Pacing around, Sa'eed kept on trying to call his wife's number, but it was not going through. He raked a hand through his head in frustration. Knowing the kind of a wife he had, he knew she could go to any extent to rectify her mistake. He knew she would do anything to bring back their daughter and make him forgive her for her mistake. He sighed heavily. "I hope she didn't do what I'm thinking."

Trying her number one more time, he sat down and buried his head between his hands. His heart was bleeding for his daughter who was kidnapped and now, his wife was nowhere to be found. He prayed to Allah to keep the both of them safe, for he could go insane without them. His family was his life. The amount of love he had for them couldn't be measured or weighed. For anything bad to befall them, he prayed to Allah to bring it unto him instead.

Exasperatedly, he shut his eyes tightly and his fist connected with the wall beside him. Why did he not control his anger? He was already used to doing it. What suddenly changed? Why did he have to send her away? Where was she? How far could she possibly have gone in her condition? - he questioned himself. "She's definitely out there, looking for Manal."

Not able to wait any longer for her return, he dashed out of the door in search of his wife. For all he knew, she might still be in the neighborhood.

~~~~~~~

Few hours later, Maryam still could not be found by Sa'eed or even the police officers - this made Sa'eed extremely worried and restless. If anything happened to his wife, he would never be able to forgive himself, for he was the cause of her disappearance. If only he did not let his anger outweigh his conscience. She was a mother and definitely, all mothers would have done exactly what Maryam did in hopes to find her daughter. If only he had realised this sooner, he would not have showed his anger and raised his voice at her. He would have consoled and assured her their daughter would be back with them safely in sha Allah. What suddenly happened to him? It was probably the shock of finding out his precious daughter had been kidnapped. Subconsciously, he felt a tear escape his eye. In spite of how hard he tried to be strong, he broke them. His heart bled for his little daughter whom he knew was in tough hands at the moment. Nafisa would stop at nothing to torture her. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed a lump in his throat. He couldn't wait for the police officers to get their hands on Nafisa. He would definitely make her pay for every single time she had made each of them shed a tear, all because of her.

Plopping down on the sofa, Sa'eed's other cellphone began to vibrate. Pulling it out of his pocket, he checked the caller ID and found out it was an unknown number calling. Within a split second, he tapped the answer button. It might be the kidnappers.

Putting the cellphone close to his ear, he anticipated the person at the other side of the line to speak up, but apparently, they wanted him to speak up first. "Who is this?" He asked, going straight to the point. There was absolutely no need to be verbose or waste the time of exchanging peasantries. The problem he had in front of him was enough to turn him into a grumpy man.

"Sa'eed." The person called all of a sudden.

Sa'eed's heart stopped beating for a nano second. He had to take the phone away from his ear and check the number again - not because he didn't know who just spoke, but because he wanted to be sure he was not hallucinating and there was no call at all. Amongst hundreds and thousands of voices, he could pick out the unique voice of his wife at any time of the day - Maryam! But something was odd by the tone of her voice. He did not fail to notice she called him by his name and how distant and emotionless her voice sounded. It was totally unlike her. "Habibty, where are you? Are you alright? You had me so worried ab-"

"I'm fine, Sa'eed." She cut him off. And there it was again. She did not call him by her endearment for him again - something she rarely did, even when angry. "You can stop worrying about me now."

What! "How can you say that? Of course I can't." He breathed. "Manal has been kidnapped and now I can't find you. I'm slowly losing my mind here. I will only stop worrying when I see you in front of me. Where are you? I will come and get you right away." He asked, fiddling his pocket for his car keys.

"I left." She remarked curtly.

"I know you did and that's exactly why I am coming to get you from wherever you are." He replied. He did not know why, but he was feeling uneasy for some inexplicable reason.

"You don't understand what I'm trying to say, do you?" She paused for some few seconds before proceeding. "I have left you for good, Sa'eed."

"What are you saying?" He queried. "Just tell me where you are. I'm already on my way to fetch you." He walked out of the house and towards his car, but not before securing the front door with a key first.

"I'm serious!" She raised her voice. "I... I am just following what you asked me to do. I'm following your orders. You asked me to leave, didn't you?"

"You know I didn't mean it in any other way. I was just too angry and wanted to be alone. I'm sorry. I know my words hurt you a lot. I will make it up to you, I promise."

"It is too late for that. As we speak, I have found Manal. She's with me and we've left Nigeria for good." She spoke.

Sa'eed was taken aback by her outburst. He knew something was not right. Something definitely was wrong, somewhere.

"Are you surprised?" She asked, when she got nothing, but silence from him. "Don't be. I'm as serious as I can ever be. I have been longing to do this for a very long time now. I don't belong with a man who cannot support my dreams. A man who is as selfish as you. You don't care about my feelings. You only care about yourself and you expect me to always take orders from you like a loyal dog. I have destroyed and wasted many years of my life with you. I deserve better. I deserve to be who I really want to be and not who you want me to be. You ruined my career and for that - I will never forgive you for this. I detest you, Mr. Sa'eed Mubarak! I'm never coming back to you and you can say goodbye to your children now, because you are never ever going to get the chance to see your unborn baby and same goes for Manal - you will never get to see her again, so I think it would be best if you... If you...
.
.
.
"Divorce me right now."

In as much as Sa'eed knew it was not Maryam in her actual senses speaking, he never expected her to ask for a divorce. Her outburst took him by surprise, but one thing he knew for sure was that, she did not mean any of what she said. She did not detest him, neither did she want to be separated from him. Just like the way he could not live without her, she also would never be able to live without him. All the moments they spent together and the years she spent showing him just how much she loved him, couldn't all have been counterfeited. It was not a sham - he knew this deep within his heart, but he decided to play along to get to the bottom of everything. "Is this what you really want? A divorce?"

Silence.

Indubitably, his hunch had been confirmed. She did not want a divorce. Someone was definitely forcing her to utter the dreadful word. "Is it?"

"Y... Yes. I don't want anything to do with a self-centered person such as yourself. We're better off alone."

"If that is what you think and really want, then I'm ready to grant it to you, but one two conditions."

"What are the conditions."

"If I'm to do it, then I want to do it while seeing you and the second condition; Manal will stay with her father."

"Okay." She agreed. "Where can we meet?"

"Right now?" He asked, raising a brow.

"Yes. I will be at the house in twenty minutes."

From overseas? Wow! That's fast. - he wanted to say these words to her, but decided not to. It was better he kept pretending to be oblivious to her lies. Once she arrives back home, he would make her spill the truth to him and reprimand her for even playing with the word 'divorce'.

~~~~~~

Letting the phone slip from her hold after ending the call, Maryam screamed in pain and agony. She wept and wept for what seemed like hours, while Nafisa and her evil boyfriend laughed at her face.

"That's enough now, drama queen." Mukthar narrowed his eyes at her.

"Please don't do this to me, Nafisa." Maryam fell to her feet in tears. "I will die without him. Please have mercy on me. I cannot live without my husband in this world."

Rolling her eyes, Nafisa kicked her on the chin, making her stumble on the floor with a thud. "But you can live without your daughter - is that so?" She shrugged. "If you want, I can have Manal killed right away and you wouldn't have to be separated from your husband. You choose? Your husband or your precious, fragile, little daughter, Manal?"

"No, please. Don't touch my child." She beseeched amidst tears.

"Oh! You're choosing your daughter over your husband then." She smirked. "Wise choice."

"As we discussed while you were on phone with him, you're going to meet up with your husband and make sure he divorces you and not only that, you will demand a large sum of money from him." Mukthar ordered.

"I can't. Please don't make me do it." She cried.

"Are you willing to cooperate or not?" Nafisa questioned in fury.

Maryam nodded vigorously.

"Good. Any more complaints from you, I won't hesitate to kill that brat of yours myself." She threatened.

Mukthar smirked. "Will you do it?"

"Yes. Yes." She replied without wasting a second. What was more important to her at the moment was saving their daughter. She would explain everything to her husband and make him forgive her for all the hurtful things she was forced to say to him.

"Are we just going to allow her leave like that? Knowing the kind of a person she is, I'm sure she's going to tell her husband we are blackmailing her to extort money from him and he will call the police to save his daughter and arrest us." Nafisa voiced.

Maryam's heartbeat skyrocketed.

Groaning, Mukthar spoke; "I thought being around me for a while now would have made you smarter, but apparently not." He scoffed. "You're still as dense and dumb as ever. I'm not allowing her go just like that... You may be new to this business, but I'm not."

"What do you plan to do?" Nafisa asked.

"You see this?" He showed her a very very small object.

"What is it?" Nafisa questioned.

"A camera." He replied. "I'm going to stick this to her body. By so doing, we will be able to watch her conversation with her husband. Any wrong move from her, we will go ahead and slaughter the brat. This time, I won't just put her to sleep temporarily, like I did a while ago, but permanently."

"Wow!" Nafisa exclaimed. "My boyfriend is such a genius. A bravo!"

"Of course. I'm not a dumbo like you." He smirked.

Nafisa swallowed. It was obvious she was hurt, but she concealed her true feelings and faked a smile.

It seemed there was no way for Maryam to tell her husband anything. Her chance went down the drain right in front of her eyes. She cried. Not only for Manal and herself, but for her husband whom will be hurt immensely by their meeting. He would be shattered and lost.

~~~~~~~~
Assalamu'alaykum/hi!

How are you all doing?

What do you think will happen next? (Next chapter will be dedicated to the person with the right guess)

Will Sa'eed divorce her?

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