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The tulips, the cards, his annoying friendly smiles, his intimidating bulky figure, they never appear again after that fateful afternoon. Turns out that was the last day I ever saw him.

Two weeks later I checked with the New York City Clerk's office regarding our marriage status after I received a reply from Cupcake that they indeed stamped the closeout of our contract last year.

It was confusing because they didn't mention anything about our marriage since the contract was drawn before we got married, and there was no amendment after we did.

The City Clerk mentioned there was no record of our marriage because we never had a civil one hence it was not registered, the Islamic ceremony was not recognised by them therefore my application for divorce was rejected, or rather ‘invalid’.

I was stuck.

I couldn't get divorced officially, since it was not registered.

I also couldn't get divorced by Islamic law, because I need at least 4 years of missing husband if I were going for fasakh;