Gone without Goodbye
For three days, Zainab vanished.
No calls.
No texts.
Not even a whisper of where she went.
Yusuf searched everywhere — hospitals, hotels, even her old neighborhood.
But she was gone.
And the silence was deafening.
---
Zainab sat in a small guest house on the edge of town. Alone. Pregnant. Processing.
She stared at her reflection in the mirror.
"You're not broken," she whispered to herself.
"You're becoming."
She didn't cry anymore.
The pain had shaped her, but it no longer controlled her.
She didn't want revenge.
She wanted peace.
For herself. For the child growing inside her.
So she did the one thing she never had the courage to do before—
She chose herself.
---
Back in Lagos, Yusuf sat at the edge of their bed — empty now — holding a photo of her.
He didn't eat. He didn't sleep.
He just waited.
Until one evening, a black SUV pulled into the driveway.
The door opened.
Zainab stepped out.
She looked different.
Stronger.
More woman than girl.
And beside her was an older woman with familiar eyes.
"Mother?" Yusuf breathed.
Zainab nodded slowly. "We found her. She's ready to talk."
Yusuf's jaw tightened.
Zainab added, "And she has a few truths to tell you. About your father… and the contract."