CHAPTER ONE (ZOK)

Zainab got up from her prayer mat where she had just concluded her morning prayers; it was a routine she had been trained with since she was a child and now, at 18 it had become part of her. She walked out of her room and went downstairs to help her mum with breakfast before her father finished his own prayers. 

“Good morning Ma” she knelt before her mother in the kitchen 

“Laide, Omo Mi” her mother smiled “Bawo ni?” (Laide, my child, how are you?) 

“Mowa mummy” she got up (fine ma) 

“Hope you slept well?” 

“Beeni Ma” (Yes ma) 

“Don’t worry about helping today, go on and prepare for school” her mother told her 

“But” 

“It’s fine, Yewande is around” Yewande or aunty Yewande as Zainab called her was their house-help who had taken a few days off to take care of her sick mother. 

“Okay Ma” 

Before she came downstairs again, her father had already left for work, and she didn’t waste so much time eating so she could reach school on time. 

“I’m leaving ma” she told her mother 

“Okay, go upstairs to my room inside my blue purse” her mother instructed “take my card Incase you need anything” 

“You already gave me money last night” she told her mum 

“I know” her mother smiled “go on and take the card as I have said, for cashless emergencies” 

“Thank you Ma” she said. 

Zainab was born into wealth, and even with all the wealth, her parents didn’t take any chances spoiling her too much, they disciplined her just as much and that was why she had so much respect and obedience cultured in her. 

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As soon as her driver dropped her off at school, she hurried to her class to get ready before the assembly. Her parents had sent her to one of the top schools in the country. 

“You’re late” a voice hissed at her immediately she stepped into the classroom 

She found her best friend Venus waiting at the back of the class for her “I’m sorry, what’s going on? I got your text” 

“I sent it since last night” 

“You know I switch off my phone after night prayers, what’s going on?” 

“I think the infection is back again, I need to get a test done” 

“So why didn’t you go to the hospital today?” 

“I don’t want to go alone na” 

“Vee” she warned knowing where this was going and not liking it at all 

“Please” 

“No” 

“Why?” 

“Because I have a function today at Krish’s house with my parents after school” 

“You can just be a little bit late” 

“But I don’t want to” Zainab shook her head “you know tests take hours to get results” 

“Which is why we are going to a new private hospital, we won’t take long” 

“I’m not so sure about this” she battled with lying to her parents again 

“This is the last time, I promise” 

“Yeah, that’s what you said last time too” 

“It is” she swore as they walked to the assembly ground. 

“Did you do that Math assignment yesterday?” 

“I don’t think I want to even ask because I know you didn’t do yours” Zainab sighed 

“I got back from the club late last night” 

“You went clubbing again?” Zainab removed the assignment from her bag and passed it to Vee “5 minutes” 

“It was just for a few hours” 

“You are incorrigible” Zainab shook her head and Vee laughed 

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Zainab and Vee became friends when they had both met in this particular school 6, 7 years ago to write the entrance examination to JS1, which Zainab had passed quite impressively as the number 1 and top best, following Krish Abu, Zainab’s father’s friend’s son and her schoolmate. Vee was intelligent, but more smart than intelligent, intelligent nonetheless, she went out with different men and at 18, she was what everyone else referred to as a slay queen; she was the exact opposite of her best friend which surprised everyone how these two were even close. Zainab had never supported her friend’s behavior, she didn’t understand why Venus went out with older men, what was it exactly that she wanted that her parents couldn’t give her? Definitely not money, Vee’s parents were rich, however they never had time for their daughter, they were always travelling from place to place, paying very little attention to their only child. Immediately after school, Zainab’s driver was already waiting for them, she was supposed to go home, get dressed and meet them at Krish’s house, but now she was going to run a little late. 

“Uncle Tete, good afternoon Sir” she greeted her driver. 

“Afternoon Zainab, Venus” he replied 

Vee gave him a small smile before turning her gaze to her phone 

“Vee and I have to stop by somewhere for a while before we go to Krish’s” 

“No problem” Uncle Tete agreed “have you told mummy and daddy?” 

“Yes, I already texted mummy” 

She had texted her mum that she was going to drop Vee at the hospital, as she wasn’t feeling too well and her mum had quickly texted back asking her to make sure Vee was okay before coming as the function was going to start much later in the evening. 

“Okay” Uncle Tete nodded “so where to?” 

Vee looked up and directed him till they got to the hospital. Since it was a pretty new hospital, it was quite empty but the hospital looked too top notch to be for poor people anyways 

“How did you find this hospital again?” Zainab asked as she admired the interior of the hospital 

“Tunde has a friend who works here” Tunde was one of Vee’s numerous boyfriends 

They walked up to the nurse at the reception who smiled widely “Hi, how may we help you?” 

The girls exchanged surprised looks, no hospital they’d ever gone to was this polite, Vee quickly replied “we are looking for Dr Mason A?” 

“Do you have an appointment?” 

The girls looked at each other, an appointment? What was this place? 

“Uhm, just tell him it’s Venus Agbara, Tunde’s sister” Vee lied smoothly 

The nurse smiled and nodded before getting on the phone. Zainab pulled Vee to a corner “sister? You both don’t even share the same name” 

“We could be cousins” she shrugged 

“Vee” 

“Calm down” Vee assured her 

“Excuse me” the nurse called out to them again “he’s expecting you, take the elevator to the 4th floor, the first door by your left” 

“Thank you” Zainab smiled at the nurse while Vee was already rushing to the elevator. 

They entered the ride and in a minute, they were there. As they approached the office, Zainab offered to wait outside. 

“I will wait for you here, hurry up” 

“Let’s go in together” 

“I will just wait here” 

“If I wanted you to wait here, I wouldn’t have begged you to come” 

Zainab sighed “Fine” 

Vee smiled and walked to the door knocking 

“Come in” they heard a deep masculine voice and she pushed the door open allowing Zainab to go in first before she followed behind her. 

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“Good afternoon” Zainab greeted politely and the doctor raised his head. 

“Afternoon” he greeted back surprised at the beauty before him. 

“Good afternoon Uncle Mason” Vee sat down and Zainab followed 

“Vee, it’s been awhile” he chuckled “I see you and Tunde only need my help when the going gets tough abi?” he teased 

“No na” she chuckled showing off beautiful set of teeth “it’s not like that, school has been quite busy these days” 

Zainab looked at her friend, what the hell was she talking about? Vee didn’t even bother about school work, she was just avoiding Tunde because she had found a new guy. 

Mason chuckled “I will take your word for it” he looked towards Zainab “is this your friend?” 

“She’s my sister” Vee replied and Zainab gave the doctor an awkward smile. 

“I never knew you had such a beautiful sister” he stretched his hand like they hadn’t just greeted few minutes ago “Hi I am Mason but friends call me Mase” 

Zainab returned the handshake “I’m Zainab” she said curtly and withdrew her hand back. Vee pretended not to see the cold treatment her friend her just giVeen the man, all of them in their group were womanizers, they always gathered at a particular joint to drink and eat and that was where Vee had met Tunde. 

“So the test results?” Vee asked him 

“Right” he brought out a file “T said you wanted to run another one?” 

“Yeah, for infection” she nodded. 

“So take this” he scribbled something in his nasty doctor handwriting “take this to the lab and give them the specimens, once the results are out, I will let you know” 

“Thank you” Vee collected the paper 

“This is negative” he handed her the other results 

He saw relief pass through Vee’s face and he smiled 

“Thank you again” 

“You’re welcome dear” he grinned before turning his attention to Zainab who was already on her feet “always welcome”