Vows in chain 4
They met less frequently as the pregnancy advanced. The risks were greater, her body more difficult to disguise, her movements more closely watched. But they met when they could, at the print shop, in hurried conversations that focused on the future, on plans, on the hope that sustained them both. The child was born in the rainy season, when the roads were mud and the air was thick with water. Halima labored for sixteen hours, attended by the doctor Alhaji Lami had appointed and the midwife she had secretly paid to ensure silence. The baby emerged, crying, perfect, immediately recognizable. A boy. With Sam's amber eyes, Sam's dark skin, Sam's strong features compressed into infant form. The midwife looked at Halima, looked at the baby, understood everything without being told. "He resem
- Writer
