“I did not give you my daughter so she could play at being a guest,” he said.
Zainab felt the old shrinking begin in her shoulders.
Yusha stood beside her—not in front of her like a shield, but beside her, leaving her visible.
“You gave me your daughter,” he said. “I accepted the paper. I did not accept the right to treat her as payment.”
“There is a debt. There is water,” Malik snapped. “A marriage that is not consummated can be questioned. I did not send her here to be stored.”
Zainab heard the word stored and felt something inside her go still.
“I was not told about the water,” she said.
Malik turned toward her.
“You were told what you needed to know. A daughter keeps the house and does not make a spectacle of refusal.”
Zainab stepped forward.
It was the first time she had spoken in a courtyard without being invited.
