Nathan
 
Two days after Christmas, Amari is alive and awake. I am so happy I can’t even sit still. Our friends are planning the biggest welcome back surprise for her when she gets discharged. 
“I am sorry. That must have been terrifying,” she says after I tell her everything that happened. 
“You have no idea. Pauline is still out there. I don’t think I will ever be at peace until she is not.”
That woman clearly hates me. I don’t think she is done with her attack. 
“Don’t,” she warns, making me laugh. I know what she thinks. My bestie was here and said a mouthful of her usual speech on how we should wipe Pauline out of this earth. The whole social media petition thing has made her an instant celebrity. Mother justice, her fans call her. 
“Mrs Gail’s solution is tempting, but I can’t risk losing my wife.”
She blushes. Lord, how I have missed seeing her do that. As much as I want to bask in this, there is still something I have to clear out with her. Something that has been eating at me. 
“About those messages Phoebe posted…” I hesitate before adding, “I… I was a jerk. I am sorry.” 
She has not said anything about this, but she saw Pheobe’s post before she ended up here. 
“You are not that man anymore, Nathan.”
Her response makes me feel worse. I never deserved this woman. 
“I was terrified that I would lose you,” I confess while she looks at me in disbelief. 
“Till death do us apart. We took those vows,” she reminds me as if all the divorced couples did not take the same vow. 
“Babe, I know, but I said hurtful things about you.”
“That was not the first time I saw them, Nathan. She broke my arm, remember? She showed me those back then.”
Now I am the one who looks at her in disbelief. 
“And you still married me?”
“Dah!”
I shake my head at the standard she has set for this unconditional love. 
“I would have never married you if the roles were reversed.”
She shrugs. 
“Amari.”
“You want me to be mad at you.”
“Yes!” I exclaim. Maybe I would feel better. 
“Are you trying to get me to divorce you, Nathan?”
“What? No! Never! You are my life, Amari.”
She looks at me with confusion written all over her face before shifting on the bed. 
“Here, come and sleep.”
“Why?”
“Because I am your wife and telling you to.”
Her firm voice makes me do as instructed. We are still in the hospital and I am pretty sure this is not allowed but my wife can be bossy. She rests her head on my chest, now this feels just right. 
“Sleep,” she instructs. 
“Why?”
“Because you are very confused and not making sense. You either have not slept or eaten. I will order your second favourite food.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
She laughs. 
“Love you too.”
My heart dances. It does not make sense to me why she is like this, but this is my wife. The pure treasure I never deserved from the beginning. 
She wakes me up to eat an hour later. I must have been really tired because I am still drowsy. I play a bit with Pearl, who feeds on her mother before yawning. 
“Look at your daddy, sleeping during the day. Are daddies so lazy?” Amari teases.  Both she and Pearl are doing so well, it is a miracle. Our princess just needs to gain more weight and I will have my family home. 
“Daddy has been worrying about you too much,” I respond with a yawn. I think all the sleepless nights are catching up with me. 
It is two hours later when I feel a knock on my ribs and completely freeze  when I hear Amari speaks. 
“You must be Pauline. I am sorry for your loss.”
Shit! The terrorist is here. How the heck did she bypass my guards?
“Are you mocking me?” a cold detached voice asks. 
“You are a smart woman. You must have done a lot of background checks on me. Then you will know that I can never mock you about losing a parent,” Amari sounds so calm. 
I keep my eyes shut, pretending to be sleeping while contemplating a plan. 
“Don’t pretend to know me,”
“I don’t know you in particular but I know that we were all created in the image of god and no one has a right to take anyone’s life.”
“Amazing! Are you going to preach to me?”
“No. I think you are smart enough to know this already.”
“Well, I am here to kill you.”
“Why?”
“Because your husband killed my daddy. An eye for an eye. You know that concept right?”
“Exodus 21 verse 23 to 25.”
“One and only.”
I am not surprised that a terrorist knows this one verse. 
“ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Mathew 5 verse 39 to 41.”
“What stupidity is that?”
“You must have loved your father. He must have been a good father,” Amari says instead. 
“He raised me when the stupid woman who gave birth to me ran off with another man. He was not perfect but he was always there.”
“Killing me won’t bring him back.”
“I am not stupid!”
“No, you are not. You think revenge will make you feel better. It won’t.”
“You don’t know me.”
“No, you are a human. It won’t make you feel any better, just an extra number of murders on your belt.”
“Well, he will feel the pain of losing someone he loves.”
“You are assuming that he loves me,”
There is silence before Amari continues. 
“Circumstances forced him to marry me. I am not his love, Phoebe is.”
I know that Amari is trying to stall her but her words still cut deep. I wonder if there is even a tiniest bit of her that believes that. 
“Don’t try to make a fool of me. She would not have helped me get to you if he didn’t love you. She would not be doing all those social media posts to get his attention. Daddy would have never gotten into this mess. He would still be alive.”
So, that whore was involved. 
“Yet you partner with her when she got your father into something that had nothing to do with him?” Amari asks, still sounding so calm, you would swear that she was talking to a friend. 
“I am not stupid. She’s dead and now your time is up.”
It is now or never. Judging by her voice, she is on my side of the bed. 
I jump up and project my whole body towards her. She tumbles and falls, her gun sliding on the floor a distance from her…