Chapter 262

“I don’t need your help, Hafsa. Thank you,” Roshanay responded in a flat, emotionless voice, trying to hide the vulnerability that bubbled beneath the surface.

“I know what I did was wrong,” she said, her voice trembling, “and I am truly, deeply sorry for that. But trust me, I have suffered enough for my crimes, more than I ever imagined I would. Your husband… he made sure that I and my family endured everything we had ever inflicted upon you. The horrors, the punishments, the endless nights of torment—they broke us, body and soul. The cruelties he forced upon us made my father take his own life, and my mother came so close to ending her own life as well. I had to stop her. She was all I had left in this world. I experienced everything… even more than what you went through in that brothel, in that place where I and my family were kept for weeks, tortured, humiliated, and stripped of every ounce of dignity we had. I know I caused you pain, Roshanay, and I am endlessly sorry for