‘This is it.’ she thought, tweaking the end of her hijab and sliding into the driver’s seat. ’How should I start? Wait, should I even say anything? Should I just let them come to a conclusion? Her fidgety thoughts swirled around her head, making her dizzy from the multiple voices. As the black mercedes backed out of the driveway and headed onto the road, the young woman’s thoughts were on anything but the road. Her clammy hands gripped the steering wheel tightly and her posture was so rigid, it looked almost painful.
All too soon, she reached her destination. A large, brooding house bore at her, almost urging her to go back, but a small part of her brain forced her to keep walking towards the looming front door, which had not changed a bit from the last time she was there. She had stood in the same spot that day, hot tears mixed with the pouring rain. After their suspicions were proved, they couldn’t bear to let her back in. She had seen the disappointment in her mother's eyes when her daughter stopped going to church, seen her father’s face red with anger and distress when she came back from the mosque with Aisha. Every part of her wanted to go back to them, their love and embrace, to just hide it and pretend to be someone else, but she knew then that it was too late, and that they would never go back to who they were again. ‘That was then, this is different’ her mind temporarily reassured her, enough for her to ring the doorbell. “Coming!” the familiar gruff voice sounded through the mahogany door.
The door pulled wide open, revealing her aging father clad in a button-down neatly tucked into his navy blue dress pants. “Good morn-” he stopped midway, recognizing the woman immediately. “What are you doing here?”, his voice became cold.

“Hi Dad” the anxious woman replied meekly, not daring to look into his hard eyes. She could sense him staring at her, more specifically, her head.

“I asked, wha...