Chapter 39 · Untitled Chapter

The silence between us stretched, filled only by the faint, dry draft moving across the threshold from the garden. The heavy scent of smoked agarwood clung to the folds of his white thobe, cool and sharp against the warm air of the room.

Mansour reached into the inner pocket of his bisht and drew out a folded leather folio, stamped with the seal of the notary. He did not toss it or lay it carelessly on the low table between us. He held it out in his right hand, waiting until I raised my fingers to meet the grain of the dyed calfskin.

"Open it," he said quietly.

I broke the ribbon. Inside lay the official release from the Ministry of Justice, accompanied by the certified deed to my family’s property in the northern quarter and the signed attestation clearing my name from every proceeding that had bound my father’s estate to this house. Below the red wax was Mansour’s signature, set in dark, decisive ink beside the state recorder’s seal. Every obligation had been dissolved.