8When we were back in Ghassan’s flat after the visit to Grandmother’s house, I finally found out what had happened in the meeting. Ghassan had two options: either to hand over his charge, in other words me, to the Tarouf household, thereby fulfilling my father’s wishes, or to make arrangements for me to go back to my mother’s country. Khawla was happy to have discovered her new brother because, as she put it, if her mother had another child with her second husband her new brother or sister wouldn’t be as close to her in age as I was, so she insisted on me staying. ‘I’ll teach him Arabic and I’ll look after him. Don’t you worry about him, Grandmother,’ she had said.
Awatif, my eldest aunt, was very happy. She didn’t see a problem, and she was enthusiastic about me staying in Grandmother’s
