Page 42 of Wild Card (The Trident Trilogy 3)

“No one will expect me to kill her,” Sayid said, turning away from them. “We do not live in ancient times—”

“We don’t,” Aza said slowly, “but others still do. You know that. Haroun Hadzic appointed himself your surrogate father after your parents died. How do you think he would handle this news?”

Sayid sat back down at the table. “He cannot know this. Or Yusef or any of their family. We have to find a way to hide it from them?”

“Nejra and I have a plan,” Aza said. “Amar will marry her. We will have to act like they were married months ago, but I know Amar will agree to it.”

Sayid looked back at Nejra. “You have agreed to this?”

Nejra nodded, looking down. “It is the only way.”

Sayid took an extended breath. “We will have to find a cleric who will lie for us. I’m not sure we can do that.”

“Yes, that is an obstacle,” Aza said. “Until then, we need to keep Nejra secluded. She is going to start showing soon.”

Sayid nodded. “I will talk to Amar and tell him of our intentions. He will agree to it. He has been in love with Nejra since we were children. Even if this works, I think it would be best for us to leave Sarajevo. We need to live in a place where people will not question the story. One of my old school teachers lives just across the sea in a small fishing village in Italy. I will contact him and see if he would sponsor our immigration.”

Aza nodded. “I think that is a good idea. Fareed and I are planning to move back to Pakistan to be with our family there. It is time we all left here.”

Nejra looked up and smiled at them. She had to go along with their plans for now, but she already decided to send a letter to Mack. Despite what Aza said, she knew he would come for her.

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