They told me to take care of her in their absence. I was like,”OMG, that’s my chance”. I did not show my eagerness and desperation to Alia and w...nted to see her reaction.I ping her at night and told her about it to which she said yes she will be along the whole week. I said to her that I don’t want to miss this opportunity. She just passed a smiley and then we slept. the 2nd day her parents left in the afternoon and I was at my work at that time.I got a WhatsApp message from Ali that her. Uri pulled me aside after we had finished. I assumed he meant to mend fences, something I was not opposed to do. The first statement convinced me it was not to be. ‘You will bed my sister after the wedding?’ Uri asked rudely. My ire rose, but I gritted my teeth. If we would come to blows, the alliance would weaken or dissolve. ‘There will be an heir, if that is what you ask,’ I replied, thinking perhaps blows would not be a bad thing. Uri nodded his head as if he had not insulted me with his. ’ ‘Why wasn’t Dad a part of that?’ ‘He never came by, never called.’ ‘Oh, but he did Mom. I’ve seen the phone records. Hundreds of less than a minute phone calls that I never got. Grandma said we weren’t home and she never gave me the messages.’ ‘That’s not true!’ Marie protested. I pulled photocopies from my briefcase and handed them to Marie. Years of phone records. As she looked at them I said, ‘Out in my car I have photos of every birthday present, Christmas present and other gift I sent to. Somebody like a refugee, a tramp. He just couldn’t imagine her going out to meet them. He could imagine her slamming a knife into them, or shooting them with the automatic, but he couldn’t imagine her going out to meet them.He figured it was well after midnight. He went up into the loft, and just laid there the rest of the night. There was no way he could sleep, not without knowing where she was or what had happened to her. He felt bereft, as if an arm or something had just been ripped off his.