I don’t remember saying yes during the marriage ceremony. Mother kept squeezing my arm with all her might and whispering, ‘Say yes. Say yes.’ Finally, someone said yes and everyone cheered. Mahmoud and a few of the men were sitting in the next room and they chanted praise to the Prophet and his descendants. A few things were exchanged, but I was oblivious to it all. There was a veil across my eyes. Everything was floating in a fog, a haze. People’s voices blended into a confusing and incomprehensible clamour. Like someone transfixed, I sat staring at a distant point. I didn’t care that the man sitting next to me was now my husband. Who was he? What did he look like? Everything was over. And Saiid didn’t come. My hopes and dreams had reached a bitter end. Saiid, what did you do to me?