“I doubt that. I’ve no education, no experience, I never had a job before. You see, there is no hope unless I find my father.”

“And will your father be a substitute for everything else?”

“My mother told me that he was a man of considerable means.”

She paused briefly, then: “But the advertisement…the name…the telephone directory…I mean…”

“Yes, you’re right. I no longer believe that he is a man of position or even that he is in Cairo. But he might be in any one of the other governorates. Not necessarily Cairo.”

“You say you saw him yesterday?”

“I thought so. But I’ve lost faith in everything now.”

“How long are you going to wait?”

“That’s a good question. I can no longer afford searching, or waiting.”

“And so?”

“I don’t know. All the avenues seem to come to a dead end. I must return home and look for any job, or else…or else kill myself.”

“And you say that you love me,” she choked, biting her lips.

“Yes, Elham. I do. With every fiber in my being.”

“And you talk of leaving and suicide?”

“Everything is lost now. I feel like someone slowly being strangled to death.”

“But you love me. And I love you too.”

Pain and hopelessness were all over his face. “But, Elham. I’m far beneath you.”

“You must be patient, Saber,” she pleaded. “I will stand by you.”

“Oh, what’s the use? I was dreaming when I thought I’d find my father. That’s why I allowed you to enter my life. That’s why I fell in love with you.”

“Work. That’s what will solve our problem.”

“But I’ve already told you, there’s nothing I know how to do.”

“Give me a chance to think. You’ll see, everything will turn out the way we want it to.”

And what about the murder? How can things turn out for the better? It’s all over now. How is it that the confession has not brought on the holocaust?

“Things won’t turn out the way we want them to, Elham,” he said quietly.

“Give me a couple of days,” she said determinedly. “Don’t make any decisions. I know what we want.”

Tell her about your mother. Tell her what you did yesterday. Confess that you married another woman, a marriage that was sealed and consummated in blood. Tell her that you want to scream, scream, scream.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Here they are. The police and the calamity. Just as you had imagined all day long. The crime has been discovered, and only the criminal remains to be found.