This was the Khalid of my novel, the narrator. This was clearly his life story. I could see the fatigue in his eyes and in the way he spoke, though, and again he was breathing with some difficulty.
“There’s one thing I remember as if it happened yesterday. Once I said to Awatef that we shouldn’t have married. She looked at me and started crying. I always hate myself when I’m tough with her. She said, ‘I love you and I can’t live without you. I stood up to my family for you. Don’t ruin our lives now!’
“I was confused. I didn’t know what to do. Awatef was the love of my life. It wasn’t her fault that her family was rich. But I didn’t have enough money to spend on her and she didn’t want to live a life of deprivation when she had money. I had to choose – either I accepted my new life or we
