Madina’s POV
The house was already alive with voices before dawn, deliveries arriving, cars honking at the gate, laughter and hurried steps echoing through the corridor. I sat on the edge of my bed, watching Mardiyya fasten my bangles for me.
“You look beautiful,” she said, adjusting the scarf over my shoulder. “Are you ready?”
I nodded. Ready. The word didn’t feel true. But I’d said it so many times it had to be, didn’t it?
The car ride to the family house felt like being carried towards something I couldn’t stop, a river current, soft but certain, dragging me along. Mardiyya held my hand the whole way. My heart was calm on the outside, but inside, it rattled like coins in a clay pot.
🤍🤍
By the time we arrived, the compound was brimming with people, neighbours, cousins, women with t
