Chapter 31

When we arrived at the general hospital, they took Yahya, stitched up the wound, and transferred blood from Zakaria to him, and from others also donated for blood transfusion. While we were waiting, Officer Hashem came with some of the soldiers, and when he saw me, Officer Hashem approached me and said:

“Rima! What are you doing here?”

I told him, “Why did you let them send me back to an orphanage again?”

Officer Hashem said, “After the fire, you were placed in the home until Hajj Mahmoud and his wife received you after they finished the adoption papers. I chose a house close to his house for you until the paperwork procedures were completed because this is the law, Rima, why did you run away?”

I told him while crying, “The scorpion woman took me to sell me in a nightclub, me and three other girls, but they were sold before me after she moved me to a secret room inside the orphanage, and I heard her saying that she would tell the security that I had escaped,