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❝Angels don't lie, but you do. If I'm a devil, what are you?❞
When Burq loses his memory in an accident and doesn't remember his own wife anymore, Leyla finds it a chance to escape her beastly husband and pretends to be his friend...
Life is perhaps that enclosed moment when my gaze destroys itself in the pupil of your eyes.
— Forough Farrokhzad
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Maybe someday the ephemeral moments of life will tend to stretch longer. Maybe someday every bliss won't appear so short lived. But then, how can any moment be longer when life itself is a mortal gift? Thus every moment is but a memory. Time doesn't stretch for anyone.
Not for her. Not for anyone else.
When she arrives at his place, she doesn't find him alone but in an argument with another man at the threshold of his house. Leyla halts in her step, reconsidering approaching him. With his back towards her, Burq cannot see her. But she can hear the heated exchange of words between both men.
"Come with you?" Burq hisses in disdain. "Not in my two lives."
"Try to understand—"
"Understand what?" he snaps, cutting off the man. "You need to understand. I've a life here. I've settled here. I'm not abandoning it for anything."
For an odd and scary reason, her heart skips a beat. Despite logic, she cannot help the joy blossoming in her chest— she cannot help thinking he's meaning it for her.
"I come to you and find you living alone with a broken leg and walking on crutches," the other man fires back. "Is this your settled life?"
"Raad," Burq speaks warningly, and Leyla cannot believe her ears upon hearing the name. "You come to me after a year. You must realize that's a long enough time for things to change."
"But the fact remains, akhi. We're still your family. You need to call off these conflicts and come back home with me."
His brother is here to take him home? She struggles to arrange her thoughts. But she doesn't get time when Raad's eyes shift to her standing behind Burq. Burq follows his gaze, turning around and meeting her orbs. Those golden irises glitter unnaturally.
"Leyla?" he says her name in a longing she cannot miss. Something flutters in her chest.
"I apologize for the intrusion." She looks between her husband and her brother-in-law. "I didn't know you were having company. I'll come another time."
"No," he's quick to stop her, hurriedly moving to her side. Then as if taking hold of himself, he releases his breath and repeats himself calmly, "No, you don't have to leave. He was about to leave anyway." He looks at Raad and tilts his head, but his brother's eyes are still stuck to her in a puzzled expression.
"Salam, ukhti (sister)," Raad greets Leyla, placing his hand over his heart.
She mirrors his action and greets him back, "Salam."
He questioningly glances at Burq before smiling kindly at her. "I'm sorry, but who are you?"
His question doesn't sound strange to her. She knows Raad can never assume her to be his brother's friend— to be so close to him to drop at his home uninvited. Even Burq couldn't believe her lie of being his friend. Her husband was a lone wolf.
