Chapter 161

Hafsa stepped closer to her mother, close enough that their shoulders almost touched. “You owe me this, Mother. After everything I have done for this business, after all the years I have sacrificed—you owe me this one night.”

“Just one night, mother,” Hafsa insisted, her voice lowering with insistence, eyes pleading and commanding at the same time.

And Hamdah nodded her head, the corners of her lips curling into a small, satisfied smile.

“One night,” Hamdah repeated softly, almost to herself. “And then we will see who is special.”

***

Roshanay was in her room with her mother, the heavy air of the space pressing down on her like a suffocating weight. Her mother sat motionless on the charpoy in the corner, her eyes fixed on nothing, her lips moving silently in prayers that had long since lost their meaning. She didn’t know when this endless torture was going to end, or why she was specifically singled out to endure such cruel treatment while others seemed