Shay could scarcely believe what he was hearing. “You mean, all this time, when I thought Salma … she was innocent.”
“But it changed her,” Zair said. “She was sad. Always sad. I worried about her constantly. And I felt guilt. Guilt because, had I been a braver man and had gone to the police, she might have found some way to overcome everything. Even to find happiness. But I was never that brave.”
Shay could hardly breathe. Zair wasn’t brave and Salma paid the price for his cowardice. “No,” he whispered. “If you went to prison, Salma would have blamed herself. If anything, it would have been worse.”
“Perhaps you are right. And if so, that helps a little. But then,” Zair continued, “after Yussef’s body was found, everything became much, much worse.”
Shay frowned. “How?”
“The night Gebra
