Chapter One

"What did they say?" 

She turned to see her mother-in-law standing over her with a glower on her face, if glowers could be called big, it probably classified the look on her face. She shifted on the uncomfortable plastic chair and squatted slightly to greet her husband's mother. 

" No one has come to tell me anything yet ma." Halima watched her hiss and ease her body onto a plastic chair after dusting it with her veil. 

"How will they, you weren't even there when he fainted." Halima sighed and leaned back onto the half broken chair at the University of Abuja teaching hospital's cardiology department. 

"Where did you disappear off to?" Halima fiddled with her scarf and looked away gently, trying not to let her anger get ahead of her. 

"I was at work ma." Her mother-in-law hissed loudly. Halima heard her shift noisily in her chair again. 

"Work ne? That's good. While my son was dying koh? May Allah repay you accordingly." Halima sighed and sat forward uncomfortably on the plastic chair, hoping to see the cardiologist first when he walked in. 

"Family of Salisu Hussein?" A nurse in white scrubs and a short hijab on her head called out from a sheet of paper. But before she could react, her mother in law had rushed over to the nurse and latched onto the poor lady. 

"Please follow me." Halima walked slowly behind her authoritative mother-in-law who had taken over the nurse asking different questions from the flustered lady. 

"That's her office. She's Doctor Ikpomwosa." She thanked the nurse on behalf of her startled mother-in-law and walked into the cubicle style office. 

The scent of lavender gel air freshener assailed her nostrils as she walked further into the plush office. She momentarily stopped to look around. The lady had made her office as comfortable as possible. It was decorated in tones of purple and lilac. 

"I'm Doctor Ikpomwosa, I'm one of the resident cardiologists on duty and the one in charge of Salisu Hussein's case." She sighed and took off her glasses to lean back in her chair. 

"How's my son? How soon can we go home?" The doctor's brows moved up a fraction. In a *you said* look. 

"Well, I should know, he's my son." The doctor looked at her chart and looked pointedly at me instead. 

"I have a few questions for the lady mama, not you. Only her can answer me comfortably and if you weren't already here, I might have asked you to go see your son." Halima got the inkling that she was trying to tell her something and at the same time rebuke her overly excited mother-in-law. 

"Why have you been having sex, knowing that Mr Salisu isn't supposed to be exerted." Halima's eyes popped open wider and she leaned forward to see the doctor's fave better. 

"I….…we haven't been having sex." The doctor shook her head with a sneer making Halima shake her head more. She didn't even register her mother-in-law's stare.

"We haven't had sex in a year. Ever since he got his red-flag test last January." The doctor's eyebrows inched up another fraction and she shook her head. 

"It says here, he has had sex twenty times since he last got his red-flag test." Halima slinked back on her chair.

 "And frankly his body, especially his heart can't take it. The exertion I mean. It was a foolish decision on his side to have sex knowing he'd be exerting his already weak heart. His name on the donor list doesn't appear until something next year and he has successfully pushed himself on the about to die list. 

Why do you patients never listen. Don't have sex, don't do anything overly exciting. You won't hear. You'll be lucky if he lasts a month at this rate." Halima sucked in several breaths of air while she tried to make herself feel better. Salisu had been having sex? He better have been having it with himself. 

"Doctor?" The lady nodded and offered her name. "Doctor Lisa, Salisu and I haven't had sex in nearly thirteen months. Nearly thirteen months. If he's having sex, it has not been with me." The doctor looked down to the chart in front of her. 

"Aren't you Halima Aliyu, his wife?" Halima nodded acquisence but the doctors mouth dropped open in shock and recognition. 

"I'm so sorry. I have ward rounds. I'll be back soon, and you can see him." Halima chuckled quietly holding her tears at Bay. The Husseins had shown her another way to be a person. Cheat on your unsuspecting wife while on the wait list for a new heart. 

"Let's go now. The doctor has left. That girl is a meddling young girl. She's just a doctor she Lacks tact." Halima turned to the side and rolled her eyes heavenward. Something told her Salisu's mother knew he had been exerting himself. She probably suggested it. 

"You better just make sure he gets better. He's your husband, no one will nurse him for you." Halima was extremely tempted to tell her mother-in-law off, but knowing how She was related to her mom, she just couldn't. Home training wouldn't let her. So instead, she muttered her reply. 

"What did you say?" She shook her head at the troublesome older woman to get out of trouble. 

"I just remembered that I have an appointment at work just now." Salisu's mother eyed her in reply, scoffing and walking past her neck to the reception where they had waited before. 

"Appointment Koh? Useless wife. You better quit that stupid job and take care of my son. He provides foe the family. I want to see what you'd do if he doesn't work." Halima pursed her lips and walked behind her slowly, listening to the berating words being breathed at her. 

Halima wanted to tell her mother-in-law thst her job paid for all the expensive Ankara she insisted on wearing and the expensive foodstuff they had to take to her every month. Salisu's salary at the bank didn't provide enough to cover all those expenses, or so he said Everytime money came such that she had to supplement with the tips she got from work. 

The nurse came just as they sat, making them get up again and they walked down the corridor to the male ward. Halima pulled her hijab from her body just as they entered the private room Salisu was in. 

"My son." Halima watched as mother and son cooed at each other like they hadn't seen each other in months. One would think she didn't live two streets away from them. Just enough distance to cause trouble.

"Mami, mana, I'm fine. I'll be fine." She watched as his mother nodded her head and wiped her eyes with her veil. 

"Halima. Sorry I had to pull you out of work." By them he was already breathless. Halima debated within herself whether or not to confront him in front of his mother but she knew if she didn't talk now, she'd never talk again. She just knew it. 

"Who have you been having sex with?" The question hung in the air as she quietly watched her husband of nearly five years go breathless with surprise and trepidation. 

She just knew that his cup was full this time.