“Thank you my friend, for listening to me. We will not speak of this again. Be sure they receive whatever they need and have Fatima pack all her clothes she should have them. She will object, but send them just the same. Give her my wishes for a long and prosperous life, Hassad.”
And with that, Rashid had slapped his young friend on the back and galloped off as if being chased by demons.
Sara was wrestling with her own demons while waiting for David to return. Fatima had produced the jeans, flannel shirt, and black high-top Reeboks Sara had been wearing when Jack Hogan abducted her. It seemed strange to be wearing the old familiar clothes, and she began to believe she was really going home, but was the nightmare truly over? Would she ever forget? Those nights with Rashid had been so wonderful, she had felt so much love, but it had all been a lie, and he didn’t even have the courage to face her. The coward! She despised him. He had courted and wooed her right where he wanted—into his bed—and she had gone willingly, seeing love in his eyes where there had only been lust. He had used her, and was now dismissing her. She wondered how long it would have gone on if David had not hired the detective. Would he have sent her home when he tired of her or would he have locked her up in a harem somewhere, an unfortunate inconvenience, to be forgotten?
Her tortured thoughts were blessedly interrupted by Yasmine, who came running into the room in tears, “Sara!” she cried, “Fatima tells me you are leaving us. Must you go?”
Sara gazed at the young girl fondly and said, “Yes, Yasmine, I’m going home.”
“So soon?”
Sara laughed and replied, “But I have been here over two months.”
“But that is not so very long.” said Yasmine, who looked as though she were losing her best friend. “Have we offended you?”
“Oh no,” she assured the child as she swept her up in her arms and gave her a hug, “it’s nothing like that. It’s just that it’s time for me to go home. My family have missed me, and I miss them too. Can you understand that?”
“Yes,” said the child, reluctantly, and she looked up at Sara with her big, brown doe eyes, “Will you come to visit us again?”