Chapter 8

But inevitably morning came and scattered the enchanted haze. The waking spouses pried their eyes open and were astonished at what had happened during the night. It was time to come to their senses.

Yuri got ready for work. Omar, despite all of Annette’s attempts to make him stay in bed, went out to sweep the path. His fear of an employer’s anger was almost as strong as his fear of Allah’s wrath.

After thinking it over, Annette gave him a key to the apartment so the old man could come up at any time if he felt worse while working.

Here’s a question ... did the old man realize what he was doing? What kind of desecrating influence he had on those who came close to him? Hard to say. More yes than no, probably. But in his mind, he had no choice.

Anyone who crushes love inside themselves turns into a nobody and falls ill. Omar had strangled love in every form and begun to weaken, to pick up viruses of depravity, cowardice, hypocrisy. And now he was the carrier of those viruses, far more dangerous than the one that had given him a fever.

Left alone, Annette - confused and torn after the events of the previous day - canceled her online yoga classes and decided to devote more time to meditation. Again, and again her face turned crimson when she remembered that Omar had seen her being fucked. It was so hard to get used to the thought. The old man was never supposed to see her like that, giving herself to a man. What shame ... and at the same time, there was something in Omar’s eyes, burning in the dark, that made her heart beat faster with strange new sensations. It belonged to a world Annette never visited. But that world had come to her.