately wanted to return to Ya' Muhyi's house to sleep alongside Sa'ahar—whom Anty Farheen had already placed under the care of a trusted private physician—she knew that staying by the side of her traumatized mother was of paramount importance. She needed to comfort her and keep her grounded. Therefore, she accompanied Maama back to the family home, while constantly maintaining secret communication with Anty Farheen regarding Sa'ahar’s clinical status. Farheen assured her that Sa'ahar was recovering steadily under excellent, dedicated care. Periodically, Afifa would slip away unnoticed to visit her. Sa'ahar was visibly improving and reclaiming her strength due to the extraordinary care Anty Farheen showered upon her, even though she spent most of her time weeping bitterly. The sheer shock and trauma of what Adam had done to her had deeply broken her spirit, pushing her to the brink of severe clinical depression. However, Anty Farheen’s relentless strength and fierce encouragement acted as a powerful shield, continuously offering her profound counsel: "Ummi, is this how you show gratitude to Allah? Is this how you thank Him for His infinite mercy? He miraculously delivered you from an evil whose true depth you cannot even comprehend! Are you going to repay your Lord by drowning yourself in endless weeping?" "I can't help but cry, Anty! Are men truly this vile? Can a man who claimed to love you transform into your most terrifying, demonic enemy? Do they possess no sense of loyalty or honor? Do they know nothing of true love, mercy, faith, or human compassion? How could Adam do this to me, Anty? What is left to trust in this world? If Adam is capable of this level of evil, what lover is incapable of ultimate betrayal?" Knowing that logical arguments would fail to penetrate her grief at this stage, Farheen simply continued to cradle her, soothing her with profound wisdom and gentle affection.
NO MATTER HOW HIGH A STONE IS THROWN...
Once they received medical confirmation that Sa'ahar had fully stabilized and regained her mental clarity and composure—with the invaluable help of their physician, who historically managed the medical needs of the entire extended family—Afifa decided it was time to move. She laid bare the entire conspiracy to Dr. Usman, requesting his professional assistance to act as the master key that would unlock and expose Adam's crimes. Without a single moment of hesitation, the doctor agreed, for the horrific nature of the crime had deeply shaken and outraged his own soul. Later that week, Afifa strategically brought up the issue of inspecting Sa'ahar's lands and corporate properties. She noted: "Ya Zaid, we truly need to go and audit her properties. You know people cannot be trusted these days. Some predatory individuals might hear rumors of her disappearance and illegally seize her lands." Zaid found her reasoning completely sound, promising to carve out time to conduct a thorough inspection. The family continued to frequent Adam's house periodically, refusing to leave him isolated. Today, almost the entire family had gathered at the residence, with the exception of Zaid, who had sent word that he would first stop by to inspect Sa'ahar's commercial plots along the main highway—a detail that filled Afifa with intense satisfaction. She sat there quietly watching Adam, who was visibly trembling and vibrating with a frantic, guilty panic, as she waited for Zaid's arrival. Maama was in the middle of gently chiding Zaid for taking so long to arrive when he finally walked through the front door. The look on his face instantly signaled to Afifa that the tactical bomb she had planted was finally beginning to detonate. "Is everything alright?" Maama asked anxiously. "We have a massive problem, Maama," Zaid replied, his voice tense. "The moment I arrived, I started by inspecting her commercial plots along the main bypass. To my absolute horror, major construction has been erected on more than half of her lands, and the projects are already nearing completion! I sat down and immediately began investigating the matter, demanding to meet the actual individuals claiming ownership of the land. I managed to track down three of them on-site, because they happened to be there..."
Kankana Book Compelet Hausa Novels
She was sitting down reading the Holy Qur'an when he pushed the door open. She raised her head slowly and fixed a steady, observant look upon him, though she did it discreetly. It was only now that she began to notice certain things about him. Wanting to display a pretense of deep care, he approached, set down the shopping bag he was holding, and then moved to the edge of the bed. He felt the neck of Sa'ahar, who was currently fast asleep in a death-like slumber. Seeing that she did not stir, he felt assured that it would be quite some time before the effects of the injection wore off.
"Alhamdulillah, may Allah grant her complete recovery," he uttered in a tone dripping with feigned worry and affection. Turning around, he looked at Afifa.
"I think you should go and eat something, then open up the other room and lie down to rest, don't you think?" She flashed a small, knowing smile.
"Don't be silly, Mr. Adam. I didn't come here to relax; I came to nurse a patient. Today, it is your turn to handle this sleeping shift, so don't worry." He sucked his teeth silently in his mind, thoroughly cursing Afifa. He knew perfectly well that since she had returned, his operations would inevitably face numerous hurdles. But if she thinks she is clever, she has met her match; I will deal with her.
"Alright, that's fine. Now, here are her injections. They need to be administered to her before she wakes up. This helps ensure that when she does wake up, she won't experience any violent fits or incoherent mumbling."
"Okay," she uttered, setting the Qur'an aside. She opened the bag and pulled out the liquid medication along with the syringe.
At her very first glance at the medication, she recognized that the liquids were not in their original, authentic vials. This was the second anomaly that powerfully solidified her dark suspicions. She withdrew all the contents into the syringe, stepped closer, and positioned the needle tip over the arm of Sa'ahar, who remained completely oblivious to her surroundings.
(Novel Details: KANKANA BY OUM APHNAN
She then raised her head and looked directly at Adam, who was standing completely still over them, watching the syringe closely.
"Hand me a tissue, please." He quickly replied with a compliant "Alright," eager for her to proceed without making any technical errors during the injection. He pulled out a tissue and handed it to her. She took it, placed it directly over the needle tip, and began to slowly discharge the fluid into the folded tissue. She didn't stop until every single drop was completely drained into the cloth, after which she withdrew the needle. She swiftly pressed the damp tissue beneath her thigh, terrified that he might notice the wetness.
When he saw that she had finished, a wave of profound satisfaction washed over him. Finally, his mind was completely at ease. Tonight, he would sleep like a king. He knew that from now until around noon tomorrow, she would remain trapped in a deep, dizzying slumber, even if she managed to open her eyes before then. In fact, he might even invite one of his mistresses over once everyone else was asleep to keep him company and pass the time. With this absolute, misguided certainty regarding his hidden schemes, he walked out of the room completely unbothered.
The profound relief that Afifa witnessed on his face as he exited only planted an unbreakable suspicion in her soul. She calmly reopened the Holy Qur'an and began to recite the verses in a moderate, beautifully tranquil voice.
She spent nearly a full hour in that state. Gradually, she felt a soft, gentle hand rest upon hers atop the Qur'an. Before she could even lift her head, she heard her name called in an incredibly thin, fragile, and exhausted voice:
"Bestie... do you also believe that I am crazy? Have I truly lost my mind?" A flood of bitter, agonizing tears instantly filled Afifa’s eyes. Had she not quickly clamped her hand over her mouth, she would have burst into a loud, unbridled sob. Keeping her hand firmly over her mouth, she shook her head sideways. She simply wrapped her arms around Sa'ahar, pulling her tightly against her body while weeping silently to suppress the sound.
"I will never believe that, bestie. Even if it were true, I love you just the way you are." Both of them burst into a heavy, unrestrained fit of crying. They wept bitterly together, neither capable of comforting the other, for a long while until Afifa, her eyes completely bloodshot, finally spoke:
"Bestie, what kind of horrific thing did you ever do to Adam to make him decide to reduce you to this state?" Sa'ahar closed her eyes, letting the remaining hot tears trapped behind her eyelids stream down her face. Truly, if human tears were a limited resource that could run dry, hers would have dried up long ago.
"The immense burden that you left me carrying—the secret I promised to share with you—turned out to be the very weapon unleashed upon my head. It was engineered to send me to my grave long before my time." Calmly and meticulously, she chronicled every single detail of the betrayal to Afifa. Hearing this, Afifa became violently enraged. She stood up instantly, preparing to climb down from the bed in a blind fury, her facial expression altering completely.
Sa'ahar swiftly grabbed her hand, knowing her sister's volatile temperament and that she was capable of doing something reckless in the heat of the moment.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I am going straight to Adam to confront him and finish this once and for all! That wretched, miserable child of hellfire!" Sa'ahar shook her head frantically.
"Confronting Adam in this current state is an incredibly dangerous move. If you don't know how to catch a thief properly, the thief will turn around and frame you. You must proceed with absolute caution and immense strategy until he is caught completely red-handed. Aren't you afraid that he will simply claim that your stay here has caused you to be possessed by my demons or infected by my madness?" Hearing this took the wind out of Afifa's sails. Truly, given how thoroughly blinded Adam’s eyes were by greed, there was absolutely no boundary he wouldn't cross. Since he was so desperately hunting for that briefcase, he would do whatever it took. She slid back down and sat on the bed, continuing to weep bitterly while her mind dove deep into plotting absolute vengeance.
With immense effort, they managed to comfort one another. She assisted Sa'ahar, whose body completely lacked physical strength, and escorted her to the bathroom. Sa'ahar performed ablution and returned to make up the mandatory prayers she had missed. Afifa sat nearby, watching her and weeping. This was Sa'ahar, a woman who never trifled with her prayers! No matter how severe the hardship or desperate the situation, she had never allowed a prayer window to pass without observing it strictly on time.
Afifa then opened the food that Raihanatu had prepared and brought in through Adam earlier. She sat squarely in front of Sa'ahar, fiercely insisting that she must eat. With great difficulty, Sa'ahar managed only five spoonfuls because her stomach had violently constricted from stress; it could not tolerate any substantial amount of food, and besides, she had never been a heavy eater.
Neither Sa'ahar nor Afifa slept a single wink that night. Sa'ahar spent the hours recounting the horrific torments and abuse Adam had subjected her to. She wept and wept until her tears ran dry. By the end of the night, they had completely finalized a meticulous counter-strategy, and the blueprint sat perfectly with Sa'ahar.
The next morning, Adam—who had spent the entire night indulging and enjoying himself with another woman on his matrimonial bed—walked into the room. Afifa did not betray a single emotion on her face. Instead, she put on a calculated performance, expressing an intense fear of spending another night with the "unstable" Sa'ahar. A smug smile of absolute triumph and satisfaction spread across Adam's face as he looked down at Sa'ahar, who lay completely motionless and limp, looking exactly as she had the day before. Now, the last vestige of fear vanished from his mind. The only task remaining was to escalate the pressure to force her to hand over his briefcase before her brothers arrived to drag her off to some cheap psychiatric hospital. Afifa had been his main source of anxiety because he knew her fierce personality inside out, and he had anticipated a major confrontation through her. But seeing how thoroughly terrified and exhausted she appeared, claiming she hadn't slept a wink the previous night, it was obvious she wouldn't dare stay another night. (He completely underestimated the profound bond of loyalty and love between them, failing to realize it was built on a divine foundation, unlike the superficial, lip-service friendships of the modern era). True to his assumptions, everything played out exactly as he hoped. Afifa packed her bags, said her goodbyes after finalizing the hidden arrangements, and drove out of the compound.
She did not head home. Instead, she drove straight into the heart of the Kofar Ruwa market, going directly to the most skilled locksmith capable of replicating a key for any lock. Within a remarkably short time, a custom key was cut for her due to the heavy premium she paid. Retrieving the key, she returned to her family home. She packed a small bundle of clothes and handed them to Maama, who was currently preparing to visit Sa'ahar's house. She instructed her mother to leave the bundle inside Sa'ahar’s room, stating that she intended to return tomorrow to spend another night nursing her.
"I hope she doesn't ruin your clothes," Maama said, her eyes welling with tears. It broke her heart that a perfectly sane, brilliant woman was now being viewed by everyone as a mental patient.
"She will never do that, by Allah's grace," Afifa replied. Maama fell silent, turning the clothes over in her hands.
"I don't know why, but deep in my soul, I still cannot accept that Sa'ahar has lost her mind. Yesterday, while on the road with your father, I said the same thing, but he told me that Satan is trying to toy with my faith and that I must accept destiny, whether pleasant or bitter."
"By Allah's grace, bestie will return to us very soon, and we will continue our lives just like everyone else," was all Afifa said as she wiped the tears from her face.
Maama’s departure from the house provided Afifa with the perfect opportunity to slip into her mother's room, retrieve the briefcase, and move it to a completely new hiding spot. She did this to preempt any dangerous security breach, having fully calculated the sheer depth of Adam’s malice. She knew he would eventually deduce that the briefcase was hidden within the family house, and he would orchestrate a clever scheme to win their trust just to have it handed over to him.
She sat down and wept bitterly after completing a thorough inspection of the materials inside the briefcase. Her raw instinct was to set the passports and the fraudulent documents on fire, but they desperately needed them as legal evidence. Therefore, she exercised restraint, gathered the materials, and secured them safely inside her car.
As was his usual routine after everyone left, Adam pulled the heavy door shut and locked it, as he never slept in her room unless he had a specific physical need. Moving like a ghost, Sa'ahar opened the drawer containing the clothes Maama had left earlier—items she had been watching intently since they were brought in, praying that Adam's attention wouldn't be drawn to them. She calmly unwrapped the clothes, extracted the replicated key, and returned the garments to their place. Checking the other side of her wardrobe, she pulled out a hijab and threw it over her body. She then began to tiptoe forward with absolute caution, her heart hammering violently against her ribs. Her lips moved continuously with a torrent of silent prayers, begging for a successful escape from the house without detection. As she walked, the air itself seemed to sway her frail frame; it had been an incredibly long time since she had walked any significant distance. Combined with her pregnancy, the brutal physical toll of the forced injections, starvation, and overwhelming trauma, she had become severely emaciated and weak.
(Novel Details: H U G U M A - TABARMAR ƘASHI - 54)
Against the odds, she successfully unlocked the bedroom door with the replicated key. Pushing it open silently, she began to creep through the living room. Suddenly, a loud, sharp movement echoed from directly behind her. The sound struck terror into the very depths of her soul. She spun around frantically, nearly collapsing to the floor from sheer panic.
It was Raihanatu standing there. Her body was shaking violently as well, and the plates she was holding were on the verge of slipping and shattering from her hands. Sa'ahar opened her mouth to speak, but Raihanatu swiftly pressed a finger against her own lips, signaling her to remain absolutely silent. She quickly set the plates down on the dining table, hurried over with an incredibly swift, stealthy stride, and grabbed Sa'ahar’s hand tightly. Without wasting a single second, she pulled her toward the parlor door, opened it, and they slipped outside.
Stopping dead in their tracks between the veranda and the open courtyard, both women stood panting heavily, their chests heaving violently from adrenaline.
"The security guard... he is at his post, Anty. Let me go and... distract him." Without waiting for Sa'ahar's response, she slunk through the garden bushes, maneuvering behind the security guard’s outpost. Finding a sizable stone, she hurled it onto the zinc roofing, creating a loud Qwuualll! The sharp noise instantly caught the guard's attention. He muttered an annoyed curse but continued with his business. She picked up two more stones and threw them simultaneously. They landed with a heavy thud. Enraged, the guard stood up to circle the building and investigate the source of the stones. Before he could round the corner, Raihanatu had already darted back to Sa'ahar. Grabbing her hand once more, she pulled her into a frantic, hurried run, unlocked the pedestrian gate, and spoke through a rush of hot tears:
"Go, Anty! Allah will guide your steps, and the Almighty will avenge you. Even though I don't know the full details of what is happening, my heart and my entire soul know the truth of the evil transpiring here. Even as we speak, he is in your room with another woman. May Allah execute His absolute justice upon him for this cruelty!" The moment she finished speaking, she carefully pulled the gate shut, locked it, and hurried back inside before the security guard could spot her.
Sa'ahar’s vision began to blur, everything appearing doubled before her eyes as a severe wave of dizziness threatened to take her down. She began to stagger blindly along the road. Instantly, Afifa—who had been parked nearby waiting anxiously for over an hour—threw open her car door and rushed out at breakneck speed. She intercepted her on the pavement, grabbed her securely, and bundled her into the vehicle. Right at that moment, Sa'ahar’s breathing shifted drastically, signaling that she was on the verge of losing consciousness. Terrified, Afifa started the engine and sped out of the neighborhood at a frantic pace.
At that point, Afifa had deliberately kept the unfolding nightmare a secret from the rest of the family because she wanted no interference; she had sworn an oath to completely dismantle Adam's life. However, seeing that Sa'ahar had now fully fainted, she had no choice but to seek external help. She called Anty Farheen directly, stating the specific hospital she was driving to and begging her to meet them there immediately.
"Why on earth did you take her to a hospital that far away? There are plenty of closer hospitals we usually frequent!"
"There's no time to explain, Anty, please just get here right now! It's an emergency!"
"Alright, I'm on my way," Farheen replied, hanging up the phone. Since her husband, Muhyiddeen, was already out of town, she left all the children in the care of her domestic staff, summoned her driver, and sped out of the compound in her car.
Anty Farheen was thoroughly horrified when Afifa finished chronicling the entire conspiracy. She burst into a violent fit of crying, bitterly cursing Adam.
"We must launch an aggressive legal war against him! He absolutely cannot get away with this atrocity!" Afifa shook her head firmly.
"No, Anty. We must proceed slowly and methodically, exactly as Sa'ahar advised. To be honest, I am terrified of him now. His capacity for malice and cunning far exceeds anything we could have ever imagined. As much as I have always despised him and loathed his very existence... I never imagined he could perpetrate something this demonic. Therefore, we must calculate our every move perfectly. If we rush, he is slick enough to completely wash his hands of guilt and manipulate our fathers and brothers into believing him. Listen to my plan." She calmly laid out her strategy to Farheen. The plan resonated deeply with Farheen; it was the definitive trap that would force Adam to expose his own criminal actions by his own hand.
Anty Farheen didn't leave the hospital until nearly one in the morning. She promised to return secretly the following day to bring them breakfast, adding that she hoped to covertly transfer Sa'ahar to her private residence tomorrow so her treatment could continue in absolute secrecy. They desperately wanted to ensure that Afifa's absence wouldn't trigger any suspicion from Adam or the rest of the family, wanting to maintain the status quo until their trap was fully set.
Meanwhile, Adam hadn't given Sa'ahar’s quarters a single thought since Afifa’s departure. Knowing that Afifa had returned to her own home, he and his mistress locked themselves inside his bedroom, indulging in absolute debauchery without a care in the world. He didn't even bother to check her room until well after the dawn (Asuba) prayer. He stood up, staggering slightly from the heavy intoxication of the previous night's partying and wild indulgence.
He sat on the edge of her bed, expecting her to emerge from the bathroom, but was met with absolute silence. Growing impatient, he marched toward the bathroom, shouting curses:
"I am right on the verge of permanently ending my problems! I will gladly end your life if you dare continue hiding my briefcase from me! You can lose your life, but I will never lose my fortune!" He froze in absolute, paralyzing horror the moment he saw the bathroom was completely empty. His eyes widened so violently they looked as though they would pop out of their sockets. He spun around frantically, suddenly recalling that when he walked into the room, the door hadn't actually been locked; it had swung open the moment he pushed it. Jolting backward, he began to scream in a manic, unhinged frenzy like a madman who had just lost his mind. He ran out into the living room, screaming Raihanatu’s name at the top of his lungs.
Having finished her dawn prayer, Raihanatu had been sitting quietly in her room, fully expecting this exact explosion. She performed a silent prayer begging the Almighty for calm and composure, wiped her face, and stepped out. By then, unable to wait a second longer, he violently kicked her bedroom door open, nearly striking her in the face.
"Where is Sa'ahar?!" he demanded, his voice a roaring thunder.
"She is in her room, Yaya," she answered calmly, putting on a flawless performance of absolute ignorance. His eyes bulged.
"If she were in her room, would I be standing here asking your worthless self where she is?!" Putting on an expression of pure, shocked confusion, she gasped:
"She's not in her room, Yaya?! Then where could she have gone? Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un!" She acted thoroughly panicked.
"The moment you came home, you ordered me to go straight to my room and warned me never to let you see my face again! I haven't stepped a single foot out of my room until right now when you screamed for me, Yaya!" Seeing her apparent panic only amplified his own terror and confusion. He let go of the door frame instantly, running his hands frantically through his hair like a cocaine addict experiencing a violent trip. He paced back and forth maniacally before charging back into his own bedroom.
Standing there, she could hear a violent altercation break out between him and his mistress. Within moments, he began to brutally beat the woman. Shortly after, he dragged her forcefully into the living room by her hair, the woman clad in provocative, skimpy sleepwear that left her practically naked.
"You wretched, miserable whore! You caused this! I explicitly told you not to give me those drugs! Given the high-stakes situation I am facing, I didn't need to be intoxicated, but you forced them on me anyway! Now you are about to bring down a catastrophic disaster upon my head! Get the hell out of my house!" He threw her out into the street, refusing to even let her change out of her nightwear.
Returning inside, he resumed his frantic pacing, trapped in a cage of sheer panic.
"How on earth did she escape from a room I personally locked? Where could she have gone?" These questions looped endlessly in his breaking mind. Turning on his heel, he rushed outside to confront the security guard, interrogating him aggressively. However, the guard swore under oath that aside from Afifa, who had driven out right in front of both of them, absolutely no one else had exited the compound.
He descended into a state of sheer, unadulterated madness. Raihanatu stood in a corner weeping silently, bitterly lamenting the cruel hand that fate had dealt her by placing her in the midst of such a toxic, unhinged maternal family—a lineage devoid of moral alignment, completely empty of empathy, ignorant, and consumed by relentless greed and a desperate hunger for worldly wealth above all else.
When he finally turned on her, screaming a barrage of vile insults and ordering her to pack her things and clear out of the house as well, she felt a wave of profound relief. Pure terror had gripped her being from being left entirely alone in the house with a man who was clearly losing his sanity. Therefore, she swiftly slipped into her sandals, leaving all her personal belongings behind, and fled the house without looking back.
THREE HOURS LATER
Eight people were now gathered in the living room, including Afifa, Maama, Dr. Mamman, Ya' Muhyi, and Ya' Saifullahi. No one had anticipated the brothers' arrival today, but they had arrived only to be met with the catastrophic news of Sa'ahar's disappearance.
Looking around the room, it was impossible to discern who was in greater agony. Maama was weeping uncontrollably, a sight that tore at Afifa’s heart and threatened to shatter her resolve. Every few minutes, Afifa would steal a glance at Adam, who looked to be on the absolute precipice of a psychiatric break. He could neither sit nor stand, pacing frantically back and forth while loudly invoking the name of Allah. Afifa felt a deep chill run down her spine, horrified by the sheer, terrifying depth of human deception. Truly, mankind carries a bottomless sack of evil. There wasn't a soul in that living room who didn't feel a profound wave of pity for Adam given the utter devastation he was displaying, completely blind to the fact that this very man was the architect and root cause of the entire tragedy.
They sat there trapped in a agonizing state of limbo, having already filed missing person reports across various media platforms and local police stations.
"Have patience, Adam. By Allah's grace, she will be found safe and sound," Abba said, attempting to inject some strength into Adam's broken frame, though he himself completely lacked any real confidence.
"Abba, I swear I don't know how she got out! Where could she have gone? Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un!" he cried out in a booming, dramatic voice. Afifa turned her head away, curling her lips in deep disgust. She knew with absolute certainty that he wasn't panicking over the loss of Sa'ahar; he was panicking solely because his briefcase had vanished.
They spent the entire day trapped in that agonizing state, stretching into the dead of night, without a single lead or sign of Sa'ahar.
On Afifa’s part, although she desperately wanted to return to Ya' Muhyi's house to sleep alongside Sa'ahar—whom Anty Farheen had already placed under the care of a trusted private physician—she knew that staying by the side of her traumatized mother was of paramount importance. She needed to comfort her and keep her grounded. Therefore, she accompanied Maama back to the family home, while constantly maintaining secret communication with Anty Farheen regarding Sa'ahar’s clinical status. Farheen assured her that Sa'ahar was recovering steadily under excellent, dedicated care. Periodically, Afifa would slip away unnoticed to visit her. Sa'ahar was visibly improving and reclaiming her strength due to the extraordinary care Anty Farheen showered upon her, even though she spent most of her time weeping bitterly. The sheer shock and trauma of what Adam had done to her had deeply broken her spirit, pushing her to the brink of severe clinical depression. However, Anty Farheen’s relentless strength and fierce encouragement acted as a powerful shield, continuously offering her profound counsel:
"Ummi, is this how you show gratitude to Allah? Is this how you thank Him for His infinite mercy? He miraculously delivered you from an evil whose true depth you cannot even comprehend! Are you going to repay your Lord by drowning yourself in endless weeping?"
"I can't help but cry, Anty! Are men truly this vile? Can a man who claimed to love you transform into your most terrifying, demonic enemy? Do they possess no sense of loyalty or honor? Do they know nothing of true love, mercy, faith, or human compassion? How could Adam do this to me, Anty? What is left to trust in this world? If Adam is capable of this level of evil, what lover is incapable of ultimate betrayal?" Knowing that logical arguments would fail to penetrate her grief at this stage, Farheen simply continued to cradle her, soothing her with profound wisdom and gentle affection.
NO MATTER HOW HIGH A STONE IS THROWN...
Once they received medical confirmation that Sa'ahar had fully stabilized and regained her mental clarity and composure—with the invaluable help of their physician, who historically managed the medical needs of the entire extended family—Afifa decided it was time to move. She laid bare the entire conspiracy to Dr. Usman, requesting his professional assistance to act as the master key that would unlock and expose Adam's crimes. Without a single moment of hesitation, the doctor agreed, for the horrific nature of the crime had deeply shaken and outraged his own soul.
Later that week, Afifa strategically brought up the issue of inspecting Sa'ahar's lands and corporate properties. She noted:
"Ya Zaid, we truly need to go and audit her properties. You know people cannot be trusted these days. Some predatory individuals might hear rumors of her disappearance and illegally seize her lands." Zaid found her reasoning completely sound, promising to carve out time to conduct a thorough inspection.
The family continued to frequent Adam's house periodically, refusing to leave him isolated. Today, almost the entire family had gathered at the residence, with the exception of Zaid, who had sent word that he would first stop by to inspect Sa'ahar's commercial plots along the main highway—a detail that filled Afifa with intense satisfaction. She sat there quietly watching Adam, who was visibly trembling and vibrating with a frantic, guilty panic, as she waited for Zaid's arrival.
Maama was in the middle of gently chiding Zaid for taking so long to arrive when he finally walked through the front door. The look on his face instantly signaled to Afifa that the tactical bomb she had planted was finally beginning to detonate.
"Is everything alright?" Maama asked anxiously.
"We have a massive problem, Maama," Zaid replied, his voice tense. "The moment I arrived, I started by inspecting her commercial plots along the main bypass. To my absolute horror, major construction has been erected on more than half of her lands, and the projects are already nearing completion! I sat down and immediately began investigating the matter, demanding to meet the actual individuals claiming ownership of the land. I managed to track down three of them on-site, because they happened to be there..."