The Serpent Unveiled
Three days before the departure, Rowan's brother, Alaa, arrived from Amman—a "coincidence" Abdullah didn't buy for a second. After a lunch filled with tension, Abdullah was stunned to see Rowan handing over a massive suitcase to her brother. She was leaving with him, right then.
"What about your children?" Abdullah asked, bewildered. "We travel together in three days. Why this secret arrangement?"
Rowan sneered, the mask finally shattering. "I'll lunch on you before you can dine on me! You want a divorce? Fine. These are your children; deal with them as you wish. I am leaving with my brother today."
Abdullah stood paralyzed. The woman who treated him like a king was now abandoning her own flesh and blood to use them as a bargaining chip. It was a cold, calculated move.
The Final Power Play
Abdullah, desperate to keep the only evidence he had—her phone—demanded she leave it behind if she chose to desert her children.
"You are still my wife under my roof," he asserted, seizing the phone.
Rowan's response was a betrayal that redefined the word. While Abdullah stepped out to secure the phone in his car, he returned to find her on her brother's phone, calling the police. She fabricated a horrific tale: that he was beating her, starving her, and imprisoning her and the children.
When the police arrived, Abdullah stood in a daze, clutching his trembling, sobbing children. He watched the woman who used to whisper, "May I never be deprived of you," now weeping false tears and accusing him of attempted murder and assault.
The officer, sensing Abdullah's innate goodness, ordered him to return the phone but commanded Rowan to remain in the house until the flight. Abdullah, unable to breathe the same air as her, spent his final nights in a hotel.
The Last Farewell
On the day of the flight, a weary, hollowed-out Rowan sat beside him one last time. Abdullah spoke with the calm of a man whose heart had already died.
"Rowan... we had beautiful days. I won't forget them. Decide what you will tell your family; blame me if you wish. Say I divorced you because of the pregnancy. I will not shame you. I will not tell the truth. Repent to God... for I am only human, and I will never forgive what you did to my heart."
Even then, she clung to the lie. "I still love you, Baidah. You're the one who gave up. You're obsessed with a stranger's number that was just my sister, Nihaya. You're stubborn."
"I believe my eyes, Rowan. No more coincidences. Let's go to the airport."
The Great Abandonment
The plane touched down in Amman at 5:00 PM. Abdullah's brother, Raad, was waiting, confused by the sudden return. As they stepped into the parking lot, they saw Nihaya waiting.
Without a second thought, without a backward glance at her children who were screaming and weeping for her, Rowan ran to her sister's car. She vanished into the Amman traffic, leaving her "cubs" behind in the dust.
Abdullah stood there, the weight of the world on his shoulders, realizing that this was the final move choreographed by the "Consultant of Deceit," Nihaya. Rowan had chosen her sister's schemes over her children's tears.