Her father stood.
“Answer your mother.”
Layla felt tears filling her eyes.
“I’m Nour.”
Silence.
Samira stared at her as if she had spoken another language.
“What?”
“The woman he met last night…”
People & Society
Layla swallowed.
“That was me.”
Her mother’s face lost all color.
Her father didn’t move.
Zayd’s mother slowly sat back down.
“But… your mother just said…”
Nobody wanted to say the word.
Layla did.
“That I’m a virgin?”
Samira’s eyes filled with tears.
“Layla…”
“I’m not.”
The words were barely above a whisper.
But everyone heard them.
Her father turned away as if he couldn’t even look at her.
Samira covered her mouth.
For several seconds, Layla felt exactly what she had feared for years.
The secret was gone.
The modest daughter they thought they knew was gone with it.
Her father finally turned back.
“All these years?”
Layla nodded through tears.
“You lied to us?”
“I was afraid of you.”
That answer hit the room harder than shouting would have.
Her father stared at her.
“Afraid of us?”
Layla wiped her face.
“You loved the version of me that never made you uncomfortable.”
Samira began crying.
