Chapter _ 2 Episode _ 4 "I will not leave you, Raed and Nili, love and secret."

Two nights had passed, and Nelly began to feel as though time itself was slowing down on purpose—testing her patience.

Raed didn’t come at his usual hour, that time that had become more than a visit… it had become the steady heartbeat of a girl waiting for one particular man.

She sat on the chair in Kamal’s room, her legs moving restlessly, her eyes darting toward the door every few seconds, as if Raed would step through it at any moment.

Kamal watched her with long, quiet glances, but she paid him no attention.

Her eyes were fixed on the door… on the absence.

Then suddenly—the doorbell rang.

Nelly jumped from her seat, hurried out of Kamal’s room, and a smile broke across her face even before her hand reached the doorknob.

She opened it…

Raed stood there—slightly drained, slightly hesitant, but there.

He stepped inside, and Nelly closed the door behind him, her voice a mixture of reproach and longing:

“Why are you late, Raed?”

He answered without meeting her eyes:

“I wasn’t planning to come today…”

Nelly understood exactly what weighed on him…

She knew the fear running through him after they had crossed every line—

knew he was no longer a young man visiting a patient’s home,

but a man terrified of facing the truth he had created with his own hands.

They walked into Kamal’s room.

The old man lay on his bed…

But this time, Nelly saw in his face a different stillness—

a cold, quiet silence.

He was no longer alive.

Days and nights passed after that…

And Raed never stopped coming.

He would arrive every other day, and Nelly would greet him with the eyes of a woman who had finally found meaning.

And each night…

They made love,

they surrendered to desire,

they lived life itself.

Their small home filled with happiness, night after night,

as if every night pulled another behind it—

as if a string of pearls had snapped,

spilling joy across the evenings,

one after another…

without end.

Love found its way into Nelly’s heart, just as it found its way into Raed’s.

And the two of them lived as though the world had been created for them alone.

..............

Until one night…

A night that began with the same warmth, but halfway through, Nelly suddenly stood up and rushed to the bathroom.

She bent over the toilet, emptying her stomach as if she had lost control.

She then stood before the mirror, staring at her face…

Something had changed—

a color,

a feature,

a feeling that was neither illness nor exhaustion.

She stepped out of the bathroom and walked to her room, where Raed lay on the bed.

She lay beside him and said, her voice soft but unmistakably certain:

“Raed… I think I’m pregnant.”

He turned to her…

And the words that left his lips were short—far too short for their weight:

“Looks like… I’m late.”

He got up quickly and began putting on his clothes, his body moving faster than his mind,

and headed toward the apartment door.

Nelly rose after him, calling out:

“Raed… wait!”

She stood in front of him in the living room, blocking the way with her slender frame,

speaking with a voice trembling between pleading and anger:

“I’m talking to you… I’m pregnant. Do you hear me?”

He fixed his eyes on hers and said:

“I hear you. I understand. Maybe… we should get married. Right?”

She answered instantly:

“Not just get married… get married fast.”

He stepped toward her, and she stepped toward him…

They embraced…

and shared a long, burning kiss, as if they were sealing an unwritten pact on a new future.

Then Raed left and closed the door behind him.

Nelly stood in the hallway, her hand trembling over her stomach…

Then sliding over her whole body…

A wide smile slowly formed on her face

before she walked back to her room, her steps heavy with dreams.

---

Days and nights passed in a long, unbroken thread…

and Raed still came to Nelly’s home as he always had.

He would slip into the house beneath the cloak of night, draw close to her, hold her,

and make love to her with a passion that never dimmed.

Every time he saw her, he showed a love that seemed true—

or so she believed.

Nelly’s love for him only grew…

expanded…

as though her heart were a fertile land that never stopped blooming.

And Raed, too, seemed in love—

drowned in her, surrendered to her existence.

But the months passed…

and Nelly’s belly began to show,

and hiding the truth became impossible.

She knew the conservative society they lived in would not spare her…

and she knew that Raed—the man who crept into her home every night—

could no longer evade what he had created.

Whenever she spoke of marriage, he would flee from the conversation,

stumbling over his words, inventing excuses,

as though the word husband frightened him more than being exposed.

Then came that night—

when she stood before him and said clearly:

“You see my belly? It’s getting bigger…

People will know…

We need to get married within days, Raed.”

This time, there was no escape in his eyes.

He answered with an unexpectedly firm tone:

“Tomorrow…

I’ll bring the registrar to the house, and we’ll sign the contract here.”

His words were a blend of reassurance and retreat,

but Nelly clung to the first

and ignored the second.

Raed moved closer to her,

and this time he made love to her with a hunger fiercer than ever—

as if he wanted to keep a part of her inside him,

a version of her that would remain no matter what the days might change.

And when their breaths finally calmed…

Raed left Naomi’s house.

..........

The next day…

Nelly moved around the house like a young bride preparing for the life she had dreamed of for so long.

She wore a simple white dress—

yet its beauty doubled the moment it touched her skin.

She decorated the home with flowers and ribbons,

placed a large cake on the living-room table,

on which was written:

“Raed & Nelly”

It wasn’t just a cake…

it was a proclamation of a new life about to be born.

Joy filled Nelly’s heart so completely she felt she might float.

A wide smile colored her cheeks with the softness of roses,

her hands moved lightly,

and her spirit trembled with anticipation.

This joy—

this moment—

was what she had waited for through all the years of pain…

years of loneliness…

years in which she believed God had forgotten her.

And today…

she believed that everything was about to begin anew.