Chapter 20: Chapter 20

I was born into a happy family. My parents loved each other so much; I couldn’t imagine them being apart. Father commended the thinnest efforts mother made to put things in order in the house, and mother went out of her way to please him every time. She never eats until he returned from work, and he never came back without getting her a gift. The day father returned late from work and mother couldn’t reach his phone: she practically broke down in tears when he finally came through the front door. Sometimes when he went on a business trip, mother would call every hour to check on him until he cautioned her that he needed to concentrate at work. He came up with an idea to keep her busy, and gave her some money to start a business as a local distributor for a beverage company.

Alas! Life was born a twin. Adversity tested sincerity of their love in a brutal fashion when father lost his job. His superiors at the office conspired and got him fired for refusing to join them in money laundering. After the unfortunate event, father tried to get another job but none was forthcoming. He gave up and started trading, but his income had been badly affected and some of his responsibilities fell to mother. We moved out of the flat where we lived when we could no longer afford to pay rent and got a two room apartment.

Year after year, I watched my parents’ once glittering love lose its spark; their bound broke loose until what was left is father’s last name. Experiencing their fall out of love affected me and my brothers differently. I stopped believing the invincibility of love, told myself it’s a mirage that money makes a perfect marriage. But when life presented me with the price to pay………I got stranded in a no man’s land.

EPILOGUE

I married Abdullah and he took Ibrahim like his biological son. The year didn’t run out before I got pregnant and I gave birth to twins, one boy and a girl. The truth about Yusuf death was too much for mother to bear, and her constant brooding resulted in stroke. I employed a private nurse to take care of her and I visited often. Father got promoted and was handed an official car. As a tip of the iceberg, Zainab finally got pregnant for him and we are expecting a baby soon.