On Saturday Amina opened the lower cupboard and found an envelope of school photographs. They spread across the tiles: Leila with two missing front teeth, Leila holding a certificate, Leila with a scraped knee, and Leila asleep on the sofa while Amina finished her hair.
Before the truth, the photographs had been memories. Now each carried a question. Had Amina cared because she loved Leila, or because Musa had given her a duty without its real name? She hated that she wanted to put the pictures away quickly, as if hiding them could save the past.
She wrote on a sheet: Real love does not cancel a lie. A lie does not cancel real love.
Leila entered carrying a science book. She picked up the photograph of the scraped knee and remembered that Amina had bought her chips before taking her home. Amina remembered the day too. The memory had not become false because Musa had concealed something.
Leila found a small card in the envelope. In a child's handwriting it read: Thank you for choosing me.
“Did you write this?” Amina asked.
“After the day you came to school when I fell. I thought adults would get tired of me.”
“Why did you not give it to me?”
“I was afraid you would know I was asking you not to leave.”
Amina held the card carefully. “I did not choose to love you because Musa called you his niece. I chose it every day I opened the door.”
“But he hid me from you.”
“Yes. His lie was wrong. My love for you was real.”
Leila asked whether Amina would leave. Amina said she did not yet know what she would do about the marriage, but she knew what she would do about Leila. She would not use the girl as a reason to stay or as punishment for leaving.
Leila asked what name she should use. Amina said Auntie or Amina, but not a name chosen because an adult was afraid.
Leila gathered her school ribbons and old drawings into a small box. Amina helped separate school photographs from family photographs. They did not erase the past; they refused to let Musa's secret own every memory.
Leila held the card and looked at her. “If you are no longer Daddy's wife, can I still call you Auntie?”
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