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he was younger, but he’d learned at a very young age that standing between his father and his mother would only lead to a heavy hand used on his own body. The need to make his father proud had become stronger than his need to protect his mother. In the end, he’d relented, and the elitist attitude of his father had become his own.
    Suha watched a saddened look wash over Samira. She knew Samira recognized the cold look in Zeid’s eyes. Samira had seen it many times before, from an older set of eyes. Suha wondered if Samira felt the need to break Zeid of his father’s beliefs, and if she understood that now, with the absence of his father, was her chance to erase those beliefs and patterns from her son’s young mind.
    Zeid stared through her, his jaw taut and angry.
    Guilt coursed through Suha. The boy needed a stronger hand if he was ever going to break out of his father’s mindset. The shame of wanting to break a young child of paternal ways coalesced with the belief of how right she was to do so, and she shook her head, as if to shake the conflicting thoughts away.
     

 
    Chapter Five
     
    Tess curled into a ball on the living room couch. She covered her head with a pillow, trying to escape the incessant pounding of flesh on wood. She must be dreaming. She’d wake up any second and see. The past twenty-four hours couldn’t have been real.
    There was a hard rap on the living room window, followed by Alice’s voice, muffled by the window between them. “Tess!  Open the door!”
    Tess moaned and pulled the pillow tighter against her head.
    “Tess?” Alice’s anger lessened, replaced with concern. “Are you okay?” She banged on the glass until Tess lowered the pillow and glared at her. Alice lifted her palms toward the air.
    Tess sat up, her hair a tangled mess, her clothes disheveled. She dragged herself to the front door and unlocked the bolt, shuffled back to the couch, and collapsed into it.
    Alice was in the front door and on Tess’s heels in seconds. “Tess? What the hell’s wrong? Are you sick?” She looked Tess up and down. “I’ve been calling you all day. When you didn’t come to work, I got worried,” she sat next to Tess on the couch. “What is it? The flu?”
    Tess shook her head, turning away from Alice’s frustration. Thoughts of Beau brought fresh tears.
    Alice tucked her silky blonde hair behind her ear, “Tess?”
    Tess turned toward Alice and tried to speak, “They…” The words stuck in her throat like peanut butter. She handed Alice Mr. Fulan’s crumpled business card, which she’d held in her hand since he’d left the night before, his home phone number scribbled across the top.
    “What’s thi—” it took a moment for Alice to understand. “Oh, my God, Tess, what’s happened?”
    Tess tried to explain. She opened her mouth to speak, her voice absorbed by her sobs.
    “I’m so sorry,” Alice awkwardly pulled Tess into an embrace, patting her back as if she’d just gotten a good grade on a paper. She pushed back quickly, “Why didn’t you call me? What happened?”
    Tess didn’t answer.
    “What can I do?” Organization, that’s what Alice was good at.
    Tess shrugged.
    “Did you call his parents?” Alice asked, the gears of her mind in motion.
    Tess shook her head, “Couldn’t.”
    Alice was on her feet in seconds heading toward the front door, “Be right back.” She whipped out her cell phone and called Mr. Fulan, walking outside so Tess wouldn’t have to endure the hurt all over again. She returned to Tess’s side ten minutes later and whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
    Tess stared straight ahead, her eyes vacant, her body numb.
     
    For two days, Alice milled around the house, cooking food Tess would not eat, trying to engage Tess in conversation, and working very diligently to lift Tess’s spirits. Alice was not known for her warmth, and Tess was grateful for Alice’s lack of skill in that area. She didn’t have the energy to be coddled—her