6
I'm Mahmoud Now
Had Karim understood? Would he ever understand that she had no choice? Zahra sniffed back her tears. Firzun looked at her irritably as he released his grip on her arm.
‘Forget about him,’ he muttered to her in Dari. ‘I’m Mahmoud now, remember?’
His use of their own language startled her. During her time in Iran she’d become used to speaking Persian. Now he was using their own language again, manipulating her to identify with him, to push his point about family loyalty. She owed him her life; it was true that her violent husband might have killed her eventually.
Her chance of happiness, of being with a man she loved and who loved her, had vanished forever. She would never see Karim again. He wouldn’t come to Australia to find her because he believed she was married to
