THE VOW

CHAPTER TWO

The family has always been the most significant aspect of Amin Yusuf's life. He was raised in a loving, joyful family that was good. He enlisted in the Air Force at the age of 18, trained as a flight engineer, and served as an enlistee for four years. He was able to enter a rewarding career with a top aerospace business because of the training he got. He continued to support his loving and compassionate parents thanks to the job's good pay. They instilled in Amin and his siblings the value of being kind to and supporting others.

His mother volunteered at many Henderson homeless shelters. His father had time to teach Amin and his sister Lana Spanish in addition to volunteering to teach English in the evenings at the neighbourhood church and teaching ESL at the high school level.

When Amin was sixteen, he accompanied his father on a mission trip to Mexico to assist in the construction of homes for the underprivileged. His father had travelled to South America with various missionary groups when he was in his teens and throughout his adult life.

Amin grew up being as involved in church and charitable causes as his parents. During the holidays, he would accompany his mother to volunteer at the shelter, and it was there that he first met Dania. When she was fourteen, Amin was twelve years old when she discovered her parents had abandoned her. She was taken in by Amin's parents, who then adopted her and gave her their name two years later.

Amin's affection for Dania increased as they assisted others together. But when he told her about his feelings, she told him that she could just see and treat him like a brother because of everything his parents had done for her.

Amin believed that they could not live together after that loss, so he left his family to join the Air Force before coming home in 2003. He quickly found out that Ed was the man Dania had wed.

Amin never stopped loving Dania, but he also understood that he had to let her live her life and go on. After all, Dania only considered him to be her younger brother.

Oma, the company's receptionist, introduced herself to Amin.

They went on a couple of dates, and he could tell right away that the relationship was in peril. He tried to quit it numerous times, but Oma always managed to entice him back by taking advantage of his generous heart.

When Amin decided to leave Oma a few years ago, Oma retaliated by telling him she was pregnant and demanding they be married, which they did. Amin became the stepfather to April, who was four, and Raed, who was six. Oma had two children from two prior marriages.

Amin learned that Irene had miscarried the child two weeks after the couple had been married when he got home from a business trip. Amin was heartbroken by the news because he was eager to start a family. Dania gave birth to Malik a week later, and Ed was nowhere to be found.

Amin knew that Ed had abandoned Dania after the first six weeks and assured her that he, Amin, wanted to be there for both Dania and Malik. Dania, however, declined his offer because she still had faith that one day Ed would come back a different person.

Amin requested Oma for a divorce even though he wasn't going to be with Dania since he recognized the union had been a mistake.

Oma rejected him and said April and Raed required him. They looked up to him as a father figure, so even though Oma forbade him from becoming too close to the children, he stayed in the marriage for the benefit of the children.

Dania filed for divorce and raised Malik alone three years later when it became clear that Ed would never come back. Amin continued to provide financial assistance to Dania as needed after his parents died. Dania was aware of Amin's feelings for her, but they never discussed it again, and Amin respected that. She never experienced any unease around him.

His heart was now breaking once more.