UNFURLING FATE.

Heartbreak.

Madinah.

It has been three days. Three days of regret, muffled crying and gloomy skies. I hadn't realized that I actually liked General that much and I wanted him to like me back, until he told me he doesn't and wouldn't.

He'd warned me, he had made it clear. So what the hell was I thinking? That I could change him? Who was I to change him? Especially when our marriage was not even his choice. When I was not his choice.

That night I'd slept in my room with Alisha, I could not bear to lay down next to him and risk him hearing me cry. Alisha on the other hand was a perfect cuddle buddy, and she slept too deeply to even hear me cry.

My routine for the past three days has been to get up early, cook breakfast alongside Kate and bathe myself and Alisha, kate usually cooked lunch by herself because my husband was hardly around for lunch, and then we make dinner with the girls, Aaliyah and Laila. They had taken General's words quite literally and have been trying to get in my good books, they didn't need to try too hard though. As long as the pictures have been taken down, I am good. The last thing I usually did at night after dinner was make his chai.

We even went shopping yesterday. Alisha wanted back to school shopping and the girls tagged along because General technically grounded them, so something as little as shopping was a lot to them if it meant breathing air that was not in their school or the vicinity of this compound.

Today, General traveled for a work trip. He did not tell me where or when he was coming back, and I did not ask. I had asked for him to stop being nice, and boy was he meeting my demand. He still made sure I took my drugs, and we still prayed fajr together, he also made sure I ate food when he was home. But that was about it.

I missed him so much. I missed sleeping next to him and inhaling his scent that smelt like home, I missed our sly eye contacts from across the dining room, the innocent little touches we shared. I miss him talking to me and actually saying more than a few sentences. I missed him.

He was not mine to miss though, he had made it abundantly clear. But I was his wife, his wife! What did one have to mean to someone else to be able to demand their attention, their love? What made me so unworthy?

In the past few days, I have realized that it had very little to do with me and very much to do with him. He'd declared that none of that would be possible before he even knew me, my only mistake was not taking his words literally, it was a very expensive mistake.

"Ya Madinah, I am done praying, let's go make cupcakes!" Alisha squealed as she jumped on me, accidentally bumping our heads together.

"Ouch! Baby be careful."

She apologized to me in her sweet voice and dragged me out of my bed which I'd been laying in. Alisha has made us bake every single flavor of cakes in the history of flavors, and even some odd ones I am sure did not exist before now, all in the span of the five days she's been here.

"Let's gooo!" I let her drag my hands to the kitchen. Kate had already prepared all the ingredients we needed so we got right into it,

"Do you want to be a baker when you grow up princess?" I asked her teasingly,

"No I wanna work in Disney." She declared in all seriousness.

My brows raised as I burst out laughing, "don't let your yaaya hear you."

"He is all the way in kaduna so he can't hear me, but just don't tell him, okay? He will ruin my plans."

So that's where he went, kaduna. A pity that his baby sister knew when his own wife did not.