Chapter 4 : Between Sky and Earth

The plane slowly climbed into the sky until the city lights began to fade beneath the clouds.

Adam rested his head against the window and watched the streets where he had lived for so many years grow smaller and smaller until they became tiny points of light scattered across the darkness.

He didn't feel regret.

He felt afraid.

For the first time in his life, he was completely on his own.

There was no father to make decisions for him, no uncle to force him into a future he had never chosen, and no walls of the mansion that, despite seeming spacious, had suffocated him every day.

He opened his bag and took out his acceptance letter.

He smiled as he read it once again.

He knew the road ahead wouldn't be easy. The money he had saved would only last him a few months. After that, he would find a job, no matter how simple, so he could continue his studies.

He whispered to himself,

“If I have to work at night and study during the day… I will.”

He closed his eyes and imagined his first day at the university, the laboratories he had always dreamed of entering, and the professors whose research papers he had read dozens of times.

The future, despite being uncertain, seemed more beautiful than anything he had left behind.

Meanwhile…

Lian slowly opened her eyes.

The white ceiling was the first thing she saw.

Then came the smell of medicine.

Then the quiet beeping of the medical equipment.

She slowly turned her head and saw her mother sitting beside the bed, asleep while holding her hand.

Her father stood by the window, his face pale, as though he hadn't slept in days.

Lian felt a heaviness throughout her body.

She wanted to speak, but no words came.

Her mother noticed her movement and quickly stood up.

“Thank God… You're awake.”

Her father approached as well.

His eyes were red, but his expression remained stiff.

The doctor, who entered at that moment, said,

“Her condition is stable, but she needs plenty of rest and must stay away from any emotional stress.”

The doctor left, and silence filled the room.

Lian looked at her father.

There was no anger in her eyes this time.

Only heartbreak.

She asked in a quiet voice,

“Has anything changed?”

He lowered his head.

“No.”

She closed her eyes again.

That single word was enough to tell her that everything that had happened… had changed nothing.

Hours later, her father left the room to answer a phone call.

Sarah stood at the door holding a small bouquet of flowers.

She smiled, though the worry in her eyes was impossible to hide.

She sat beside her friend and said,

“You scared us all.”

Lian gave her a faint smile.

“And I'm scared of myself.”

Sarah took her hand.

“Don't ever do that again.”

Lian nodded silently.

Then, after a moment of hesitation, she asked,

“Do you know anything about that man?”

“Which man?”

“The man they want me to marry.”

Sarah sighed.

“I asked around… but no one knew anything except his name.”

“Adam…”

Lian's father left the company building with his head bowed.

He barely noticed the heat of the sun or the noise of the cars around him.

All he could think about was his daughter's face when she had asked him at the hospital, “Has anything changed?”

And he knew that his answer would remain the same…

“No.”

He stood waiting for a taxi when a conversation between two women leaving the building caught his attention.

One of them said excitedly,

“Did you hear? The Al-Rawi family's son is getting married soon.”

The other smiled.

“Of course. The whole city is talking about it.”

“What a lucky girl! She'll live in a mansion, and her husband will be the heir to an entire empire.”

They laughed briefly and walked away.

The man lowered his head even further.

If they knew that the “lucky girl” hadn't been able to eat for days and was now lying in a hospital bed, they would never have called her that.

On the other side of the world, Adam gazed out of the airplane window at the endless expanse of clouds.

An elderly man sitting beside him noticed that Adam couldn't stop looking at the letter in his hands.

The man smiled and asked,

“Is that an acceptance letter?”

Adam nodded with a smile.

“Yes.”

The old man said admiringly,

“Then you're a lucky young man.”

Adam smiled but said nothing.

If luck had truly been on his side, he wouldn't have had to run away from home just to hold on to his dream.

The man continued,

“You're going to start a new life there.”

Adam looked at the letter, then said with quiet confidence,

“That’s what I hope for.”

At that very moment, thousands of miles away, his father was ending a phone call that would cancel Adam's university enrollment.

While his son smiled at the future…

That very future was quietly being taken away from him.

Lian repeated the name as though hearing it for the first time.

A name that meant nothing to her.

A man she had never seen.

A man whose voice she had never heard.

And yet, he had already become someone capable of changing her entire life.

At that moment, while the plane cut through the clouds, carrying Adam toward a future he had chosen for himself, Lian felt the days slowly pulling her toward a future she had never been given the right to choose.

Fate was writing two stories at the same time…

One began with hope.

The other began with pain.

Lian's father left the hospital at sunset, but he did not return home. Instead, he went straight to the headquarters of the Al-Rawi family company.

He carried a small hope in his heart—the hope that they might reconsider the marriage after seeing what his daughter had been reduced to.

He waited in the reception area for more than an hour before Uncle Sami finally came out of his office.

The man quickly stood.

“Please… I need to talk to you.”

Sami stopped and gestured for him to come in.

As soon as the door closed, Lian's father bowed his head slightly.

“My daughter is sick… She can't handle what's happening. Please, cancel this marriage.”

Sami remained silent, flipping through some papers on his desk.

The man continued in a trembling voice,

“I won't ask for anything else… Leave the debts as they are, and I'll work for the rest of my life to repay them.”

Sami finally raised his head.

“It's too late.”

“But she…”

He cut him off coldly.

“The marriage will take place as scheduled.”

Lian's father felt as though the words had caught in his throat.

He left the office with heavy steps, as though ten years had been added to his age in a matter of minutes.

Meanwhile, on the upper floor, Adam's father stood by the window, silently watching the city lights.

Sami entered quietly.

“The girl's father came.”

Without turning around, he asked,

“What did he want?”

“He was begging us to cancel the marriage.”

A brief silence followed.

Then Adam's father said,

“There's no point.”

Sami nodded and left.

The man remained alone.

He took out another phone, one he used only for important matters, and dialed an international number.

Moments later, a man's voice answered in English.

He spoke calmly, as though discussing an ordinary business deal.

“I'm Adam Al-Rawi's father.”

…

“I know he's on his way to you.”

…

“I'm sorry, but my son won't be able to attend the university.”

He listened to the other person for a few seconds.

Then he said in a completely emotionless voice,

“Cancel his enrollment… and give his place to another student.”

A long silence followed.

He ended the call and placed the phone on the desk.

His expression did not change.

He wasn't angry.

Nor did he show the slightest hesitation.

He whispered as though speaking to someone who wasn't there,

“There are rules no one can break.”

He raised his eyes toward the portraits of his ancestors hanging on the wall.

“In this family… children don't choose their own dreams.”

Silence fell once again.

Then he said in a calm voice, terrifying in its coldness,

“Your future… is decided on the day you're born.”

High in the sky, the plane continued on its journey while Adam smiled, believing that his dream was closer than ever…

Without knowing that the final path leading to that dream had been closed with a few words spoken by his father from behind a desk thousands of miles away.