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Part 4

Amani felt the tears cascade down her face as she ran back to her room. Her mother and sister quickly followed. "Amani!" her mother cried, "How could you disgrace us in this manner?" Amani looked at her mother and took off her veil. The bruises from the attack were in plain sight, still fresh and swollen. "What has happened?" Amani's mother demanded, obviously upset and confused at the same time. Saheera walked over to her sister wide-eyed and hysterical. "You can't leave me sister!" she said, throwing her arms around Amani. "You can't die tomorrow, I need you!" Amani held her sister close and kissed her forehead. "Do not cry my sister," she said softly in Saheera's ear. "I'll always be with you."
Saheera screamed and ran to her mother. "Make him stop!" she said screaming. "Make him change his mind!" Amani's mother looked down at her feet, avoiding the eyes of her two daughters. "I cannot little one, I cannot argue with him." Amani looked at her mother pleadingly, knowing that her mother was right. Saheera shook her mother with anger as she repeated the phrase. "Make him stop, make him stop, make him stop..." Amani took her sister and held her close. "Oh Saheera, it is no use. Mother cannot stop his anger."
Without another word, Amani removed her clothing to reveal marks and bruises everywhere on her body. She looked at her mom with anger and frustration in her eyes. "You see what happened mother? A man entered our home and attacked me tonight! He threw me on your bed and raped me, and I am to be punished tomorrow for something I could not stop!" Amani's mother looked at her daughters body and began to step away. "This cannot be possible," she mumbled, slipping out of the room and closing the door behind her. The sound of her parent's bedroom door closing shook the house.
"Oh Amani, are you okay?" Saheera sat on the floor with her sister and examined the bruises. "Did he hurt you?" Amani winced at the thought of the attack. "Yes Saheera, the man hurt me deeply. But it's over now, do not fret little sister." Saheera held her sister close and soon cried herself to sleep. Amani laid her sister in her bed and re-dressed her body. Without a word, she slipped into the living room where her brother Ibrahim was sitting.
A smirk appeared on his face. "The slut has left her room I see," he said, gazing at her cruelly. "Defiant as always." Amani glared at him and stood next to him near the couch. "I am not a slut," she said angrily. "I was attacked and raped." She gazed into his eyes, pleading he would change his tone. But instead, he smirked at her with wild eyes. "Father says I may throw the first stone..."