"It's a responsibility we share."
Ali Baba's eyes snapped up, wide open as he looked at the girl. " It's not Ali Baba's fault. He had his hands full with his sick mother. If someone must be blamed for that child's death, it would have been me. It wasn't much, but I ate at home better than he and his mother did. If someone had to share, it would have been me," she said resolutely, her glare challenging Qassim.
Zarqa looked down at her hand, remembering a woman she couldn't save." It was an unfortunate fate, I know, but it's not Ali Baba's to shoulder."
" That doesn't change what I said-"
" You don't get it," Zarqa interrupted right back. " Ali Baba never thought of himself. Never for once. Everything he did was for his mother, wasn't it?"
