Amina already knew the answer.

She had known for a long time.

And rather than tell me — I would not have believed her; I never had before — she simply stepped back and let the truth arrive on its own, in the one form I could no longer explain away.

She let my own mother refuse to save my life.

It was the cruelest kindness I have ever received, and it saved far more than my body.

Chapter 2 — I Could Die