“You did well.”
“I don’t feel brave.”
“Bravery is not the absence of fear. Sometimes it is simply refusing to let fear make every decision for you.”
I looked out the window at the quiet street.
I had no idea how much longer the struggle would last.
I had no idea whether Khalid would apologize again, threaten me again, or attempt to persuade everyone that I was unstable.
I only knew that I could no longer return to the life we had lived before.
Not after Lina’s drawing.
Not after the words she had spoken so calmly.
I know how to be quiet now.
A week later, I received an invitation to another public event.
Khalid was scheduled to speak at a charity gathering connected to a family foundation. He had insisted that I attend beside him, and he had made the invitation sound like a command.
“You will come,” he told me over the phone. “You will smile. And you will show everyone that our family is fine.”
