FreeFreeDescription
Even before their vehicles arrived and approached the hospital's massive main gate, the hospital security guards advanced almost in unison, hurriedly swinging the gate wide open. This was due to the reckless speed at which the ZADEEN family's convoy approached. Every employee knew that whenever their vehicles barreled toward the hospital at such a speed, it meant that the light of the family's eyes—who was trapped in a perpetual cycle of illness—was in critical condition.
The remaining security guards who had not reached the gate in time to open it filed out completely. They stood in formation at the entrance, tracing the three passing vehicles with looks of profound respect, despite it being the dead of night, while silently praying that Allah would grant her healing.
The moment the vehicles cleared the entrance, the gate was immediately shut and locked securely behind them. By protocol, no one else was permitted to enter through this particular gate except the owners of the hospital, who were almost constantly on their way to it anyway.
Before the vehicles could even park, three doctors and two nurses rushed out from the private entrance that led directly up to the VIP wing on the topmost floor.
Simultaneously, all the car doors flew open, and the occupants emerged almost at once. Every single family member was dressed in their sleepwear except DZAD (Dad Zad). He was the reigning patriarch of the Zadeen family now that their grandfather had passed, and he was the father of the ailing girl. He wore a jallabiya layered beneath a heavy, ash-colored winter coat, topped with a cap. Whenever he witnessed his daughter’s illness flare up—a condition he viewed as his own heartbeat failing—he completely shed his persona as a billionaire whose very presence was usually a rare sight. Instead, he transformed into a desperate, vulnerable father, seeking absolute mercy and aid from Allah.
The gurney on which she was wheeled in kept her completely covered; even her face was invisible. They absolutely never allowed her to be seen openly. Only the doctors directly managing her and her specific medical condition knew her true appearance, a strict measure enforced for her absolute security and out of zero tolerance for anything affecting her safety.
As they moved inside, the rest of the family trailed closely behind them, every heart pounding with severe anxiety. Under these precise circumstances, there was absolutely nothing they would not sweep aside to satisfy their demands. They completely forgot about everyone and everything else in the world, solely because of JANNAH.
The ZADEEN family's personal security team arrived at the hospital dressed in civilian clothing rather than their official uniforms, determined to hide the fact that a high-profile figure was admitted. They seamlessly surrounded the private entrance all the way inside without dropping a single hint that they were security personnel.
Upstairs, the moment they arrived at the VIP wing, the patient was wheeled inside. Only the doctors were permitted to enter the operating theater. The family settled into a lavish, heavily secured waiting lounge in a state of deep distress. Some sat while others paced back and forth in absolute, heavy silence, their hearts weighed down by profound sorrow.
Mimi, who always possessed a stronger emotional fortitude regarding Jannah’s ongoing predicament than the rest of them, lifted her deeply softened eyes and looked at Dzad. He turned and looked back at her, his eyes shot through with bloodred strain. He let out a low, heavy sigh and locked his hands together, trying to ward off the piercing chill running through him. He felt as though the cold was actively creeping in to destroy him; at this moment, anything could become his demise, because every part of his being felt on the verge of death if anything fatal were to happen to Jannah.
Mimi reached out with both hands, placing them over his to cover them. Displaying an immense, forced courage—a fortitude that the others completely lacked at that moment—she opened her mouth and said:
"Insha Allah, this time we will successfully match a heart that will perfectly fit her. We will succeed. Jan will survive just like any other child, Insha Allah. Jan will become like every other human being; she will pursue higher education and become exactly what you wish her to be, Insha Allah..."
Her voice began to tremble, and her fierce composure threatened to break entirely. She fell silent, squeezing the father’s hands with slight force while casting her eyes downward as they welled up with impending tears.
Dzat gripped her hands tightly in return, utterly incapable of uttering a word. Everyone knew that in moments like this, he never spoke.
Anny, the wife of Jannah’s older brother, stood beside her husband, MAHIR ZADEEN. She held his hand tightly, fighting to soothe his mind and give him strength, despite being profoundly shaken herself. Whenever word arrived that Jannah was ill, Anny would plunge into intense distress—even though she knew that she herself was perfectly safe. She was entirely removed from the terrifying pool of people whose actively beating hearts could be ripped from their chests just to see if they matched the heart of the girl they desperately sought to save, by any means necessary.
Leaving Mahir’s side, Anny walked over to Mimi, quietly sitting down beside her. She gently patted her shoulder, whispering soothing words of comfort and expressing a deep hope that Jannah’s day of total healing had finally arrived.
Mahir sat down as well, crossing one leg over the other to cope with the piercing chill biting through him. He felt as though his very skin had split open, allowing the cold to penetrate directly into his bones and freeze his blood. He was dressed only in light sleepwear—a matching shirt and trousers made of exceptionally soft, ultra-expensive fabric—layered beneath a single jacket he had hastily thrown on.
SALEEM ZADEEN, who had followed closely behind Mahir, found himself entirely unable to sit still. He felt a throbbing tension in his head; he was a highly hot-tempered man who completely lacked the patience to endure this kind of agonizing suspense. He felt as though his sanity was slipping away. He was also dressed in sleepwear, but he wore a heavy hoodie jacket over it. He paced restlessly back and forth, unable to lift his eyes, which had completely shifted into a bloodshot glare.
Suddenly, the door to the lounge swung open. Everyone sharply lifted their heads to look at Dr. AMMAR ZADEEN, who had specifically specialized in cardiology solely for Jannah's sake.
Lifting eyes that looked more profoundly strained and bloodshot than anyone else's in the room, he glanced at each family member before fixing his gaze on Dzat to give him re-assurance. He then turned on his heel and rushed back into the medical room where Jannah was surrounded by doctors. He had detoured to the lounge only because he received word on his way in that a potential donor had been identified, which was why the rest of the family had beaten him to the hospital.
They sat for nearly one to two hours in a state of absolute bitterness and deep heartache before Ammar finally emerged. He walked into the room exhaling a heavy, burning breath. Approaching the family, he sat down on a chair directly facing Dad and lifted his eyes to look at him.
Dad let out a soft, long-repressed sigh of relief, feeling his consciousness settle back into his body. Instantly, the bitter dread in his heart dissipated, because he knew that even if Jannah required a thousand hearts, Ammar would hunt them down, test them, and forcefully harvest the one that fit perfectly to transplant it into her by any means necessary. It was simply not their concern.
Seeing this shift, Mahir also let out a quiet sigh of relief. Turning to look at Anny, who had immediately understood the unspoken cue, he signaled with his eyes for her to step out with Mimi.
Anny released a deep breath of her own. Leaning over Mimi with immense care, profound empathy, and a calm demeanor, she said:
"Mimi, let us go check on Jannah. The doctors have come out."
Mimi lifted her head and looked at Ammar, who gave her a firm nod, confirming that they could proceed. She then looked at Mahir, who forced a reassuring smile, signaling that, Insha Allah, Jannah would find relief now.
Mimi stood up, and Anny followed closely behind her. As they exited the room, Anny pulled the door shut, and they headed toward the room where Jannah was being held.
The moment they left, Ammar let out a deep breath. Looking up at Dzad, who was waiting intensely for his briefing, he opened his mouth and said:
"A donor has been found, and based on all parameters, we expect a perfect match..."
DadZad sharply cut him off, demanding:
"What are we waiting for then?"
Saleem, whose volatile impatience completely blocked him from waiting to hear the rest of Ammar’s medical details, stepped directly in front of him and blurted out:
"As long as a heart that fits Jan has been found, even if it requires every single bit of the wealth I own to acquire it, I will give it all to harvest that heart, no matter where it is located. Just make absolutely sure you seize it so Jan can have it."
The moment the words left his mouth, he spun around, marched toward the door, and exited toward Jannah's room. He slammed the door behind him with such force that everyone involuntarily winced—except Dad, who remained entirely motionless. Dad was still waiting for the remainder of Ammar’s explanation, knowing better than to disclose the full details to Saleem due to his explosive temper, utter impatience, and occasional tendency to rigidly override anyone else's opinion in favor of his own.
Ammar pulled a document from his jacket pocket, placed it on the table in front of them, and leaned his back deeply against his chair. He began to explain:
"At one of the specific hospitals where we stationed our medical scouts, they located a subject who matches perfectly, Insha Allah. Coincidentally, she is roughly the same age as Jannah. However, she is a married woman, and she is currently heavily pregnant. Without her knowledge, our doctors evaluated her heart, and it is in absolute, pristine health."
A simultaneous sigh of profound relief and absolute tranquility escaped Mahir and Dad. That was the only piece of information they cared to hear: if the heart was healthy and predicted to be a perfect match, the remaining moral or legal details were completely irrelevant to them. They were entirely willing to violently strip that actively beating heart from the pregnant woman's chest to place it inside their own daughter without her consent. This subject was merely another uncounted number in a sequence of forced harvests; they would rip it out, and if it failed to fit, they would discard it.
Dad quietly leaned back, his demeanor completely shifting back into that of "DadZad"—the ruthless, ultimate billionaire who controlled his own timeline. Staring down at the documents without even extending his hand to touch them, he commanded:
"Simply schedule the exact time for the surgery. That is the only thing that matters; the rest of the operational details are not worth worrying about. Order the physician managing her at that public government hospital to transfer her to this facility immediately without wasting a single moment."
Mahir reached out, picked up the documents, and opened them. He fixed his eyes on the listed name for several long seconds, scanning personal details that felt entirely foreign to him. From her name to the town she originated from, it belonged to a language and dialect he had never encountered in his life. Having been raised entirely outside the country, they had no knowledge of local geography, let alone the remote, rural villages—places he viewed as primitive settlements where only wild beasts could survive.
He tossed the documents back onto the table. Turning to Dad, he said in a measured voice:
"I believe it would be best, since a match has been found and she is pregnant, to wait and utilize the advanced stage of her pregnancy and her delivery."
Ammar looked at him, silently analyzing the proposal. If it were up to Ammar, there would be no waiting; he would violently rip the heart out tonight and put it inside Jan.
Dad remained completely silent, looking at neither of them as he weighed Mahir's words. Mahir was the strategic visionary of the family; whenever they executed business deals or orchestrated these dark, horrific operations behind the scenes, Mahir was the one who meticulously evaluated the variables and mapped out the neatest execution strategy to ensure success. He possessed a profound, calculated emotional intelligence to read situations and people. Furthermore, he possessed an intellect that surpassed the entire family, including Dad himself, even though none of them had been raised in Nigeria, having only recently chosen to return home for the sole purpose of finding a kalbim (heart) for Jannah.
📜 THE BACKSTORY / YEARS AGO
PROFESSOR ZAHARADDEN ZAADEN was the original patriarch of the family. He fathered three children: two boys and one girl. The older brothers shared a fierce, protective adoration for their younger sister because their biological mother had passed away, leaving them to be raised in the care of their father's second wife.
The Professor was an exceptionally educated academic who deeply integrated both advanced Western education and religious knowledge. He accumulated vast, staggering wealth and lived abroad for decades, settling his entire family in Malaysia.
BOUKHAR Zadeen was the firstborn son, followed by MAHMOUD Zadeen, and lastly their younger sister, ZAYNEB. Their father's second wife never bore him any children; thus, these three stood alone as his sole heirs, each growing up to become highly influential and powerful figures.
They were raised and educated entirely in Malaysia. It was only much later that all three relocated back to Nigeria alongside their father, who had reached an advanced age.
Years later, Zeyneb was married off to a fellow professor and relocated to Port Harcourt.
Meanwhile, Boukhar and Mahmoud pursued higher education in different foreign countries. Mahmoud married before Boukhar, but for a long time, neither Mahmoud nor Zeyneb could conceive. It was only when Boukhar married that the first grandchild of the family line was born.
The ZADEEN family possessed a staggering, monumental accumulation of wealth—an empire so vast that they scarcely knew what to do with it. Beyond their father the professor's massive estate, each brother had accumulated a massive fortune of his own; even Zeyneb, as the only female, held massive independent wealth. They shared an incredibly fierce, tightly knit bond of love that united their respective households completely, despite the three siblings living across different countries.
Mahir was the eldest son of Boukhar Zadeen, born in Greece. Shortly after his birth, Professor Zaharadden passed away, forcing the siblings to consolidate their affairs and return to Nigeria.
The late professor left behind an endless maze of real estate and corporate assets that could not be fully cataloged at once. Consequently, Mahmoud returned abroad to manage the international assets, while Boukhar was forced to remain permanently in Nigeria with his family to secure the domestic empire.
Umma, their father's second wife, had raised the siblings with pure, unadulterated maternal love, showing no malice or discrimination whatsoever. She moved in with Boukhar, and the grandchildren grew up completely oblivious to the fact that she was not their biological grandmother, due to the intense, deep bond of love between her and the children.
When Mahir was five years old, Zeyneb finally became pregnant. However, her pregnancy was plagued by severe, life-threatening complications due to her advanced age and the long delay before her first conception. As her belly grew, her medical crisis intensified. Doctors eventually discovered that she suffered from a severe, underlying chronic heart disease that had gone entirely undetected.
The family was thrown into a state of severe panic. They immediately brought her under their direct custody and began pouring fortunes into securing medical interventions. When an exhaustive medical evaluation was completed, it was determined that she required a heart transplant.
The news deeply shaken the family—not out of fear of finding a donor, but because they believed their wealth was so vast that they could literally purchase any human being alive, rip out whatever organ they desired, and discard the rest.
When her pregnancy reached its ninth month, the entire extended family uprooted and relocated to Greece for her delivery, determined to prevent even the slightest medical complication. From Ummah and Zeyneb to Boukhar, his wife, and Mahir, as well as Mahmoud and his household, they all consolidated their lives abroad.
A cesarean section was performed on Zeyneb, and she delivered a baby boy. Boukhar named the child Ammar. At the time, Zeyneb's husband had failed to travel with them, remaining in Port Harcourt with his first wife; consequently, the Zadeen family completely severed ties with him and cast him out of their lives.
Following Ammar's birth, Zeyneb never recovered her health. She grew terribly emancipated, radiating a fragile, sickly paleness that deeply alarmed the family—particularly her brothers, who launched a ruthless, global search for a heart donor. Yet, a clean match eluded them. The only solace the doctors offered was that her heart would not fail immediately, giving them time. Thus, they began pouring massive sums of money into illicit, under-the-table networks to locate a donor.
As for infant Ammar, Mimi—Mahir's mother and Boukhar’s wife—took him into her care from the very day of his birth. She became his true mother; Zeyneb was physically incapable of nursing him, and her breast milk dried up completely within four months.
Zeyneb's husband visited his ailing wife and son exactly once. Consequently, the brothers resolved never to return her to him, treating Ammar as their own flesh and blood due to their fierce adoration for their sister.
Growing up, Ammar only ever knew his mother as a fragile invalid on the brink of death. Witnessing her prolonged suffering deeply traumatized his psychological well-being. He inherited his mother’s deeply anxious, fragile temperament. This psychological weight was compounded when he realized his biological father was entirely absent, leaving him to rely on Boukhar (whom they called Dad Zad) and Uncle Mahmoud—who went as far as building a massive, state-of-the-art private hospital solely to treat Zeyneb and secure illicit donors.
Mommah Zeyneb had resigned herself to death shortly after childbirth. She endured her physical agony solely to minimize the sorrow of her brothers and her son, who loved her beyond measure. Due to her lingering illness, Boukhar, Ammar, and Mahmoud became figures of profound sorrow despite their monumental wealth; they were completely blind to joy. Ummah wept daily watching Zeyneb fade away, while Mimi struggled continuously to stabilize Ammar, who had become so deeply traumatized that he suffered a total cognitive block at school. It was only when his teachers intervened that the family was advised to seek psychiatric help for him.
Amid this compounding grief, Mimi became pregnant. Her pregnancy immediately triggered a severe, agonizing medical crisis of her own—compounded by the stress of caring for a traumatized Ammar and living within a household choked by perpetual misery. It was during this dark era that the ZAADEN family entered their darkest hour of psychological torment. They sat atop an unquantifiable mountain of global wealth, utterly decoupled from the concept of financial lack, yet they were completely devoid of happiness.
When Mimi’s pregnancy reached full term, she gave birth to Saleem. His birth marked the first reintroduction of genuine joy into their bleak reality.
Mahir and Ammar grew up tightly bound together, as if there were no age gap between them. The bond of brotherhood between Mahir and Ammar was far stronger than the relationship between Mahir and his biological brother, Saleem.
When Saleem turned five years old, Zeyneb finally passed away. Her body had completely given out, reducing her to the state of a helpless child before her demise. The catastrophic failure was caused by a chronic organ rejection following a forced heart transplant—a total failure of the harvested graft.
🗺️ Setting and Character Analysis
🏥 The Setting: The Zadeen Private Hospital
- The Elite Enclave: A private medical facility owned entirely by the Zadeen family. It operates under a dual reality: to the public, it is a high-end medical center; to the family, it is a highly secured fortress designed to execute illicit organ harvesting.
- The Private Gate: A restricted entrance reserved exclusively for the owners. It represents their detachment from ordinary human laws; they enter through a closed loop where public eyes cannot penetrate.
The VIP Lounge: Located on the topmost floor, it is a luxurious yet suffocating space. It serves as the psychological pressure cooker for the family, where billionaires are reduced to pacing insomniacs dressed in ultra-expensive silk sleepwear, completely paralyzed by the fear of losing their family's golden child.
👥 Character Profiles
- DZAD / Dad Zad (Boukhar Zadeen): The reigning patriarch of the Zadeen empire. He is a billionaire who controls corporate timelines and unquantifiable wealth, yet he is utterly powerless against genetic destiny. When his daughter Jannah crashes, he sheds his billionaire persona, becoming a broken, desperate father freezing in an ash-colored coat, begging Allah for a miracle while simultaneously authorizing the murder of an innocent pregnant woman to harvest her heart.
- Mahir Zadeen: The eldest son of Boukhar, born in Greece. He is the cold, brilliant strategist of the family. While his brothers operate on raw, volatile emotion, Mahir possesses a calculated, chilling emotional intelligence. He is the one who orchestrates their dark, "behind-the-scenes" criminal operations, smoothing over the variables to make sure they are executed flawlessly. He is the one who suggests waiting for the pregnant donor to reach full term so her murder can be covered up cleanly as a childbirth complication.
- Dr. Ammar Zadeen: Zeyneb’s son, raised by Mimi. His entire existence was shaped by the trauma of watching his mother die from a failed heart transplant. He became a cardiologist for the sole purpose of keeping Jannah alive. He is deeply unstable and fanatical; his trauma has warped his medical ethics to the point where he views the entire human population as a mere livestock yard of beating hearts to be cracked open for Jannah's survival.
- Saleem Zadeen: Boukhar’s younger biological son. He is a highly volatile, hot-tempered billionaire who completely lacks patience or tactical discipline. He is driven entirely by raw impulse, willing to throw his entire global fortune at a problem to force an immediate resolution, completely oblivious to the strategic chess required to mask their crimes.
- Mimi: Boukhar’s wife and the emotional rock of the family. While she possesses the fortitude to anchor Dad Zad during his psychological collapses, she carries her own history of severe physical and mental trauma from raising a broken Ammar while enduring a high-risk pregnancy.
- Anny: Mahir’s wife. She operates as an empathetic observer within the family. Her character explicitly highlights the horrific privilege of the Zadeens: she experiences deep anxiety for Jannah, yet she experiences a chilling sense of relief knowing that because of her marital status, her own heart will never be forcefully harvested to save their daughter.
Jannah: The invisible catalyst of the entire narrative. She is the "light of the family's eyes," kept completely veiled from the world. Her failing heart drives the entire plot, turning an elite family into a sophisticated syndicate of human hunters.
📊 Narrative & Literary Breakdown
1. The Paradox of Ruthless Wealth vs. Absolute Powerlessness
The text establishes a profound narrative irony: the Zadeen family possesses enough global capital to "purchase a human being entirely and rip out whatever organ they desire," yet they are utterly helpless against the structural frailty of human biology. Their wealth grants them total immunity from legal consequences, allowing them to plant medical scouts in public government hospitals to screen innocent civilians without their consent. Yet, this unlimited power is completely subverted by the fact that they cannot force a harvested organ to take form within Jannah's chest, a reality underscored by Zeyneb’s historical death from chronic graft rejection.
2. The Dehumanization of the "Other"
A critical psychological element in the text is how the Zadeen family views the local population. Having been raised entirely abroad (Greece, Malaysia), Mahir and his family view the domestic population and rural villagers as primitive sub-humans—comparing their settlements to places where "only wild beasts could survive". This extreme class-based and geographic alienation acts as their psychological defense mechanism. By characterizing the pregnant donor as an un-evolved outsider, they erase her humanity, transforming her into a mere "donor subject" whose life can be callously ended to secure Jannah's survival.
3. Structural Parallelism: The Multi-Generational Curse
The extensive backstory reveals a calculated structural repetition in the novel. The tragedy of Zeyneb (the sister who suffered from heart disease, required a transplant, faced chronic rejection, and left behind a deeply traumatized son) is being explicitly mirrored in the new generation through Jannah. The family is locked in an endless, bloody cycle: they build hospitals, corrupt medical scouts, and harvest innocent hearts, yet the genetic or structural failure chases them across generations. Ammar’s obsession with saving Jannah is an explicit psychological projection of his failure to save his own mother.
4. The Moral Degradation of Medical Science
Through Dr. Ammar Zadeen, the narrative explores the complete perversion of the Hippocratic Oath. The medical profession, which is fundamentally designed to preserve human life, is transformed by the Zadeen family into a highly sophisticated mechanism of calculated murder. Medical scouts are placed in public facilities not to heal, but to hunt. The ultimate manifestation of this moral decay is Mahir's strategy: he doesn't reject the murder of the pregnant woman; he merely refines the timeline, suggesting they wait for her to deliver so her inevitable death can be labeled a natural birth fatality, creating a "clean" operational cover.
