Page 88 of Rescuing You

“Sorry.” Michael spoke into the silence. “I’m not saying your father is that man. It was just a story.”

“But he is. He is that man, always trying to be everything to everyone but not really believing anything.” She’d seen her father at the call to prayer. In public, he would go down on his knees and perform the ritual. At home, she’d caught him more than once ignoring it. “Even Allah didn’t matter to him,” she said. “Though Baba claims to serve him, his service is obligation, not worship. It’s the reason it was easy for me to reject Islam. Because my father doesn’t really believe.”

“Huh.” The single syllable didn’t reveal what Michael was thinking, but his expression was quizzical. After a moment, he said, “If he isn’t a true believer, then…” The words trailed. “Do you know…?” He didn't seem to know how to articulate what he was trying to ask. Finally, he said, “Do you know how he found you?”

“No.”

“Do you think he’d been looking for you?”

“Once I got out of Iraq, it would be very difficult for him to track me down. He has contacts outside the country, but none, I think, who would help him find me and drag me back. Perhaps Qasim or…” She pinched her lips closed before her uncle’s name escaped. When they were free, she would tell Michael all of it.

Even the parts she’d never told anyone.

“Perhaps my uncle wanted me brought back. I don’t believe Baba would have tried very hard. Not unless he was pressured or made to feel like he had failed. Perhaps because I had brought him shame, he would try to find me to restore his reputation.”

“Do you think, deep down, he wanted you to be free?”

“I think my father worries for himself more than for me. I thought, once I left Iraq, I would be safe.”

"I'm sorry you weren't."

A few miles passed in silence, the smooth hum of the engine and the grumbling of the tires on the road lulling her to sleep.

And then she was gripping a wall, her fingers shoved into narrow spaces, her toes on a thin ledge.

She slipped.

And fell.

And jerked awake.

“Hey, hey.” Michael squeezed her hand. “You okay?”

“A nightmare.”

“You were only asleep for five minutes. What was it about?”

“I was falling. But I remembered something.” Not just the futile escape from her room but what she’d seen in the office. “I don’t know how he found me or how someone did, but maybe they were doing something else and saw me. Maybe it was an accident. Or maybe…maybe it was the opposite. They knew I was there, and that’s what the map was for.”

“You lost me. What are we talking about?”

“Yes. Sorry. I climbed out the window in the compound and crept to the next room.”

“Wait. You did what?”

“It was fine. The walls were rough stone. I had handholds.”

“Fine?” His voice was too loud in the quiet cab. He lowered it and added, “You were on the third floor. If you’d fallen…”

“You came in the same window I went out. How did you get there?”

“It's different. I'm trained. Why didn’t you wait for me?”

“It was before Yasamin came. Before she called you. I was trying to escape.”

“You could’ve killed yourself.”

“Better dead than married off to some cruel man.”