Sirens of Memory by Puja Guha

Author:Puja Guha [Guha, Puja]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Polis Books
Published: 2021-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

Washington D.C., USA – March, 2016

Tareq used his thumb and forefinger to zoom in on his phone’s screen and examine the picture more closely.

It has to be her.

There was no question, the woman in the picture was his wife Mariam. Even if Nadia said her name is Ritika. A smile crept across his face, he had believed this day would elude him, that he would never be able to exact his revenge for what she had done to him. But now the wait was over.

I’ve found her. I will find her.

His smile faded as he considered the different options, how he could use her name and her picture to locate her—he could squeeze Nadia further, but he had to be sure his sister never found out. He had broached the subject with a younger woman at the bank where he worked, saying he wanted to see if he could get back in touch with any of his old friends from Kuwait, and she had recommended using social media. He had never thought of it before—he wasn’t even on Facebook himself—but now Nadia had accepted his friend request. As if she would dare refuse, he smirked. Unfortunately, neither her account nor a search for people who had listed their hometown as Kuwait had yielded anything.

Tareq crossed his arms, recalling how he had searched for Mariam when he had first been released—the internet was still in its infancy, and his only option had been to hire an investigator. Do they still exist? He opened a browser window and typed “private investigator near me” into Google and a number of results came up. He scrolled through the list, noting down several phone numbers. He grinned, she was within his grasp.

Switching back to the picture, he ran his hand over his head, starting at the ridge just above his left ear and traced the scar along his jawline to the base of his cheek. His jaw clenched. He could still remember the blow that he’d sustained there from the woman who had hit him, some friend of Mariam’s. To stop me from being with my wife? The very idea made the veins in his neck start to pop. His wife was his to have whenever he liked, his to control, and she had been away from him for over twenty-five years now.

Twenty-five years, seven months, and two days. Tareq’s eyes seared into Mariam’s picture, the audacity of spirit that he’d always seen in her taunting him. There were a few lines on her face, around her mouth, by her eyes, and her cheekbones were more filled out than he remembered, but she looked much the same, still beautiful. She wore a long burgundy dress, and he ached to see her figure, her curves move in the soft fabric, but that part of the picture was hidden by the other two women.

In turn, Tareq glared at them, first imagining driving a knife into Dinah’s gut. The other woman next to Mariam ceased to be his niece Nadia.

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