Chapter 28

Mrs Balogun and I seemed to establish an understanding, she came, did her job, and left. We kept our interaction to the barest minimum and I was quite fine with that. The last thing I wanted was to talk to  someone who would think so low of me.

"Abba na." Yasmin cried out waving her hands at me. I smiled, waving back. We were at their school and they were having a fair.

Mrs Balogun was somewhere but I could feel her hawk eyes on me. Najma who looked much better than she had the previous week was also in attendance, she was at the cotton candy stand with the sugar crazed man child she called a husband.

I could see the frustration in her expression and the cheeky smile on his face as he ate more of the cotton candy. I shook my head amused before turning to Yasmin as the ride came to an end. The man unbuckled her and she leapt out, skipping over to me. I lifted her into my arms, spinning her around, eliciting laughter from her.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, giggling.

"Are you having fun?" I asked. She nodded just as Khalifa and Najma joined us. She immediately reached for the cotton candy.

"Woah!!!" I cried out moving her away from it. "That's too much sugar. Let's go get our face painted instead."

The thought of face painting had her cheering and they followed us to the face painting stand. We waited in line for our turn, I gently swaying Yasmin to the music.

"Social worker at 3 o'clock" Khalifa whispered. I turned in the direction to see Mrs Balogun, seated, watching us.

"Does she ever smile?" Najma asked glancing at her. I shrugged turning my attention to Yasmin, bopping her nose gently.

"Who knows."

It was finally our turn, I settled Yasmin on my thigh and watched as the artist painted a butterfly on Yasmin's face.

"Abba" I turned to see Najma holding her phone up, I smiled at her as she took the picture.

"Send me that please."

She nodded, taking a close up of Yasmin. After the artist was done with Yasmin, Khalifa convinced Najma to have her face painted. I left them there and together with Yasmin we walked around the fair.

We stopped at a corndog stall, "Two please." I requested about to pay. "Actually make that three." I paid and collected them with the dips.

"Come on Yas." I called, holding out my hand, she grabbed my fingers and we walked towards the seats.

"Here you go." I said offering Mrs Balogun one. She seemed shocked and cleared her throat before taking it.

"Thank you." She whispered, I shrugged and took a seat, settling Yasmin on the chair next to mine. I unwrapped the corndog and helped her open the lid of the dip container.

"Careful." I whispered handing her the corndog, smiling at how her eyes lit up at the snack, she took a bite, humming before digging in.

I watched her for a bit just to make sure she had a hang of it before concentrating on mine. I could feel Mrs Balogun's eyes on me but I ignored her gaze.

Najma and Khalifa joined us a while later before Mrs Balogun decided to leave. Out of courtesy I found myself walking beside her to her car.

"Good day Abubakar." She said. I nodded about to leave. "About the other day, it was wrong of me to assume. I... I apologize."

I almost choked on my spit as I gawked at her, I did not expect her to ever apologize... especially to me.

Oh wow

"It's in the past, besides we all make mistakes." I replied. She nodded and I watched as she walked into her car.

I made my way back into the school and frowned at the scene in front of me. Mrs Kazeem; a family friend was all up in Najma's face and Khalifa was nowhere to be found. Najim was clearly uncomfortable. I approached her and saw Najma's face flushed in embarrassment as the woman continued chattering on and on about how married couple these days took their time before having children.

I glared at the annoying woman but she was so deep into her rant, just as Khalifa walked towards us. Eyes immediately moving to Najma whose eyes were cloudy, as she bounced Yasmin in her arms.

"What's going on here?" Khalifa demanded, glancing at me.

"It's nothing." Najma cut in shaking her head. "Let's just go."

I raised a brow at her before turning to the woman. "Mrs Kazeem here thought it was necessary to give her unsolicited advice to Najma on children." I drawled.

Khalifa's body went rigid, his eyes darkened as he glowered at the woman.

"Last time I checked Mrs Kazeem, my marriage is between my wife and I. If we choose not to have children then I don't see how it is any of your business. I respect you because you are a family friend but don't make the mistake of crossing your boundaries, I won't be this tame next time." He snapped wrapping a hand around his wife and leading her away.

Mrs Kazeem stood there, jaw slackened in shock at his words.

"Well I never!!!" She harrumphed. I cleared my throat and she turned to me.

"I'm not as tame as Khalifa so... a word of advice, instead of poking your nose into other people's business... why don't you spend your energy keeping your son-in-law from sleeping with the whole of Abuja female population."

Her gasp echoed through the lobby making people turn to us, I grinned shoving my hands into my pockets before strolling out of the school.

Najma was seated with Khalifa bent to her level, I approached them just as Khalifa stood up, he gently rubbed her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She nodded forcing a smile.

"We'll see you later, our regards to Hajiya." Khalifa said, I could see he was still upset and to be very honest, so was I.

"I'll let her know." I said lifting Yasmin into my arms, walking to my car, I buckled her in and we drove home. She fell asleep half way home, the exctiment of the day wearing off.

By the time we got home, Yasmin was fully in dream world. I smiled at her before gathering her out of the car. Atine offered to carry her as I walked into the house but I waved her away, insisting on carrying her to her room myself.

I gently laid her on the bed, removing her shoes before getting a wet warm face towel from her bathroom and carefully wiping the paint off her face.

"Sleep well pretty girl." I whispered dimming the light and walking out of the room, closing the door behind me.

*******************

Two days later, the weekend rolled in and I was seated in the chalet, scrolling through my phone. The AC was on full blast, the past few days, the heat in Abuja was on another level.

I needed something cold, grabbing my keys, I headed to the main house, passing by the kitchen, I stopped to get a soda.

Yasmin was in the living room, lying on her back, eyes trained on the tv.

"Hello Mama na." I said, she turned to me, a smile forming on her lips before she got onto her feet and skipped to me.

"I'm bored." She said. "Same here Yas, same here." I replied sighing. I let her flop onto me, as we watched Frozen for the third time this week.

What could we possibly do that would be fun?

Bingo

"Why don't we go see anty Najma?" I asked. Her eyes sparkled at that and she agreed, nodding happily. I smiled before calling Atine and instructing her to get her ready.

I made my way to Hajiya's room. Knocking before entering. Hajiya's room reminded me of old European room setting, with a four poster bed. Apparently it was the oldest thing in the house, gifted to her by her parents as part of her wedding gifts. The room like the other rooms had high walls and artfully decorated ceilings. Hajiya's room also had floor to ceiling windows which was the most beautiful thing ever, combined with the white and brown blinds.

She was seated on the armchair next to one of the large windows, reading a book.

"Good afternoon Hajiya." I greeted. "Good afternoon." She replied. "Yasmin and I are going to see Najma." I explained.

"Okay, make sure you inform Mrs Balogun." She reminded me. I nodded sighing.

"Thank you."

"My regards to Najma." She said going back to her book. I walked out of the room to the foyer where I bumped into a dressed Yasmin.

"Ready?" I asked? She nodded smiling. We walked to my car and I dialled Mrs Balogun's number, informing her that we were going to my cousin's house. She asked me a barrage of questions which I rolled my eyes at but answered before she ended the call.

"I really hope you don't meet annoying people like her when you grow up." I said to Yasmin. The drive to Najma's place was a quiet one, with Yasmin softly singing the theme song to Sophia the First.

I parked and got out, helping her out before we made our way to Najma's front door. I lifted her up and she pressed the door bell.

The door opened minutes later, a dressed Najma looking back at us.

"Anty Najmeee" Yasmin cheered launching herself into Najma making her laugh. "Hey there Yasmin."

I watched them hug each other before Najma turned to me.

"Hey... I was about to come see you guys." She said. "I guess we beat you to it." I replied.

"Actually I was thinking of taking Yasmin to the waterpark." Najma explained.

"That's a great idea. I'm sure she would love that." I answered turning to Yasmin.  We all got into my car and I decided to text Mrs Balogun, she demanded I sent her the address stating she was going to meet us there. I had no qualms with her tagging along.

**********************

We arrived at the waterpark, I slipped on my shades and carried Yasmin in my arms, Najma came over and we walked into the park together.

Mrs Balogun was waiting.

Damn did she drive like the hounds of hell were chasing her or what?

"Good afternoon." I greeted. "Good afternoon." She replied. We walked further into the park, I could see the curiosity and excitement in Yasmin's eyes. It was so endearing to see her that happy.

Najma took her to the changing stalls and changed her into a swim suit. By the time they came back, I had bought sunscreen from a stall.

"Yasmin, come over here." I called, I could see her eyes were on the slippy slide. But I was not about to let her frolic in the sun with no protection.

She skipped over to me and I slathered the sun screen over here. Making sure every inch of exposed skin was protected under a thick layer of sunscreen.

"You are such a mother hen" Najma giggled, I eyed her sending her a playful glare.

"All done, go have fun." She smiled before bounding over to the slippy slide. I made a mental note to enroll her in swimming classes and probably horse riding classes too. It was better to start them early when it comes to things like this.

I watched her for a while as she moved from one ride to another, making sure to have her stay away from the rides that required swimming abilities.

"I can't believe she's grown so much from the girl I took ho... Hey... what's wrong?" I asked a pale faced Najma.

"It's nothing" she whispered clearing her throat and forcing a smile. I frowned at her, it was clear that she had been crying.

"Najma" I started glancing at Yasmin who was busy with the sprinklers. Mrs Balogun was keeping an eye on her, I turned back to Najma, lifting her hand to mine.

"No secrets... remember?" I whispered squeezing her hand gently.

"I'm scared Abba" she whispered, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Why? What's wrong? Did something ha..."

"I'm pregnant" she blurted out.

Everything froze as I stared at her.

Pregnant

Najma's pregnant

Najma is fucking pregnant!!!!

"Are you serious?!" I whispered, I couldn't hide the excitement from my voice. "Wait when did you find out?" The excitement turning to confusion "was it after the Mrs Kazeem's fiasco?"

She shook her head blinking away the tears.

"3 weeks earlier." She whispered. My eyes widened in shock at her words.

"Naj... why didn't you say anything?" I asked.

"I don't know Abba, I...I'm just confused. What if... am I really ready to be a mum? What about Khalifa... oh my God..." she rambled on, panic filling her voice.

"Hey... hey... look at me." I ordered. She turned to me.

"Breathe in, hold in...... let it out." I instructed, she did as I said until she calmed down.

"Now, what makes you think you aren't going to be a good mum? You're pretty amazing with Yasmin and Khalifa would be crazy not to want have a baby with you, so wipe those tears. Everything will be fine. I'm going to be an uncle and Yasmin is going to have a little cousin and Hajiya is going to have a great grandchild aside from Yasmin ofcourse. Just imagine sauve Khalifa knee deep in baby vomit and poop" I said laughing, she giggled shaking her head.

'That would be a pretty funny sight. Thank you Abba, you are amazing." She said squeezing my hand gently. I noticed she placed a hand to her stomach and smiled whether it was subconsciously or not, I chose not to comment. I was more than happy for her, we turned our attention back to Yasmin who was running through the sprinklers, laughing without a care in the world.

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A/N

Hello everyone...

Najma's Preggers!!!!!

I think it's safe to say Abba has a mouth on him. Serves Mrs Kazeem right though 😂😂

What do you guys think about the chapter?

As always

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Sarah xx