Chapter Fifteen: The Disappearance and Discovery

Amatu lay on her mat, the sting on her cheek a distant, physical echo of the deeper wound in her soul. The compound had finally fallen into an uneasy quiet, but inside her, a storm raged. The image of Ukashat's car, crumpled and broken, played behind her closed eyelids. Dead. The word was a stone in her stomach. Her defiant words to Bashir's family now felt like ashes in her mouth. What did any of it matter—pride, arguments, weddings if he was gone?

She couldn't bear the silence of her. . .