As soon as Ahmed vanished between the sky and the sea, Abu Ahmed shouted in a voice no one had ever heard before:
"Give me the binoculars... quickly!"
His hands trembled as he pressed the binoculars to his eyes, tracking the shadow of the helicopter as it drifted away. The moment the logo on its side door came into focus, his face froze, as if time had suddenly stopped. He lowered the binoculars slowly, his features completely transformed.
He spoke in a low but decisive voice:
"We are returning to Sana'a immediately."
Um Ahmed approached, her heart racing ahead of her steps, her eyes searching for an answer to save her from this nightmare.
She cried out: "Why? Who took Ahmed? And why my son?"
Abu Ahmed sat on a wooden crate near the yacht, looking as if he were carrying the weight of entire years on his shoulders. He looked at Haruki and Sayuri and said:
"You must know the truth... all of it."
A heavy silence prevailed, broken only by the sound of the waves.
Abu Ahmed began:
"Years ago... Ahmed and I traveled to Russia. He was about eleven years old then. I was negotiating with the head of a major Russian sweets company to open a branch for Yemeni sweets in Moscow. The project succeeded beyond our expectations."
Um Ahmed breathed deeply as he continued:
"That man had a daughter... a beautiful girl, blonde with hazel eyes. She was only four months younger than Ahmed. They used to meet sometimes near the shop, with the innocence of two children."
He paused for a moment, then said in a heavier voice:
"One day... they were in a car accident. A speeding black car hit them and fled."
Um Ahmed placed her hand over her mouth.
"Ahmed was injured... his leg was broken, and the accident left a scar on his back. As for the girl... she was terrified. She saw Ahmed lying on the street, bleeding and unconscious. From the sheer shock... part of her hair turned white from that moment on."
He looked at the ground, then finished:
"She was the one who ran to the shop, screaming my name. She took me to him, and we rushed him to the hospital. Ahmed stayed there for two weeks, and she visited him every day, taking care of him... but they never spoke. Ahmed didn't know Russian."
Sayuri pressed her hand to her chest, moved by the story, as he continued:
"Afterward, we returned to Yemen. We agreed that the partnership would remain, and the profits would be shared between us. The shop is still operating today."
Haruki asked quietly: "How did you know it was him? Just from the helicopter?"
Abu Ahmed replied: "I saw his company's logo. I couldn't mistake it."
Um Ahmed asked in a trembling voice: "And what does he want with Ahmed?"
Abu Ahmed went silent for a moment, then said:
"It's not him... it's his daughter."
A sense of bewilderment filled the air. Sayuri looked at Haruki and whispered:
"So, it's personal..."
Abu Ahmed stood up, as if his grief had turned into a resolution:
"We are returning to Sana'a now. And I will go to him myself."
Haruki took a step forward and said firmly:
"If you need anything... I am with you. And so is Sayuri."
Abu Ahmed nodded and said in a sincere voice:
"Thank you, Haruki... and thank you, Sayuri. We will bring Ahmed back... no matter the cost."
The journey began in the opposite direction of the joy they had come with, carrying new anxieties and old secrets that had begun to surface once more.