Your Seat Is With Me

In the hushed tension of her uncle's Riyadh majlis, Maha Al-Otaibi is commanded to yield her place as the elders review the family register, ready to strike her name to satisfy an old lineage obligation. Before she can be made to stand, Saud Al-Dosari silently sets her cup of gahwa back onto the carpet, publicly taking the weight of the covenant upon his own shoulders in front of both houses. When the assembly can no longer demand her surrender, the door to the private wing closes and bolts from the world, leaving no one between them but the irrevocable bond forged before the hall.