Chapter 14

Jamilah recovered quickly, greeting me before pulling her eyes away from mine immediately and I was almost sure she would avoid them throughout the whole dinner.

She was nervous as the trembling in her hands didn't go unheeded, exactly like the night when I first met her. I wondered, did she hate me? Or did she see me as some brute her family was handing her off to, willingly.

I suddenly felt angry towards Rashid for subjecting her at such a young age to something so objectionable but for my own selfish reasons, I had to overlook it.

"Jamilah, say the blessings," Rashid ordered his daughter again and she gave a weak nod before beginning.

"Bismallah barik lana fima razaqtana waquina athabana-nar," she uttered fluently and I was shocked because I had assumed she couldn't speak her dialect from first impressions.

"Amin," The Daran's voiced in unison and we followed suit with an 'amen' too.