Mona Stories · Read & Watch
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| A Midnight Ride With My Wife’s Closest Friend |
My name is Adel. I married my cousin Layla through a family arrangement, and I had begun making an unfair comparison between her and her friend Zeina. Layla was practical and direct. Zeina was educated, elegant, and married to a businessman. I imagined her life as everything mine was missing, without understanding what happened behind the doors of her comfortable home.
The visit that revealed her husband’s secret
One evening, Layla asked Zeina to come over before an argument with her husband grew worse. I dressed carefully for the visit. Layla noticed and warned me to behave, a warning I pretended not to understand.
During dinner, a question about Zeina’s husband made her visibly uncomfortable. Layla sent me to another room so they could speak privately. I listened behind the door.
Zeina had received photographs, messages, and voice recordings showing her husband with a woman he had loved before their marriage. He had promised to end that connection. Now she believed the promise had been a lie. His insulting remarks about her appearance had made the betrayal even more painful.
Layla comforted her and urged her not to confront him while overwhelmed. Their conversation continued until almost midnight. Zeina had arrived by public transportation, and the country roads were quiet by then.
A favor with another motive
I immediately offered to drive her. Layla questioned how I had known she needed a ride. I claimed I had overheard them while coming out for water. After a pause, she agreed, although the look on her face showed that she was worried about more than the journey.
The drive to Zeina’s villa would take about an hour. She leaned against the window and cried quietly. When I suggested that she might not have the whole story, she reminded me that she had seen photographs and heard the messages herself.
I stopped beside the road and offered her a chance to wash her face and calm down. She began crying harder and leaned on me for comfort. I knew she was my wife’s friend and a person in distress. I also knew I was using sympathy to disguise an attraction I had brought into the car from the beginning.
Then she became weak and said she felt faint. I helped her into the back seat and looked around for something that might help.
Here, the story pauses: Zeina is frightened and vulnerable, the road is deserted, and Adel recognizes that the greatest danger may be his own intentions. Watch the accompanying narration to continue the story.
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Original Mona Stories narration. Playback controls are set to English; available audio and captions depend on the video.