Chapter 5 : A Message to a Stranger

Lian’s father returned to the hospital several hours after meeting with the Al-Rawi family.

He carried an even heavier burden on his shoulders than before. All the way there, he searched for words that might soften the truth for his daughter, but he found none.

Lian was sitting by the window, silently watching the sky.

The moment she saw him, she asked directly,

“Did you talk to them?”

He nodded.

“Yes.”

She straightened in her seat, and for a moment, life returned to her eyes.

“What did he say… Adam?”

Silence fell.

Her father sighed and said,

“I didn’t speak to him… His uncle answered me.”

She felt a small wave of disappointment but managed to compose herself.

“Then… can he call me? I only want five minutes. Maybe he doesn’t want this marriage either.”

Her father gave her a sad smile, then took out his phone and called again.

A few moments later, the call was answered.

“Hello, Mr. Sami.”

Her father spoke respectfully.

“My daughter wants to speak to Adam. Just for a few minutes.”

There was a brief silence before Uncle Sami’s voice came, cold as ice.

“Mr. Adam is busy.”

Lian’s father hesitated.

“But she’s going to be his wife.”

Sami replied without concern,

“If he wants to see her, he’ll see her on the wedding night. For now, he has no time for such things.”

The call ended.

Lian’s father stared at the phone screen for several seconds before putting it back into his pocket.

Lian raised her head, waiting for his answer.

He did not want to repeat Sami’s words exactly as they had been spoken, but he had nothing that could change the truth.

He said quietly,

“It seems… he doesn’t want to talk.”

Lian gave a faint smile.

“I understand.”

She said nothing more.

But inside, she began forming an image of a man she had never seen.

A conceited man…

A man who believed that a few minutes of his time were more valuable than hearing the voice of the woman who was going to become his wife.

That night, she borrowed Sarah’s laptop.

Her friend placed it in front of her and asked,

“What are you looking for?”

Lian answered,

“I want to know who he is.”

She typed his name into the search engine.

News about his family’s company appeared, along with business deals and old photographs from official events. But she could not find a clear picture of him, a personal account, or a single interview.

It was as if he were someone who did not want anyone to know him.

She closed one page and opened another.

Then another.

As she moved from one post to another, an account belonging to a young man who wrote short reflections caught her attention.

The account was not popular, and it did not carry a full name. It used a pseudonym instead.

One of the posts caught her attention.

“There is nothing more painful than having others decide your future, then asking you to thank them because they claim to know what is best for you.”

She read the words several times.

She did not know why they touched something inside her.

She opened the comments and, without thinking, wrote:

“If you’re fighting for your dream, don’t let anger turn you into a version of the people who took your freedom away. Don’t go back just to prove they were wrong… Keep moving forward until the world sees that you were right.”

She closed the laptop.

She did not wait for a reply.

She thought she had written those words to a stranger she would never meet.

On the other side of the world…

Adam was sitting alone in his small room after a day that had left him exhausted and disappointed.

He opened his phone and saw a new notification.

He read the comment once…

Then read it again.

For the first time in days, he felt that someone who did not even know him had managed to put into words what he himself could not say.

He raised his fingers to type a reply… then stopped.

And between two people who knew nothing about each other… the first message began.

Adam read her words several times.

He smiled for the first time in days.

Instead of replying directly, he posted two new lines on his page, as though answering everyone who read them, while the words were meant only for her.

If the road to your dream grows narrow one day,

Don’t curse the road… become the one who lights the way.

For our souls were not made to bow,

But to rise… whenever the path betrays us.

Lian stared at the two lines for a long time.

Then she wrote:

“Is simply getting back up enough? Sometimes, the entire road belongs to people who are stronger than us.”

The reply came quickly this time.

“Strength isn’t money or a family name… Strength is refusing to become the person they wanted to make you.”

She stared at the screen.

She read the sentence over and over.

She did not know why she felt as though those words were meant personally for her.

Finally, she wrote:

“Then… how do the weak become strong?”

Adam read the question and remained silent.

He could have written dozens of answers, but he chose only one sentence.

“Start by learning something no one can take away from you.”

Lian closed the laptop, but that sentence stayed in her mind throughout the night.

“Start by learning something no one can take away from you.”

She did not know that those words would change her life years later.

And that one day, she would remember that message while sitting at the head of a conference table, running her own company, after once being a girl who did not even have the right to choose her husband.

As for Adam…

He had no idea that he had written the first lesson in the life of the woman fate would try to bring back to him again and again.

Nor did he realize that their brief conversation… was the beginning of a hidden alliance that would shape both their futures, long before either of them knew the other’s name.

The first days passed faster than Adam expected, but they were harder than he had imagined.

The new country was nothing like the pictures he had painted in his mind.

Everything was unfamiliar—the fast-paced language, the faces of people who did not know him, and the streets that gave him no sense of belonging.

Every morning, he went out early looking for work. He would enter a store, only to be turned away. Then a restaurant, then a small company, before returning in the evening exhausted from rejection.

The money he had brought with him was disappearing day by day, while his dream of university seemed to be drifting farther away.

One cold evening, he stopped in front of an old bookstore in the middle of a quiet street.

A small sign hung on the door:

“Evening Employee Wanted.”

Adam pushed the door open and stepped inside.

An elderly man greeted him, looked through his résumé, then asked,

“Are you willing to work until closing time?”

Adam answered without hesitation,

“I’ll take any honest job.”

The man smiled.

“The pay is modest… but the books here are free for anyone who loves reading.”

Adam paused for a moment.

It was the first time he had smiled since arriving.

And so, the bookstore became his only refuge.

He organized the shelves, arranged the books, and helped customers until midnight.

After everyone left, he would sit in the corner near the window and open a new book every night.

He read books he had never been able to find in his own country and went through research papers he had dreamed of reading for years.

Every page he turned gave him the feeling that he had not lost his entire dream yet.

He would tell himself,

“If the doors of the university are closed… no one can close the door to knowledge.”

Meanwhile…

Lian returned home from the hospital.

She was not welcomed by decorations or congratulations. Instead, she was greeted by large boxes filled with white dresses, jewelry boxes, and invitation cards bearing her name beside the name of a man she had never seen.

She entered her room and found seamstresses waiting to take her measurements, while the event planner showed her designs for the flowers and the wedding hall.

Everyone was talking excitedly…

Except her.

She stood in front of the mirror as one of the seamstresses measured the length of the dress.

She felt as though she was not preparing for a wedding night…

But for the burial of her former life.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror and whispered so quietly that no one heard her,

“Is this what entering a grave looks like… when it is still decorated with flowers?”

At that moment, Adam was closing a book in a quiet bookstore, believing that knowledge might give him a new future.

And Lian…

Was closing a door behind her, afraid that it might never open again.