The Angel's Wife (The Lawyer)
an excerpt

“Your wife?” The man asks, sympathetically, gesturing to the photos.

He shakes his head, unsure of how to explain Siobhán. So much more than just a friend. Definitely not his wife or lover. He pulls down words in his head, English and German and the smattering of languages he learned bits and pieces of starting in Morocco.

There is a word, he finally remembers, in one of those languages. A word that means “youngest sibling, most beloved of my heart”. It is rarely used, and it is used most often by elder brothers to warn off men looking at their sisters. There is the underlying implication that the brother is more than willing to die to keep someone unworthy from this pure and near-holy sister. There are other implied sentiments, but they are ones that he cannot phrase quite correctly, things about companionship and devotion and the sacred bond given to the elder sibling as a gift from heaven. He wonders if he should feel bad that he will not use it for his own blood-related sister, but drops that line of thought. Nothing else explains the complicated way in which he and Siobhán belong to one another. She is his andayfki.

His tongue trips over the word, and he thinks that perhaps it is not even used in this part of the world, but the man’s face floods with understanding.

“Come,” the man repeats again, calling him by an unfamiliar epithet. “Come, and tell me why you have left the first of your heart behind you.”