The front door opens before we knock. Abrahim stands on the other side in pressed slacks and a crisp shirt, his dark hair neatly combed. His expression is carved from impatience and restrained fury. He looks… normal. Successful. Safe.
“Who is this?” Abrahim demands, his gaze sliding past Jagger and locking onto me like I’m an unexpected inconvenience.
“I’m the doctor who saved your sister,” I say, consciously ensuring that my voice sounds steadier than I feel. “And your niece.”
His dark eyes sharpen instantly with interest. “Where are they?”
“Safe.”
“Where?” he demands, stepping back and gesturing stiffly for us to enter.
The living room he leads us to feels like a showroom. Everything matches. Everything is clean. Everything is pristine and devoid of any signs of a home that’s lived in. Abrahim paces instead of sitting, restless energy vibrating through him.
“Where is my sister?” he repeats, each word more clipped than the last.
I ignore his question, and I take a breath that feels like inhaling glass. “Do you know what kind of man she is married to?”
He stops pacing and looks at me like I’ve asked whether the sky is blue. “What kind of question is that?”
“A necessary one.”
His lips thin. “You’re avoiding my question.”
“Yes,” I reply honestly. “Because it’s not the most important one.”
Jagger shifts restlessly from the door frame, a warning presence, but he doesn’t interrupt.
“We called him,” I continue quietly. “When she was brought into the hospital. She was pregnant, bleeding, and terrified. We needed consent for emergency surgery.”
Abrahim’s jaw tightens, but he says nothing.
“He told us,” I say, my voice shaking now despite my control, every word carving itself into my memory, “that if she lived or died, it was God’s will.”
The silence is immediate, Abrahim’s jaw tightening.
“That sentence is one I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”
Abrahim scoffs softly. “You don’t understand our tradi?—”
“I understandfear,” I cut him off. “I understand it intimately.”
Hawk, Gunnar, and Jagger look like they’re ready to muzzle me, but none of them attempt to silence me.
“I have never,” I say, each word slowly and deliberately, “seen a woman so afraid to wake up from surgery. Afraid that surviving would be worse than dying. Because in her mind, death meant escape.”
Abrahim’s hands curl into fists at his sides. He tucks them behind his back in an attempt to hide his reaction.
“That is when I learned he beats her,” I continue. “That beautiful, gentle woman has had more broken bones than I can count. Old fractures. Most of them poorly set at that.”
My throat tightens, and I swallow hard, fighting to keep my nerve.For Maryam… And Aliyah.
“As a doctor… As a woman… As ahuman being, I offered her everything I could to ensure she didn’t have to go back there.”
“She could stay here,” Abrahim says suddenly, his tone devoid of emotion after hearing about his sister. “With her family.”
I meet his gaze steadily. “And all the times he beat her within an inch of her life… could she have stayed here then?”
He stares out the window, but I don’t miss his jaw clenching as he turns his back to me. “Of course.”
