Loving Junaid ✔

26

       Aa'yat's POV

So who are my parents? I queried in silence.

No Idea Aa'yat. No Idea at all. She sadly answered.

So what happened?
How did I end up here? I asked back in suspense.

She kept silent for minutes before she finally said; Let me start from the very beginning. The very main beginning.
I just kept still as I looked into her eyes as she started.

   Twenty years ago, I got married to your Dad. I mean my Husband.
We were such a happy couple as we always got what we wanted Alhamdulilah.
But, I wasn't able to conceive. We had enough money to take care of our little family but not a child, not children of our own.

I went for several tests and went to several clinics for checkup but the result still remained the same. I was clean and had no infection or whatsoever at all.
But your father, he never went. He was always busy with work and didn't even seem to care about children as at that time.

One day, I forcefully made him undergo a test, whose result wouldn't be ready until a week later. Days after the test was conducted, he got a call that he had to do some works for the company in the branch over at the United States Of America which he left for almost immediately. So I was left with no other choice but to collect the result in his stead.

His result made it known to me that he was the one with the problem. He was having Oligospermia (Low sperm count). I wanted telling him immediately but hesitated due to some reasons. I wanted him to return back home before breaking the news to him so that way, we can both look for possible solutions.

He said he was only going to spend a week or two at most over there and that was all.
We communicated for a week plus and that was all, I never heard from your Dad again. Not even a phone call. I tried every means possible, I even went to the office branch here in Nigeria, but to no avail. They said they were selected for the promotional exams there and would have to do some screening which might take a while before everything falls in place.

But why didn't he tell me all this before hand?

Weeks turned into Months and then into Years.

6 years later, I was alone in the house as usual, when you uncle ran over to my place with you on his shoulder.
I was shocked at the scene before me and that was when he explained to me that he rescued you from a fire incident that happened a night before. A resident caught fire and you seemed to be the only person who was rescued. According to him, the rest got burnt in the fire.

Bilal knows virtually everything that happens in my matrimonial home and also knows about my childlessness and where the source came. He begged me to take you in and cater for you as mine, which I gladly did as I had always wanted a child.

I told him I was going to return you the instant your missing case was seen or heard, but something good happened that very day.

My husband called. He finally called me after 6 good years. He told me he got the job he was after and has been given a position in the company he applied. He added that everything was okay now and he was finally fit to give me the best life I deserve.
He also apologized it took him that long to contact me. He wanted me to move with him permanently in the US.

And that was when I told him about you. I lied to him you were his daughter and that I had given birth to you during the years he left. He was so happy to hear the news and I could feel his sincere happiness. He asked for your name and I went speechless for a while.
You sat close to me and stared so closely at me. You had a locket around your neck with Aa'yatul kursiyu inscribed on it.