Chapter 9 - The Dead Woman
Maya stared until the photograph blurred.
“No.”
Samir tried to sit up.
Maya handed him the picture.
His eyes widened.
“That’s Amina.”
“She’s dead.”
Nobody spoke.
Maya grabbed the photograph back.
“My mother died in a hospital. I identified her body.”
Samir looked at her carefully.
“Did you see her face?”
Maya stopped.
The memory came back.
Hospital corridor.
A nurse.
A sheet covering most of the body.
Severe injuries from a supposed bus accident.
Her mother’s hand.
The wedding band.
The scar near her wrist.
But the face—
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“They said there had been facial trauma.”
Khalid looked at her.
“Maya…”
“No.”
She backed away.
“No, don’t do that. Don’t make me hope.”
Laila touched her arm.
“Maya.”
She pulled free.
“My mother is dead.”
Khalid turned the photograph toward the light.
Amina stood outside a building.
Behind her was a partial sign.
AL-NASSER MEDICAL RESEARCH.
Samir whispered, “Farid.”
“Dr. Nasser?”
“Yes.”
Khalid stood.
“I was told he was dead too.”
Samir stared at the photograph.
“Maybe that was the point.”
Within an hour, Khalid’s private investigators found the building.
An abandoned clinic forty miles outside the capital.
No official records.
No current employees.
Khalid assembled four trusted guards.
Rafiq tried to join.
Khalid refused.
“You’re staying.”
Rafiq stared at him.
“You think I’m compromised.”
“I think someone inside security is.”
“And after fifteen years, you think that could be me?”
Khalid looked at him.
“I think tonight I can’t afford feelings.”
They drove before dawn.
Maya sat beside Khalid in silence.
He looked at her.
“If Amina is alive—”
“Don’t.”
“I was going to say we’ll find her.”
“I can’t do this twice.”
He understood.
The clinic stood behind rusted gates.
They entered through a side door.
Dust covered the lobby.
But one hallway had fresh footprints.
Maya noticed a coffee cup.
Warm.
“Someone’s here.”
They moved quietly.
A metal door opened at the end of the hall.
An elderly man stepped out.
White beard.
Cane.
Khalid raised his gun.
“Farid Nasser?”
The man stopped.
Then looked at Maya.
His cane slipped from his hand.
“Yasmin.”
Maya’s heart stopped.
“My name is Maya.”
Farid’s eyes filled with tears.
“Not when you were born.”
Khalid lowered the gun slightly.
“Where is Amina?”
Farid looked toward a stairwell.
“Alive.”
Maya couldn’t breathe.
“Take me to her.”
He hesitated.
“Now!”
Farid led them downstairs.
A woman sat at a small kitchen table.
Gray hair.
Thin shoulders.
Hands wrapped around a cup.
Maya stopped in the doorway.
The woman turned.
The cup shattered on the floor.
“Maya?”
Maya’s knees almost gave out.
“Mom?”
Amina covered her mouth.
Maya crossed the room in three steps.
Then stopped.
Eleven years of grief stood between them.
“You’re alive.”
Amina began crying.
“Maya—”
“You’re alive.”
“I can explain.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I had to.”
“You let me think I had nobody!”
Amina reached for her.
Maya moved back.
“No.”
“Maya, please.”
“Eleven years.”
Khalid stepped outside the room.
Laila stayed near the doorway.
Amina whispered, “If they believed I was dead, they stopped watching you.”
“You could have contacted me.”
“I did.”
Maya shook her head.
“No.”
“Birthday cards. Every year.”
“I never got them.”
Amina looked at Farid.
His expression changed.
“Then someone intercepted them.”
Maya’s anger softened for half a second.
Then returned.
“Who am I?”
Amina stared at her.
Maya’s voice broke.
“Tell me.”
Amina wiped her eyes.
“Your biological mother was Princess Mariam.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“And my father?”
Silence.
She opened them.
“Khalid’s father?”
Amina shook her head.
“No.”
Maya felt the room change.
“What?”
Khalid stepped back inside.
“What did she say?”
Amina looked at him.
“Mariam gave birth to Maya after your father had already been dead for nearly a year.”
Khalid froze.
“My father died nine years after my mother.”
Amina whispered:
“The man you called your father did.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Khalid stared at her.
“What are you talking about?”
Amina’s face filled with fear.
“The man who raised you was Sheikh Hassan.”
“Yes.”
“But he was not the father of Mariam’s second child.”
Maya whispered, “Then who was?”
Amina looked toward the locked door.
“Before I tell you, Khalid needs to know the truth about his own birth.”
Khalid’s face turned to stone.
“What truth?”
May you like
Amina looked straight at him.
“Sheikh Hassan wasn’t your biological father either.”
