"Maama. I'm done for! Since Bakura knows, he'll want her back won't he?"Her mother rolled her eyes, hard. She almost hissed, but she was too old to hiss so she clapped her hands with authority."Calm yourself down. Bakura himself is the least of your worries. His wife, who bore him two girls and a boy, who thinks our Labeebah is a threat to her children's inheritance, is your real worry." Labeebah's aunt nodded, her eyes red but wide with worry, but a word stuck with her, 'our'."What can I do then?" Her mother looked at her and shook her head, Hannatu could never shake off her real self, which overly timid and involved never taking actions until trouble shook and forced her to move, she had given some of that trait to Labeebah."We'll deal with this a step at a time. First, get that her husband to divorce her. Post haste." They looked at each other, Labeebah's aunt in the back seat beside her mother, her uncle in the front seat beside the assistant."Divorce her? Why?" The old lady

The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was that everywhere was blurry. I blink, feeling tears rush down my eyes due to the pain of trying to clear my eyes.I blink again and the ceiling comes into focus, it's a hammered glass that houses several florescent bulbs. The hammered glass is surrounded by a white pop ceiling that hurts my eyes. I shut my eyes and try to think of where I could be.I open my eyes again and find out that I cannot look around the room unless I move my body, and just as I try to move my body, the door opens. It feels like I'm thirteen again and trying to let Ma know I'm annoyed so I quickly shut my eyes again, but the person comes close and leans over me, her breathing lingering with incense reaches me and I am forced to open my eyes."Upstairs neighbor." I croak, when I see who is standing over me. My throat is dry, feels like brittle paper. So I try to produce saliva to whet my mouth.She laughs, then tears roll down her eyes. "You don't even know my n

I lift my head to look at the wall around me, now filled with affirmative words and actions phrases. Words like 'You can do it!' 'You're enough!' 'You're going to win!' made me sigh and lean back in the wheel chair I was sitting in.My therapist, Ms Williams, a beautiful mix of Nigerian and British sat right there in front of me clasping a bound notebook. I wanted to face the wall like I was used to but she had told Kaka, my grandmother, and Kaka asked that the wall be plastered with affirmative words to make me talk.But today, I was willing to talk. I had seen a video on YouTube on Huda's phone and I could not stop thinking about it. I saw how beaten a woman was and it triggered the pain I felt when I woke. It reminded me of the time I could not even move my neck and how I had so many loved ones around me.Ma, Kawu, Rabiah, Zainab, now Huda, Kaka, my many cousins, even the head maid, Iyamé. They reminded me everyday that my body fought the battle against death and won with plenty of

"Try getting up again."I sigh and moved to get up, disregarding the gargantuan pain in my back and sweat dripping from my face and hair, infact everywhere. I was trying to take my first steps for the first time in nearly five months.Apparently, the physiotherapist was waiting for my bones go become stronger before forcing me into starting to get more feeling in my legs. For about two weeks, my only exercise was letting an expensive bike like physiotherapy machine turn my legs continuously. It hurt so much and I do not ever want to go back to it."Jibike, I'm trying. I'm trying but it's so hard. My back hurts like a bitch." She nodded knowingly and reached out to pat my shoulder. Tears sprung to my sweaty eyes and I blinked to keep them back."You can do it Beebah. You can do it so let out your tears, screams and get walking. Do it for those of us who cheer you on, but, do it for yourself the most. You can do it." The very tears I was trying to hold back spilled down and I said a dua

Cardi B- Be careful"Let's get this photoshoot out of the way first."I shook my head and walked back to the arranged set to sit in a swing, while dressed in a black, long sleeved turtle neck top, a cream rain pleated skirt, heels and a full turban, my second outfit. The first was a mustard sleeveless suit that I wore a long sleeve white turtle necked top with white heels.The photographer calling my attention took me out of the reverie I was in.Bashir Bakura wants to meet me? I need a break first to think."Smile please." I automatically widened my lips into a beautiful spread. She gave me a thumbs up and snapped away. Huda went to the stereo in the corner and fiddled with it, Brown skin girl by Beyoncé flowed out of the speakers prompting me into a smile, my skin is one of those things I'm grateful to Allah for the most, beautiful, dark as chocolate, supple skin.I blushed, letting an even wider smile frame my face as I heard Beyoncé croon on and on about how beautiful my skin is a