by Emma Easter
Sienna’s heart went out to the little girl. She couldn’t imagine how much Esther was hurting right now. Getting a mommy and daddy was the dream of every child in the orphanage, and even though they were well taken care of here, she couldn’t blame the children for wanting their own home and their own parents. She reached out and gently hugged Esther. If only she could adopt the precious girl. But right now, she just couldn’t. There was baby Ethan to take care of, and she still wanted more kids of her own. She made a mental note to go home and pray for Esther—that the Lord would send her a mommy and a daddy.
Ten minutes later, when Ethan started to cry, Sienna took him from Esther and told the little girl to go outside and play with the other children. Esther left, and Sienna nursed Ethan. He sucked noisily and she kissed him from time to time until he had enough milk. She stood up with Ethan in her arms, left the hostel, and headed for the administrative building, partly to talk to Mary, and partly to look for Bryan.
She found Bryan talking with Mary and three other staff members of the orphanage in her old office.
Mary’s eyes lit up when she saw Sienna with the baby. “Oh, thank God you are finally back. And you came with your precious baby boy.” She hurried over to Sienna, gently hugged her, and then lifted Ethan from Sienna’s arms. She rocked him in her arms, grinning at him. “He’s so beautiful,” she said. “Just like his mom and dad.”
The other women greeted Sienna and surrounded Mary, cooing at Ethan.
Ethan played with Mary’s fingers and smiled at the other women, drinking in all the attention he was getting.
After a while, the other staff members left the office, and Sienna sat on the black leather couch near the door. Mary sat next to her, while Bryan took the chair in front of the desk. Sienna said, “Bryan told me you are leaving in two weeks to get married.”
Mary nodded. “I am. I love this place very much, but my fiancé doesn’t live around here.” She smiled sadly at Sienna. “I’m so sorry. I thought I could stay for a bit longer after the wedding, but he insists that I move immediately after we get married. I wish I could stay, but I can’t.”
Sienna sighed and nodded. “I understand,” she said. “I guess we’ll have to find a replacement as soon as possible.”
They began to talk about the running of the orphanage and the day-to-day needs of the children. Sienna and Bryan promised to stock up on food and other necessities. About an hour later, Sienna walked to the car with Bryan. After buckling Ethan into his car seat, they both got into the car.
As they drove home, an idea concerning finding a replacement for Mary came to Sienna. It wasn’t a permanent idea, but it was one that made her excited, and which she found she was looking forward to. She turned to Bryan and told him what was on her mind. “Audrey told me when I called a few days ago that she and Ken are going on their annual work leave very soon. She said they wanted to spend their vacation abroad but were still considering which country to go to.”
Bryan nodded. “Ken told me.”
Sienna said, “I am going to ask Audrey to come and spend the vacation with us, here in Lima. It will be lovely to have her and Ken here. And Audrey can help me run the orphanage. It will be such fun. Audrey speaks Spanish quite well and she is so knowledgeable about a lot of things. I think she will do well running the orphanage with me until we are able to find someone else.”
Bryan chuckled and said, “Audrey and Ken will be taking a short work leave, not leaving their jobs forever. And even if they were, I doubt they would choose to come here to run the orphanage with you.”
Sienna shook her head and tapped Bryan on the shoulder. “Don’t be silly, Bryan,” she said. “I know Audrey and Ken are only taking a short vacation. But just like Audrey told me yesterday, they’re taking at least a month off work. They could spend it here and Audrey can help me run the orphanage while we look for someone else to replace Mary.”
Bryan nodded. “Well, I guess it’s a good idea if Ken agrees. He might think coming to Peru to spend his leave would not be a very good vacation idea.”
Sienna said, “I’ll call Audrey immediately when we get home. Hopefully, she can convince Ken to come here with her.”
Bryan turned to look briefly at Sienna before turning back to the road. “And how do you know Audrey will want to come here for her vacation?”
“I think she will,” Sienna said. “Besides, she’s been yearning to see baby Ethan for some time now. I don’t think it’ll be hard to convince her to come. However, convincing Ken to come here will be another matter. I just hope he agrees.”
Brian smiled at her and then focused on the road again.
Ethan began to coo and babble, and Sienna turned around to smile at him. “Are you okay, buddy?” she bent her head to ask him, and then chuckled when he covered his face with his pudgy hand.
She turned around again and looked out the window. Excitement bubbled up in her as she thought about Audrey coming to spend a whole month with her and Bryan here in Peru and helping out with the orphanage. After Faizan left the United States, they had all been terribly worried about him. A sense of gloom had settled over all of them. But after Ken found a way to contact him outside the women’s camp and they spoke to him, a measure of peace had finally settled in their hearts. They knew he was not just okay, but was very happy because he had married Zainah at last. They still missed him terribly, but they were very happy for him and Zainah. Sienna hoped with all her heart that one day, they would all be reunited again.
“I can’t wait for Audrey to come,” she said excitedly to Bryan.
Bryan chuckled and said, “You’re getting ahead of yourself, baby. You don’t yet know if they will agree to come. Even if Audrey wants to come, Ken might not want to. I know if Ken doesn’t agree to come here, Audrey won’t either.”
“I just hope they do,” Sienna sighed. “I know that we’ll have so much fun together, and Audrey will finally get to see her nephew. Maybe seeing Ethan will convince Audrey that it’s finally time that she and Ken had a baby.”
“Are you sure she doesn’t want one now?” Bryan asked.
“I don’t think so,” Sienna answered. “When Audrey got married, she told me it would be years before she and Ken would have a child. But I can’t wait for her to have one.” Sienna chuckled. “A baby will soften Audrey. She can be so brusque sometimes.”
Bryan smiled but said nothing.
All the way home, Sienna prayed that Audrey would want to come to Peru to spend her vacation, and that Ken would also agree to come. It would be good for both of them. Sienna somehow knew they needed the trip. She could feel it in her heart.
*****
Malik threw his hoe and cutlass on the ground and stretched. He had been working for hours now. He shielded his eyes from the sun and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. Looking around him, he noted that he had nearly finished weeding the half-acre of land he had started about two days ago. In another hour or two, he would be through.
A sliver of excitement went through him as he thought about seeing his daughter, Fanta, in a few days’ time. Every time he was here, he missed her terribly. But he knew he could not afford to stay in Nira with her as he had to work in order to provide sufficiently for her. He also couldn’t bring her here as this place was hardly appropriate for a little girl. He hated leaving her in his father’s house, even though she stayed in his mother’s care most of the time. Karim Keita was a wicked man.
He bent down and started to cut the grass again. As he did, his stomach boiled in anger as he recalled what his father had told him when he’d come back to Nira months ago. He had found out from his father and from Khadija that Leila and Zainah had returned to Nira and had been promptly married off to his father’s friends. But not only that, he had also found out that Zainah had been shot. Thankfully, she was alive and well now. However, what he feared the most had happened. Leila had not been as lucky as Zainah in the sense that she had not been rescued. She was still married and had lef
t with her husband to Saudi Arabia. He had mourned for weeks about that.
After she and Zainah were rescued by Zainah’s now-husband’s men the first time they came to Nira, he had fully believed they would be together soon. He hadn’t known they’d married his father’s friends before they were rescued. But even after he knew that, he still held on to a sliver of hope in his heart. He didn’t know why, but he still believed that, somehow, he would get to see Leila again, that her marriage to Dauda would be dissolved, and that they would finally be together. But she had returned to Nira and been held ransom by his father until she moved into her husband’s house. Now, she had left the country with Dauda. He would probably never see her again.
He straightened and groaned as the pain of constantly missing her tore at his heart. In the little time he had known Leila, he had fallen deeply in love with her. No matter how hard he had tried since he found out she was married to rid his heart of her, he could not forget about her. She was in his thoughts every day and in his dreams every night.
Why do you torture yourself so? he chided himself. With everything that was in him, he pressed away Leila’s image from his heart and focused on his daughter. As much as he was looking forward to going to Nira to see her, he was not looking forward to seeing his father. The man was a monster.
He remembered months ago when some men had arrived at the farm. Without warning, they had bundled him up and thrown him into a hut some distance away from his own small house. They had tied him to a chair and then taken a photograph of him. After that, they’d released him again without a word.
He had railed and ranted, and had cursed them bitterly. After he was tired of ranting, he had asked why they had done all that to him, but they did not answer. Instead, they went away and left the farm that same day.
It was only when he went back to Nira that Khadija told him exactly why he had been tied up and his picture taken. She told him how their father had used the picture to threaten Leila and Zainah. That was how their father had gotten Zainah to come back to Nira and marry his friend. Because of him, Zainah had been shot and Leila had been married off and shipped to another country.
Malik had been enraged and had confronted his father. But the man seemed different. Rather than the boisterous, abusive man he knew, or the angry defiance he had expected, his father had apologized and told him he would never do such a thing again. Malik had been taken aback, and because of that, he had not fought with his father the way he had wanted to. But he was still angry at the man. He was angry at him for putting Zainah’s life at risk, for marrying Leila off to his friend; in fact, for everything.
Abu, the man his father had put in charge of gathering the harvest, walked up to him and said, “We need more hands on the farm. When you go back to Nira in a few days’ time, can you tell your father about it?”
Malik looked at him and nodded. As usual, his father would look for youths in the village who had nothing much to do, talk them into coming to this awful place, and pay them a pittance to work for him on the farm.
Abu went away and Malik bent down again and continued to cut the grass. He worked fast, but his mind was already in Nira; already with his daughter and the fact that in a few days’ time, he would see her again. He could also feel a terrible ache in his heart. The ache that he always felt every time he was in Nira. Whenever he went there, for some reason, he thought about Leila more than he did here. Maybe it was because he was consumed with work in this place and didn’t have time to think about much else. He thought about what could have been between him and Leila and how happy they would have been together if not for his father.
After a long time of torturing himself with thoughts of what could have been with Leila, with all the willpower he could muster up in him, he pushed her image from his mind. He focused once more on his daughter and told himself to completely stop thinking about the woman who he loved but who was now married. There was no point continuously holding her image close to his heart when he knew he would never see her again. And even if he did, she belonged to someone else now. He had to let her go, and forever too.
Chapter Five
Leila checked her bedroom door once again to make sure it was locked and then opened her closet. She rifled through the exotic dresses that hung there, bought for her by Dauda on one of his many trips abroad. She had not worn a single one of the flamboyant outfits at all, as she lived mostly in this room and in her abayas.
She finally found what she was searching for and brought out the outfit—an elegant, black, sequined boubou with deep pockets. Sticking her hand into one of the pockets, she brought out a bundle of cash and counted the money once again.
The money was almost ten thousand riyals, enough for her to make her escape once she got to France with Rekiya. That is, if they succeeded in convincing Dauda that she was strong enough to travel for the shopping trip. She had been saving the money since she came here. Dauda gave each wife a monthly allowance to do with as they pleased. Since she’d hardly left the house, she hadn’t spent hers at all.
She still had some things to do in order to perfect her escape plan. The most important thing she had to do and the one she was not looking forward to was to try to get access to Dauda’s phone in order to change the settings on his Absher account. If she played her cards wrongly, her efforts could end up in an outcome that she had been trying to prevent ever since she came to this country. She would be forced to be intimate with Dauda. She would rather die than do that.
She shuddered at the thought. That couldn’t happen. She had to be careful with her plans and make sure everything went well.
A knock sounded at the door, and Leila jumped. Quickly, she put the money back into the pocket of the boubou, shut the closet door, and stepped back. She quickly glanced at herself in the mirror and noted that she had put on some weight. But only a little. She sighed, cursing her over-efficient metabolism. Hopefully the little she had added would be enough to convince Rekiya that she was almost fully recovered and could accompany her to the shopping trip in France. She hastily opened the door and let Rekiya into the room.
Rekiya smiled at her and looked her over. “Well Leila, you look much better than the last time we talked. And you have added a bit of weight. That’s good.”
“I told you I was feeling better, Rekiya. Right now I feel great. Will you tell Dauda that I can travel with you to Paris?”
Rekiya’s eyes searched hers, and Leila’s heart raced. There was something in the senior wife’s eyes; something that made Leila afraid that Rekiya suspected she was being deceived. Leila held her breath, hoping that she was wrong and that Rekiya didn’t suspect a thing. Because if she did, she would definitely tell Dauda and that would be the end of Leila’s plan to escape. And, who knew what Dauda would do to her if he found out she was planning to run away.
Rekiya said, “So, you have to come with me to our husband’s room. I will first tell him that I want you to travel with me for the shopping trip. When he asks how you can do that since you’ve not been feeling well, you will come into the room and show him that you are much better now.”
Leila nodded as her heart drummed. Hopefully Dauda would decide that she looked well enough to travel with Rekiya to Paris and give his permission.
There was more she hoped for than just for him to see she was well enough to travel. And that was the dangerous part of her plan. She hoped he would not only find her looking healthy, but he would find her desirable and well able to perform her ‘wifely duties’, as he would say. If he did, he might ask her to spend the night with him. That way, she could gain access to his phone and change his Absher account, giving herself permission to travel to Mali. She wasn’t planning to sleep with him, as that was the very reason she had pretended to be sick since she came here. However, she had to spend the night in his room in order to get access to his phone when he was asleep. How exactly she would do that without him touching her in any way was not yet clear to her. But she was determined to find a way.
/> “So, when are we going?” she asked Rekiya. She had already set aside the outfit she would wear to Dauda’s room when it was time to talk to him about the trip to France. It was a glittering, turquoise dress, casual enough to wear at home without raising any eyebrows, but still dressy enough and seductive enough to catch his attention and arrest it fully.
Rekiya frowned and said, “We are going right now. That’s why I came here.” She waved her hand. “Come on now, Leila. Let’s go talk to Dauda.”
Leila’s eyes widened in panic. She had just woken up and was still in her rumpled pajamas. Her hair was in a mess, and she had no makeup on. Before she could protest, Rekiya took her hand and literally dragged her out of the room.
They went down the long hallway together, Leila praying incessantly that the Lord would help her and, like Queen Esther, give her favor before Dauda.
If only Rekiya had given her some time so she could change into the outfit she had prepared to wear to Dauda’s room. Right now, she wasn’t sure that Dauda would want her. Apart from her messy appearance, she’d just started eating well again. She hadn’t yet gone back to her normal weight. She still looked slightly gaunt. The beautiful turquoise dress was meant to hide her gauntness. With the way she looked right now, he would probably have no interest in her. How would she be able to carry out her plan if he didn’t find her desirable enough to want her?
They finally reached Dauda’s ornate bedroom door and stopped. Rekiya knocked on the door and gave Leila a big smile.
“Come in!” Dauda’s deep voice called out from the other side of the door.
Rekiya opened the door and stepped into the room. Leila stood at the door, waiting, just like Rekiya had told her to do. She watched as Rekiya approached Dauda, who was on the bed reading the newspaper… or maybe a magazine. She wasn’t sure.