The Second Proposal

Zainab stood at the balcony, watching Amira chase butterflies in the garden.

The sunlight touched her daughter's curls… and something in her chest ached—with peace, with gratitude, with a soft kind of joy she never thought she'd feel again.

Behind her, Yusuf approached with quiet steps.

"Can I borrow you for a moment?" he asked.

She turned around with a curious smile. "What is it?"

He reached into his pocket and handed her a folded letter—worn at the edges like he'd opened and closed it a hundred times.

Zainab unfolded it slowly.

Inside was a note… and a ring.

> "This time, I want to marry you with your heart, not just your hand.

As the mother of my child.

As the woman who saved me.

As the love I'll never take for granted again."

Her hands trembled as she looked up.

Yusuf was already on one knee.

---

Amira peeked from behind the door.

"Mama, say yes!"

Zainab laughed through the tears streaming down her cheeks.

"You're not the same man I married at eighteen," she whispered.

He nodded. "I had to lose you to learn how to love you."

She stepped forward and held his face gently.

"And I had to walk away… to find my way back."

Then—softly, surely—she said:

"Yes."