One night, he sat beside her. “You are my wife,” he said softly, “but you are not here. Tell me his name. Where did he go?”

Rami, afraid of dishonoring her father’s home, panicked and left Sheikh in the middle of the night, leaving only a note: “Forgive me. A heart is not a gift if it ruins a family.”

Amal saw it then. The man who had her heart was a dream. But the man who had her honor , her patience, her future—that man was standing right beside her, willing to drive across a country to see her smile.

Zakariye nodded. Then he did the most helpful thing of all. He turned to Rami and said, “You have talent, but talent without courage is just noise. Stay here. Teach. Grow. And if one day you truly become a man of substance, you will find love again. But this woman is now my wife, and I will love her until the silence between us turns into song.” Hum dil de chuke sanam means “I have given my heart to you, my beloved.” But as Amal learned, giving your heart is only half the story. The other half is learning to whom you entrust it.

When Cabdi announced the wedding date, Amal broke. She confessed to Rami. “I have given you what I cannot take back,” she whispered.

For three weeks, they traveled across the dry, beautiful Golis mountains. Zakariye drove his old Land Cruiser through rocky paths, stopping at every town—Burao, then Erigavo. He asked sheikhs, tea sellers, and poets if they knew Rami the calligrapher.

Zakariye spoke first. “I am not here to fight. I am here to ask: do you love her?”