“This is for Mrs. Amina, from Mr. Karim.”
Her hands trembled as she tore it open.
Inside was a letter.
And in that letter, his whole truth.
“If you are reading this, it means I cannot be near you. I am the heir of a great family. A family that wanted me to marry a woman chosen for money, not for love. I refused. So I ran away. I left that world and lived like a man no one respects, to see who would love me without this name, without this wealth. And fate led me to you.”
She felt her heart tear in two.
“You wounded me, yes, but I loved you despite everything. If one day I return, I hope you will welcome me. But if I do not return, please, be happy. Do not cry too long for me.”
The letter slipped from her hands.
A cry tore out of her throat.
She cried until she could no longer feel her fingers, until the room spun around her.
Why did she have to love him now, when he was no longer there?
The following days were agony.
Each evening she sat by the door, waiting, hoping.
She breathed in his scent from the shirts he had left behind. She stared at their invisible memories. She even kept that old chipped mug she had once despised.
Everything that had come from him had become precious.
But just as pain seemed ready to swallow her, something unexpected happened.
One afternoon, she overheard her mother speaking with an older man she had never seen before. Their voices were low, but their words carried the violence of a forbidden secret.
“Amina must never know the real reason. If she discovers why we married her to him, everything will collapse.”
The ground vanished beneath her feet.
Her back pressed against the wall.
She barely dared breathe.
What had they hidden from her?
What connection existed between her mother, this man, and Karim?
What truth was still buried behind this forced marriage?
She stepped back, her eyes full of tears.
She had just understood one essential thing.
Karim’s secret was not the only one.
Another secret—far more dangerous—was still waiting for her.
One evening, she saw that same older man return. She followed him discreetly, her heart pounding in her chest. He finally entered an abandoned building at the end of the neighborhood. She waited until he left, then advanced step by step until she pushed open the old creaking door.
Inside, there was the smell of dust, wood, frozen time.
At the back of the room stood a chest.
A small worn wooden chest.
Her fingers trembled as she lifted the lid.
Inside were old documents, yellowed papers heavy with secrets. One of them caught her eye.
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