Chapter 40 · Untitled Chapter

The silence of the room was not empty; it carried the grounded weight of stone settling after years of tremor. I stood near the tall arched windows, my Abaya falling in straight, clean lines over my wrists, watching through the slatted blinds as the iron gate at the far end of the driveway clanged shut. The double bolts slipped into their housings with a dull, final thud that carried across the courtyard.

Beside the low side table, near the heavy brass receiver of the old landline phone, the settlement document still lay exactly where Bandar had set it hours before. The corners of the vellum remained crisp, untouched by ink. No signature marked the blank line. No concession was yielded to the hall that had demanded it.

Bandar did not rush to clear it away. He stood by the central hearth where the pale ribbons of Oud thinned into the cool air, his white Thobe pristine, his posture as unyielding as the walls of Diriyah.