والتحدي Stories

Chapter One: Broken Roots I was born in Baghdad, a city that resembles me a lot... beautiful yet wounded. My name is Sally, and I was the eldest child in a family that was fragile from within, even though, from the outside, we seemed like any other family. I lived with my younger sister, Mert, who was three years younger than me, but she always appeared older. Maybe it was because pain made her mature quickly, or maybe because life decided to test her more. Our suffering began early, at an age when we were supposed to live the innocence of childhood, not witness betrayals and conflicts. We moved to Syria for a short while, and it was there that I saw the cracks in my parents' marriage. My father traveled to Sweden illegally, leaving us behind, and my mother... didn't wait. She began betraying my father, first secretly, then openly, as though her heart had died, or perhaps betrayal was her only way to escape her torment. When he got out of prison, we moved to Sweden. I clung to hope...