Sakina froze.
“Who is this?”
“You should go back to where you came from.”
Then the line went dead.
For a moment, fear rose in her throat. Then she thought of her mother lying on that mat, waiting for help that never came.
She put the phone in her bag and kept walking.
Her next lead was Néné Cissé, the woman who had once worked in the family house. After hours of asking around, Sakina found her in a modest courtyard in Coloma.
When Néné saw her, she went still.
“You came back.”
“I need the truth,” Sakina said.
Néné lowered her eyes.
“I knew this day would come.”
She told Sakina everything. She had seen Ousman pressure Hadja Ramatou into signing papers. She had heard Mariama say the old woman should let “younger people” manage things. She had been there the day they took Hadja Ramatou away.
“She cried,” Néné said. “She asked why. But no one answered.”
“Will you say this before others?” Sakina asked.
Néné looked afraid.
“Before justice?”
“Yes.”
The silence stretched.
Then Néné nodded.
“For your mother, I will speak.”
Finally, Sakina went to see Maître Bakari Konaté, an old notary who had known her father. He remembered the inheritance documents clearly.
“The house and land belonged to your mother,” he said. “Your father made that clear.”
He studied the copies Sakina showed him.
“This is not her signature,” he said at last. “And these documents are incomplete. Something is wrong.”
With transfer records, medical reports, witness statements, and the old notary’s testimony, Sakina filed a case.
When the official summons arrived at the house, Ousman read it in silence. He looked up at Sakina, and for the first time, there was no authority in his eyes.
