‘I am here to listen to my father’s people,’ she responded. Silence fell across the room, followed by a sound from deep within Jaanan Khan’s belly. He was laughing at her. He turned to his comrades, smirking, and they joined him. Their half-suppressed scorn awoke an old hatred in Jia, one that she had not felt in some time. Anchoring herself with a reminder of who Jaanan Khan was, she refused to take the bait. His ways were the old ways, his sensibilities the old sensibilities. His green eyes had greyed watching time and people change, but his archaic interpretation of honour and loyalty had not, and he believed that women should know their place. Jia knew hers, and it was not at the feet of these men.

She raised her hand to silence them the way she had seen her father do many times. She was on course to become a judge under British law, so she knew how to control a room. Maybe that is why they stopped laughing. On the other hand, this was not that world, and this was a world in which her worth remained unproven.

She waited, allowing the silence in the room to grow until it became unbearable and Jaanan Khan exploded. ‘She will lead us into destruction! Look at her, so frightened that she dare not even speak.’ His anger infected his comrades and their voices rose like a rabble.

Bazigh Khan tried to silence them again but Jaanan would have none of it. The two men’s voices became louder and louder, with others at the table trying to out-shout each other. Harsh words were exchanged in English and Pashto, accusations flung and age-old wounds torn open. Jia listened, their words watering the anger within her, and she blamed her father. Was this his badal for her? To let her walk in his shoes? The rage that had taken root when she’d heard what had happened to Benyamin wrapped around her sinews like ivy. She straightened up, her head being pulled by an invisible string that hung from the rafters.

She looked at the old men who had built the family empire alongside her father, the men who owned the city and intimidated its inhabitants. She watched them spit and seethe and goad each other, unable to control their tongues and their tempers, and a calm came over her. She was better than this, she was smarter than them, and she had nothing to prove.