“Did you poison her mind again? Are you trying to destroy her marriage so she can come live here? The day her marriage ends, you’ll cry alone!”

He pointed at Mama, then turned back to Sadiya.

“Why are you crying?”

She said,

“Baba, I’m not happy in Nasir’s house. He tortures me—”

He stopped her immediately.

“Do you think Paradise is easy to enter? Even if Nasir were eating your flesh raw, I would never blame him. Any man who marries your daughter has already relieved you of responsibility. Stay in your husband’s house!”

Sadiya cried silently, her head bowed. Kalifa pushed away his empty plate.

After a deep breath, Baba said,

“Stand up and return to your husband’s house.”

She replied quietly, stood up, lifted Kalifa without even washing his hands, tied him on her back, and walked out weakly.

“I’m going, Mama.”

Mama nodded silently.

Sumy, who had heard everything from her bedroom, sat with her legs crossed, eating yam, egg, and bread—food a boy she met on the road had bought for her after she gave him directions to their house. Yet she still forced Mama to pay for the food Kalifa ate.

As Sadiya stepped into the compound, Baba shouted after her,

“Don’t let me see you returning here unless there’s a serious reason!”

The neighbors realized she had been around.

Mama Bilki laughed inside her room.

“So the daughter they boast about marrying is now being warned not to return home. If her husband were rich, she could come twenty times. But since he’s poor, look—she’s chased away at noon.”

Outside, Sadiya pleaded,

“Baba, please let me stay until Asr. The sun is too hot.”

He replied,

“Your husband’s house is your home.”

She wiped her tears and left under the scorching sun. Baba followed her to the gate and watched her walk the long distance home.

Back inside, he sat eating his bean cakes, thinking,

“If not for Sadiya giving birth to a male child, she would be resting now.”

Meanwhile, Sadiya walked, lost in painful thoughts, knowing Nasir would insult her again.

As she approached her house, she saw Nasir on a motorcycle passing by. He ignored her completely—even his own child.

Sweating under the sun, she reached her gate, climbed the steps, opened her bag for the key, and froze when she saw something shocking on the door…