MY HUSBAND’S BROTHER

THE WEIGHT OF HIS GUILT

Aunt Masara talked to her niece about the proposal Mr Hakim had given them. Maizah quickly agreed to the marriage without knowing all the details, which weren't much other than 'What's mine is yours? What's yours is mine?' all that stuff, with Maizah looking like she was getting a free ticket to heaven while Hakim, on the other side of the documents, looked like he was opening a window for the devil to collect his soul.

The young lady is broke, okay! She has some money under her name, but it's not that much. She couldn't even buy herself a house with it.

Now that she has agreed to marry Hakim, she will own everything Hakim owns, which he surprisingly has a lot of despite just being a 39-year-old and in return, the only thing Maizah has to do is to bear children for him, just a simple two munchkins. Still, then again, Maizah didn't read the documents she just signed.

At the same time, her aunt kept putting her hands on her mouth in disbelief as she wrote the consent form.

Maizah didn't put her mind to the whole marriage thing. The only thing she looked forward to was her being able to use her legs once again. As for the marriage thing, maybe she will hyperventilate about it when the time comes.

A few days later, Maizah's surgery went well, but she was kept in the ICU with her aunt, praying, crying, hoping, cursing, and swearing to revenge her niece's death if she didn't wake up from her coma.

The woman was almost sure that these doctors were experimenting on her niece. She no longer believed everything they were telling her. After all, some wealthy people are evil creatures, and she couldn't believe how easily she agreed to a stranger to help her niece. Of course, she thought they were experimenting on her little dove!

Three days later, Maizah was out of the coma, and she spent eight days at the hospital recovering. Aunt Masara kept apologizing to everyone she offended when distressed about her niece's condition, but luckily, no one took it to heart. She was very embarrassed and ashamed of herself, so she brought them homemade dumplings for eight days as a sign of her appreciation until Maizah was sent home.

After Maizah was discharged, she spent her days in physical therapy to retrain her muscles and nervous system to support walking. She was also given assistive devices such as braces and walkers to support and stability as she worked on regaining her ability to walk.

Her husband, of course, bought her robotic exoskeletons, a wearable device that assisted her in standing and walking by providing external support and assistance to her movements.

As Maizah was occupied with her physical therapist and occupational therapist for several months, her husband Hakim kept popping up in his free time to check on how his wife was doing, and he was a sweet and amazing husband to the young woman. He never pressured her to do anything she didn't want, and he was such a fantastic Maizah could have never dreamed of even if she tried. He was not her dream man or her knight in shining armor, and he was her angel sent straight by God himself from up above the clouds.

A few years later. Maizah recovered well, not completely recovered, but she was back to her old self, not her old self, but she was healthy. Her height was 165 cm, her weight was 54 kg, and she limped a little.

However, she was fortunate since she earned a three-year college degree.

She and Hakim had dinner plans to discuss their wedding, where they would be officially husband and wife, but Maizah waited for her for hours. He never came. She called his cell, but it went straight to voicemail.

Hours, days, and weeks passed without Hakim in sight, and he was still unreachable. All the time he visited Maizah at his home, they never talked about where he was staying. They never talked about the past nor the present time but the future, and they talked only about where they wanted to stay, how many kids they should have, which names they should pick for their kids, all that dumb stuff that wasn't going to help her in finding her husband. She doesn't even know his family. How crazy in love were they to not talk about simple stuff?

Hakim's side is understandable. Maybe he didn't want to open old wounds by asking Maizah about her past since he had already learned everything about her from his anonymous source, but Maizah, on the other side, why wasn't a little curious about her in-laws, her husband's past, his freaking life in particular and his goddamn residential address? Wait! Everything is written in their marriage contract...but then again, Maizah never read the documents. She just signed them. *Sigh*

***

[THE JACKSON'S RESIDENCE]

The whole family was in anguish, and they just buried the pillar of the family. The halo. The divine light. The Supreme. He was the only one perfect in power, full of wisdom and goodness in his whole being. An incense is burning, and its smell blends in with the room's stillness, producing a stench smell like death.

The young woman named Zendaya was posting on her i********: words like 'I still can't believe it' or 'You would not believe what I just had.' Of course, her fans already knew what was happening, but still, they wanted to know what was happening every second of her life. Notifications after notification started beeping after beeping with her fans asking and some comforting.

Zendaya's brother Amare was probably eating p***y somewhere far away from the house, and no one knows where or when he's planning to stay wherever he is, but then again, no one cares. People deal with grief in different ways, so they just let him do whatever he wants to do.

The man, named Ola, was in his middle fifties, fully bearded, sporting dark-rimmed spectacles on his tiny face. He has reclined against the wall, and despite his attempt to restrain, a narrow line of sorrow stretched over his face.

The older woman, named Rebecca. She's Ola's wife and the mother of their three kids, and she's standing in the middle of the lounge room while listening to a lawyer. Confusion, shock, and disbelief were written on her face as she stopped the lawyer.

"Wait. Wait. Back up! Did you say married?"

"Yes, mam. They have been married for three years now, and in three months, they would have been celebrating their 4th anniversary. I have a copy here of their marriage certificate."

"What! Oh My God!" Ola exclaimed as she glanced behind her to see nothing. She quickly walked next to the couch and dramatically fell over it with the back of her hand on her forehead.

The lawyer just sat there, not knowing whether to read the will or wait for Mrs Jackson to get over what she was dealing with. But then again, she was the only one interested in the will; her daughter was still busy with her phone, and her husband was fighting with his inner thoughts, so the lawyer waited for her.

It took three business days for the lawyer to finish reading Hakim's will. Mrs Jackson kept fainting, shouting, and kicking him out every 10 minutes.

A few days earlier in the morning, black clouds sprawled across the sky, billowing in from the west.

Their brassy glare drained color from houses and trees and burnished cars in driveways, leaving neighborhoods tinted bronze in the faltering light. The air grew heavy, and the humidity pressed down, suffocating.

The scent of rain was dark and heady. A stillness fell over the street, and in the silence came a low crackle of thunder, rolling across rooftops to the pattering of tiny raindrops. For a moment, everything stopped.

An angel had gone back home.

Even the wind held its breath. A streak of hot silver spliced the sky, and the downpour began. The cold embrace of death had stolen the warmth of life.

Hakim Jackson had died in his sleep due to an internal body malfunction. He was technically in perfect health in that he had no illness and no observable or measurable long-term deleterious health concerns—just a 26-year-old called back home by his maker.

No hospitals, no illness, no machines, no indignities, no one trying to keep him alive for longer than he was supposed to live.

No drama.

The. perfect. Angelic. Death.

He had played his role, came, conquered, and left his footprints everywhere he had walked. He changed people's life. He succeeded in everything he put his mind to, and he wasn't even given a slight, just the tiniest chance to say goodbye to his loved ones.

He had numerous dreams and plans, all aimed at bringing joy to many lives. He had found someone willing to love and adore him in every way possible for as long as he lived. However, the warmth of life was snatched away by the cold embrace of death.

His one regret was never being able to make amends for his misdeed. He yearned for the chance to apologize for his wrongdoing, but it never came. The weight of his guilt never lifted, and he carried it with him until the end.