Reconciliation
Sufiah said that she wanted to see all of us except Farooq, but she wished to stay in Bournemouth and not return to the family. Because of British law, we had no choice but to comply with her wishes, even though she was only 15.
In any case, my children and I visited Sufiah regularly while she was in Bournemouth. The situation wasn't ideal, but we were glad to at least be able to talk to her and see how she was doing.
Sufiah eventually returned to Oxford when she was 18; shortly afterwards, she told us that she wanted to get married to a lawyer named Jonathan Marshall. Relations slowly began to improve, and this was the start of our family's reconciliation.
While Sufiah was slightly apprehensive about seeing Farooq after such a long time, Jonathan and Aisha offered their support, and she was then willing to see him again. Surprisingly, Farooq and Sufiah spoke with each other as though nothing had ever happened!
Sufiah visited our house many times after that, and stayed over occasionally. Needless to say, I was very happy to see that our family seemed to be getting back together again. Even Farooq appeared to have changed for the better — perhaps because most of my children were now adults.
Meanwhile, Aisha and Iskander had graduated from Warwick and were doing very well, as were Abraham and my youngest child Zuleikha. Zuleikha had begun her A-levels even earlier than Sufiah and Iskander, but this time I did not allow Farooq to teach her because of what had happened to Sufiah.